Mousetrap
From EvoWiki
Technically speaking, a mousetrap is a very simple mechanical device designed specifically to fatally injure rodents, rats and mice in particular. It has a spring-loaded bar that is brought down onto the head of whatever small animal that takes the bait placed within the mousetrap.
Introduction
The mousetrap is the quintessential example of an "irreducibly complex" system, and is a central analogy in Behe's Darwin's Black Box. According to Behe (1996, pg. 42):
- Suppose that while reading one evening, you hear the patter of little feet in the pantry, and you go to the utility drawer to get a mousetrap. Unfortunately, due to the faulty manufacture, the trap is missing one of the parts listed above [a wooden platform, metal hammer, spring, sensitive catch, and a metal bar that connects to the catch and holds back the hammer]. Which part could be missing and still allow you to catch a mouse? If the wooden base were gone, there would be no platform for attaching the other components. If the hammer were gone, the mouse could dance all night on the platform without becoming pinned to the wooden base. If there were no spring, the hammer and platform would jangle loosely, and again the rodent would be unimpeded. If there were no catch or metal holding bar, then the spring would snap the hammer shut as soon as you let go of it; in order to use a trap like that you would have to chase the mouse around holding the trap open.
In short, without all of its components in place, the function of the entire system shuts down.
External Links
- A Reducibly Complex Mousetrap - John MacDonald evolves a mousetrap. See also his newest illustrations located here.
- A Critique of Behe's Mousetrap Illustration, and a Critique of Behe's Critics - Creationist Don Stoner takes on the mousetrap analogy, but concludes "irreducible complexity" and Behe's central argument could still be valid.
- A Mousetrap Defended - Behe's response to his critics on the mousetrap analogy.
- The Mousetrap Analogy or Trapped by Design - Ken Miller takes a look at MacDonald's mousetrap "evolution" and Behe's reply.
