"By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning."

Cause, Causes

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"By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning."

Exlpore more Cause quotes

"Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement."

Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

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"An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Cause, Justification, Reason

"The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities."

Sophocles, Greek Poet

Cause, Sorrow

"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."

Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Cause, Opponents

"Before the effect one believes in different causes than one does after the effect."

Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Cause, Causes, Effect

"Magnetism, as you recall from physics class, is a powerful force that causes certain items to be attracted to refrigerators."

Dave Barry, American Journalist

Cause, Causes, Class, Force, Physics

"So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants."

Thomas Jefferson, American President

Cause, Effect, Change, History

"In a just cause the weak will beat the strong."

Sophocles, Greek Poet

Cause, Will

"Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat."

Simone Weil, French Philosopher

Cause, Conflict

"I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity."

Edgar Allan Poe, American Poet

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Explore more quotes by Michael Behe

"But sequence comparisons simply can't account for the development of complex biochemical systems any more than Darwin's comparison of simple and complex eyes told him how vision worked."

Development

"In Darwin's time all of biology was a black box: not only the cell, or the eye, or digestion, or immunity, but every biological structure and function because, ultimately, no one could explain how biological processes occurred."

Time

"It is a shock to us in the twentieth century to discover, from observations science has made, that the fundamental mechanisms of life cannot be ascribed to natural selection, and therefore were designed. But we must deal with our shock as best we can and go on."

Life

"In order to say that some function is understood, every relevant step in the process must be elucidated."

Order

"It is often said that science must avoid any conclusions which smack of the supernatural."

Science

"In many biological structures proteins are simply components of larger molecular machines."

Machine

"It was only about sixty years ago that the expansion of the universe was first observed."

First

"Since natural selection requires a function to select, an irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would have to arise as an integrated unit for natural selection to have anything to act on."

Act

"Although Darwin was able to persuade much of the world that a modern eye could be produced gradually from a much simpler structure, he did not even attempt to explain how the simple light sensitive spot that was his starting point actually worked."

Eye

"Throughout history there have been many other examples, similar to that of Haeckel, Huxley and the cell, where a key piece of a particular scientific puzzle was beyond the understanding of the age."

Age