FEATURE FAQ: Can irreducible complexity be evolved via gene duplication and co-optation of parts?

The IDEA Center's "Can irreducible complexity be evolved via gene duplication and co-optation of parts?" FAQ is currently being revised and updated in response to a thread on PandasThumb.

Where's the Response?

We have received some inquiries regarding "why the delay" in the response, a few points are appropriate to make:

The critique of our FAQ was authored last May, right around the time that Casey Luskin was in final exams. Once summer started, a biologist who works with the IDEA Center volunteered to draft the response. Although Casey Luskin has written many of the responses to critics on the IDEA Center website, we wanted a biologist to draft this response because of the nature of the subject matter.

This biologist individual enthusiastically accepted the job back during the summer of 2004, but unfortunately this person has not yet finished. Don't get the idea that this response is going to be exceedingly long--the best explanation for the delay is that the author is simply going very slow and that his/her own personal biological research has often given little time to devote to this.

So, where is the response? The best answer "we've been asking for it and we are still waiting for it from our biologist staff member." We'd give you a posting date but at this point, it is now apparent that offering deadlines would be an exercise in futility because we have learned that we can't guarantee when our staff member will finish the response. We apologize for the delay but look forward to a time soon when the response can be posted.

In fact, the reason that we left this empty link to our response on our main page all this time (this empty link has been posted since last summer) was to remind that we had a response "in the works." We at the IDEA Center take objections seriously, and discourse and respectful responses are important to us. Thank you for your patience, and our sincere apologies for the delay. We hope that our forthcoming response will lead to progress in the debate over the origin of biological complexity.

-the management