Hoyle's fallacy
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Hoyle's Fallacy is a common misrepresentation of Darwinian theory, colloquially named, among evolutionary biologists, after the astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle, although it has been current almost since the time of Darwin himself.
Hoyle's formulation concerns the probability that a protein molecule could achieve a functional sequence of amino acids by chance alone. He calculates this as being of approximately the same order of magnitude as the probability that a whirlwind would pass through an aircraft hangar full of airplane components and result in the assembly of a functional Jumbo Jet.
Hoyle's Fallacy is a mainstay of creationist, intelligent design, orthogenetic and other anti-Darwinian criticisms of evolution. The reason why it is a fallacy has been explained at length by Richard Dawkins, principally in his two books The Blind Watchmaker and Climbing Mount Improbable. An explanation can also be found on-line at TalkOrigins Archive. [1].
