Answer:
Answer
No, because the bacterial flagellum is not irreducibly complex, although some creationists have trumpeted this as a fact that would undermine the Theory of Evolution.
Michael Behe's (he authored Darwin's Black box, becoming a principle founder of the modern intelligent design movement) analogy of the mouse trap being an example of something irreducibly complex is in itself fallacious because it could be adapted for the use of something else. During the Dover School District Trial (evolution vs creationism), one of the witnesses testifying on the side of evolution wore a tie with a mouse trap as a tie pin thus showing that a mouse trap can still be function with pieces removed!
The concept of irreducibly complexity with regards to the bacterial flagellum is likewise fallacious because if you remove parts from it, it is still functional. The type III secretory system, a molecular syringe which bacteria use to inject toxins into other cells, appears to be a simplified sub-set of the bacterial flagellum's components. Whether the bacterial flagellum evolved from the type III secretory system or from another bacterial system, the existence of the type III secretory system proves that the bacterial flagellum is not irreducibly complex.
Furthermore, the whole concept of "irreducible complexity" fails to disprove evolution because evolution can, in fact, produce things which are irreducibly complex. Take the analogy of a stone bridge as an example. A bridge is built by first creating a wooden scaffold and then layering rocks on top until finally the keystone is put in place. At this point, an irreducibly complex system is created. Likewise, evolution could, theoretically proceed by a similar route, creating something redundant and then removing some of those redundant parts.