Question about SC

Hello, this is my first post! Before I ask, I just wanna say its great to find a forum of like-minded (and smart!)people on this issue. While I have a lot of church friends who side with ID, I have very few friends who are articulate on the issue - so its exciting to find you all here.

That being said, I study ID as a hobby, and read as much as I can in my spare time, so there's lots of holes in my understanding. I've been comparing dembski's Specified Complexity, and Behe's Irreducible Complexity, and I'm having a hard time understanding the specified part of SC. It was my understanding that Complexity is measured by a number of parts, and Specificity the measure of conformance to known patterns. I've heard the analogy of "a pile of sand is complex but not specified" while "an ice cube is specified but not complex(in reference to the crystal pattern in ice)". I'm not a math guru, and most references in trying to explain specificity have been over my head.

Is my understanding of specificity correct and if so, how do you measure it in any meaningful way?

For someone who only studies ID as a hobby, you are already off to an excellent start with some very good questions.

The paper Patrick provided the link for does contain some math and you may find some parts elusive. But Dembski also interlaces these with more accessible illustrations and analogies. So don't give up if you find yourself needing to skim through some parts. Look for the additional illustrations, analogies, and commentary.

Then, once you've given that a chance to digest, ask more questions! A forum like this is a good way for people to work through a hard topic together.