Unintelligent Design
Sometimes I’m so amazed with the human body that I really start to think that there had to be some level of intelligent design in us. But Jim Holt makes some great, amusing points against the rise of “intelligent design” theory in today’s Sunday Magazine New York Times:
In mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a giraffe, that means a 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.
I have long regarded the human male naughty-bits as Conclusive Proof that either the Good Lord had nothing to do with designing the human body, or alternatively that (S)He has a preternatural sense of humor.
In designing those parts, God could perhaps have used technology (S)He already had available. The penis could have been retractable like the rat’s (a very clever design, although quite confusing for a first-time owner of a male pet rat); the testes could have been internal like those of birds (and, presumably, those of other kinds of dinosaurs). But no, they just hang there exposed to all manner of hazards and indignity (and, for that matter, why did God include a prepuce when (S)He explicitly commanded His/Her Chosen People to cut it off soon after birth?). And the less said about the prostate as (less-than-)intelligent design, the better.
On the other hand, perhaps God intentionally introduced design flaws into the human body to ensure prosperity of those professionals who would eventually arise to correct the consequences of those deficiencies. Thus, God in His/Her infinite wisdom gave us wisdom teeth to provide for future oral surgeons; vermiform appendices to provide for future general surgeons; vertebrae barely adapted from other mammals’ horizontal posture to benefit chiropractors and orthopedic surgeons; and the aforementioned prostate to benefit urologists and oncologists (and, of course, God had Pfizer’s shareholders in mind in designing the aforementioned penis, which is too often subject to the soft of malfunction that only Viagra can correct).
But, then, that’s a bit more complicated an explanation than many of us are willing to accept. Occam’s razor is, after all, the only brand I shave with.
or maybe just an intelligence beyond our conception or single line of thoughts which we have yet to explain :-)
I’m sure anyone in any sort of scientific or medical profession would appreciate the unimaginable complexity of naturaly occuring systems which run with perfect harmony, starting from atoms to galactic systems, and ending with proteins that make up the codes in us humans.
Of all the knowledge we have today on everything, we know nothing but a spec of what’s out there. That’s not un-intelligent, that’s supreme God-like intelligent creativity.
If you say these things are unintelligent of God. Well… God created you, a human able to think of him/herself.
My Q: what have you created in your lifetime? not invent, not discovered, not built, but, created :)
I’m also of the mind that any omnipotent supreme being would’ve made it more consistently likely for the human woman to have an orgasm (a real orgasm) during straight sexual intercourse.
I’m also sometimes taken with the notion that if there were a god, I would be able to eat as much wonderful rock candy (& well, hell, pure sugar) as I like and not have to worry about hypoglycemia… or any other physical issues.
I relize how the design (makeup)of mankind may seem a imperfect.Wisdom teeth, etc.For an perfect God to create a person that seems to have non-useful parts would appear as if the grand designer had either a humor,made mistakes,or did this intentionally for other undescovered reasons.
I have personally concluded that He made us perfect with an ability to reason.Giving us free will.Ergo,allowing us to fumble from our own burning desires.As far as extra parts.Perhaps there is genuine reason.Maybe some of those parts are needed.For reasons yet to be descovered.Maybe,we don’t use them because of culture change.People rarely dwell in tents anymore.Or go on long journeys to provide game from the hunt.We have turned away from the survivalist side and made a nine to five routine.
I heard something intresting some time back.That because we intake so much salt, sugar,etc. our teeth rot out easier.And because we don’t cook our meat over an open fire,allowing drippage,we intake alot more fat leading to high cholesterol.
It rains on the just and the unjust alike.We all get sick.The question is how are we willing to serve him dispite this.Questions always lead to more questions. I’m sorry for the sloppy and off the subject sentences.My computer keeps cutting out.It’ll be fixed when I can get some time .
Shawn
Dora diseases blackboards Iverson wearisome … Thanks!!!
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oxides admonished?Markov penetrator word fiancee distemper
Isn’t trial and error what makes evolotion work? Is’nt intelligence derived by trial and error? The problem with evolution is that it omits the likelyhood of life before the big bang, and at the end of evolution would be an omnipotent being. The problem with creation is that it omits a logical exlpanation. I was created in my mothers womb, and this process goes all the way back to the womb of creation. Females allways create the male, in all species, except in asexual reproducing organisms which are all female. A living HE as the creator is what confounds logic. Faith in the Word takes away our free will. I have noticed that in cultures devoted to Male Creator worship laws, foreskin amputation becomes a side effect showing us this is not the way as it goes against logic. What do you think?