Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Intelligent Design? Random Chance? Evolution by Natural Selection?

Anything complex must have been designed. The earth and it's inhabitants are complex so therefore, they must have been designed. Only god could be the designer.

Creationists like this argument because it seems to be irrefutable. The complexity issue is further argued using the 474 argument: If a windstorm blew through a junk yard, what are the odds that it would assemble a fully functional 474 jumbo jet? The odds are so nill that it might as well be zero. Therefore, since something as complex as the human body could not have possibly happened by random chance, god must have designed it.

This appears to be a good argument, until you stop and think about it.

Anything capable of designing something complex must be equally, if not more, complex. Therefore, if the argument by design is valid, then god must also have a designer.

What are the odds that a being as complex as god is supposed to be suddenly popped into existance and automatically knew everything and had unlimited power? I'd say it makes the odds of the 474 look pretty good.

Christians believe that god has always existed and had no designer. So their own argument for creation by intelligent design actually works against them. To quote the great Richard Dawkins, "God is the ultimate 474."

Intelligent design. Random chance. Evolution by natural selection. Which is it?

We can rule out random chance because creationists and evolutionists alike agree that it is not just random chance. I am going to propose an idea: that it is both intelligent design and evolution.

Before I can explain how this idea works, I must first explain what natural selection is. According to dictionary.com, natural selection is defined as follows: the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.

Pretty simple and clear. Those organisms better suited to the environment have a better chance of surviving long enough to reproduce and pass that advantage on to the offspring. Those organisms not as suited to the environment will usually die before they can pass on that weakness to their offspring.

So simple: survival of the fittest. Life itself favors the stronger organism. Life itself naturally adapts to favor the organism more suited to survive. Life, by its very existance, must continually improve and adapt or it will be wiped out. This is so simple that it's almost funny.

Life itself is the intelligent designer. Life seeks to preserve itself. The stronger survives and reproduces. The weaker dies before it can reproduce. The bad seed, so to speak, is automatically weeded out. There is no god that makes it happen; it happens automatically. If it didn't happen, life would quickly cease to exist.

Let me give you a working example. You know what one of the worst things we could have invented? Eye glasses. Now days, if someone can't see they go to the eye doctor and get a pair of glasses. This quick and easy solution is actually a very bad thing for our species.

Let's go back a couple thousand years before the technology existed to make corrective eye wear. If you couldn't see, you couldn't hunt or fight. Natural selection would quickly see to it that you didn't survive very long. The gene for bad eyesight would quickly be weeded out because those carrying the gene for it would most likely die before they could reproduce and pass that weakness on to their children.

Those with good eyes could survive longer and not only reproduce but pass along the gene for good, strong eyes.

But now, eye glasses are threatening our species because the gene for bad eyes is now being passed on to generation after generation. It's no big deal. We just get glasses and we pass that bad gene along.

Imagine that sometime in the future we have a huge natural disaster and the ability to make eye glasses is lost. Human beings will be in a world of shit. Those who can't see will be at the mercy of the elements.

It might sound like a trivial idea, but the fact is that eye glasses could eventually lead to the end of the human race. If a blind species can't see to fight or hunt, then they are pretty much toast. If we are not all eventually destroyed by nuclear war, the next greatest threat to our very existance is the convenient eye glass.

Natural selection is brutal and merciless to the weak. If it wasn't, we would have never gotten to the stage we are at. The ability to think and reason has given humans the advantage and has made us the dominant species on the planet. What if another species gained the ability to think and reason? There would be war until one of the species (probably the stronger one) was left. This is most likely the reason why humans are the only species with that ability. We don't want to share; we want it all for ourselves.

Evolution by natural selection by intelligent design. There you have it.

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