[lbo-talk] FW: Intelligent Design

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> From Letters, Science, Vol 309, Issue 5734, pp. 556-557 , 22 July 2005
> 
> "Intelligent" Design versus Evolution
> Donald Kennedy's Editorial ("Twilight for the enlightement?", 8 Apr., p.
> 165) highlights how ineffective the scientific community has been in the
> battle for the minds of the American public. Arguing details of scientific
> facts before this audience has been largely unproductive. Perhaps it is
time
> 
> to take a lesson from recent political campaigns: Instead of defending
your
> position, attack a weakness of the opposition and repeat (again and
again),
> with a modicum of humor. The following script has been effective in
dealing
> verbally with creationists/intelligent design adherents.
> "You have a philosophic choice between evolution or belief in ID, so
called
> intelligent design. But even a first-year engineering student would be
> embarrassed to have designed your lower back with the extreme bend that
> allows you to stand erect even though your pelvis slants forward for
> knuckle-dragging like all our near relatives. You probably have had braces
> or wisdom teeth extracted because there are too many teeth for the size of
> your mouth. Then there are your sinuses, with a flawed drainage system
that
> would provoke laughter from a plumber. Yet evolution provides a ready and
> rational explanation for all these design failures: by progressive changes
> into an erect posture, by shortening of a mammalian muzzle into a face,
and
> by expansion of our large brains to crowd the facial bones. So take your
> choice: Do you prefer evolution or an ID whose letters may as well stand
for
> 
> Incompetent Design?"
> 
> After a bit of flustering, the ID adherent usually mumbles something about
> our inability to know the mind of God. The reply: "Indeed, ID is not
science
> 
> but religion and should be taught as such."
> 
> These simple facts need little explanation, bring evolution to a personal
> level, and leave the ID adherent on the defensive, all with a bit of
humor.
> Others may wish to try it.
> 
> Donald U. Wise
> Department of Geosciences
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
>