Things I Would Like the Intelligent Designers to Explain

[Krevel]

1. The Platypus
2. Ostriches
3. Mosquitos :evil:
4. The Human Appendix
5. Male Nipples

Anyone got any more?

[Maksutov]

Sure.

Vestigial bones (whale legs come to mind).
The same tract for breathing and swallowing (choking to death is apparently one of god's little jokes).
A pelvis and spine that were obviously intended for quadrupeds, thus leading to all sorts of lousy lower back ailments and birthing problems.
The Achilles tendon.
Animals that naturally overbreed such that most of their young are eaten or die.
The dodo.
Poison ivy.
Malaria.
Bubonic plague.
Kudzu.
Rednecks.

(for starters :D )

[Eroica]

All that junk DNA

[azazul]

Nancy Leider

[Donnie B.]

Pain.

[azazul]

Pain
You don't even have to go to the intelligent designers for that one. Pain is the body's way of saying stop what you are doing, you are damaging me.

[Maksutov]

Pain
You don't even have to go to the intelligent designers for that one. Pain is the body's way of saying stop what you are doing, you are damaging me.
Except for when the message is received, and what needs to be done about what's doing the damage is taken care of, but the body keeps sending those now unnecessary messages.

Or when the mind gets confused and starts sending erroneous pain messages.

In addition, perhaps a different, less unpleasant way of sending the message would be better, such as saying, "Hey, we've got a problem with you sawing off your leg. We're going to incapacitate your voluntary muscles until you think about it!"

But, then that would eliminate one of the differences between science and [deleted]: science doesn't threaten those who don't subscribe to its methods with eternal pain.

http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/teufel/devil-smiley-029.gif

[Kristophe]

Birth defects
SIDS
Genetic diseases
Heredity
Homosexuality

[Halcyon Dayz]

Hemorrhoids for starters.
What's with that?

[Lance]

Hemorrhoids for starters.
What's with that?

Really. Talk about a pain in the neck, huh?

[Maksutov]

Hemorrhoids for starters.
What's with that?

Really. Talk about a pain in the neck, huh?
Man, you should really see your doctor about that neck dislocation! :wink:

[Humphrey]

-People who think that switching to AOL now will actually make them safder and do it cheaper.
-Million year old plus Fossils
-Siamese twins
-All birth and post birth defects
-All genetic diseases
-All poisinus plants and animals (why are they poisonus to us if we are supposed to be superior?)
-Viruses
-Bacteria
-Michael Jackson
-Million year old plus Fossils
-Genetically Fat people
-People who look different than me or you
-People who think Pauly Shore is funny
-Girls who actually thought the Boy bands were intelegent, good singers, and actually wwrote their own songs.

[Gullible Jones]

Actually, pain is a problem... Conceptually, it's a perfect alarm system. But in practice, intense pain can prevent a person from moving or otherwise reacting to the situation which causes the pain. The problem isn't in pain itself, but in its physical effects.

[azazul]

This guy. (http://www.big-boys.com/articles/numanuma.html)
The link doesn't work in mozilla for me, it may only work with IE. Also, I don't suggest wandering around the rest of the site, you may see some stuff you don't want to.

[azazul]

Actually, pain is a problem... Conceptually, it's a perfect alarm system. But in practice, intense pain can prevent a person from moving or otherwise reacting to the situation which causes the pain. The problem isn't in pain itself, but in its physical effects.
You have a good point, also I don't know if anyone has torn a ligament before, but there is virtually no pain when it happens(I stress that pain can occur from damage to other parts, like cartiledge, hyperextension, etc.) I always wondered if this is the point where the body says, forget it you done messed up.

[CharlesEGrant]

I suspect the ID folks would answer with something along the line of the conclusion to Alexander Pope's Essay on Man:

All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Nice poetry, but so much for falsifiability.

[Krevel]

-People who think that switching to AOL now will actually make them safer and do it cheaper.
-Michael Jackson
-People who think Pauly Shore is funny
-Girls who actually thought the Boy bands were intelegent, good singers, and actually wwrote their own songs.

:lol:
What a hoot!

I knew I could rely on you guys!

[Humphrey]

-The person who decided that Britney Spears crappy home videos would make a good TV show. (Nobody could create someone that Evil and insane.)
-Boy bands....Seriously, who in their right mind would think these people are intelegent enough to do more thaqn stand there with a grin and sunglasses?
-The Musical Cats. Again, nuthing that evil should exit in a created univers.
-

[Lance]

-The person who decided that Britney Spears crappy home videos would make a good TV show. -

Of course, no explanation is needed for Paris Hilton's home videos.

[Gullible Jones]

Bacteria

Uhh... because we need them to digest certain things? Not all bacteria are bad, you know.

People who look different than me or you

Huh?

People who think that switching to AOL now will actually make them safder and do it cheaper

And those stupid new AOL commercials. (I suppose we can lump those together under "human gullibility"?)

All that junk DNA

Hey, who knows what's in there? It might be necessary for all we know!

(I suppose it could also be a rude surprise for our species, but I doubt that Greg Bear has that one right.)

Bubonic plague.

Yep, no need for that.
Rednecks.

Oyf. I'm with you on that.

Male Nipples

While we're on that, what about breasts? The actual mammary glands aren't that big... So why surround them with several pounds of almost useless fat tissue?

As for other things... How about human aggression? Why are people programmed to hate on such a basic level?

[Lance]

All that junk DNA

Hey, who knows what's in there? It might be necessary for all we know!

(I suppose it could also be a rude surprise for our species, but I doubt that Greg Bear has that one right.)

Rumor has it that "Junk DNA" to be activated on 2012 (http://godlikeproductions.com/bbs/message.php?message=116075)

Male Nipples

While we're on that, what about breasts? The actual mammary glands aren't that big... So why surround them with several pounds of almost useless fat tissue?
Heh... I know the answer to that one.

[Kristophe]

Bacteria

Uhh... because we need them to digest certain things? Not all bacteria are bad, you know.

Right. So we're not capable of digesting food on our own. Personally, if I'm designing a species, I'm looking for a one off full package deal. None of this third party stuff.

People who look different than me or you

Huh?
If we're all created in the image of the creator, shouldn't we all look the same?

[Humphrey]

[quote]People who look different than me or you

Huh?
If we're all created in the image of the creator, shouldn't we all look the same?
That was my idea of why i wrote that.

[Kristophe]

Why reproduce sexually if sex is dirty, not to be spoken of, to be kept out of sight of children, and off of TV?
Why have orgasms if sexual gratification is a sin?

[Bilateralrope]

People who look different than me or you

Huh?
If we're all created in the image of the creator, shouldn't we all look the same?

Only if the creator knows for sure what s/he looks like

[Van Rijn]

Actually, pain is a problem... Conceptually, it's a perfect alarm system. But in practice, intense pain can prevent a person from moving or otherwise reacting to the situation which causes the pain. The problem isn't in pain itself, but in its physical effects.
You have a good point, also I don't know if anyone has torn a ligament before, but there is virtually no pain when it happens(I stress that pain can occur from damage to other parts, like cartiledge, hyperextension, etc.) I always wondered if this is the point where the body says, forget it you done messed up.

The bigger issue is when pain just keeps going. You need to make the distinction between "acute pain" and "chronic pain." Acute pain that keeps you from further damaging something recently damaged is usually quite useful. Pain that doesn't stop simply makes the situation worse. I had several years of extreme chronic pain (largely gone at present and no longer requiring medication, I'm happy to say) and I'll just say this: I don't care how much pain you have been in, if you haven't had it, you have no concept of what chronic pain is like.

[Maksutov]

Actually, pain is a problem... Conceptually, it's a perfect alarm system. But in practice, intense pain can prevent a person from moving or otherwise reacting to the situation which causes the pain. The problem isn't in pain itself, but in its physical effects.
You have a good point, also I don't know if anyone has torn a ligament before, but there is virtually no pain when it happens(I stress that pain can occur from damage to other parts, like cartiledge, hyperextension, etc.) I always wondered if this is the point where the body says, forget it you done messed up.

The bigger issue is when pain just keeps going. You need to make the distinction between "acute pain" and "chronic pain." Acute pain that keeps you from further damaging something recently damaged is usually quite useful. Pain that doesn't stop simply makes the situation worse. I had several years of extreme chronic pain (largely gone at present and no longer requiring medication, I'm happy to say) and I'll just say this: I don't care how much pain you have been in, if you haven't had it, you have no concept of what chronic pain is like.
You got it.

That's why I posted

Except for when the message is received, and what needs to be done about what's doing the damage is taken care of, but the body keeps sending those now unnecessary messages.

Or when the mind gets confused and starts sending erroneous pain messages.
I've been putting up with chronic pain for going on two years now. That's for the continual chronic pain. The intermittent variety has been a wonderful companion for most of my life.

The doctors say, "There's no reason for you to be in pain." But then they do their tests and say, "Wow, you're showing signs of reaction to severe pain." I say, "Hey, I'm a pretty good actor, eh?"

Between the migraines and the remarkable muscular and skeletal pain, it's a wonderful life. Look out, Jimmy Stewart, I got dibs on the remake!

Of course hundreds of years ago, the priest would have told me that I was paying the price for my sins and the afflictions and pain were the work of the devil.

On the other hand, this being the 21st century and all, the fundamentalists around here tell me the same thing.

How far we've come... :evil:

[umop ap!sdn]

Why we have only 2 arms instead of 4 or 6
Why "lowly" reptilians get all the teeth they'll ever need in a lifetime whereas humans have to battle bacteria to make the second set last - and why ours are innervated to boot :(
Why human vision neither covers the widest range of wavelengths nor picks up the richest range of hues

Why reproduce sexually if sex is dirty, not to be spoken of, to be kept out of sight of children, and off of TV?
Why have orgasms if sexual gratification is a sin?
And why we should be ashamed of something that this creator wasn't ashamed to create. :D

[tofu]

I'm as atheist as the next guy, but the ignorance that some people have about all things religious is really sad. And a lot of that ignorance is on display right here in this thread.

[Humphrey]

I'm as atheist as the next guy, but the ignorance that some people have about all things religious is really sad. And a lot of that ignorance is on display right here in this thread.

Alot of this stuff is jokes.
But I have yet to hear a decent explanation for all the obvious faults in our biological makeup and other tthings if this world was intelegently created.

[Nereth]

I'm as atheist as the next guy, but the ignorance that some people have about all things religious is really sad. And a lot of that ignorance is on display right here in this thread.

Religion? intelligent design has absolutely nothing to do with religion, or atleast thats the people backing it have been telling me. :P

[sarongsong]

Humorous (?) #4 and #5 chance BABBling thread line-up:
#-o
Sticky: So I'm redesigning the main site...
[ Goto page: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Things I Would Like the Intelligent Designers to Explain
[ Goto page: 1, 2 ]

[Izunya]

1. The Platypus
2. Ostriches
3. Mosquitos :evil:
4. The Human Appendix
5. Male Nipples

Anyone got any more?

Wisdom teeth. Why not just let us grow new teeth if/when we need 'em, rather than having four piddly replacement molars that get impacted if we don't need 'em?

Actually, I've heard an "explanation" to all of this in a single song, but unfortunately I don't know who wrote it and I only recall snippets. Risking the wrath of the Copyright Spirit, however, the relevant bit goes like this:

"I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumors
But I think that God's got
A sick sense of humor . . ."

Actually, if anyone recognizes the quote, could you tell me where it's from? I've gone and made myself curious now.

Izunya

[sarongsong]

"Blasphemous Rumors"---Depeche Mode

[papageno]

Where is my favorite?

Water-dwelling animals that can drown.

[Yorkshireman]

The level of danger and pain in human childbirth.
Fatal allergic reactions.
The parasitic worm Toxocara canis that blinds people.
Why the playground is next to the sewage outflow pipe.
Paris Hilton (again).

edit: sorted the italic out.

[Nergal]

Actually, pain is a problem... Conceptually, it's a perfect alarm system. But in practice, intense pain can prevent a person from moving or otherwise reacting to the situation which causes the pain. The problem isn't in pain itself, but in its physical effects.
You have a good point, also I don't know if anyone has torn a ligament before, but there is virtually no pain when it happens(I stress that pain can occur from damage to other parts, like cartiledge, hyperextension, etc.) I always wondered if this is the point where the body says, forget it you done messed up.
Actually (and this is over-simplifiying it a bit), most internal spaces/parts of the body do not have the type of nerve endings capable of transmitting pain messages. re: a torn ligament, there is virtually no pain because your body has decided that if you managed to damage something this deep inside, chances are that whatever did it also set off plenty of pain receptors elsewhere.

(FYI, ever torn a groin muscle? I've had motorcycle wrecks that didn't hurt that bad :( )

[Chuck]

Overeating. We seem to have a desire to acquire calories and store them in large quantities. This is great for survival in the wilderness because food can sometimes be scarce. An intelligently designed creature would reduce its food consumption when it reached the point where adding more weight would have damaging effects that actually reduce its ability to survive. An evolving creature in an area where food is often scarce and requires an expenditure of calories to obtain would not develope a stopping mechanism because it would have no survival value. An abundance of food brought about by agriculture and ease of storing and transporting it brought about by technology are relatively recent developements compared to millions of years of evolution. If we were created 6000 years ago then we must have had agriculture almost immediately so we would have been created with a stopping mechanism to tell us to stop eating rather than have a hard to resist urge to add life threatening weight. Intelligence anticipates. Evolution doesn't.

[farmerjumperdon]

I can not even argue with these fruitcakes anymore. I would not solicit their explanation about anything, mostly because you know very well it will be a load of garbage.

I now limit myself to running defense and interference, putting them in their place when they rear their ignorant selves; but I no longer invite their input.

[Swift]

Pauly Short and Paris Hilton are here to make the rest of us feel relatively superior.
Poison ivy is bad for people but is actually good for birds - they eat the berries and are not bothered by the irritants and so like nesting in it (keeps mammals out of their nests).

There was a Scientific American article within the last couple of years about design flaws in people - I recall that knees, back, and the appendix were among the flaws they listed.

[01101001]

The Bad Blogger has something to say about ID:

The Fort Sumter of Creationist Astronomy? (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/?p=67)

(The Battle of Fort Sumter initiated the US Civil War.)

[Gullible Jones]

One sex being, on average, smaller and weaker than the other. I mean come on, isn't that just asking for all sorts of trouble?

(Yes, I am a major advocate of human genetic engineering. If we're going to set out for the stars, the first step must be correcting the problems that evolution has left us...)

The level of danger and pain in human childbirth.

Amen. Requiring reproduction to involve torturous pain for only one party is stupid...


Fatal allergic reactions.

Again, amen to that. Our immune system is naturally going to overreact under some circumstances... But extreme overreactions are a big problem.

Now my turn...

- The prostate gland surrounding the urethra, instead of being positioned next to it. Duh!

- Loss of cartilage in the joints with age.

[Gillianren]

I want an IDer to explain what's so intelligent about genetic traits such as mental illness. what's so intelligent about arthritis? I spent this past weekend in a field in Port Angeles, WA (ren faire), and I was in agony for quite a bit of it due to fluctuating barometric pressure. I've never had a serious knee injury; I inherited the disease (I have osteo) from my mother. what's so intelligent about it?

[Rooting4Oppy]

While we're on that, what about breasts? The actual mammary glands aren't that big... So why surround them with several pounds of almost useless fat tissue?

I know the answer to this one. :D

The reason is that human babies have flat faces. Exhibit A :
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~usandthem/images/newborn.jpg

If the mammary glands were flush with the body, then a baby wouldn't be able to breath when feeding. This is obviously non-optimal from a survival point of view.

Now, if the nipple is on a rounded protrosion from the body, then the baby is able to feed and breath at the same time, a perfect solution.

There is a perfect picture to describe it, but I don't think the BA would like me to post it (it's not graphic or anything, just not sure it would be fit for a PG audience).

So, in conclusion, positioning the nipple on a rounded protusion from the body allows a baby to feed without suffocating. 8)

[Kristophe]

Ooo! New question, then!

Why do babies have flat faces?

[The Supreme Canuck]

Actually, why is that? Is it easier for a woman to give birth with the baby's head shaped that way?

[Kristophe]

Probably. Not surprisingly, a cylindrically symetric ovaloid (yeah, I made that word up. Sue me), not unlike the shape of a chicken's egg, is pretty efficient for passing through the vagina during birth.

[edit] Of course, this leads to further questions. It's a slippery slope to reduction ad infinite hoc absurdity proctology!

[The Supreme Canuck]

Well, makes sense to me. But just watch a biologist or doctor come along and disprove me in the next few posts.

Added: Proctology? :)

[Kristophe]

Well, unless the texts have changed since my mother was in nursing school... I mean, that's possible. It's been 30 years, and she didn't finish it.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Still and all, I often have the unfortunate, er, "pleasure" of being proven wrong as soon as I say something. Gets kind of tiring, I can tell you that. :)

[Kristophe]

Well, I said it this time, so you're off the hook. ;)

[The Supreme Canuck]

Phew. Don't know if I could handle it again. :P