[WARNING -- People who are humor impaired should not read this article, especially if you have a strong aversion to dripping sarcasm.] Almost a decade ago, I became a professional writer because Richard Dawkins basically said that the theory of evolution had rendered belief in God into delusional thought. I spent the next several years of my life reading everything I could find in the library on the subject of evolution, looking for a book that might explain the missing secret ingredient that allowed macro evolution to occur. Most biologists have seemed to agree on the belief that evolution from an existing species into a new type of creature requires three things: sexual reproduction, isolation of the gene pool in a small breeding population, and time. But that isn't really enough to explain the diversity of life on earth, is it? Let's look at a few of these alleged factors that allow evolution to occur: Isolation of a small breeding population -- think about the diversity of life in an ocean. We can cast our lines into the water and possibly catch trout, bass, flounder, mackerel, shark...and the list continues for quite a while. How did all of those different species of fish (and don't forget mammals, etc.) evolve into different types of creatures from a single common ancestor? If the theory of evolution really is true, humans aren't just related to monkeys because of sex, isolation of a gene pool, and time. We're also related to every other living organism on the planet by those same three mechanisms. Sexual Reproduction -- here it gets a little tricky, … [Read more...]
The illusion of purpose
Would a watchmaker create a watch that can't tell time? What would be the point? After all, another name for a watch is timepiece. Does a watch have a purpose for existing, if it can't measure time, in some form or fashion? Can something be claimed to have a purpose, if that certain person, place, or thing was created by a blind force that has no true purpose in mind? And why am I (once again) asking myself such ridiculous questions? Naturally, I've been reading the work of Richard Dawkins. (I know, I know -- I'm a glutton for punishment. But what else can I say? The ability of clearly intelligent people to say or write remarkably foolish comments never ceases to amaze me.) While skimming through his book The Blind Watchmaker, I stumbled across this masterpiece of muddled thought, on page 9: A true watchmaker has foresight: he designs his cogs and springs, and plans their interconnections, with a future person in his mind's eye. Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker. Now with that silly little speech fresh in your mind, please watch this brief, fascinating video of a caterpillar allegedly mimicking a snake that a good friend of mine shared on Facebook only this morning. The word … [Read more...]
