Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Darwinian Goes Off-Message

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/07/video_to_dawkin062031.html

1 comment:

  1. What's so (unintentionally) funny is that it's Neese vs. Neese! Nesse brings up examples which are meant to undermine the argument for intelligent design, but then he responds to his own arguments.

    For example, he brings up the Colles' fracture problem only to respond that there's a trade-off between sturdiness and mobility.

    Likewise, I watched the subsequent video about the supposedly poor design of the human eye. He brings up three alleged problems with the human eye: its blind spot; nystagmus; and the possibility of a detached retina. However, mere moments later he talks about how, on the one hand, an eagle can see a mouse from half a mile away while we can't, but on the other hand he mentions eagles don't have the color vision we have nor do they have the field of vision we have, and therefore "it's trade-offs all the way down."

    Furthermore Neese talks about pain. On the one hand, he speculates how wonderful it'd be to never experience pain. But on the other hand, he points out how pain is absolutely crucial to survival. He points out how most of us don't actually stand still when we are standing. Rather we wiggle back and forth and to and fro. But Neese says people who are born without the capacity to feel or experience pain do stand perfectly still when they're standing. Over time this causes their joints to deteriorate, which exposes them to various other issues. They tend to die at much younger ages too.

    Neese also talks about fever. On the one hand, our bodies raising the temperature could be seen to indicate bad design. But on the other hand, since most viruses and bacteria which infect the human body thrive best at approximately 98.6 Fahrenheit (or 37 Celsius), slightly elevating the temperature makes the environment inhospitable to these viruses and bacteria. He points out how reptiles which are of course cold-blooded, if infected, move themselves toward a source of light like a lightbulb or the sun to raise their own temperature.

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