Intelligent Design, what is so intelligent about it?

I read something the other day in a recent science publication that has been grating on me. A person has written a book where he hypothesizes that Intelligent Design must be true because we humans have developed such a technological civilization. That without the ability to invent and create having been "encoded" into our DNA we would be helpless in the face of Nature and its animals.

I always have to just shake my head at the basic premises of scholarship such as this. It has to make the assumption that at some time, somewhere, a great finger came down and hit the "on" button and away we went as a species; that somehow we are not a part of the natural world around us.

I subscribe to the "Occam's Razor" assumptions that the simplest, least complicated hypothesis is likely correct. If we were bio-engineered by aliens then you must ask yourself several questions: why, what for, and how much patience do they have? We've been here a while already, even if we are only 5,500 years on this globe. Have they forgotten what they put us here for? The idea of spontaneous chemical reactions that, given billions of years, will begin to replicate more complex patterns of itself is perfectly reasonable to me. It does not take an endless chain of aliens creating one another, because after all, who created that first alien?

Now, before I get bibles thrown at me please believe that I am a religious man first and foremost, as were most of our Founders. I think Thomas Jefferson would have enjoyed reading Darwin's book (and those that came before Darwin that didn't get the same press coverage) describing natural selection. I do not believe that his solid religious beliefs would have been seriously tested or bent. I find myself praying often I believe that it is good for your soul to do so. I DO NOT believe in collective salvation or the preachings of "Social Justice" that has started to spew from my local Catholic church. Your relationship with God is the only truly private relationship you can ever have in your life. However, with that out of the way, I digress.

Back to this absurd idea that without our technology we are helpless little pink (pick your color) creatures that will be savaged by the first passing squirrel. We are part of Nature. We evolved there and have been there in our modern form for at least 80,000 years. Our predecessors were there, in a fairly modern form for over 500,000 years. Technology developed slowly with ideas coming and going, being traded around, improved upon, and discarded when not needed. Collective groups are not "smart", if you have a room full of idiots, you still have a room full of idiots (substitute country or culture in the place of rooms if you like). A brilliant individual comes along and teaches the idiots something useful who will then perfect it and pass it along. Other brilliant people in other places share their ideas with other brilliant people and truly amazing things can be created. With the rise of better communication and trade, ideas have been swapped and shared at a faster and faster pace. Our capacity to learn is no different than it was 80,000 years ago, but we are certainly better off then they were.

Now that I've described how it was individuals that gave us great ideas, I'll now describe how the brilliant individual and the collective grouping (be it clan or family, but lets think small scale here for now) drove innovation in the very beginning.

Your clan is migrating to a place far to the North in 60,000 b.c. It has not been able to make good time because shelter is scarce and predators are common. A hunter, with his heavy rocks and a stick tell the group that there is a cave on the edge of a grassy savanna that would be perfect to set up longer term lodging. The problem is the huge cave bear that lives there. The not-so-smart friend of the hunter says, "no problem, one cave coming up" and walks into the cave while the rest of the hunting party watches on. The hunter smacks the bear in the face with the stick and is instantly mauled to death. The group runs away and thinks on this issue. A smarter fellow recommends throwing the rock at the bear to drive it off. So, another hunter goes into the cave and heaves his heavy rocks at the bear. The bear runs faster than the human and mauls this one as well. The group, now two men short, once again rethink this bear thing. An even smarter hunter decides that he will sharpen his stick and harden it in the flames of his campfire. He pulls up his furs and heads into the cave. He stabs the bear in the side and is instantly mauled. The group backs off again to the safety of the fire and notes that the bear was actually hurt in that attempt. The smartest person in the group has an idea, how about everyone goes in there with sharpened sticks at the same time...and he will even experiment by putting sharpened stones on the end of his spear. That fall, the clan is residing in a cave with new fur coats and a cool looking area rug. Needless to say, this clan will fare better than their less adaptable brethren and have stronger offspring. Eventually, with ingenuity and numbers; since there will be other animals and clans to punch in the nose along the way, plus those tasty looking mushrooms...hey, you, taste those and tell me if they are good...

My point being is that we have done this on our own. We should be proud of who and what we are. Enough of this collective guilt. We have dominated this planet because we are the smartest animal around by far. Our biochemistry always astounds me with its complexity. We dominate through our intelligence and ability to adapt. Accept that. We all come from about 20,000 breeding couples (that is another blog) in the south of Africa. Our genetic diversity is almost non-existent. We are more alike than any two breeds of bird or dog or cat. We are the greatest of all the primates and we are soooooo very vanilla, genetically speaking.

Now, to ask what is so intelligent about our design. Who invented the wisdom tooth? How about the appendix? Why do we get cancer and have deformed children. Who is responsible for quality control up there? Why do our arteries clog if we eat good tasting food and why is bad tasting food so good for you? Why do the mean people seem to live forever? I know, I'm drifting into philosophy and that will keep me going for hours, so I'll stick to biology. The point is that our bodies are fragile, slow moving, and prone to break down without proper, regular maintenance. God may be driving evolution towards a form perfectly suited for our future but He certainly could not be responsible for the genetics that cause diseases and other infirmities. Those must be the aliens' doing and they must be lazy, with a capital "L".

Keep in mind I'm not out to offend anyone, but if I have then you need to think real hard about your own beliefs first. If a nobody from Michigan can shake your beliefs so easily then you need to rethink your beliefs, and I mean do the soul searching type of review. Now, if you want to burn me at the stake or deny me food, shelter, education or employment because of my scribblings then you need to look at the calendar and note that it is 2010. We are supposed to be enlightened and open to free thought. Don't want to commit heresy or anything. By the way, someone should go and look up what the original meaning of the word "Heresy" was and get back to me.

The Stoa is now available for some one else to teach a class. Have a nice evening.

--Zavost