Further Ruminations on Unintelligent Design

Doggone Mick. He got me thinking about this.

I've read where these Creationists (or proponents of Intelligent Design)use an example of a watch as "proof" of the existence of a Supreme Creator. The argument goes something like this, "when you see something as complex as a watch you know intuitively it was made by an intelligent Designer. Man is such a complex being he could only have been made by a Supreme Intelligent Designer."

First, I have a problem with the word "proof." No one in the scientific community uses the word "proof" in a serious way when discussing natural phenomena. It's usually "the preponderence of evidence suggests..." or something similar. Since we are always seeking a better understanding of the nature of things, "proof" is an ever shifting concept. The average scientific "fact" has a shelf life of less than five years. Hence The Theory of Evolution instead of the Fact of Evolution. It's always being tested.

But, I digress (slightly).

So...the watch. Built by an intelligent designer. Supposedly. But, lets look closer. Early timepieces used a boar's hair as the tension spring to run the thing. A boar's hair! Intelligent designer or not, I think it missed the mark.

Down through the years we have seen quite a bit of "evolution" in the design of watches. I wear a Citizen Eco-Drive Titanium Solar powered Dive watch. It never needs to be rewound or have batteries replaced. It automatically records the depth and bottom times of at least two underwater dives. Pretty cool.

But, I also have a Timex Ironman plastic, battery operated runner's watch. It'll record 100 lap splits AND allow me to set three different wake-up alarms.

Both are specialized and evolved from previous timepieces. Not my father's Bulova.

The same can be said for airplanes (Wright brother's crate at Kitty Hawk v. Airbus 380), cars (Tin Lizzy v. BMW 7 series), houses (mud hut v. condo), weapons (spear v. nukes. OK, so that would take us back to the spear.) and anything else you can think of.

The point is this: Why do we insist on cramming religious ideology into everything. Life evolved on this planet. Diverse, specialized, sometimes successfully, somtimes not. Always wonderfully. And that's a pretty good thing by itself.