Hafer Abby - The not-so-intelligent designer: why evolution explains the human body and intelligent design does not

The Not-So-Intelligent Designer

Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not

Abby Hafer

Illustrations by Alexander Winkler

Chapter

A few years ago, I realized that the whole intelligent design (ID) controversy is not a scientific issue, but a political one. This goes a long way toward explaining why ID has gotten as far as it has.

ID is not a theory, it is a political pressure group.

Once I realized this, I also realized that my perfect first argument against ID is the male testicle. Why? Because once I mentioned testicles, I knew that people would pay attention . Scientific arguments that grab and hold peoples attention are what is needed.

The problem is that scientists keep approaching ID as though it were a scientific issue, which its not. So we make observations, do experiments, and write our papers, showing repeatedly that all the scientific evidence is in favor of evolution. Then we publish our papers in scientific journals where they are read by other scientists. Sometimes we publish wonderful, scholarly books that are also mostly read by other scientists.

I think you see the problem here.

The people who are likely to be persuaded by ID arguments dont read scientific journals, or lengthy books about evolution, and they never will . Many of the people who would like to argue in favor of evolution dont read them either. I am not criticizing people who dont read scientific journals. I am criticizing scientists who behave as though talking to other scientists will solve this problem. It wont.

This is why we have libraries full of evidence for evolution and most people dont know it. This means that doing more research wont make a difference.

What will make a difference is understanding that this is a political issue and treating it that way. Political issues require political arguments, and political arguments are different. Political arguments must be short, easy to understand, memorable, and preferably entertaining.

In my case, I also want them to be true.

So when I started looking for new approaches, I knew I had a winner when inspiration hit me in the middle of an Anatomy and Physiology lecture, while I was lecturing about reproductive systems. The male testicle is a great first argument against ID in the human body, and this brings me to the alternative title for this book:

Evolution, Intelligent Design, and Mens Testicles: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not

I understand that this may not be considered an appropriate title for library shelves and book catalogs, but undoubtedly, it would get peoples attention. However, once I realized that this was just the sort of thing I needed for a political-style argument, I did what any sensible woman would do under these circumstances. I emailed my minister.

Then my minister did what any minister would do under these circumstances, and he told the entire congregation my realization about testicles in that Sundays sermon.

This is not quite as odd as it sounds. I knew that he, along with many other like-minded ministers, was planning to preach a sermon on Darwin. I thought that my observations about testicles would entertain him and help him understand evolution better. I had forgotten that the Darwin service was that Sunday, and I did not realize that my notes on testicles would lead off the sermon.

You can do this kind of thing if youre a Unitarian.

I later expanded the concept into a booklet, which has been very popular.

There is real science here. My point is to show you a number of examples of how the human body is badly designed. Given that, is it any wonder then that I started with reproduction?

So without further ado, here are the problems with mens testicles.

Chapter

The testicles hang outside the body in a sack of skin called the scrotum. Why? Because human body temperature is too hot for sperm production. Having normal body temperature be too hot for sperm production is bad design . So the testicles have to hang outside the body in the scrotum, thereby putting a vulnerable organ in a vulnerable place. Putting a valuable and vulnerable organ in such a vulnerable location is bad design . Men are put to all sorts of inconvenience and risk severe pain and worse because of this unfortunate positioning. One would think that God could do better.

Heres a picture of how this is all put together.

Figure . Reproductive system of the male human.

Notice how the testicles, with their inability to be warm and productive at the same time, hang outside, while all the abdominal organs are safely tucked up inside, out of harms way. Our cold-blooded relatives dont have this problem, and their sperm-making equipment is safely inside them. If you dont believe me, try to find the balls on a frog.

You wont manage it unless you do a dissection.

Figure . Reproductive system of the male frog.

Heres a picture of a frogs insides. See? The frogs testicles are safe inside him, where a vulnerable organ ought to be.

Does this mean that the Creator likes frogs better than men, or does it mean that as humans evolved, the ones who had their balls hanging outside reproduced better? You decide.

Chapter

So, what do male testicles have to do with ID? Little did we realize that this would become one of the central questions of modern science.

Proponents of ID insist that biological organisms everywhere, including human beings, show unmistakable signs of having been designed by an intelligent Creator, rather than having evolved through natural selection.

But if testicles were designed, then one wonders why God didnt protect them better. Couldnt the Designer have put them inside the body, or encased them in bone, or at least put some bubble wrap around them? Is this the best that the Designer can do?

ID is a very important idea. Its advocates have support from numerous presidential candidates, some members of Congress, a few United States governors, and many state legislatures. They are the people responsible for the famous court case called Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

They think that educational policy and textbooks should be changed to reflect their views. Who are these people, what do they believe, and how did they get to be so powerful?

What is Intelligent Design?

ID is the idea that biological organisms have come about due to the deliberate work of an intelligent Creator. ID says that the Creators signature can be seen in the way we are put together.

It further argues that new species cannot come about through evolution by natural selection, and must be the work of a Designer. This means that human beings, which are a separate species, as well as all other creatures, are considered to be the products of intelligent design.

This idea admits that evolution by natural selection can modify existing features, but only within species that already exist, and that new features are also the work of a Designer.