"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Intelligent Design Proponent Says God Must Be Stupid

Our friends over at the "Discovery Institute" (a misnomer if ever there was one) have in essence told us that God is just plain stupid. What's even funnier is that their boneheaded leader, Dr. Cornelius Hunter, doesn't even seem to realize what a gaffe he just pulled.

Hunter wrote: We do not know evolution to be an obvious, compelling explanation of the data—beyond any shadow of a doubt. Yet this is precisely what evolutionists claim. ... Here, for example, is what one professor recently wrote to me:

"An omnipotent god could do anything (we guess), but one who is omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful (at least as serious and thoughtful as an exemplary human) would not route wiring from giraffe’s larynx around its aorta."How does the professor know that an omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful god would not route wiring from the giraffe’s larynx around its aorta? What does the professor know about omnipotent, serious, and thoughtful gods? And what does the professor know about creating giraffes? Precious little, I’m afraid, in both cases. Wrong, wrong, wrong!"

OK, Dr. Hunter, let me explain it in plain simple terms. God wouldn't route that giraffe's nerves from its brain, down around its heart, and then back up its neck to its larynx because it's a really stupid way to do it.

One of the replies to Dr. Hunter's column says it better than I can. Dave Mullenix writes:

That's a pretty easy question to answer. The routing we see in the giraffe makes the nerve at least ten times longer than a direct route, which requires more material to make the nerve and makes the nerve impulses take at least ten times longer to reach their target. It also exposes ten times more nerve to damage. The giraffe routing is not only unintelligent, it's spectacularly unintelligent!There are thousands of examples like this in nature, where evolution has created peculiar structures that would be far better if they were designed rather than evolved. In fact, just about everywhere you turn in biology, there are stupid "designs" that no intelligent designer would make. Contrary to Dr. Hunter's claims, these are some of the most convincing examples of why evolution must be true. In each case the "stupid" design makes perfect sense when you look at the complete history of how that feature evolved.

One of the most embarrassing arguments you hear from religious apologists is "God is smarter than you," or "God works in mysterious ways." It's the "easy out" excuse.

You can corner a religious apologist into the deepest logical contradiction you like, and presto-chango, he escapes! "Ha! God is so smart that HE knows the reason for this ridiculous claim I'm making, so I'm right and you're wrong!" And the apologist smiles smugly while his friends pat him on the back for being so clever.

We don't have to be gods to know right from wrong, clever from stupid, and impossible from possible. Over two thousand years ago the Greek philosophers realized that there were some laws that even gods had to obey. 2 + 2 = 4 is true no matter what universe you live in, and even God himself can't make it otherwise. And no matter how smart God is, there is still no excuse for a stupid design.

No amount of omniscience can change stupid to smart. But Dr. Hunter seems to know how to get a PhD and still be stupid.