How DNA might have developed; a brilliant new theory (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, April 04, 2010, 14:51 (5143 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George has referred us to an article in the Freethinker: 'Messy Human Genome demolishes any notion of an Intelligent Creator'. The review in New Scientist was headed 'A caring god would not have designed us like this.'-Just to add to David's response from another angle: the two different headings seem to me to sum up the inconsistencies in the argument. The fact that our bodies are imperfect does not provide one iota of evidence against "an Intelligent Creator", but only against "a loving, all-powerful creator" or "a caring god". The mechanisms for life, reproduction, evolution and consciousness are so complex and so mysterious that humans can scarcely understand them, let alone reproduce them. That, in a nutshell, is the case for design. Every car, computer, airplane, TV set will end up in the scrapyard, every machine will break down, every building will crumble. So do all these messy failures demolish any notion that they were designed by an intelligent creator?-The rest of the article, however, repeats the same age-old but nonetheless powerful arguments that theists have never been able to respond to. Two quotes will suffice:-"Why did this deity make such a god-awful mess of it, causing so much needless suffering?" -And to those who favour a deist god or a god without attributes:
"What's the point in praying to a being that either can't help or simply doesn't care?"-Two very fair questions.-My thanks to George for the link with the Hastings Humanists.