Part 2. (on Youtube, where you can find the rest)
The size and position of recurrent (inferior) laryngeal nerve is the death knell for ID.
I’m sorry.
Our is similarly positioned (and poorly “designed”), but ours isn’t redirected 15 feet as it is in the giraffe.
I’m sorry: are you under the impression that the ID people actually care about such biological facts?
Emily,
Creationists don’t care about facts. Many don’t understand them– see “Dr” Kent Hovind for that sort of malarkey.
But the ID people are a bit more sophisticated.
“more sophisticated”.. you mean they don’t actually think homo sapiens walked with the dinosaurs?
Yes. They generally aren’t young earthers.
And they aren’t Harun Yahya-types who think there has been no evolution on a very old earth.
Your blog about dogs in general and retrievers in particular is a good one.
Posts like this spoil it only. The concept of falsification is a lot more complex than this. Whether you like the idea of ID or not, you have to discuss it properly.
I’m really looking forward to read more about all those wonderful dogs, and especially the golden ones.
I am an evolutionist. This is an even better refutation of ID than the giraffe.
“discuss it properly.”
Heh, like what, with reason and the scientific method?
Religious teaching has made an art out of “thinking properly;” that is to say, accepting arguments made with any and all logical fallacies while also trying to escape the rigors of logic by claiming “faith.”
There’s already too much romance and religion in dogs, we don’t need any more and Scottie is one of the few who is willing to cut through the dogma and get back to the dogs.
An example of proper discussions from an atheist point of view you find at: http://exapologist.blogspot.com
He sometimes posts about evolution.
I don’t agree with his general point of view, but he is doing a fine job. It’s easy to ridicule your opponents. But it’s more fruitful, although more difficult, to argue with the best representatives of the position you disagree with.
Why bother trying to explain something to a person whose answer back involves magic or just making shit up? Plus it’s more fun making fun of idiots than trying to talk to them.
You cannot discuss anything involving science ‘properly’ when the answer is “God did it.” That immediately removes the discussion from the realm of science and into religion.
The ‘proper’ answer, btw, in a scientific discussion when you don’t know the reason why, is: “We don’t know why.” Then you might speculate, using the evidence you do have. The IMproper answer is: “God (or a designer) did it.”
P.Z. Myers gives a nice analogy on this.
Evolution is like a wall of driftwood that builds up on the shore. It is complex in the wall that it builds, but it is nature that puts each piece of wood there.
ID would have us have a wall like a cement and brick wall. It is less complex.
If someone is uncomfortable with the giraffe and this particular nerve example: Why is it that whales swim by pumping their tails up and down?
It is much more efficient for fish to swim with their tails going side to side. If whales had been designed, then they would have the fish adaptation.
No. Just like the giraffe’s recurrent laryngeal nerve, the way whales swim is the result of an historical legacy within their evolutionary past. They swim that way because it is based upon the motor patters of a four-legged mammal running.
Or maybe the designer didn’t read the directions carefully.
Or maybe the feller who wired up the giraffe was a bad electrician.
But I thought the designer was both omnipotent and omniscient.
Or he’s one devious bastard.
it’s so silly!
why would an “intelligent designer” want to make mistakes? Why wouldn’t he just decide on what critters he wanted and that’s it?
I know: it’s a trick to test our faith!
Which is also stupid, because faith isn’t based on being tricked.. it’s based on, you know, FAITH.
This is the part that I thought was so interesting on the Giraffe episode. It makes me want to be a comparative anatomist, like the lady on there.
I would have to say this is an certified piece of work. I say this deserves mentioning elsewhere. Would you mind if I placed a link on my site to this post?
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