Intelligent Design?

In a grassy meadow, fancy watch spied,

Opening its back, man in pleasure cried,

“Intricate mechanism proves deliberate plan,

So systematic, it must be designed by man.

And intricacies of human eye, complex, fine,

Proves beyond doubt benevolent, divine design.”

Yes, since ancient times, harmonies of nature,

Organs and systems that to life’s order inure

Have served as “proof” for existence of God.

Some still hold in their faith’s utmost regard,

World in general, particularly, man,

Was designed for purpose by divine hand.

Intelligent designer — God by implication—

As a unit each species did purposely fashion.

So, does the real world with truthfulness show

Evidence for Intelligent Design? Yes? No?

Plausible argument must employ all pertinent fact.

From scientific biology study we extract

That existing species have some serious flaws,

Belie claimed beneficient creator as cause.

Creationists pay little heed to facts, ignore,

Destructive mutation, vestigial organs, more,

Wastefulness of natural processes boggles our mind,

In molecular genetics, benevolence can’t find.

Rather, anatomical inefficiencies abound,

Constant interplay of random mutations redound,

Honed by selection during evolution’s great sift,

Many instances of poor design — God’s gift? *

Darwin, not only convinced of evolution’s success,

All instances of common descent to explain, assess,

For vestigial organs to account — said of this ability,

“Parts in this strange condition bear… stamp of inutility.”

These organs from use have long been absolved,

Remnants of early form from which they evolved.

Intelligent Design, for these organs no explanation,

Ignores the facts, invokes scripture’s sanitization.

To list just a few of the less technical of flaws

Noted by serious students of biology’s laws:

Unlike most other snakes in herpetology world,

Boa constrictors have small vestigial hind legs curled.

Crabs have a small, but quite useless tail, remnant

From ancestral form from which they’re descendant.

With both eyes on the same side of their head,

Adult flounders look up from sea floor bed,

While the young’s eyes are on opposite sides,

But maturing, to other side, one eye slides.

These stages, evolutionary path’s distortion,

The result is a skull, twisted, wrenched in contortion.

Flightless birds have non-functional stubs of wings,

 Penguins don’t fly but their bones are hollow things.

Aquatic animals, sea snakes, dolphins, whales,

Must surface to breathe air or their oxygen fails.

Modern whales have non-functional vestigial traits

Which indicate ancestral forms of early states.

Baleen whales strain seawater for shrimp krill,

 Have no need of teeth for their nutritional fill,

But their fetuses have teeth, absorbed with maturity,

Paleontologists proposed whales for a surety

Evolved from mammals that from land had eviction,

Therefore, example of power of prediction,

Laws of evolution forecast finding whale legs,

So of course, of this confidence the question begs:

Fossilized whales from fifty million years ago,

Rear legs and feet are found inside. Yes, quite so.

Rear limbs appear in fetuses of some modern whales,

Vestigial diminished pelvic bones. True, these tales.

Evolution accounts for leftovers when whales left land,

But remain lost to Intelligent Design’s hand.

Some anatomical structures useful to a creature

Show inefficient design, non-intelligent feature.

Testify instead to natural selection.

Example: the tail, backbone’s extended section.

For some tree-climbing monkeys, appears essential,

Absent in adult apes, humans, except potential

For excess coccyx in early embryo stage,

Occasional human tail’s clipped at newborn age.

Moles, bats, whales, dogs, human bodies base

Their forelimbs on same bones in each case.

Now, why, for so many vertebrates would be true

Unless common ancestor owe inheritance to?

Engineer from scratch could do a better job,

For in many cases morphology played Hob.

In pandas normally small bone in its wrist,

Undergone significant enlarging twist,

Enables elongated thumb opposed fingering

To strip leaves from bamboo without lingering.

Early embryonic eyes of most vertebrates lie

On sides of head, we question why,

When humans develop binocular vision,

The eyes move forward with inexact precision,

Sometimes forward movement uncompleted,

Baby’s born, eyes not properly seated.

Mammal laryngeal nerve does not extend

From brain to larynx, but in the neck, bends

Past the larynx, drops into chest, then loops

Lung ligament, back to larynx — jumps hoops.

While one-foot length of nerve is sufficient

From giraffe’s brain to the larynx, if efficient.

Actual length of doubled-back nerve tissue

From giraffe’s chest is twenty feet — big issue.

Anatomy’s features, not all perfectly done,

Could be better designed, we’ll show one by one.

Our jaws are small for wisdom teeth’s impact,

May need pulling or chiseling out, in fact.

Tube openings for breath and for food

Are so close we often choke — not good!

Human appendix has no apparent utility,

 Explaining intestine’s appendage, a futility.

Infection-prone, quite commonly on queue,

Sorely inflamed, needs surgical rescue.

In male fetuses testes form in abdominal cavity

Drop through muscle wall with help of gravity,

Leaving two weak areas that can easily rupture,

Requiring surgery for pain, no pretty picture!

Collapsible urethra found in male

Passes through prostate gland, that without fail,

In later life becomes enlarged and swollen,

Impedes urine flow, years of comfort stolen.

Many more examples anatomists can cite

Of inefficient, useless biological blight.

Creationist arguments often cite human eye

As the perfect model that shows Darwinism dry —

That it fails to account for such complex device

That evolution’s tiny changes don’t suffice.

But in animal kingdom, quite often eyes evolved,

Photosensitive material there, problem solved

Through incremental buildup in a stepwise fashion,

Over generations, to current situation.

But vertebrate eye is far from model of perfection.

Three million light-sensitive cells of retinal section,

“Wires” from each in front of retina over-plot,

Bundle into optic nerve, create a blind spot.

Instead of efficiency, elegance one expects to find —

Vestigial characteristics, cases of poor design!

Competent design would lead “wires” from back

Of light-sensitive cells, thus blind spot lack.

Separately evolved eyes, cephalopods,

“Wire” from the backside, with no blinding nerve wads.

Why are such as squid favored by ”Intelligent Design?

Why with a creationist theory would one align?

Is joy felt by omniscient, omnipotent god —

When subjects, human, other animals, be trod,

With genetic disease, cancer, viral infections,

Bacterial parasites, all types of afflictions?

Many examples suggest Intelligent Design

Necessarily undertaken by some divine

Committee of fractious gods — could not agree,

But worked blindly, and the results did not see!

At face value, invocation of ID would suggest:

Argument for polytheistic creation — is best.

Creationists may respond in normal manner:

Raise “The ways of God are mysterious” banner.

“We are not wise enough comments to tend

On the means by which God achieves his ends.”

If one should offer such specious retort,

What, then, gives him the license to resort

To ID as means by which God achieves ends?

Such is a religious view, and logic, offends.

Common evolution rumor holds genetic mutation

Of DNA as source of favorable variation

That nature selects for value as survival aid

For an individual when the best choice is made.

But mutation occurs randomly, harmful in most cases,

As a result, miscarriage, deformity, or death one faces.

Surviving mutations pass generation to generation,

Lurk recessively, await partner of same perturbation:

In Cystic Fibrosis mucus in lungs, liver, pancreas.

In Sickle Cell Anemia, poor circulation, weakness,

Inherited from both parents, difficulty and pain,

Sickling and clumping of red cells, oxygen can’t gain.

Phenylketonuria causes infant brain deficiency.

Muscular dystrophy wastes proficiency.

Gradual wasting brain tissue in middle age:

Huntington’s Disease — dominant by any gauge.

Hypercholesterolemia causes cholesterol build,

But neither intelligence nor design can easily be billed

As author of these, though evolutionary law

 Explains nature can be fickle, mean and raw!

Some would rather believe in benevolent designer

Who cares, supervises every move, major or minor.

ID may inspire feelings fuzzy and warm,

But it’s true — evolution may fail this norm.

Evolution offers individual or species no seat

If missing the traits that enable them to compete

For food or adapt to changing conditions,

The fossil record scribes well these traditions.

Of species that have ever lived on this blue ball

 Now gone extinct, 99+ percent of all.

This, evolution accommodates, predicts, explains,

Integrates bio knowledge, intellectual gains.

Evolutionary law effects as generations mount,

And Intelligent Design fails for the real world to account.

Aside from emotional appeal of wise providence,

If ID is justified, where, then, is the evidence?

And so, does the real world with truthfulness show

Evidence of Intelligent Design? Emphatically, no!

* “Odd arrangements and funny solutions are proof,” ‘twas said,

“Of evolution — paths that a sensible God would never tread,

But a natural process, constrained by history, follows perforce.”

And the learned professor was Stephen J. Gould, of course.