Intelligent Design…not really

Intelligent Design…not really
20 December 2005
Louis L. Brossard

I have yet to hear one example from anyone as to what is intelligent about the design of the world we live in. I am surprised that anyone would present such a proposition. There is a complete confusion between intelligent and intricate. The world, nature or the laws of nature are certainly intricate and very complex. They are not intelligent in the context of an intentional engineering process.
The design of individuals who by their nature are cooperative and work together towards a common goal is efficient and very successful. Many insect colonies have been thriving with such a design for much of the earth’s existence. When such a design has proved so successful what is the reason for a design that requires dominance and discord to succeed?
Once a design is established that allows an animal to eat vegetable mater it is not intelligent to make a second design that requires an animal to eat the first animal to survive. In fact, a design that would allow the direct assimilation of the necessary energy from the environment would be intelligent.
To make the means of procreating the species a pleasurable activity if it is so often proclaimed an evil activity is not intelligent. If it is a divine duty to replenish the earth then it should require dedication and intent not a failure of self control or the surrendering of principles. Having a child should certainly be an act of intent and desire, not the frailty of rectitude.
Designing an animal whose head is larger than the pelvic passageway through which it must move is not an intelligent design. What is intelligent about making the conceiving of a child pleasurable but the birthing of that child very dangerous to both child and mother and extremely painful? The new baby must have its head deformed just to be born by this design. Designing a small hole for a large peg in not an intelligent design.
Since procreation is such an essential behavior should it not be given its own functional elements rather than sharing them with the disposal of an inefficient and flawed energy system? Who would reward an engineer who built a civic center or play ground in the middle of a sewage disposal plant? That is not an intelligent design.
The whole experience of life is a difficult one. While there is certainly great pleasure there is also great pain and difficulty. In as much as life is easier for mankind than animals in the wild is the result of human intelligence. Human intelligence is also responsible for much of the pain and suffering mankind experiences. Nature’s design must also be charged with a great amount of human travail. One cannot explain the intelligence of the purposeful destruction of whole populations by divine intent. We can learn other than by indiscriminately being slaughtered by a vengeful God. We can relieve overpopulation by other than destroying that population. This is not an intelligent design.
If an all powerful dictator required of his subjects absolute adoration and obedience while killing millions of innocent citizens and causing immense suffering he should not be adored and deified. Yet the manically egotistical God of most religions is just such a being. Imagine your President requiring you to kill your first born to prove your unquestioning love for him. Would that President be a good person? The God of three of the major religions of the world did just such a thing and only relented when Abraham, the most beloved of God for his righteousness and probity, agreed to kill his son.
In ever example I have given and all that I can imagine evolution makes these designs necessary and beneficial. Indeed, we Homo sapiens would not exist without such an evolutionary process. In the context of evolution all of nature makes perfect sense. In the context of intended purpose there is no reason or understanding possible. Religious leaders only say we are not capable of understand the divine intent.
I am in awe at the magnificent complexity of nature. I am thrilled by its grandeur. I am overwhelmed by its beauty. I am intimidated by its immense power. But I am also horrified by its horrendous destruction of life and unrestrained cruelty. It simply can not be intentionally designed by a benevolent intelligence. The confusion between the intricacy of nature and its deliberate design is not only irrational but dangerous. Galileo was imprisoned for telling a simple scientific truth; the earth circles the sun. Teachers are today being punished for teaching scientific truth and refusing to teach religious doctrine; evolution instead of religious myth. Every person can find the truth by simply examining life’s experience without the encumbrance of an authoritarian doctrine. I invite you to discover this for yourself. I did and I have forever rejoiced in the freedom it has given me and the comfort such knowledge gives in times of calamity. I wish the same awakening to everyone.

Understanding the Failure of American Idealism

Understanding the Failure of American Idealism
14 December 2005

I had a thought a few days ago that surprised me. Something that seems to me so obvious and yet I have not read or heard it stated before. I’ll try to make a case for this idea here.
After the return of the World War 2 soldiers there was a sizable increase in the number of babies born. This group has been labeled the Baby Boomers, often defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. There are just fewer than 80 million baby boomers in the United States today.
This large bump in the population curve of our country has had many important influences in all of our lives. It has and continues to have serious economic consequences. But the greatest change in our culture came from the sexual revolution brought about by the influence of such a large number of teenagers and young adults among us. The United States went from a Victorian like puritanical society to one where sexual expression and female sexuality were celebrated rather than condemned. The country became much more liberal in social mores as well as in politics.
The middle aged baby boomers are now preparing for retirement. Their once liberal approach to society has now changed to the conservatism typical of their age. The problem is that they are still this enormous bump in the curve. That sizable number that once espoused “Make Love Not War” now has property and position to defend. They have followed the historical path into conservatism and become the anathema they once defeated.
It somehow makes me a little more tolerant of my country to realize that the reason we seem to have once again lost our moral anchor is only the ageing of our liberators. As they worry about their increasingly annoying arthritis and waning libido they respond just as did their parents and grandparents. Those crystal clear principles of their bounding youth are somehow now childish excesses.
I do not condone the conservative social values of our present government. All who know me and my annoying rants against it know this all to well. But now I feel that I understand the reason for our move to the right a little better. I don’t know how much the economic influences of this conservatism have helped cause the increasing fundamentalism in the Middle East. In as much as the increasing difference between the rich and the poor causes unrest and dissatisfaction it is partially the cause. Advances in communication that let the world know the augmenting difference is also a cause.
America has not gotten stupider, just older. We will recover once the boomer tsunami has passed.

Failure in Iraq

Failure in Iraq
7 December 2005

By any realistic appraisal the war in Iraq is a failure. Even if we are able to avoid an overt civil war the stated outcome as promised at the onset is a complete failure. It has not taken three to six months. The Iraqis did not welcome us with open arms. The Iraqi oil exports have not paid for whole operation. There is certainly not a stable democratic government supported by the majority of the populace in place and operating. And the most troubling thing is that terrorism is not reduced but greatly expanded and is getting more organized with each passing day. To me this means we failed in Iraq even if we somehow manage to avoid a complete collapse of order in the Middle East.
We now are being told that there were indeed mistakes made in the assessed threat that Iraq posed to the United States and the world. Statements are continually made that the world was misled and that everyone made this mistake. That is untrue and nonsense. There were many voices urging us not to invade and to let the United Nations inspection team continue their work. Most of the first world countries opposed out invasion and the governments that supported us did so against the majority will of their people. To say now that the entire world believed the Bush administration propaganda is ridiculous and a self serving falsehood. There is and always has been an active and committed opposition that knew otherwise.
President Bush gave a speech to the Naval Academy on November 30, 2005. I have not heard the news media give the same analysis as the impression I got from that speech. To me it sounded like the Bush Administration was beginning to declare victory so that it can extricate itself from a hopeless situation. Yes, the President said repeatedly that he would stay the course. The commentators said he had the belief he was directed by his God to establish Democracy in Iraq; that he believed he had a religious mission to perform. But to me it sounded like he was saying what he had to say to his supporters and that he would soon begin to declare our victory. Whatever happens after we leave is the fault of inapt and corrupt Iraqis, not the successful American invasion of their country. I remember that the then U.S. Government did not call Viet Nam a defeat when we left. The world knew but the Government would not acknowledge it. Then, just as now, we were told that a defeat would lead to very dire consequences. We must stop communism (terrorists) there before they come here. We lost in Viet Nam. Neither Viet Nam nor the communists invaded the United States. And now the number of terrorists is far greater and their determination more dedicated than they were before our invasion of Iraq. I call that a failure. The death and suffering we have caused will never be justified by a face saving statement of victory.
Also intended by the President’s speech was the preparation to shift the political blame for his disastrous failure in Iraq. By insisting that all it takes to win in Iraq is to continue the war indefinitely he will proclaim that we lost because we didn’t continue fighting long enough. Even though the casualties continue to increase each year and the Army has great difficulty in finding troops to send to Iraq he will state that we could have won by prolonging the failure. Even as the number and strength of the opposition to our occupation increases he will insist that our victory was just around the corner if his political opposition had just had the courage to “stay the course”.
I don’t know if I fear more the thought that the President really believes such a ridiculous position or if he is just lying. Is it worse to be blind to the truth or to intentionally deny it? In either case it will be years before the United States will regain it’s place of respectability in the world of nations as a result of the actions of George W. Bush.