1) Poor design shows in structures such as
the human throat because you can choke. The human eye is poorly
designed because of the blind spot it has, and because of
the retina being inverted, likewise since whales need to come
to
the surface to breathe making them susceptible to being killed
by human hunters, no clever Creator would have done this.
2) Design implies a need to find a solution
to a problem, so what problem did God have that He was trying
to solve by designing a Universe? Genesis is silent on this
matter, so if there is no stated problem, the Universe is
not a designed solution.
The debate did not follow a typical format
which has each speaker given 15 minutes to present a case,
alternating between sides, followed by time to refute your
opponents claims in public. There was no allowed refutation
time so we insisted there must be a 30 minute question time
from the public. Having a chairman who was Professorial Head
of the Philosophy dept, we now realise we should also have
insisted this included the opportunity to answer the questions
as well. We were outsmarted (or outdummed) on this totally.
The following is the most important refutation
of the above Rationalist claims about bad design we would
have made if we had the time instead of having only a summary
conclusion at the end .
STARTING PHILOSOPHY:
All the claims of biological bad design by
the rationalists have one serious fault - when they can show
that they have designed a better throat /eye etc - their opinion
will be worthy of consideration, particularly in the light
of
the booming bioengineering industry that is seeking to mimic
biological design - because it works so well. Until they can
design better working throats etc, they must be considered
amateurs whose criticisms are both ignorant and arrogant.
Consider the following biological features
:
Design in the Human Throat
The claimed bad design is that the nose sits
above the mouth and takes in air, which then goes down the
throat behind the nose and mouth. It then is directed forward
through the larynx (voicebox) and down the trachea (windpipe).
In the meantime the mouth takes in food and drink. When this
is swallowed it passes over the top of the larynx to the back
of the throat and then down the oesophagus (food pipe). Because
anything we swallow has to go past the larynx, food or liquids
may "go down the wrong way" and cause people to
choke or become ill because inhaled material has carried
infection into
the lungs.
If the mouth, nose and throat were just passive
spaces with rigid walls this would be bad design, but they
are really part of an actively moving system that (a) carries
out important functions for human life and (b) has built-in
backup
systems.
The most important result of having the mouth
and nose both opening into the throat is that breathing which
is so essential to life, has an instant backup system. If
the nose is blocked we can breathe through our mouths. Never
forget the science fiction story that described an Alien that
had its mouth down near its stomach, completely separated
from it nose, which was on its head. Such a creature would
die if it got a cold or was punched in the nose.
Another very important result of having the
mouth connected to the airways is that we can speak. The larynx
produces sound as air is expelled through it, but it is the
mouth that enables us to articulate, i.e. form the sound into
words. Articulation involves complex subtle movements of tongue,
lips, cheeks and soft palate. Speech is an essential part
of being human. The science fiction alien with a mouth around
his belly button, would have to communicate with snorts and
honks, or sign language as he tried to talk through his nose.
God is more clever than the rationalists think. Being able
to control expelled air with the mouth also enables us to
play wind musical instruments. Flutes played with the mouth
are executed much more skilfully than the nose flute found
in some countries.
Using pressure differences in the airways also enables us
to suck and blow through straws. Why then do things go wrong
with the system, sometimes with fatal consequences? All the
functions that involve the movements of air, food and liquids
are under the control of the brain and a complex set of reflexes
normally ensures that the airway is closed when you swallow.
The mouth and larynx are designed so that when you swallow,
the larynx is pulled up so that it is out of the way of what
is being swallowed and a flap called the epiglottis is pulled
down over the larynx, like a lid, closing it off. If the reflexes
that control these movements don't get it right, and
something does go down the wrong way, another backup system,
the cough reflex, takes care of it.
Therefore, it is only when several systems
fail that people die from choking or aspiration pneumonia.
Apart from the very occasional accident, usually caused by
people trying to talk and eat at once, the reflexes only seriously
fail
because of illness or disability - a situation which would
never have occurred in the original perfect world before man
sinned and rationalists tried to talk through their nose.
(Ref. Creator, skeptics, anti-creation)
