The Not-So-Intelligent Designer

Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not

Abby Hafer

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781620329412
  9781498284622
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498273602
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion & Science

Why do men's testicles hang outside the body? Why does our appendix sometimes explode and kill us? And who does the Designer like better, anyway--us or squid? These and other questions are addressed in The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not. Dr. Abby Hafer argues that the human body has many faulty design features that would never have been the choice of an intelligent creator. She also points out that there are other animals that got better body parts, which makes the Designer look a bit strange; discusses the history and politics of Intelligent Design and creationism; reveals animals that shouldn't exist according to Intelligent Design; and disposes of the idea of irreducible complexity. Her points are illustrated with pictures, wit, and erudition.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Introduction, or, Why Testicles Matter
• Chapter 2: Bad Design—Men’s Testicles
• Chapter 3: What Is Intelligent Design, and What Does It Have to Do With Men’s Testicles?
• Chapter 4: Testicles, Part II
• Chapter 5: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body Better than Intelligent Design Does
• Chapter 6: Intelligent Design According to Its Believers: Is Intelligent Design the Same as Creationism, and Is Intelligent Design Religion?
• Chapter 7: The Infamous Wedge Strategy
• Chapter 8: Why Denying Evolution Can Get You into Trouble and Cause Mass Hunger, Too
• Chapter 9: What Science Is
• Chapter 10: Why Accepting Science and Evolution Can Lead to Better Values for All Humankind
• Chapter 11: Bad Design—the Birth Canal
• Chapter 12: The Handy-Dandy Intelligent Design Refuter, Part 1
• Chapter 13: Intelligent Design Requires a Leap of Faith
• Chapter 14: Animals That Shouldn’t Exist According to Intelligent Design
• Chapter 15: Bad Design—the Human Throat
• Chapter 16: The Handy-Dandy Intelligent Design Refuter, Part 2
• Chapter 17: Irreducible Complexity, the Design Inference, and Geological Formations
• Chapter 18: Irreducible Complexity and Blood Clotting
• Chapter 19: Bad Design—the Human Blood Clotting System: It Led to the Communist Russian Revolution
• Chapter 20: Irreducible Complexity, Flagella, and Cilia
• Chapter 21: Irreducible Complexity and the Human Eye
• Chapter 22: Bad Design—the Human Eye
• Chapter 23: Why Denying Science is Bad for You, and Bad for Your Neighbors, Too
• Chapter 24: Why Reward in Heaven Makes No Difference to Human Behavior, but Good Institutions Do
• Chapter 25: Bad Design—Our Biochemical Pathways: If Cats Don’t Die of Scurvy, Then Why Do We?
• Chapter 26: Why Does Intelligent Design Act so Much Like the Tobacco Lobby?
• Chapter 27: Bad Design—Our Teeth, or, Why Is This Animal Smiling?
• Chapter 28: The Discovery Institute Hasn’t Discovered Anything (Sort of Like the Tobacco Institute)
• Chapter 29: The Publishing Scandal that Rocked the Discovery Institute
• Chapter 30: Bad Design—Sharks Get More Reproductive Options, Too
• Chapter 31: Exploding the Cambrian Explosion
• Chapter 32: Why William Dembski’s “Information Theory” Isn’t Very Informative
• Chapter 33: Bad Design—the Human Genome
• Chapter 34: Bad Design—the Human Appendix
• Chapter 35: Evolution: The Greatest Indisputably True Story Ever Told
• Appendix 1: The Phylogeny of Mammalian Testicles
• Appendix 2: The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Statement on Intelligent Design
• Appendix 3: The Life Cycle of the Immortal Jellyfish
• Appendix 4: Credits and Notes for Illustrations and Photographs