Intelligent Design Is Stupid

Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University:

It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings.

Our own bodies are riddled with quirks that no competent engineer would have planned but that disclose a history of trial-and-error tinkering: a retina installed backward, a seminal duct that hooks over the ureter like a garden hose snagged on a tree, goose bumps that uselessly try to warm us by fluffing up long-gone fur.

The moral design of nature is as bungled as its engineering design. What twisted sadist would have invented a parasite that blinds millions of people or a gene that covers babies with excruciating blisters? To adapt a Yiddish expression about God: If an intelligent designer lived on Earth, people would break his windows.

The theory of natural selection explains life as we find it, with all its quirks and tragedies. We can prove mathematically that it is capable of producing adaptive life forms and track it in computer simulations, lab experiments and real ecosystems. It doesn't pretend to solve one mystery (the origin of complex life) by slipping in another (the origin of a complex designer).

Many people who accept evolution still feel that a belief in God is necessary to give life meaning and to justify morality. But that is exactly backward. In practice, religion has given us stonings, inquisitions and 9/11. Morality comes from a commitment to treat others as we wish to be treated, which follows from the realization that none of us is the sole occupant of the universe. Like physical evolution, it does not require a white-coated technician in the sky.

Kenneth Miller & Joseph Levine, "Biology" published by Prentice Hall, 2 million copies sold, page 410:

Darwin made bold assumptions about heritable variation, the age of Earth and relaionships among organisms. New data from genetics, physics and biochemistry could have proved him wrong on many counts. They didn't. Scientific evidence supports the theory that living species descended with modification from common ancestors that lived in the ancient past.

George Carlin, "When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?" page 112:

Regarding Creationists: Aren't these the same people who gave us alchemy and astrology, and who told us the earth, besides being flat, was at the center of the universe? Why don't we just kill these [expletive] people?

... Bright people everywhere agree: Intelligent Design is a load of dog squeeze.

States where Intelligent Design is being forced on schools at the state and local level:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Indiana
Kansas
Louisiana
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Washington
West Virginia