The Not-So-Intelligent Designer
Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not
Alexander Winkler author Abby Hafer author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Published:29th Sep '16
Should be back in stock very soon
A witty and accessible dissection of the failure of Intelligent Design creationism, showing its inability to explain many basic features of human anatomy. 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. 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 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 (by Alexander Winkler), wit, and erudition.
For an adequate account of the world, we must take a sober look at life as it really is. Hafer shows that things are a whole lot messier and makeshift than what some intelligent design theories would incline us to believe. This book has the potential not only to alter the political terrain in wars over evolution and creationism but also to prompt believers like me to rethink how we should talk about God as Creator. -- Thomas Jay Oord, author of 'Divine Grace and Emerging Creation'
I've been dreaming of a politically edgy treatment of intelligent design and here it is at last. Abby Hafer is acutely intelligent and wonderfully witty. Read this book and laugh your way to clarity and wisdom. -- Wesley J. Wildman, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
A delightful exploration of the quirks of our bodies which make biology so much fun, evolution so fascinating, life so explicable, and intelligent-design creationism so preposterous. -- Steven Pinker, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Three cheers for Abby Hafer! She did it and no one thought it could be done! She wrote a devastating critique of intelligent design that is clear, funny, scientifically accurate, and charming. Her book is a marvel of how popular science should be written. Oh! Were there more scientific writers like Abby ... -- Michael Martin, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
ISBN: 9780718894207
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
244 pages