The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not - Softcover

Hafer, Abby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0718894200 ISBN 13: 9780718894207

Publisher: Lutterworth Press, 2016

Synopsis

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.

Table of Contents

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 | Index

About this title

About the Author

Abby Hafer has a doctorate in zoology from Oxford University. She is a Senior Lecturer who teaches human anatomy and physiology at Curry College. She gives frequent public lectures on why evolution is scientifically valid and Intelligent Design/Creationism is not.

Review

"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 "The Not-So-Intelligent Designer is a much-needed work in an America where anti-intellectualism is rampant and, shockingly, even candidates for high office frequently reject evolution. Abby Hafer has that rare ability to communicate complex scientific ideas in understandable terms for non-scientists, and this book is sure to enlighten many." David Niose, author of Fighting Back the Right "Hafer's book is a valuable contribution to debunking the claims of intelligent design and the notion of one or more gods intervening in the physics and biology of the real world. She writes in an engaging style that entertains as well as informs. I enthusiastically recommend it." Ellery Schempp, plaintiff, Abington School District v. Schempp; PhD, Chemical Physics, Brown University "Intelligent design creationism is a dangerously successful political ideology - they've passed laws, co-opted high school teachers, and nearly half the population identifies as creationist. The Not-So-Intelligent Designer is a guidebook on how intelligent design fails, from unintelligently designed testes to intelligent design's unconstitutional religious agenda." Zack Kopplin, organizer of the campaign to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act, Baton Rouge, LA "Hafer's ingenious strategy for dealing with creationists/intelligent design proponents has them by the balls!" John W. Loftus, author of 'Why I Became An Atheist' "The Not-So-Intelligent Designer is a scholarly book that is accessible and intelligible to the general reader. It is especially a must read for adherents of religious traditions who embrace modern science. Hafer does a masterful job of defining science, i.e. a way of knowing characterized by the formulation of a hypothesis, the gathering of evidence, drawing of conclusions, and repeating the experiment. She shows in a compelling way that the conclusions of advocates of intelligent design are beyond the purview of science. In fact, she provides a convincing demonstration of how the battles over intelligent design are over the nature of science itself." Leslie A. Muray, Curry College, Milton, MA

Edition details

• Publisher: Lutterworth Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0718894200
• ISBN 13: 9780718894207
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 244