The Modern Rationalist – July 2019

you to pay for it.

Hafer chose to describe ten simple design
errors, though there are many, many more.
Because sex sells, she starts with a sexy
example; she points out human testicles are
positioned outside the body. Why? Because the
human body is too hot for sperm production.
That puts a vulnerable organ in a vulnerable
position and creates all sorts of inconvenience.
But the supposed creator designed some
animals with retractable testicles and some
with testicles that reside permanently inside
the body, including frogs and elephants. Birds
have a higher body temperature than humans,
and yet they have internal testicles. Hafer asks
whether the designer likes turkeys better than
us and wonders if the designer is a turkey.

Her other examples of bad design include:

m The birth canal. Kangaroos don’t have the
problems humans have. Human women
and babies often die in childbirth; obstetric
fistuals result from difficult births; and one-
third of pregnancies end in spontaneous
abortion. Is the designer an abortionist?

m There is a species of jellyfish that is
immortal. Why couldn’t the designer have
made human immortal? Does he like
jellyfish better?

m The human throat. Air and food passages
meet and mix, sometimes with fatal results;
whales don’t have that problem.

m The human blood clotting system. The heir
to the Russian throne had hemophilia, which
contributed to the Russian Revolution. It is
sex-linked, occurring only in males. Does
the designer prefer women?

m The human eye requires light to pass
through many layers or cells before reaching
the photoreceptors. In the cephalopod eye,
the light hits the photoreceptor calls first,
and they see better and in dimmer light
than we do and can recognize polarized
light. Does the designer prefer squid and
octopuses to humans?

m We can’t make our own vitamin C; most
animals can. We get scurvy; cats and dogs
don’t. What’s worse, we have the entire

The Modern Rationalist

July 2019

pathway to make vitamin C except for the

last step. We can’t manufacture that one

last enzyme.

m We only get two sets of teeth; sharks have

replaceable teeth and don’t have to go to the

dentist.

m Female sharks can reproduce without

males; humans can’t

m The human appendix is unnecessary and

only causes problems requiring surgery.

This is not intelligent design. The only logical

conclusion is that the designer is incompetent

or favors other animals above humans, but ID

proponents don’t seem to recognize that.

There are many other flaws Hafer could have

covered, but she opted for economy to leave

room for an impassioned defense of science

and a full rebuttal of ID. For those who want

to know more, Nathan Lents covered many

more flaws in his book, Hanuman Errors: A

Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones

to Broken Genes.

Hafer includes a cogently argued defense of

science and evolution and shows how science

denial causes harm. She provides a two-part

Handy Dandy Intelligent Designer Refuter with

The Not-So-Intelligent Designer:

Why Evolution Ex-plains the Human Body and

Intelligent Design Does not.

By Abby Hafer, Eugene, Oregon:

Cascade Books. 2015.

ISBN: 9781620329412.244

$ 31.00