Our imperfect backbone (Miller)
December 22nd, 2007 | Published in Evolution, Biology, Science | 4 Comments
The many imperfections of the human backbone which, regrettably, become increasingly apparent as we age, can hardly be attributed to intelligent design. They are easy to understand if we appreciate the fact that our upright posture is a recent evolutionary development. Evolution has taken a spinal column well adapted for horizontal, four-footed locomotion and pressed it into vertical, bi-pedal service. It works pretty well, but every now and then the stresses and strains of this new orientation are too much for the old structure. Intelligent design could have produced a trouble-free support for upright posture, but evolution was constrained by a structure that was already there. Chiropractors, of course, continue to reap the benefits.
–Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution (orig. 1999; Harper Perennial, 2002), p. 101
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:18 pm (#)
This is so incredibly beside the point.
Hello: we age and *die*. Individual disagreements with our design are rather trivial in the big picture.
Something that isn’t exactly news, by the way. Yet these little presentations are made as though they were clever arguments.
December 25th, 2007 at 1:49 pm (#)
Actually, I think you missed the point, friend.
Aging and dieing are not what is being discussed; what is being discussed is that our backbone is much better suited for an animal in a horizontal posture than one in the vertical posture. If we were spontaneously designed apart from “the animals,” (which is certainly a claim of most Creationists, if not most ID proponents) then one evidence of this would be that we had a backbone designed for vertical posture.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:43 am (#)
So through the course of evolving our backbones didn’t keep up?
December 27th, 2007 at 3:05 am (#)
By that standard what parts of our bodies are not imperfect? Perhaps the intension of the Creator was to give us imperfect bodies, or for them to become imperfect from sin.