Review: A War on Science

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4/5

This is a great video that does a great job in its handling of intelligent design (ID) and evolution. The movie did a good job of getting the major players in the ID camp to be in the program. It was nice to be able to put a face with the names that I’ve read about in the news fighting evolution. I thought the program was very fair, and it presented ID in an unbiased way that would not offend anyone, whether you believe in ID or not.

This is a great program to check out if you want more information about ID- what it is, and how it differs from evolution. It is also a current program, and covers the relatively recent court case in Dover.

Here’s my problem with ID- it talks about how everything is ‘obviously designed’, and that is adequate evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer. Of course, what they are talking about is God. And God is perfect. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Okay… sounds good…. But then they ignore all of the examples of poor design, of which there are many.

My favorite example of poor design and one of the best evidences for evolution that I know of: The Broken Vitamin C Gene. I’m amazed that this is not brought out more often, because it really is an amazing piece of evidence. I’ll do my best to present it here briefly, although you could probably find it presented better elsewhere.

What happens to you if you don’t consume any Vitamin C in your diet? You’d probably experience these symptoms: dark spots on skin, spongy gums leading to tooth loss, bleeding gums, bleeding from all mucous membranes, pallor, sunken eyes, opening of healed scars and separation of knitted bone fractures. Sounds pleasant, huh? Early sailors experienced this first-hand during long voyages, and didn’t know what the cause was for a long time. Then someone figured it out and they started packing citrus fruit on their ships. That’s common knowledge, for the most part.

Now answer this question: has your dog/cat/bird ever eaten an orange? Have they ever eaten any Vitamin C-containing food? No? Then why aren’t they experiencing the same problems that we humans do? It is because the majority of the animal kingdom synthesizes their own Vitamin C. “How can they do this,” you might ask. Well, they have a gene that allows it, duh. “Well, Mr. Evolutionist, if we all descended from common ancestors, then how come we don’t have the same gene? Sounds like your theory is breaking down. Ha!” It may seem that way until you look a little closer. You see, it is notable that the great apes and humans are among the very few animals that lack this gene. But it’s not really accurate to say that we lack the gene. We have the gene… but it’s broken!

“That’s right folks, step right up and witness the Incredible Intelligent Designer! See how he magically creates a gene in all of the animal kingdom with the power to synthesize Vitamin C! Then watch as he inserts ‘Junk DNA’ into the middle of it during cell formation in an ancestor of the great apes and humans. See how this effectively breaks that gene! Observe the millennia of pain and suffering that result from this cosmic act of wisdom!”

What’s truly amazing, is that when one looks at the gene in apes and in humans, it is broken in exactly the same way! Pretty big coincidence, huh? Obviously this is a result of Adam and Eve committing original sin by biting into a magical fruit. But did the author forget to write down the part where all the different species of great apes ate fruit as well? Do the monkeys get to suffer because of man’s sin? Seems a little strange.

But this is just one of many, many examples of why evolution is right and why ID is wrong. But don’t take my word for it, figure it out for yourself.