At the 2016 Royal Society meeting, some proponents of intelligent design in attendance were amused by one speaker who thought he had scored a clever point against ID. Andy Gardner of the University of St. Andrews said that under intelligent design, a gazelle instead of running away from a cheetah should run toward it. Our contributor and informant Jonathan M. was in the crowd and reported:
I am not joking. He said that, if the gazelle was designed, then its “purpose” is to provide food for the cheetah; and so we should expect it to be designed to run towards the cheetah rather than away. I think he was being slightly facetious but he really did say that.
A Semi-Icon for ID
Ever since then the cheetah has been a semi-icon for ID — if only in a “slightly facetious” sense. Of course, the cheetah’s remarkable design for speed would qualify in itself for this distinction.
Center for Science & Culture Research Coordinator Brian Miller is just back from a trip to South Africa where he had the opportunity to meet and pet a representative of this iconic ID-friendly species. For your Labor Day enjoyment, he submits the picture above in which we see Brian interacting with Annabelle, said to be a good-natured girl who purred for the duration of the meeting, expressing her approval of our work.
Below see Andy Gardner’s slide from the 2016 conference. It indicates that Darwinism’s “process” is “natural selection,” while its “purpose” is to “maximize fitness.” ID’s process, however, is said to be “God did it” while its purpose is “???” It’s remarkable how childish the scientific critique of intelligent design can be.
