God Likes Squids More Than You

Massimo PigliucciTake the human eye, one of the creationist’s favorite examples. Some people see dark spots on their eyes when staring at very bright light (or sometimes even the blue sky). Those spots are caused by the fact that the blood vessels serving the eye are positioned in front of the optical nerves. This is a rather annoying feature, which a competent engineer would have certainly avoided. In fact, cephalopods (ie, squids, octopuses, and the like) have their eyes (which evolved independently from the vertebrate’s) built the other way around, so they don’t have to suffer from this inconvenience. The only possible conclusions are: a) god didn’t design the thing; b) god is pretty sloppy and not worthy of all our unconditional admiration; c) god likes squids a lot better than humans.

—Massimo Pigliucci
A Case Against God (pdf)

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About Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

0 thoughts on “God Likes Squids More Than You

  1. I agree with his point, but he isn’t technically correct. "Floaters (also called “spots”) are tiny clumps of gel or other semi-transparent matter that drift freely inside the vitreous, the jelly-like fluid that fills the inside of your eyes. In most cases, they are more bothersome than harmful – appearing as specks of varying shapes and sizes, or as strands, crystals, cobwebs or as fuzzy clouds that float about and may dart away when you attempt to look at them directly." [visionweb.com]

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