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Intelligent Design
Sep. 7th, 2009 10:07 am"Are we or they lords of the world? And how are all things made for man?"
Johannes Kepler
I've said before that the thing about living in London is that there's a huge volume of tourist attractions and world-famous landmarks which are just there, and so I don't really bother going to see them.
"The Tower of London?" I say to myself. "I'll visit next week", or "The Houses of Parliament? They aren't going anywhere" and so I just never get round to seeing these things.
So it was that on Sunday I finally got off my oversized bottom and visited Kew Gardens for the first time, and I have to say I was really, really impressed. I've walked past it a few times and got the impression of a park fuill of trees (and I've seen plenty of those in my time), but as it turns out it's lots more than that with cool greenhouses and jungle biodomes and museums and all kinds of other stuff, including a 3D film entitled "Swimming with plankton" which brought back many memories of the time I spent running the Camarilla.
I enjoyed myself so much that the time flew by and before I knew it the time was past 5pm and I had to go home. I'll be going back.
One of Kew Gardens' most famous possessions is a Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum, which is the world's biggest flower. The Titan Arum has an odd lifecycle, to say the least. For most of the time it consists of a single gigantic leaf which just sits there merrily photosynthesising away until its underground bulb is jam-packed with nutrients, at which point it puts forth a single colossal flower whose most distinguishing characteristic is that it stinks of rotting meat. This whole cycle takes several years and the flower only lasts for about a week or so.
As I stood and looked at the big pot that Kew's Titan Arum sits in (it's not flowering at the moment), I got to thinking about intelligent design. You see, one of the arguments of ID is irreducible complexity - not just in the construction of living organisms, but also within the biosphere itself, with the interrelations of living organisms being so complex that it's claimed they couldn't have just happened. Moreover, ID proponents claim that living things have been created for a purpose and they are there to teach us and show us...um, something.
So, a challenge for the day. I'd like you to assume you're an ID proponent and present a case for what we can learn of the divine plan from a plant which sits there for 2-3 years at a time as a single gigantic leaf, before suddenly putting forth a whopping flower which honks of dead pig for a week.
The most original/entertaining answer will earn my undying* respect**.
*Brief
**Acknowledgement
Johannes Kepler
I've said before that the thing about living in London is that there's a huge volume of tourist attractions and world-famous landmarks which are just there, and so I don't really bother going to see them.
"The Tower of London?" I say to myself. "I'll visit next week", or "The Houses of Parliament? They aren't going anywhere" and so I just never get round to seeing these things.
So it was that on Sunday I finally got off my oversized bottom and visited Kew Gardens for the first time, and I have to say I was really, really impressed. I've walked past it a few times and got the impression of a park fuill of trees (and I've seen plenty of those in my time), but as it turns out it's lots more than that with cool greenhouses and jungle biodomes and museums and all kinds of other stuff, including a 3D film entitled "Swimming with plankton" which brought back many memories of the time I spent running the Camarilla.
I enjoyed myself so much that the time flew by and before I knew it the time was past 5pm and I had to go home. I'll be going back.
One of Kew Gardens' most famous possessions is a Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum, which is the world's biggest flower. The Titan Arum has an odd lifecycle, to say the least. For most of the time it consists of a single gigantic leaf which just sits there merrily photosynthesising away until its underground bulb is jam-packed with nutrients, at which point it puts forth a single colossal flower whose most distinguishing characteristic is that it stinks of rotting meat. This whole cycle takes several years and the flower only lasts for about a week or so.
As I stood and looked at the big pot that Kew's Titan Arum sits in (it's not flowering at the moment), I got to thinking about intelligent design. You see, one of the arguments of ID is irreducible complexity - not just in the construction of living organisms, but also within the biosphere itself, with the interrelations of living organisms being so complex that it's claimed they couldn't have just happened. Moreover, ID proponents claim that living things have been created for a purpose and they are there to teach us and show us...um, something.
So, a challenge for the day. I'd like you to assume you're an ID proponent and present a case for what we can learn of the divine plan from a plant which sits there for 2-3 years at a time as a single gigantic leaf, before suddenly putting forth a whopping flower which honks of dead pig for a week.
The most original/entertaining answer will earn my undying* respect**.
*Brief
**Acknowledgement
