Stumpy... (26/02/2007 15:00)

Should i get serious (in a manner of speaking) for a moment? I think i may just....

This is stumpy....

Stumpy is a rare duckling who has four legs.

Stumpy was born last week i think. It made the news in parts of the country that have less shootings per day than where i live. (it's here http://www.managerleague.com/images/uploaded/6563/c:documentsandsettingsalex.porterdesktop_42584065_duck300.jpg if you are interested - i cannot be held responsible for the content of other websites....)

Now, lets get on shaky ground for a moment. So far i have felt from the responses these blogs receive, that the people who play managerleague are a fairly open-minded sort of bunch (bar the Evertonians who can't always read sarcasm, but we'll overlook them for now). I think the managers out there who read the blogs can handle a bit of, shall we say, dealing with the big topics. So, i'll share with you my thoughts on seeing stumpy last week.

I did not think "more food to go round" by the way...

No, the first though into my head was the thought that if ever there was proof that the theory of "intelligent design" is bunk, then it is a four legged duck.

Why? Well, i'll tell you... (and it is at this point that we may be verging into the unknown waters of religious opinion and such like. To those of you with such feelings, please bear with me - i am in no way saying anything heretical, as i will explain).

There are groups in this world that insist on the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in biology lessons. They have quite a hold on the minds of the American people, and are starting to get more of a foothold in Europe. I don't like this. I find it frightening. Here's why.

For those of you who don't know, the theory of "Intelligent Design" is one that believes that all creatures in the world (man included) were created as are by a grand Deity (usually the Christian God, but i believe - tell me if i am wrong - that Islam teaches the same thing). People who support the doctrine of Intelligent Design believe that evolution, fossils etc are all a massive concoction and that Darwin was essentially wrong.

It is a viewpoint, and they are as much entitled to it as i am to believe that Manchester United are the root of all evil (Red Devils? It's right there in front of you). The problem i have is that it is a belief, like my view on Man U. I would never consider it right to go into a biology lesson and tell the impressionable children that Old Trafford is essentially a portal to the very depths of hell, AND PASS IT OFF AS SCIENCE.

No i would not. The place for that kind of debate is in the Religious Studies room, ALONG WITH INTELLIGENT DESIGN. Evolution is based on scientific method, the collection of data from all over the world stacked up over 200(ish years) and literally millions of pieces of evidence. Science. Therefore should be in biology. Intelligent Design, as it is a belief, not a scientific theory should be in the realm of religious debate. Bah!

Rant partially over. If you've stuck with me this far and your attitude is "Pesky Atheist - he just hates belief and all it stands for, burn him, burn him!", let me point out to you that i am no Atheist. I am a quietist Deist (and possibly the only one in the UK at the 2001 census - go look it up and then we'll talk...). And anyway, Atheism is as much a belief structure as anything else....

If you have now stuck this far, you may well be thinking "That's all very well and good Woj, but how does this relate to the four-legged duck? You've gone off on one again..." - Well, my friends, allow me to draw this narrative back in on itself...

I looked at stumpy, his yellow fur and two redundant legs, and i thought "If ever there was something to prove that intelligent design is bunk, it's a four legged duck". If you believe in intelligent design, you believe that God, Allah or whatever sat up there on high and pointed at the essential matter that would become poor old Stumpy and said "Lo, and the world will have a four-legged duck!" and bam, Stumpy came into existence.

Does this sound intelligent to you? Stumpy would not survive in the wild. Not for a second. He'd be hobbling about on two working legs and two legs that are no more than stabilisation and be snaffled up by the first fox on the scene! He wouldn't even be good at football...

Stumpy, bless him, is fundamentally redundant. He is useless. He is the final proof that intelligent design is bunk because no deity worth his salt would go out and DELIBERATELY build a four-legged duck.

BUT....

EVOLUTION could make one for you, what with all those recessive genes banging about, one's bound to turn up sooner or later. 

So there you have it, the headline should have been "Four-legged duck hailed as final proof of non-existence of Intelligent Design!" But this is England, it was on the BBC, and so we got none of it.

So it is up to me, to point at Stumpy and say "here is an evolutionary cul-de-sac, a dead end in every respect."

Poor little blighter.

Please, Please don't take offence at this. Feel free to whack a comment or two below if you are. I promise i am not trying to prove the non-existence of God or anything. I just hate it when belief tries to pass itself off as science. It hurts the science part of my brain greatly. And one more thing for you to keep in the back of your head for all time, if ever there was proof that science and belief can go hand in hand, so long as there is give in one and the other is not too literal, then it is this...

Darwin was a Christian...