A friend of mine recently pointed me to an old PZ Myers post featuring the lovely if slightly NSFW picture below, which Myers had found on what seems to be a completely serious creationist site.
This is supposed to be some sort of proof that evolution is a lie, because if there really were such a thing as vestigial organs, the male of our species would be covered in vestigial penises (and have a thigh gap to die for).
I’m pretty sure there’s a logical fallacy there. But I think this is a useful graphic; it’s just mislabeled. I’ve corrected the captions below.
Someone created that picture and consciously decided that the leaves should be AUTUMN leaves… this is a beautiful and stupidly confusing world.
I… what… words have no meaning in this context. I give up.
I don’t think the original creator had any idea how evolution worked. Like they had the barest of ideas, they took Evolution 101 online or something, and just either couldn’t or wouldn’t understand.
Because I’m pretty sure if something was useless, then it would be worked out over thousands, if not millions of years in humans. Besides, if we really were created as we are from scratch “In God’s image” (Which I’ve always found to be a bit arrogant, personally), why do we have bits whose sole purpose is to rupture or otherwise fail and cause us misery (Tonsils, wisdom teeth, appendixes)?
Evolution can account for those, as humans are not perfectly evolved and will evolve further over time. I’ve asked that question before to creationists, and I’ve either gotten ignored, or “God works in mysterious ways”, or “God wants us to suffer so we can prove we’re worthy!”-esque stuff.
They also don’t know how Photoshop works, apparently. : ?
So, that dude with all the socks who comes to whine about feminism is a bunch of dicks?
Makes sense to me.
Hmmm… I guess it’s safe to assume that “Dude That Shows Up With Three Dozen Friends Every Time Someone Posts About Feminism” isn’t wearing the leaf-skirt in order to preserve his modesty. Also I’d love to have eyes in place of my nipples and since I’m male they’re pretty useless to me, it would be awesome if I could replace them with something more functional.
Guy on the right would be almost perfect for tentical porn.
Yes, I know… Inane post.
If it’s just useless, as opposed to harmful, then there’s little evolutionary pressure to get rid of it. That’s pretty much why creatures have vestigial body parts.
Sometimes nature can find a use for a previously vestigial organ. For example, some semi amphibious creatures found they didn’t need their primitive lungs when they became solely aquatic. For a while the lungs were superfluous, but eventually they developed into swim bladders.
Who knows, maybe one day the appendix will find a use other than just sitting there pointlessly before deciding to randomly kill you.
Looks like a lovecraftian horro
They said I was delusional when I said modesty leaves would come back into fashion, but who’s laughing now!? What? Everyone else is? oh…
Creationism just makes me SAD, y’all. Because it not only takes all the FUN out of how humans became human, but it also takes away all the answers.
Like, evolution helps us figure out not just how we exist, but how all other life exists! It helps us plan for disease, domesticate other life! Creationism doesn’t encourage any questioning at all, it’s just, “because god says so.” How disappointing!
(Seriously, I have a hard time believing a creator god thought an appendix was a good idea.)
Also, I dunno about this creationist’s fetishes, but part of ‘survival of the fittest’ requires you not only breed, but raise your kids to adulthood.
I’m pretty sure a jizillion penises will not help you in these matters.
That guy’s a total dickhead.
I really wish this person would explain, then, why God created us with the remnants of a tail and the remnants of a nictating membrane in our eyes. If, y’know, if there’s no such thing as evolution and God created us, as is, 6 million years ago, as this person claims.
That site is a goldmine of WTF-ery. Here’s an “Evolution Test” that students are supposed to give to their teachers.
RE: katz
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR
Maybe this is dada?
If “God works in mysterious ways,” then maybe he came up with religion because he wanted to see who would believe it so it would be easier to cull the gullible if it ever becomes necessary.
It’s still not a very nice plan, I admit.
I’m pretty sure a dude with a jizillion penises and stuffed full of more useless organs than Zim would have trouble doing much of anything.
One of my favorites from that evolution test.
“Explain why something as complex as human life could happen by chance, but something as simple as a coin must have a creator. (Show your math solution.)”
Because coins aren’t natural, ya dingus. There ARE naturally small, disc shaped objects in nature, however, but they aren’t coins. Sand dollars for instance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_dollar
RE: Banana Jackie Cake
…my brain just exploded from that.
Seriously, evolution takes MILLIONS of years! That kind of time frame isn’t even COMPREHENSIBLE to most of humanity! We pound out coins quickly using machinery.
COINS CAN’T HAVE BABIES. THEY CAN’T EVOLVE.
I swear, it’s like the Chewbacca Defense in real life.
@Sparky:
They don’t even give you the answers for the test! How are you supposed to know if the teacher failed? Where’s the grading rubric? Is it just a “fail” if they can’t come up with an answer? Or is it a “fail” if they dispute the question?
Asking for a friend… <.<
From what I remember, the basic approach to vestigial organs is to take a false definition (a structure that has absolutely no function or effect whatsoever), find some small function that a vestigial structure has, then claim the vestigial structures don’t exist and therefore evolution is wrong.
I don’t think I’ve heard a creationist argue for why the human body is the way it is… that kind of goes against their ideology, which is that God works in mysterious ways and made the body the way it is for mysterious reasons. Any flaw that is too obviously a flaw is blamed on some cosmic rot that degenerated the entire world after the humanity sinned left Eden.
I don’t see the problem with the coin question. Everyone knows that coins are alive and reproduce.
Vestigial penises, where? Those are sausages, and would come in handy if you ran out of prey to hunt during winter.
But what vestigial food would women evolve? Oysters? It would be oysters, wouldn’t it?
“Hey, evolutionists, if you’re so smart, why don’t you tell us where all the transitional fossils are?” “Yeah! And where are my three dozen vestigial penises!” “Yeah! Wait, what?” “Dude, just go with it.” “Um, okay. Yeah, scientists, what he said. Explain that.” “It’s all I’ve ever wanted, man.” “Yeah?” “Dicks coming out of my knees.” “That’s… okay.”