Chapter-by-chapter thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
by John C. Snider © 2009
Chapter 12: Arms races and ‘evolutionary theodicy’
More bad news for the Creationists. Not only is the Creator apparently whimsical and inept–He is also heartless and cruel!
Dawkins provides several examples of needless suffering in nature that cannot be readily explained vis-a-vis an intelligent designer, but which are understandable in the light of uncaring evolution. Dawkins uses the classic case of the Ichneumon wasp, which paralyzes a caterpillar so it can lay its eggs on it: the wasp’s larvae, when they are born, bore into the paralyzed–but presumably unanesthetized caterpillar–and consume it from the inside, even eating its vital organs last! What Creator with human-like sensibilities would conceive of such a thing?
Many Creationists argue, of course, that all the pain and suffering and general badness in the world is the result of the contamination of the world by the sin of Adam and Eve, which is both preposterous and completely unscientific (not to mention downright misanthropic).
On to Chapter 13…!
The Greatest Show on Earth is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 11.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 10.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 9.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 8.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 7.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 6.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 5.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 4.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 3.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 2.
Read my thoughts on Chapter 1.
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