So, according to intelligent design activist and Catholic Michael Behe in his new book, The Edge of Evolution, malaria was intelligently designed. So, Catholics in the audience, pay attention and understand the following (and I quote from PZ's post):
Got that? Plasmodium falciparum was explicitly and intentionally constructed to infect, make ill, torment, and kill human beings. He goes farther than most YECs—the parasite was not simply a product of corruption at the Fall, it had to be carefully modified, built, and released to carry out its designed job of causing suffering.
But Behe's Designer (and let's not pull any punches here, you all know exactly who Behe is talking about: the Christian God of the Bible) apparently was not satisfied in specifically designing a parasite responsible for the agonizing death of millions. No, He felt further moved to provide Plasmodium with an added feature: the ability to trigger leukemia in children:
Now, Arnaud Chene and colleagues have identified CIDRla as the first microbial protein able to spur a latently EBV-infected cell into active production. Their results suggest that P. falciparum-derived proteins can lead to a direct reactivation of EBV during acute malaria infection, increasing the risk of Burkitt lymphoma development for children living in malaria-endemic areas.
So, how does this fit in with God and the Catholic Church being "pro-life"?
Conservative Catholics and other Christian denominations apparently are so hungry to destroy Darwin that they appear to be more theologically comfortable with a God who specifically designs organisms to kill children, than with the idea that humans arose through non-directed processual mechanisms. Isn't this what they call a Faustian bargain?
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Well, if God did it, it is by definition wonderful.
Conservative Catholics and other Christian denominations apparently are so hungry to destroy Darwin that they appear to be more theologically comfortable with a God who specifically designs organisms to kill children, than with the idea that human arose through non-directed processual mechanisms. ---------------------------------------------------------------
What grounds does a by-product of non-directed processual mechanisms have to make a moral objection to illness, torment and killing?
Anonymous...you proceed from a false assumption: namely, that a religious conviction (I would venture further to guess that you also probably mean only a Christian conviction) is the basis for morality. There are neither data nor statements of logic to derive that conclusion. If you were to stop to think about the implcations of such a premise you would realize that means that, by your definition, billions of people born since Christ (and the billions born before him) had absolutely no ability to make moral judgements. My own observations of non-Christian (inclduing atheist) behavior offers me no reason to even consider your premise. Neither does my personal observation of "Christian" behavior. The historical record shows no consistent correlation of moral behavior with religious conviction of any kind. Neither does the prehistoric record. Many people find the "grounds" to make moral objections to, as you put it, illness, torment and killing without recourse to religion. How about the simple golden rule (the one emphasized by Christ, I might add)?: most of us simply want done unto us what we would do unto others...
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Where Catholic Church appears, all the discussion become very complicated.
The designer is pro life, at least i hope so.
Such a wonderful post. Thanks for the share. It was very interesting and informative. Keep posting. I follow you.
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I really cant agree with the fact that malaria was proactively designed.The hypothesis is wrong I would say.
Darwin's theory of revolution has always been a controversial issue between differrent religions... By the way very nice post and thanks alot for sharing ....
I do think that where Catholic Church appears, all the discussion become very complicated.....keep posting though....:)
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