the intelligent design movement

You’ve probably heard about the so-called theory of intelligent design. Its advocates suggest that the world (or life, or intelligent life, or whatever) must be the work. Now, as far as the origin of the universe is concerned, it’s pretty hard to prove or disprove this; I actually agree with them, but that’s beside the point here. It’s a philosophical question, and in philosophy, most of the questions which were raised by Plato or Aristotle or any of those other dead Greeks still haven’t been answered with any greater confidence than they were more than two thousand years ago. If the intelligent design advocates limited themselves to philosophy, I really wouldn’t have any problem with them. What I have a problem with is what they have to say about the origin of living things, and of intelligent life. They dismiss all of the evidence in favor of evolution, put forth a few nonsensical theories, and then stir up all the controversy they can in an attempt to discredit evolution. What they are doing is taking a philosophical/religious concept and insisting that it is a scientific concept, when, in reality, it is about as far from science as possible, regardless of any validity it has in a philosophical context.

people who aren’t organ donors

I was watching Law & Order: SVU the other day and as you may or may not know, it’s quite possibly the preachiest show on TV. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I completely disagree. One episode I saw recently dealt with organ donation, and while the episode focused mostly on the black market for organs–raising some of the arguments in favor of allowing people to sell their kidneys–it also dealt with the severe shortage of organs which arises from the relatively low percentage of people who sign up to donate organs. Even though people are able to opt-in when they get their driver’s licenses, less than 40% of people do so.* This should be automatic. After all, hearts and kidneys and lungs don’t do you a bit of good when you’re six feet under. Yet millions of people, whether out of nonsensical superstition, misunderstanding of religious doctrine, or sheer stupidity, refuse to donate their organs. This pisses me off.