Evolution vs creationism: complexity

Many creationists argue that the complexity of advanced organisms is proof that a creator exists, because only a deity could have created something so complicated.
In reality, that's not true. If anything, complexity is rather a sign of the absence of a plan, not of its presence. Evolution proceeds without a plan, without even a goal, through tiny, incremental steps of adaptation over extremely long stretches of time, adding one piece at a time at random, with no direction.

That's exactly why evolution so often ends up producing solutions that are absurdly complex.
If there were a creator devoted to efficiency, you'd expect the same functions to be carried out by structures simpler than the ones we find in nature — which are outsized, redundant, almost ridiculous in their complexity.

So the complexity typical of certain structures in nature can't be used as conclusive proof of the creationist hypothesis. 

Drafted from Italian with Blog Translator, then revised by me.

Walking pace

Have you ever wondered why, as soon as we use any means of getting around, even just a horse, a carriage, or a bicycle, the odds of having some kind of accident go up, while they're practically zero when we run into other pedestrians as we walk?
If the answer seems obvious to you, it's probably not the right one.

The explanation, as is often the case, lies in the evolutionary mechanism that shaped our body and mind to handle events that unfold at our natural speed: a walking pace. At any speed above that, things happen that our system was not designed to handle.

A fully natural experience of motion can therefore only be enjoyed upright, on foot. The bike is much better than motorized vehicles, of course, but it's still less natural than walking.

If you want to get into symbiosis with the nature around you, tuned in to the most natural configuration of your system, lace up your shoes and go for a walk.

Drafted from Italian with Blog Translator, then revised by me.

Different

Follow me through this short thought experiment.

Level 1: the random event - Suppose that an individual is born with a slight genetic mutation or variant that changes one of the so-called "normal" abilities: hearing, sight, walking, digestion, thinking, take your pick. That person would be labeled, even officially, as "differently abled."

Level 2: the statistics - Now assume that there is, on average, a certain number of these individuals, say a fraction of a percentage point of the entire population (for example: 0.00003%).

Level 3: the black swan - Now imagine a catastrophe, natural or man-made: a giant asteroid, aliens, a global thermonuclear war, a virus that escaped from a lab. Your call. You can be banal and mainstream or creative and conspiracy-minded, as long as the outcome of the thought experiment stays the same: the human species is wiped out, not just from Earth but from the entire universe.

Level 4: the resurrection, or almost - Not so fast, señor! The "normal" part of the species - only that part - goes extinct. So to speak, of course, given that it made up more than 99% of the world's population. The ones who survive are precisely the carriers of the mutation/variant from Level 1. They will mate with each other, and their offspring will inherit their gene pool. That includes the mutation/variant responsible for their "difference," and for their survival. The other version of the ability, the "normal" one, will be nothing but a distant memory. Maybe an idea for a sci-fi saga.

Level 5: the myth - These new humanoids, in their own way Nietzschean "Übermensch," will be able to tell their children that they are the descendants of an ancient species of "differently abled" beings: that was our species.

Drafted from Italian with Blog Translator, then revised by me.

The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond

I’ve already said that Jared Diamond is one of my favorite authors and popular science writers. I don’t need to say it again, and by doing that I’ve basically said it again. No problem: he deserves it.
Diamond’s works are the ones I would have liked to read when I was at school. I think he also writes young readers editions. Some of his lessons would do great as schoolbook chapters.
He’s particularly skilled at explaining why, over the course of aeons, the world, the environment, living organisms and human societies have become (as opposed to have always been) what they are today.

Living planet - David Attenborough

Who doesn’t know David Attenborough? Everyone has watched at least one of his documentaries, listened to his elegant narrating voice, enjoyed his poetic, delicate, sometimes ironic comments on the world wildlife and plants. Richard Dawkins, in one of his books, referred to him as “arguably the most respected person in the UK”.

Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman

In this book the Nobel prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains how our mind works as if it housed two separate systems, each one with its own skills, specialized in dealing with different circumstances: the fast and slow thinkers the book title is about.

System 1 is automatic, always switched on, intuitive, looking out for surprises or anomalies, keen on stereotyping and sampling. It is very good at doing what it does, most of the time that is, but is sometimes prone to catastrophic errors. System 2, on the other hand, is analytical, logical, statistical, can perform complex calculations and reasoning, but it’s lazy and effortful, in sleeping mode as often as not, and might also act as an apologist for its mate’s shortcomings.

River out of Eden - Richard Dawkins

As I already mentioned when I reviewed Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “The gene”, we live in an increasingly science-driven society, and one can’t really understand much of it without some basic knowledge of biology.
In this book Richard Dawkins compares life to a river of genes, flowing through time using organisms (including humans) as temporary vessels. The title is obviously quoting a Biblical passage, and that’s not a coincidence.

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari, The third chimpanzee - Jared Diamond

Third item on the list. This is actually a pair of volumes. As usual, see my home page for the previous entries.
Do you want to know why we - as in "we, humans" - are the way we are? What makes us similar to other living beings (hence "the third chimpanzee")? What makes us different? Why our brain works the way it does (hence "sapiens")? Why we do the things we do? And why some of us do those things a little differently? Most importantly, do you want to know how we evolved to be what we currently are?