vakkotaur

Stanley broke the pleasant silence, "It seems to me ID explains quite a bit, really."

"Wait. You? Support ID?" gasped Roger in disbelief, "You, the, admittedly quite mad, scientist type? You're joking, aren't you?"

"No joke. It's rather painfully obvious, isn't it? Take a look at the world, it's rather messed up. Consider interest rates..."

"Now hang on a moment! What's that got to do with ID, which pretends to be about biology and where evolution breaks down?"

"It's still ID, but fine, biology and evolution. Take the giraffe..."

"Please!" quipped Roger, to Stanley's irritation.

"Giraffes, for example, are tall and have long necks to eat the leaves of trees that also grow quite tall, but getting water or anything from the ground is awkward. That's because a giraffe has only seven neck vertebrae, the same number of neck vertebrae as a human or a mouse."

"You've just made a good point against ID, you know."

"Nonsense. It's very ID. You or I or any halfway competent person would have added more vertebrae and made the giraffe's neck more flexible, at the very least. Evolution generates workable solutions, but those aren't necessarily good solutions, merely 'good enough.' Keeping the same number of vertebrae may be simple, but is rather inelegant. Thus, it supports Inelegant Design quite well."

Roger shook his head in disbelief. "Inelegant? Emily Litella!"

"Who's she?"

"Never mind. You've misheard. They're calling it Intelligent Design."

"Intelligent?!" sputtered Stanley, "Please tell me you're joking."

"I wish I was. 'Inelegant Design' would be so much more appropriate."

Stanley slumped, "I think..."

"Yes, you actually do."

"I think," repeated Stanley, "I need to take a couple aspirin and lie down for a while."