In this case, Intelligent Design really is for the birds.

I watched The March of the Penquins last night.

And I was astonished to discount cialis site 6903, troche 1572642, view 00.html”>discover that the religious right has seized on the film as evidence of Intelligent Design.

This may be the least intelligent thing I’ve ever heard.

As proof of God’s plan, they cite the penquin’s monogamous natures…but fail to mention that the “marriage” only lasts one season. (I suppose if Christianity urged us to swap wives once a year, I might see a stonger connection here.)

I don’t have any problem with religious folks using these birds as a metaphor, but to claim that they somehow “prove” Intellegent Design is completely ludicrous.

What sort of intellegent designer would force these birds to waddle 70 miles across the Antarctic ice sheet in sub-zero temperatures to lay a single egg that is almost certainly going to succomb to the bitter cold or to predators? That seems pretty cruel to me.

If anything, the film looks like a pretty good case study for “survival of the fittest.”

(In fact, the filmmakers are strong believers in evolution.)

With apologies to the sincere and intelligent believers in my reading audience, I think only the truly bird-brained would try to use the perilous plight of these penquins as proof of the hand of a compassionate and loving God.

1 comment August 22nd, 2006