Reverend AtheiStar 
The
neglected companion of ID
By now I'm sure you've heard of Intelligent Design, which
focuses on alleged irreducible complexity, and perhaps even Incompetent Design,
which focuses on the mysterious designer's shoddy handiwork, but have you heard
of Malevolent Design? This takes ID and turns it on it's head. The Intelligent
Design Creationists always love to focus on the benevolent to be found in
nature such as a flagellum or an eye. But why stop there? Why, unless you are
intentionally avoiding the negative in order to preserve an image of deity that
loves everyone? Why not take things a bit further and look at the flip side of
the equation? Seeing as I lack belief in all gods and goddesses and have no
such agenda to preserve anything about their alleged personalities, I shall
delve full into this fascinating mythological concept.
Malevolent Design (hereafter MD), simply put, is the secondary negative quality
that one should see if one first sees intelligence. If there be a master
designer then one should be able to gauge how he feels about his creations by
the interaction between them. There various body parts should spell out
he/she/them/it's intentions. Are we the darlings of a deity or merely part of
an experiment led by a pantheon of gods on Lab Earth? Are we no more than white
mice to be toyed with in order to test out new MDs and their effectiveness?
Mosquitoes have a special facial appendage known as a proboscis. This appendage
has six parts, two pairs of cutters for opening up the skin of the victim and
two fine tubes. One is for sucking up blood and the other is for dripping in
anticoagulant, which keeps the blood from clotting. Why would a benevolent
designer create such a little monster? And why, for their traveling companion
would said designer create special pathogens to go along with it?
Mosquitoes carry many diseases. They include Malaria, West
Carnivores have sharp teeth, perfect for cutting flesh, a strong digestive system
perfect for digesting meat and various other body parts that aid them in
acquiring their victims. A great white shark, for example, has rows upon rows
of very sharp, serrated teeth that, when lost, turn to replace the old ones.
They can smell minute traces of blood in the water from miles away. It would
appear to show excellent signs of MD! Is it too far off to assume the designer
wants his other creations, upon entering the water, to be eaten by this beast
if given a chance?
There are countless other examples I could cite to show the prevalence of the
neglected obvious but these few examples prove my point: if you believe
you see intelligence, there is malevolence right along with it!
~Reverend AtheiStar
Just like the spousal syndrome it's named after, this
disorder is characterized by the inability to see anything but love in the
actions of the abuser. Every hit is the victim's fault as this is the only
rationalization to keep the image of someone who is loving alive.
And so it is with the believer. No matter what terrible event happens in their life
they can't see their god as anything but a loving father. He never gets any of
the blame. It's either a lack of faith, too much sin or perhaps not enough
praise that day.
Suppose a believer's child was murdered. Can she conceptualize her god idly watching
as the event took place, doing absolutely nothing? Yes, but it was for a
reason. Her god still loves her, of course -- that's what she been programmed
to believe. She'll probably come up with the standard answer designed to
preserve the love like "god works in mysterious ways," "it was
for the greater good," or "god wanted him in heaven."
All these answers skirt the real issue, though. To see how one need only
exchange the deity in the equation with a person. What if a police officer sat
and watched silently as a child was murdered even though he had the power to
stop it? Oh, the rules are different now, aren't they? Why, though? Different
programming, basically.
People are programmed to see police officers as people who have to help and
should even risk their lives saving people. If one of them doesn't help,
they're not doing their job and they become just as bad as a criminal. They are
neglecting their duties to the people.
Gods and goddesses, on the other hand, whose "actions" are based on
the hit and miss randomness of chance events, are expected to not do anything
in many situations. These beings are also endowed by their creators, us, with
great magical powers and control our destiny in the afterlives we made up. Add
to this equation the endless stream of loving propaganda that is shot into the
believer's brain and the resulting mix of expectation of inaction, fear and
love combine to make a powerful formula able to transform an abuser into an
angel.
Atheism frees a person from this madness. Instead of wondering why some
invisible cloud father would allow or cause something to happen, we take it as
it is: reality. Why did it happen? We look to real causes. Why was her son
murdered? Look at the the murderer himself. Look at the events in his life that
led up to the event. Where were the police? Could a stronger police presence
have thwarted this? Look at the safety precautions the mother in this story
could have taken in order to prevent this tragedy. Look at what the boy himself
could have done to avoid such a situation in the first place.
By thinking critically, instead of superstitiously, we affect the real world in
a positive way. We can come up with real solutions instead of asking for divine
intervention that never arrives. It is only us who can save ourselves.
~Reverend AtheiStar