Incompetent Design

I'm beginning to feel sorry for the Intelligent Design folks. It hasn't been a very good year for them. First, their pet school board gets voted out en masse. Then, they get pooh-pooed by their fellow evangelical academics. I won't even go into the whole Flying Spaghetti Monster thing. Now, geophysicist Don Wise comes out with his theory of "incompetent design". He sites the bend at the base of the spine, the excessive number of teeth in the jaw, and the structure of the sinus drainage system. To which I'd add the shock system and the design of the knee.

You must have received some serious criticism of your somewhat jestful theory? Well, I got one, which I showed at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meetings. An envelope postmarked Minneapolis, with monkeys all over it and inside it, with a great big blue ribbon, a note saying I had been awarded the "Moron of the Month" award, that I was a dork, an idiot, that only someone who thought their ancestors were monkeys would be dumb enough to say what I had, asking me if I wanted to debate it. It left an email address at darwinistsaredumb@hotmail.com

These are the kind of things you NEVER really answer, but I couldn't resist. So I used the H.L. Menken approach:

Dear Sir, You should be aware that some idiot is writing absolute nonsense and signing your e-mail address to it. You should take action on this before your reputation is further sullied!

But most of the things I've gotten have been positive.