Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Not to mention the fact that our faces were designed to perfectly fit our glasses

One tactic that creationists like to use to attack evolution is to bring up biological systems that they think are so complex, they couldn't have happened by "accident", and therefore must be the product of a designer. The human eye is a favorite one.

I kind of wonder what they would think, then, of the eyes of box jellyfish:
Unlike normal jellyfish, which drift in the ocean current, box jellyfish are active swimmers that can rapidly make 180-degree turns and deftly dart between objects. Scientists suspect that box jellyfish are such agile because one set of their 24 eyes detects objects that get in their way.

...

Whereas we have one set of multi-purpose eyes that sense color, size, shape and light intensity, box jellyfish have four different types of special-purpose eyes. The most primitive set detects only light levels, but one set of eyes is more sophisticated and can detect the color and size of objects.

Was this the product of a designer, too? Given how random and haphazard it sounds, I'd vote for a committee of designers, each one slapping another, different eye onto this poor creature.

[Edit] More on the box jellyfish here.

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