Le Blog de Doruk Akan

One of my favorite arguments from religionists is the complexity argument: how could something as complex as a human be created by anything other than an omnipotent source? It’s an intuitive argument, certainly, because many people have difficulty wrapping their minds around the possibility that humans and cows share a common ancestor, let alone the possibility that humans and the common houseplant or that humans and the fungus growing on their shower walls have a common ancestor.

Well, first of all, if we’re talking complexity, let’s set matter straight. Humans might have cows beat on brains but cows definitely take the cake on stomachs. (By the way, while looking for information cow stomachs, I stumbled across this wonderful site http://www.doesgodexist.org/ with the delightful Pragmatic Man’s Proof of God. Weird how it also has an article on cow stomachs and it’s fourth or fifth in Google rankings.) But all shenanigans aside, the important factor here is time. Given enough time, random mutations would lead to humans and when we throw selective forces into the mix that time frame is shortened. A few billion years should do the trick. Maybe that’s the problem - a billion years is pretty hard to wrap you mind around too.

But why only consider complexity when simplicity is so much more appealing? If there were a higher being, surely it would take good design principles into account. Humans have poor usability: most can hardly take care of themselves. That’s why I think simple creations are more indicative of an ineffable force than anything else. Take mountains for example. They’re just big piles of rocks. It’s a really simple design but still so important to ecosystems, climates and nature paintings. That’s just brilliant.

But I’d like to reserve a few words for my favorite simple creation: eggs. If it weren’t for eggs - and I’m talking about your garden-variety, unfertilized hen eggs - the world of food and hence the whole world would be a poorer place. Everyone knows eggs are delicious scrambled, as an omelet, hard-boiled or soft-boiled. But if it weren’t for eggs, we wouldn’t have dessert as we know it - or good fried food - or even the brilliant but underused carbonara sauce. And that’s just the tip of the egg. Such a simple design - a yolk, some albumen and a hard shell for protection - with such widespread influence must surely prove the existence of God. That’s right Kansas, I’m on your side and you can thank God for eggs.