dietsch

Deepak, on intelligent design

I always thought Deepak Chopra was a bullshit artist and a scammer, but his questions about evolution are delightfully stupid. Various commenters on the blog address his questions, as do a few science blogs (I'll link to one below), but here's my favorite among his questions:

7. What happens when simple molecules come into contact with life? Oxygen is a simple molecule in the atmosphere, but once it enters our lungs, it becomes part of the cellular machinery, and far from wandering about randomly, it precisely joins itself with other simple molecules, and together they perform cellular tasks, such as protein-building, whose precision is millions of times greater than anything else seen in nature. If the oxygen doesn't change physically — and it doesn't — what invisible change causes it to acquire intelligence the instant it contacts life?

Let me repeat this: If the oxygen doesn't change physically — and it doesn't — what invisible change causes it to acquire intelligence the instant it contacts life?

So, oxygen becomes smart as soon as we breathe it in? Really? I had no idea! So that must mean that when I drink beer, it becomes super-intelligent beer! Genius beer, even!

But wait. What happens to beer's genius when I go take a piss?

[Link: Intelligent Design Without the Bible, via Kottke; Moonbat anti-evolutionist: Deepak Chopra]

Edited to turn on comments and to add that among the commenters on Deepak entry is Steven Colbert.