When it comes to the debate between
intelligent design creationism and
evolution, the late
Stephen J. Gould thought that instead of focusing on the marvels of biology, such as the eye, we should focus on the instances of poor biological architecture. The idea was simple, but brilliant: we would not expect to find cases of incompetent engineering in organisms that were "intelligently" designed, whereas we should definitely expect to see the accumulation of historical antecedents giving rise to sub-optimal adaptations if the organism in question had evolved.
Well, one of Gould's own favorite examples was the panda's thumb. This spur is the epitome of retarded design. I won't get into the details now, but suffice it to say that no intelligent designer would have created such a thing, and as
Ricky Gervais and
Jon Stewart unwittingly discover in the following hilarious conversation about panda/racoon
sex, porn and viagra, there may have been some details about pandas that even such an eminent evolutionist as Stephen J. Gould forgot to consider :)
Well, now we know the why behind those black eyes :)
