Fun:RationalWiki Chain Letter(s)

Irreducible Complexity Version

Does God exist?

The university priest challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, "No, he didn't!"

"God didn't create everything?" The priest asked.

"No sir", the student replied.

The priest answered, "If God didn't create everything, then why are organisms so complex? Evolution is random chance! There's no way such complexity could have arisen by random chance!" The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that evolution was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question sir?"

"Of course", replied the priest.

The student stood up and asked, "Sir, can cell proteins employ trial and error?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course they can't!" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, in early April 2006 a long study at the University of Oregon was published in the journal Science. Based on the reconstruction of ancient genes from extinct animals, the researchers were able to show how the nontheory of "irreducible complexity" is a joke. Protein molecules, they found, slowly employed trial and error, reusing and modifying existing parts, to act in a key-and-lock manner and switch discrepant hormones "on" and "off." This genetic march was blindly inaugurated 450 million years ago, before life left the ocean and before the evolution of bones."

The student continued, "Sir, do pseudogenes exist?"

The priest responded, "Of course they don't."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, pseudogenes do exist. In fact, their existence provides a very powerful piece of evidence for evolution, as many related species share the same pseudogenes."

Finally the young man asked the priest, "Sir, do Hox genes exist?"

Now uncertain, the priest responded, "Of course not, as I have already said, God created the universe!"

To this the student replied, "Actually they do sir. Hox genes are very similar in many, seemingly completely different species. The only way they could be that way is if evolution did happen!"

The priest dropped his Bibles and ran out.

The young student's name? Christopher Hitchens!^{[citation NOT needed]}

Tired of laughing? RationalWiki has a slightly more serious article about the Atheist professor myth.