Posted on 11/11/2005 4:47:36 PM PST by Wolfstar
Each year in the United States, about 150,000 babies are born with birth defects ranging from mild to life threatening. While progress has been made in the detection and treatment of birth defects, they remain the leading cause of death in the first year of life. Birth defects are often the result of genetic and environmental factors, but the causes of well over half of all birth defects are currently unknown.
Following is a partial list of birth defects:
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Achondroplasia/Dwarfism |
Hemochromatosis |
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Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency |
Huntington's Disease |
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Anencephaly |
Hydrocephalus |
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Arnold-Chiari Malformation |
Klinefelter's Syndrome |
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Ataxia Telangiectasia |
Leukodystrophies |
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Blood coagulation disorders/Hemophilia |
Marfan Syndrome |
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Brain malformations/genetic brain disorders |
Metabolic disorders |
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Canavan Disease |
Muscular Dystrophy |
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Cancer: Neonatal, newborn, infant and childhood |
Neural tube defects/Spina Bifida |
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Cerebral Palsy |
Neurofibromatosis |
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Cleft lip and palate |
Niemann-Pick Disease |
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Club foot/club hand |
Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease) |
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Congenital heart disease |
Phenylketonuria |
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Conjoined twins |
Prader-Willi Syndrome |
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Cystic Fibrosis |
Progeria (advanced aging in children) |
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Down Syndrome |
Sickle Cell Anemia |
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Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome |
Spinal Muscular Atrophy |
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Eye, ear and speech defects |
Tay-Sachs Disease |
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Fragile X Syndrome |
Tuberous Sclerosis |
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Gaucher's Disease |
Turner's Syndrome |
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Genital and urinary tract defects |
Wilson's Disease |
Some birth/genetic defects, such as near-sightedness, are mild and do not affect the person's ability to lead a normal life. Others are so severe that the person has no chance to even live. Efficiency and economy are part of intelligently designed systems. If the "design" of human systems is so intelligent, why do tragic inefficiencies such as the following occur at all? Warning, the linked photos are graphic medical images, and are very, very sad.
Conjoined twins, i.e., monozygous twinning in which there is fusion of the twins. The popular term is "Siamese" twins. This happens when identical twin embryos become fused together during the very early stages of development. Conjoined twins occur in an estimated one in 200,000 births, with approximately half being stillborn. Here are links to three photos of severely conjoined twins:
Photo 2: essentially one torso between two babies
Neural tube defects are are one of the more common congenital anomalies. Such defects result from improper embryonic neural tube closure. The most minimal defect is called spina bifida, with failure of the vertebral body to completely form, but the defect is not open. Open neural tube defects with lack of a skin covering, can include a meningocele, in which meninges protrude through the defect. Here is a link to a severe neural tube defect.
Defects of the head/brain: In the linked photo a large encephalocele that merges with the scalp above is protruding from the back of the head. The encephalocele extends down to partially cover a rachischisis on the back. This baby also has a retroflexed head from iniencephaly.
The form of neural tube defect in the next linked photo is known as exencephaly. The cranial vault is not completely present, but a brain is present because it was not completely exposed to amniotic fluid. Such an event is very rare. It may be part of craniofacial clefts associated with the limb-body wall complex, which results from early amnion disruption.
Congenital and pediatric neoplasms: One type that can occur is a teratoma. The next linked photo shows a large nasopharyngeal teratoma that is protruding from the oral cavity.
Tumors: In the next linked photo there is a large mass involving the left upper arm and left chest of the baby. This congenital neoplasm turned out to be a lymphangioma. This baby and the one in Photo 9 were essentially riddled with cancer before birth and shortly afterwards.
Next is a gross neuroblastoma arising in the right adrenal gland. It is the most common pediatric malignancy in infancy, and 75% of cases are diagnosed in children less than 4 years old. These tumors most often present as an abdominal or mediastinal mass.
Let's se, you call one poster for calling people liars, but not another. Ingenious biased little thread
I have always been mystified why ID advocates get snippy when you question the competence of the designer.
I believe that your contention is the following: How does the Bible reconcile God’s goodness and power with the presence of evil, sin, and suffering? Logically there is only one way to reconcile these two statements without denying any element in them: There must be a source of sin outside God.
God is good and created a perfect world. But the one of the things that makes humans intelligent beings is freedom. They have the freedom to turn away from God or to obey him. And to turn from God, the source of all goodness, is to create evil. Evil does not have an independent existence, nor was it created by God. Evil was created by sin.
Your next question: If God is omniscient, why would he create such a mess? In order for God to ensure that we could not sin, he would have to tamper with our freedom…..to create us not as full beings but as robots programmed to do what he wanted. Knowing this would only make us incapable of loving God or loving one another, for genuine love cannot be coerced. Also, without free will, we would not be capable of moral responsibility, creativity, obedience, loyalty, or heroism. Thus, the only way God could create beings that are truly human was to take the risk that they would use their freedom to choose evil.
Down Syndrome is on the list because it was on the list I found while Googling on the subject of common birth defects. No other reason.
The game is afoot, so make yourself aware. Peter Singer, I think , a bioethics professor from some Ivy league school, he writes about such things. A darling of the liberals
Is ID a religious doctrine or a scientific theory? This is the heart of what is being argued in courts, election campaigns, etc. I'm interested in the scientific point of view.
The "grave" is certain, but you imply that I am destined for eternal punishment. Lets not mince words.
I am not claiming superior morality. I am just interested in why people think bearing false witness under oath is a good way to serve their religion.
What does sin have to do with geneological damage..
A clean spirit can still have a screwed up body..
and a perfect body can have a screwed up spirit..
apples and oranges..
Your post is irrelevant. ID is presented as a scientific theory, not as part of a religion.
I have aske for months for any ID advocate to discuss the methods and motives of the designer, and I have been assured that ID says nothing about the identity or motives of the designer.
OK. So the approach is/was the issue. Probably best to leave it there.
You ignored my question.
I haven't read this entire thread, but I have given some thought to your question.
The basis of your argument seems to be as such: "Bad things happen, therefore God does not exist."
It then occurred to me that the discussion you wish to entertain has already taken place in the book of Job.
Well, I understand the theory of evolution. If a child were to ask me about it, I could explain it in a reasonable way and provide multiple examples.
Right now, I can't do that with the ID theory because I simply don't understand it. I asked someone else whether or not it is religious dogma or scientific theory. I think after seeing most of the responses on this thread, the former seems to be the answer.
Devolution- The process of becoming morally, physically, or metally worse.
Pretty remarkable.
Correct. I'd like to make one more comment. I agreed with Texas Transplant regarding the problem being in the approach, although I restricted my first post about their comments. Since that point I've read a number of your posts and I have changed my view a bit and I do believe that you were intending to discuss the topic and not begin an argument...so I apologize for misjudging your intentions in that regard.
It is the ID movement itself that insists that the designer is not God.
Well, I didn't do it! I just work here.
LOL!
Devolution would imply a needlessly incompetent designer, since computer simulations make it clear that that variation and selection can achieve stability and adaptability. Not to mention observations of adaptation in real time in nature.
Well, good heavens, what is the grave if not "eternal"? Who's mincing words?
You are not "interested in why people think bearing false witness under oath is a good way to serve their religion" (as if they had tohe sense to think about it first). You are interested in making yourself appear morally superior. The grave is one way of making known to you that you are no better than Hitler or Mother Theresa.
Everybody is inclined to bear false witness under oath in order to save their image and hide. Let's just say it comes naturally. Everybody, including me, has it in them just like everybody has a birth defect leading to death.
But yours is not to consider yourself. Nosirree. It's all those "other" liars out there. They're the ones you find "interesting," "amusing," blahblahblah. Why would you be mentioning them if you did not think yourself better than they?
You think I'm a threat? Hahahahahahaha! Not even close.
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