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:
|
Achondroplasia/Dwarfism |
Hemochromatosis |
|
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency |
Huntington's Disease |
|
Anencephaly |
Hydrocephalus |
|
Arnold-Chiari Malformation |
Klinefelter's Syndrome |
|
Ataxia Telangiectasia |
Leukodystrophies |
|
Blood coagulation disorders/Hemophilia |
Marfan Syndrome |
|
Brain malformations/genetic brain disorders |
Metabolic disorders |
|
Canavan Disease |
Muscular Dystrophy |
|
Cancer: Neonatal, newborn, infant and childhood |
Neural tube defects/Spina Bifida |
|
Cerebral Palsy |
Neurofibromatosis |
|
Cleft lip and palate |
Niemann-Pick Disease |
|
Club foot/club hand |
Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease) |
|
Congenital heart disease |
Phenylketonuria |
|
Conjoined twins |
Prader-Willi Syndrome |
|
Cystic Fibrosis |
Progeria (advanced aging in children) |
|
Down Syndrome |
Sickle Cell Anemia |
|
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome |
Spinal Muscular Atrophy |
|
Eye, ear and speech defects |
Tay-Sachs Disease |
|
Fragile X Syndrome |
Tuberous Sclerosis |
|
Gaucher's Disease |
Turner's Syndrome |
|
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.
Bizzare question in the context of this thread. This has nothing to do with whether or not God hates me or anyone else.
Are you the Wolfstar who does the marvelous photo series, "A Day in the Life of President Bush?"
Most likely caused or partially caused by long term inbreeding and incest which are known genetic monkey wrenches.. course chronic drug abuse including alcohol can be a long term factor as well..
You know, pretty much as the bible lays out..
Another falsehood. He included Downs Syndrome in his list in the OP.
The contrary to evolution in involution, not devolution. Evolution does not imply linear progress, even though Huxley and the other soldiers of Darwinism took that stance.
Your original post characterizes these defects as "cruel"; that is a substitute for evil. The answer to why a designer would permit "cruelty" in his design is that he is either incompetent or malevolent.
If the word "intelligent" is paired with the word "design," then that conjures in my mind ideas of efficiency.
Birth defects (or defects of any kind for that matter) are obviously inefficient. The answer to why the designer would permit inefficiency is because he is either incompetent or malevolent.
It's that which I am trying to get to, not religious connotations.
The religious connotations are unavoidable. Only dissemblers claim that intelligent design is about anything other than deities.
If intelligent design is to be taught in schools as a an alternative scientific theory, I want to understand its underpinnings.
Oh, well if that's all you want then why didn't you say so? Here ya go!
The underpinnings of intelligent design are science.
Scientist have observed order and concluded that it is not chaos and not properly explained by randomness. This is the predominate view throughout all of science-- when one observes order we presume design or intention.
It is only in the radical Darwinian community is there an adamant faithful insistence upon order must be caused by randomness.
Cruel in the context of this world. Cruel to the baby, for the parents and extended family.
Do you believe in the theory of intelligent design? If so, then perhaps you might turn your own question around and share how the theory reconciles inefficiencies such as the list of birth defects provided above.
The designer is not necessarily God.
Do we wish to talk theology or ID?
Intelligent design has nothing to do with God. Either that or its advocates have committed perjury.
But the more important question is, when ID is taught in school, how are these questions about the motives and methods of the designer going to be answered?
Total order is total randomness.
You might benefit from reading Behe's book "Darwin's black box". As a biochemist, he lays out a fairly detailed explanation of what ID and IC are.
Tell me who the hypothesized designer is then and we can talk about that instead.
Tell me who the hypothesized designer is then and we can talk about that instead.
With all due respect, I find it quite interesting that I am asking these questions in the context of intelligent design as a scientific theory, while most of the responses have ignored intelligent design and gone straight to religion.
oiweoiwnguierboandiocnr
asdvbnoasdnviwnvionwv
asodnviosdnvoinsdvnw
qwienfnb;rthqpidslgerhiuffasd
please allow billions of years for my above response to emerge as the brilliance that it is
Then perhaps you need to address the question to a control group who has no contamination from living in the world. Good luck with that. Plus then, you might have a real experiment.
AntiGuv, with all due respect, I am not interested in the "problem of evil." I am interested in intelligent design as a scientific theory to be taught in schools.
I would love to discuss the thoughts in your first paragraph, but not in the context of good and evil.
I would say that appears to be our job, to create purpose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
