[John O]

In fact, what you find is that if you do a task like the one I described with preschool children with the Alzheimer's disease patient’s—so [if you] ask them, “Why is there rain? Is there rain because water condenses in clouds or is there rain so that plants and animals can grow?”—they will also prefer the teleological option much more often either than healthy young adults or their age matched controlled participants who are the same age as the Alzheimer's patients but don't show signs of Alzheimer's.”

His question makes no sense. Why is there rain? cannot be answered by his first option. watervapor condensing into clouds and being precipitated describes "HOW" there is rain, not why. The second option describes why there is rain. To water the Earth. Oddly enough the rain cycle is a wonderful example of intelligent design.

[count-your-change]

Bill Cosby’s comedy routine, Why is There Air? He knew: To fill up basket balls.

But I don’t expect too much from Scientific American, it’s been going down for at least 20 years.