Diseases: are they intelligently designed?

[EdwardAbbey]

Did they just evolve?

 

Are they controlled by some invisible supernatural process orchestrated by God himself?

 

Are they the work of the Devil?

 

Is it the fault of humanity there is disease in the world?

 

Should Adam be blamed because he disobeyed God by eating a piece of fruit?

 

If God truely exists, then my own personal observations are that diseases are very well organized and engineered by an all-knowing mind.

 

If diseases are controlled by God, for what purpose do they serve? Either that or he is nothing more than a sadistic monster who gets great pleasure out of seeing his creation suffer endlessly.

 

Maybe this God doesn't even exist?

 

[dogmatically_challenged]

I guess diseases could be eventually.

 

Look at xianity. It is a disease that was semi-intelligently designed. hehe!

[DaveL]

Intelligent Design does not adequately explain a cause for diseases, because ID ignores the fact that diseases are living organisms which exploit their natural environment, just like humans. Natural selection gives an excellent account of the diesase process.

 

Funny how Behe can focus upon the ID at a cellular level, yet overlook microorganisms in this regard.

 

Hey let's just marvel at all the good stuff and wow all our gullible friends with examples about the eye and ear.

 

I was reading David Mills 'Atheist Universe'. Reference was made to John Glenn looking down from his space shuttle at the 'wonders of the earth' and that God must be involved.

 

While Glenn was up there doing all his marvelling, there were earthquakes occuring, wars going on and mass poverty. In effect, alot of crap going on behind all the wonders.

 

Mills emphasised the concept that nature is in fact both ordered and chaotic.

 

Pity how ID'ers seem to ignore nature and understate the power natural forces to be both benficial and lethal in mans existence.

 

Well on the other hand the Flying Spaghetti Monster may be involved.

[Fweethawt]

I was watching a program on the Discovery Channel about microbiology just the other day. It went on to explain how they (microorganisms) replicate, form groups, die off, and get killed. Then the program went on to explain how, every once in a great while, a new organism, stronger, and more apt to survive than the others comes to be formed out of the frenzy of replication, survival, and deaths of the others.

 

 

Technically, from what I've come to understand, there really isn't any difference between how diseases survive compared to any other life form.

 

 

 

So, the answer to your question is a resounding "yes!". They do evolve.

[Amanda]

Putting spiritual beliefs aside for a moment... I'm curious about perspectives of one's emotional positions and its influence on diseases and infections. Most doctor's even believe that many illnesses are psychosomatic... caused by emotions, the unrecognized ones as well as the recognized ones. Also, what explanation do we have for the 'placebo effect'?

 

Once I went to the doctor due to a 'painful' kidney infection. The doctor took a test and told me she would call me when the results were back. I emphatically told her that I needed something for pain that day! She said she was pretty sure of the cause of the infection, and went ahead and gave me a prescription. I took it ALL, the whole week... even though I was completely well in 3 days. A week later her office called and apologized for giving me the wrong medication, according to my test results, and would phone in a new prescription right away!!! I told them not to bother, and they just couldn't believe I was well! That was about 8 years ago.

 

How much effect do you think our belief systems can have on healing and or fighting diseases/infections?

[indoctrinated]

How much effect do you think our belief systems can have on healing and or fighting diseases/infections?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well obviously belief can't make a severed limb grow back.

 

On the other hand I think being depressed also lowers the body's natural immune system and disease fighting mechanisms. So having a positive attitude probably helps. And I think the placebo effect is proven. A positive attitude and the best medical treatment available sounds good to me.

 

And a healthy diet and environment and sanitation etc. I read somewhere that the biggest contributory factor to improved health in the western world was decent sanitation. Still a luxury that many people don't have! I think it's also been said that poverty is the biggest killer. (Oh dear, am I preaching? It's force of habit!)

 

On the main subject. My opinion is that evolution accounts best for the existence of diseases, viruses etc.

 

But I still like the idea I heard somewhere that wasps are fallen bees!

 

edit: Do you call them wasps in the USA? Stripy insects that sting and don't even make honey!

[Mr. Neil]

Yes, I'd like to know the apologists' answers to viruses.  Viruses are basically little packages of DNA.  According to christians, diseases are a result of the fall.  But how would biting into an apply cause small packages of destructive DNA to be created.  Makes no sense.

Viruses are neat little things, aren't they? They're precisely the sort of things that shouldn't exist in the black-and-white worldview of Christians, because viruses are not lifeforms, and yet they're not "just chemicals".

 

They are somewhere in between, which is precisely the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a worldview in which life comes from non-life. However, in the Christian worldview, viruses make no sense.

 

It's a catch 22 for Christians, because viruses necessarily destroy life. Even if they don't kill their hosts, they are still destroying body cells in order to replicate themselves. This is something that is completely incompatible with the pre-fall world. However, they can't come after the fall, because that would make viruses a new creation, and God already finished creation in the first six days.

[Panther]

I don't think we can underestimate the power of our minds. I am only talking of certain illnesses. Now, in the cases of "miracles" I think that christians attribute that to a god, when really it was the power of the positive mind behind it.