(no subject)

[sillygoosegirl]

Speaking of intelligent design, what's up with having a baby with a giant brain born out of a pelvis that is supporting an upright body. That doesn't strike me as particularly intelligent... more like an unfortunate artifact from a simpler time. Personally, if I was the intelligent designer, we'd have zippers in our bellies.

There was a thing on the radio about studying genomes, particularly comparing the human one with the opossum one. They referred to humans as being however many bazillion years more advanced than marsupials... and don't get me wrong, I love my thumbs and spoken language, but there are some things where I think the marsupials are way ahead of us. I think only a man would say we were strictly more advanced.

Comments

[istgut.livejournal.com]

The bible teaches us that the pain of childbirth is punishment for Eve's doings in The Garden.

It is the same reason that you have a feud with snakes.

So, Intelligent Vindictive Design.

[willskyfall.livejournal.com]

Awww, but taking the bible literally is no fun. :)

I can't help but feel that passage of Genesis, read a certain way, is a tacit acknowledgement of the link between intelligence and difficulties in childbirth. I suppose it depends on how perceptive our ancestors were about their own physiology . . .

[willskyfall.livejournal.com]

Curse my 12:30a shorthand!

By "intelligence" I generally meant the sort of self-awareness and leap in perception that leads to cave painting, jewelry, and fire--not to mention religion.

(The sort of jump which, if Genesis is to be believed, occured when Adam and Eve ate the apple, and which may have corresponded in our evolutionary history to a critical increase in brain-mass.)

[sillygoosegirl.livejournal.com]

Well, I've certainly always (at least since I was old enough to think about such things) interpretted it as an acknowledgement of the connection between self awareness and many other difficulties that come with it. I'd never considered that it might also be making a reference to child birth... or evolution, that's interesting. I'd always considered it more as a coming of age story... more about puberty.

But then again, the literal interpretation is pretty entertaining. Clearly we did have zippers in our tummies before eve ate the apple!

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

I've actually heard some birth stories that came very close to childbirth without pain -- that didn't involve any form of drugs! One in particular that I remember involved the mother realizing she was in early labor, lying down to get some rest, falling asleep(!), and waking up at the late pushing stage. She delivered her own baby; one of her older children called her husband and the midwife for her, who showed up in time to help her get cleaned up and back in bed with her new baby. So it's possible that before the Fall, we didn't have zippers, but birth simply worked better than it does now (along with everything else -- after all, no one died before the Fall, so there's a whole host of problems that can be ruled out right there).

Newt