Monday Meme Madness - That's not how it works edition

Well, it's another Monday and another time to look at silly memes about atheism. Sometimes I wonder if the ones I find are sincere or if they aren't poking fun at what theists say. The internet can be a silly place sometimes, and it can be hard to know. Today's at least do reflect things I've heard theists say, so it is worthwhile to take at look at what they have to say. Let's get into it.

Meme #1: I had to write a paper about the human eye. Didn't research it, just said it was badly designed, therefore, evolution.

Here we have the lazy student meme, floating around the internet to have a laugh at ourselves and others who procrastinate and/or don't do the work we're supposed to. Here, we have our lazy creationist version of the lazy student.

My main question is what was this paper he was supposed to write supposed to be about. It would seem to me that a paper on the human eye would have to detail its components, connections to the brain, and the way it functions. The meme just seems silly on this basis.

Really, though, I think anyone who has heard a creationist talk or read a creationist blog knows what the meme is on about. Creationists and ID proponents like to point to various features of our world and say "Look at the design!!!" There are two specific items they like to point to: the human eye and the bacterial flagellum. They look in amazement at these features and ask how those could have just come about through "random chance." (cough cough argument from incredulity).

When creationist/ID proponents bring up the eye specifically, rational people will point out the flaws of the eye. The eye is fascinating, but the reality is it cannot be said to have been designed by a perfect creator. Even a mediocre designer would not have made it this way. Evolution explains these flaws though because we can see how eyes evolved through time and where those flaws originate.

But the gotcha of the meme hinges on the notion that as long as we say evolution to answer questions about the body, we can get through college. We don't need to do research, we don't have to know what we're talking about.

But the reality is, to know the eye does not show good design you have to do research.

Also, the fact that some random lazy college student doesn't understand evolution or doesn't work on a paper has nothing to do with whether evolution is true or not.

Meme #2: "I use reason, logic, and my intelligence to figure out that there is no God." "But if there is no God, then all your mind is is a piece of randomly evolved meat that has non-intelligent pulses of electricity shooting through it. How can you know anything then?"

This meme seems like it came out of the mind of some presuppositionalist. Presups assume god and the truth of the Bible and go from there. They often say the fact that we use logic shows that there is a  god because otherwise our thoughts are just the product of brain fizz.

Let's go through the issues here:
(1) The brain is not "randomly evolved." It is the product of natural selection.
(2) Sure, technically, our brains (not our minds) are "meat" in the sense that we are all animals and our brains are a fleshy material that something could eat. However, this is a bit of poisoning the well. This is trying to make you have a negative emotional reaction to  a situation. We value ourselves and our thoughts. We like to think we are important and it is upsetting to think we are another animal.
(3) Yeah, the pulses of electricity are non-intelligent. So what? More poisoning the well.
(4) You can know stuff to the best of your ability by gathering information and see what can be demonstrated. Sure, the world might all be an illusion. But, if it's an illusion, we are alive in some kind of way and we have abilities to perceive, test, verify, check with others.

Basically the argument comes down to there has to be some supernatural force that is infusing us with logic and intelligence. These cannot be emergent properties of brains. We don't have a proper understanding of how consciousness works, but so far, we have no evidence that there is a god or any kind of disembodied brain who is a necessary pre-cursor to our consciousness.

The whole thing is an argument from ignorance and incredulity. I don't know how this thing works, so I'll shove my god in there. Voilà! We're done. End of story. All this poisoning the well about us being being a "piece of randomly evolved meat that has non-intelligent pulses of electricity shooting through it" is meant to scare, sicken, or worry the reader. Other places, we are "mere animals" or "evolved amoeba/bacteria/pond-scum". It's always the same thing. "If we're the same as that puddle of mud over there, how do you explain my extra-specialness." Well, dipshit, you are not the same as an amoeba or scum or mud or even a cat, a tree or a shark. We have evolved these qualities through the millennia. Human brains, our ability for language and memory, story-telling and incredible tool-making, have meant we are a successful species that has adapted across the planet.

While it's okay for some people to want to derive their extra-speicialness from a deity, there is a downside. It can stop people from actually answering the question. If you think your magic deity did it, there is nothing to explain, nothing to look for. Saying goddidit can slow scientific discovery.