Male nipples. Why? Just came across a site called "Things Creationists Hate", which has a list of objections to a literal, God-created-the-world-in-six- days-even-though-he-didn't- create-the-sun-and-moon-until- day-four kind of way. Here's a quotation:"My grandfather, down on the farm, used to have a quaint expression, usually levelled at some lazy individual: as useless as the tits on a boar. Creationists, think hard and send me a carefully reasoned answer explaining why God would create both boars and men (and all other male mammals) with useless nipples (which can even be dangerous - men can get breast cancer). The simple biological-evolutionary answer is that as embryos we are all structurally female first, including proto-breast tissue. Only later in foetal development do the male hormones kick in and modify the feminine genital structures into the masculine. But we men are left with useless breast tissue and nipples, which never get the hormonal signal at puberty to develop into functioning organs. The whole thing seems a messy and cobbled-up system for producing two sexes. Why in Heaven's name would a Designer worth His salt come up with so inefficient a system, with useless (and sometimes dangerous) parts left over?"
All those debates with creationists, and it never occurred to me that I had two rounds of anti-creationist ammunition right within my grasp...
5 comments:
As i mentioned to the trainee vicars in our kitchen over coffee, I'll gladly suffer nipples if it means women have breasts.
Julie Walters' character in 'dinnerladies' offered an amusing thought on the uselfulness of male nipples, but I suppose it might not be appropriate to mention it here!
you could say the creationist argument has gone tits up!
At my age, it seems that with my poor diet choices and lack of exercise, there is an excellent reason for male nipples.
Which is what exactly?
Post a Comment