The following is an excerpt from the book "Foolish Design," available here...

Into the Void: Our Foolish Place in the Cosmos

“Space, the final frontier…” – Patrick Stewart, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard^[1]

An indicator of a Foolish Watchmaker, one that appeals to the inner astronomer rather than the biologist, is Earth’s very location. Earth is located in a special place in our solar system, and this place is known as the habitable zone. The habitable zone is a tiny fraction of the Solar System that is estimated to occupy the space from 0.725 to 3 astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun, where an AU equals Earth’s distance from the Sun.^[2] The solar system is variously estimated as being anywhere from 49 AU (the farthest radius of Pluto from the sun) to 100 AU in radius (the closest radius of a border of the Solar System known as the heliopause).^[3]

While the Solar System isn’t a sphere, for simplicity’s sake we’ll assume it to be so, allowing for a back-of-the-envelope calculation. It goes like this:

What fraction of the Solar System’s volume is in fact habitable?

Let’s assume that the habitable zone is a roughly spherical shell.^[4] To get the volume of this shell, we have to take the volume of the largest sphere defined by the habitable zone, and then subtract away the volume of the smallest sphere defined by the habitable zone. This will give us the volume of the “shell” that is the habitable zone of the Solar System.

Given that the formula for a sphere is…

The habitable zone is approximately…

(4/3 * pi * (3)³) - (4/3 * pi * (0.75)³) AU,

or about 111.5 Cubic AU.

Let’s also assume that the solar system is roughly spherical.^[5] The volume of the solar system, using the smaller Pluto estimate, is

(4/3 * pi * (49)³), or 492,807 Cubic AU.

To find the fraction of the solar system that is occupied by the habitable zone, we merely have to divide the volume of the habitable zone by the total volume of the solar system.

(111.5) divided by (492,807) yields the number 0.000226, or 0.0226 percent of the total solar system.

The habitable zone of the solar system is an incomprehensibly small fraction of the solar system itself. Much less than one tenth of a percent. Any closer and the Earth’s oceans would never have condensed. Any further away and the Earth would be a massive glacier. Earth is on the razor’s edge of being viable for life.

Other considerations make for even more interesting happenstance. For example, if Earth were too far from galactic core, it would be hard to find enough gas to even condense into a star system, and no life would have formed. Conversely, if the solar system were too close to galactic core, the intense radiation would eliminate any chance of life as we know it developing.

Advocates of Intelligent Design suggest that this remarkable happenstance proves the hand of a gentle, caring God, who created humanity in the most perfect, gentle cradle possible.

However, there is a far more fitting analogy, one that could be called the “rabbits on the highway” analogy. If a man chose to raise a group of rabbits on the median of a highway, there would be no question that the rabbits had a plethora of fine resources to help them thrive. Fertile soils would allow for plenty of delicious grass to be grown. No predators would exist in this gentle environment, and the soil would be soft enough for the rabbits to build large, comfortable warrens.

There’s only one tiny problem: this little Eden of the rabbit kingdom would be a mere screeching tire away from complete and total obliteration. Few would say that a man who raised rabbits in such fashion showed compassion by selecting the median of the highway instead of the highway itself. It is true that the median of a busy road is less dangerous than the road itself, but this begs the question: why not raise your rabbits somewhere that isn’t near the highway at all?^[6] Somewhere away from the extreme danger that the highway represents?

The denizens of Earth are the ultimate rabbits on the highway. Earth is routinely struck by asteroids and comets.^[7] It is subject to cosmic events including the eventual fiery death of our sun, and it experiences countless natural disasters (volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes) that make life on the median of a highway seem like a cakewalk in comparison.

At this point, you may be asking yourself “Well, what’s the humor in all of this? Earth’s location sounds miserable. I don’t understand why a Foolish Creator would put me in a place like this!” If you find yourself saying this, you’ll be happy to know you’re in good company. Countless generations of philosophers have wrestled with these same thoughts. Of course, this may also mean that you don’t get the joke.

It is oft writ that none can understand the mind of God, so any guess at this point will be pure conjecture, but here’s one take on the issue: people are at their happiest when they feel lucky. Few could deny that Earth’s location, hidden in the tiny fraction of the solar system that is the habitable zone, is dramatically lucky. There is nowhere else known to man that life can survive at all, let alone thrive. In this regard, we can feel happy to gloat over those poor sods Venus and Mars. One wreathed in poisonous atmosphere, the other a barren, cold rock.

Earth is like the successful sister that monopolized on all the brains, good looks, and charms that bucktoothed Mars lacked. As the other planets burned and froze across the landscape of eternity, Earth began to liberate its elements into living, dancing, breathing and beautiful green life. Living on Earth, we’re given the unique chance to laugh at the expense of the other planets that just couldn’t get it together. Even the poor rabbits that live on the median of a highway get to laugh at the rabbits scrambling across the highway itself.

On Earth, we’re lucky rabbits in more than just one way. Earth’s magnetosphere routinely deflects the solar radiation of the sun, and even volcanoes and floods play a role in rejuvenating the soils of the planet.

While the Earth is far from perfect, it’s a damn sight better than any other alternatives we can see in the future. Nobody’s planning on moving to the moon, because let’s face it, the moon sucks. You can’t even take a walk without putting on a space suit, and even then you’ll be bombarded with the Sun’s radiation. Want to take Sparky out for a little game of fetch? Good luck. The moon’s low gravity will decay his bones until even a Frisbee looks like a deadly weapon. The Earth itself is somewhat similar to capitalism: it’s a system that’s rotten, but it’s better than anything else we’ve got.

The Foolish Watchmaker is another phrase for the Foolish Creator of life as we know it. For Intelligent Design, the Watchmaker is an entity who carefully tunes life to match the conditions of the cosmos around it. In Foolish Design, the Foolish Watchmaker is the entity who has carefully tuned life as we know it to be as bizarre, strange, and funny as possible.

While none can fathom the precise motivations of our Foolish Creator, some general ideas about the nature of such a being can be inferred. For example, while an Intelligent Creator has mysterious purposes, a Foolish Creator has mysterious but assuredly comedic purposes in mind. The platypus is the flagship example of the case in point. Clearly, the platypus was not made to suffer unduly from its design, but it was made for laughter. The platypus is bizarre because its features bridge the gap between many categories. It's got a duck-bill, it's poisonous, it's a good swimmer but nests on land, and it lays eggs. All of these bizarre features are rounded-out with a confusing beaver tail. Why? Because it's funny. Oddly out-of-place, but clearly loved by its creator, the platypus provides insight into the whole of Foolish Creation. Perhaps all of Foolish Creation shares the same properties: oddly out-of-place, but nonetheless loved. Looking deep enough, Foolish Design can be seen in most creatures. Dogs are Foolish enough to think they are people, clown fish require no explanation, and humans are Foolish enough to waste most of their lives indoors.

In the context of this universe of outcasts and mad hatters, our Foolish Creator could be considered a compassionate and caring, yet off-kilter deity. A Creator that watches over us,  but mostly because we need watching over. Perhaps the perfect creations got left to fend on their own, because they don't need supervision. In contrast, life here on Earth is clearly imperfect, and in need of a guiding hand. How much compassion would it have taken to to refrain from blinking such a creation out of existence and starting from scratch? How much dedication would it take to remain watching over these creatures for eternity? This very well may be why Foolish Creations are comical creations. It's the only way an ultimate being could put up with the boredom of babysitting its creations for endless eons.

A Foolish Creator's motivations are bizarre, but sincere. While it is hard to nail down specific characteristics, certain assumptions can at least be made about their nature. Since we cannot communicate with such a being, we are instead left to wonder, and laugh at Its creations.

Foolish Design: It’s a simple principle, really; much similar to intelligent design. In fact, it is intelligent design. The fundamental premise is that the world is simply too complicated, too bizarre and hilarious to have been created by anything but an unknown, mysterious, foolish designer. It is important to stress that we mean foolish in the sense of the traditional fool, the jester. No attempt is made to suggest that this foolish designer is a fool in the more modern sense: an idiot. It’s an amazingly airtight theory. In fact, the evidence is all around us, if we care to look. For a simple case in point, take the duck-billed platypus, I mean, look at it! It’s hilarious! Is it a bird? Is it a rodent? Who cares? The damn thing looks silly enough to almost prove the existence of a Foolish Intelligence behind the development of life on Earth.

Evidence of a Foolish Designer is especially prevalent among the human race, it’s even written into our bodies. The only simple, logical explanation that fits Occam’s Razor is that this was done by intelligent intent, and somewhere out there, something is laughing at us.

No doubt you’ve had the feeling before. Perhaps you bought a new car, and then realized you forgot to check that there was an engine under the hood. Maybe you had a distinctly Freudian slip during an intimate moment. It is even possible that you’ve engaged in hysterical laughter during stressful moments. All of these simple instances are indications of a unified, complex instance of Foolish Design, a design that delves even into our very psyche.

There are some who may dispute the evidence of Foolish Design. They may point out death, disease, and famine, claiming that these are not beautiful aspects of life. One could ask why such things exist if there is a Foolish Designer behind it all. There are many ways to respond to such a question. We feel, however, that the most appropriate response is to say that a Foolish Designer may have an intellect, motivation, and sense of humor simply too complex, too unfathomable for the human mind to comprehend it.

Foolish Design as a theory gives us a strong indication that our origins are much more mysterious than they at first seem. The most convincing article of evidence is also the most simple. Humor itself plays no biological function in life that evolution can explain. Many emotions play a biological role, that is, they are essential in regulating behavior, and help creatures to survive. Fear helps to motivate one to escape danger, love engages one in the act of procreation, and anger can help to intimidate or frighten off those who challenge our abilities. Even embarassment and guilt play an important biological role, as they regulate and maintain a social hierarchy within a group. However, humor and laughter achieve no biological function. They simply exist. There is no motivating reason for humor to have come into existence, and taken the important role in life that it now occupies. The human race is not undergoing any selective pressures for appreciation of comedy. The only possible reason for laughter and humor to exist is that they must have been designed and placed within us by a Foolish Watchmaker.