Browsing the CNN web, came across this interview with Gerald McRaney, who used to play the brother with the moustache on “Simon & Simon”. And he says this about the actors in his current series, “Deadwood” (never seen it), who try to put some human imperfections into their acting to make it seem more real:
Showing a touch of the poet himself, McRaney compares [series creator David] Milch to “one of those great Arab carpet-weavers who purposely will weave imperfections in, because only God is perfect.”
We took a field trip in high school (Dear Old Concord High) to the United Nations building in New York. We got the whole tour, including a good look at a giant Persian (Persia is Iran now) rug hanging hugely on a wall, full of intricate designs and beauty. Made of some gawdawful zillions hand-tied knots. And the tour guide said something similar – that the rug makers had deliberately made two errors in the rug, because only God was perfect.
It bugged me back then – and I am amazed I actually had the wisdom to keep my mouth shut. If only God was perfect, why did they make the errors on purpose? Just by being human, it would be imperfect. If they designed in the errors, are they really errors at all? What if they found an actual, honest-to-(sorry) God error; would that have been three errors? Or because this one was a real error, would the other two not count? Or are they trying to imply that they are perfect, and wouldn’t make errors. Or are they just trotting out this tired canard as an excuse for why someone’s new $100,000 rug has mistakes in it?
Let’s follow this chain of reasoning from a religious perspective. God is perfect. God makes us; but makes us with errors. Why? If God is perfect, then his creations should be perfect! At least if you follow the same reasoning as Persian rug makers.
So there you have it. Perfect creators make perfect things, flawed creators make flawed things. Humans are flawed. Therefore our creator is not perfect. God is perfect. Therefore our creator is not God. The theory of evolution is flawed… see where I’m headed here?
Persian rug makers disprove Intelligent Design.
Can also come at it the other way. God is perfect, but made us flawed on purpose. Persian rug makers make flaws on purpose. Therefore they believe they are perfect, like God. Therefore they consider themselves perfect, and since only God is perfect, they consider themselves to be God. What sounds like humility is really hubris.
And that’s what I wanted to explain back at the UN back then.
I am SO GLAD I kept my mouth shut.
I disagree. The fact that these Persian rug makers felt they had to introduce deliberate errors, and then advertise that they'd done so, smacks of smugness. "Look, I could have been perfect if I'd wanted!"
But maybe, just maybe, that's not how it really happened. Maybe they made the rug, and afterward looked it over, and found two mistakes, and understood that perfection was unattainable for any besides God. I would very much agree with that. Then some marketer twisted the story.
Or, and this is something I also thought while standing in front of that rug – maybe it IS perfect, and the rug makers just want you to spend hours staring at it, trying to find the imperfections, but in reality tricked into appreciating not its non-existant flaws, but its perfection.
The tour guide never did point out the flaws.
I've heard the flawed Persian rug story too. To me, it signifies the rug maker's connection to their faith, and a sign of humility. Something about that resonates with me.
The flaw (pardon the pun) in your argument (and I know it's only an intellectual exercise, but I must bite) is that Intelligent Designists don't overtly make the claim that the intelligent designer is God. Even though they are thinking it, and evolution is really what's behind ID, they're going to come right back at you and just say that ID does not specify a designer, only that there must have been a designer. ID is the creationist's Wonder Woman bracelets, used to deflect any kind of real discussion.