Dancing, Design, and Natural Selection?

Obviously, dancing has taken many forms through the ages. Regal dances with rooms full of people synchronized in slow, precise moves. Couples doing waltzes and other precision steps. Townspeople dancing in spontaneous expressions of joy. People in clubs moving to the beat. Solo dancing. And many more.

Have you ever seen a troop of chimpanzees doing a line dance or the Monkey? Me, neither. Apes are simply not built for that.

If you ask people why they dance, they will probably say that it is fun and makes them feel good. Actually, a great deal is happening.

Four dancing couples in rustic costume, New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1745 - 1899

Sure, feel-good hormones (endorphins) are being released in social dancing, but the brain is doing many other things as well. Dancing takes coordination. Ever watched a group of Celtic dancers in complete intricate union? Amazing. It's not just the feet, either. Other areas of our brains and physiology are utilized and even developed.

Dancing also helps with social interaction. In their opposition to admitting that the Master Engineer has made us able to dance, secularists attempt to link dancing to natural selection. You read that right. Apparently, since social interactions develop through dancing, natural selection is involved. Oh, please!

Having spent many of the happiest hours of my life dancing, I thought I’d check out “what the science has to say” about my favorite pursuit. Lo and behold, “science” says that dancing develops general health, connects people socially, and assists in natural selection. Of these three benefits, most dancers could have told you the first two (and a dozen more). As for natural selection, I have my doubts.

To read the rest of listen to the audio version of this Intelligent Design article, waltz on over to "Designed to Dance? Here’s What Science Says."