Design flaws in organisms indicate evolution, not intelligent design

[Compassionist]

The existence of design flaws in living organisms is often cited as evidence for evolution by natural selection rather than intelligent design by an all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful deity. If such a being existed and created life intentionally, we might expect optimal design yet what we see instead are structures and processes that are inefficient, prone to failure, or even harmful.
Here are some significant biological design flaws that point to evolution rather than perfect design:
________________________________________
1. Human Birth Canal vs. Big Brain
Flaw: Human babies have large heads due to our large brains, but the human pelvis is narrow for bipedal walking.
Result: Childbirth is extremely painful and dangerous a leading cause of death historically.
Evolutionary Explanation: Our ancestors evolved larger brains and upright walking separately, leading to a dangerous compromise.
________________________________________
2. Wisdom Teeth
Flaw: Most people don't have room for third molars, causing impaction, infections, and pain.
Result: Many need surgery to remove them.
Evolutionary Explanation: Our ancestors had larger jaws due to diet, but modern humans' jaws shrank faster than tooth evolution could keep up.
________________________________________
3. Human Retina Is Backward
Flaw: The photoreceptor cells in the human eye are behind layers of neurons and blood vessels.
Result: Creates a blind spot and reduces image quality.
Evolutionary Explanation: The eye evolved incrementally, not from a clean-slate design.
________________________________________
4. Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (Giraffe Example)
Flaw: This nerve travels from the brain to the larynx, but loops around the aorta.
Result: In giraffes, it travels over 15 feet instead of a direct path of a few inches.
Evolutionary Explanation: It's a leftover from fish ancestors, where this path made sense. Evolution modified existing structures rather than redesigning from scratch.
________________________________________
5. Human Menstrual Cycle
Flaw: Humans shed the uterine lining even if not pregnant, wasting resources and causing pain.
Result: Menstrual cramps, anemia, mood changes.
Evolutionary Explanation: Other mammals reabsorb the lining. Our approach may have evolved due to pathogen risks in internal fertilization.
________________________________________
6. Shared Path for Food and Air
Flaw: The esophagus (food) and trachea (air) share an entrance.
Result: Risk of choking a leading accidental cause of death.
Evolutionary Explanation: The throat evolved in stages, without foresight.
________________________________________
7. Human Spine and Back Pain
Flaw: Our spine is an S-curve not ideally suited for upright walking.
Result: Many people suffer chronic back pain, herniated discs, etc.
Evolutionary Explanation: Our ancestors were quadrupeds. The upright posture evolved later, leading to inefficient structure.
________________________________________
8. Brain Vulnerability and Mental Illness
Flaw: The brain is highly energy-consuming and prone to many dysfunctions.
Result: High rates of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.
Evolutionary Explanation: Natural selection favored reproductive success, not mental wellness or long-term wellbeing.
________________________________________
9. Knee Joint Design
Flaw: Knees bear immense strain, especially the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), which often tears.
Result: Common injuries in sports and aging.
Evolutionary Explanation: Knees evolved from quadruped ancestors, not optimally engineered for bipedal running and jumping.
________________________________________
10. Genetic "Junk" and Mutations
Flaw: The genome is full of non-coding or redundant DNA and is prone to harmful mutations.
Result: Genetic diseases, cancer, and congenital defects.
Evolutionary Explanation: DNA accumulates "baggage" over time. There's no intelligent editing or streamlining process.
________________________________________
11. Susceptibility to Cancer
Flaw: Cells divide for life but are prone to mutations that cause cancer.
Result: One of the top global causes of death.
Evolutionary Explanation: Cell division is essential for life, but natural selection can't eliminate all cancer risk especially after reproductive age.
________________________________________
12. Human Psychology Biases
Flaw: We are prone to cognitive biases (e.g., confirmation bias, tribalism, overconfidence).
Result: Misjudgments, discrimination, and conflict.
Evolutionary Explanation: These evolved to enhance survival in specific environments, not to produce truth-seeking rationality.
________________________________________
If we were designed by an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent being, such flaws are impossible to justify. Evolution by natural selection, on the other hand, explains these quirks and imperfections as the result of a messy, blind, trial-and-error process where old parts are tweaked, not replaced, and survival/reproduction, not perfection, is the end goal.

[The Barbarian]

Evolution happens to populations, not individuals.

This is the excuse argument for no individual fish fossil never producing an amphibian fossil.

This is why YECs keep running into walls. You see biological evolution is a change in allele frequencies in a population over time. No individual organism evolves into something else. You've confuses Poke'mon with reality.
And of course, your expectation that a fossil could produce another fossil rather bizarre.

The follow up excuse argument, is that it takes so many millions of years to evolve from a fish to an amphibian, that the missing fossil link between a fish and an amphibian can't be found, yet...

There are many, many such examples. Even honest YECs admit that these exist:

Evidences for Darwin’s second expectation — of stratomorphic intermediate species — include such species as Baragwanathia27 (between rhyniophytes and lycopods), Pikaia28 (between echinoderms and chordates), Purgatorius29 (between the tree shrews and the primates), and Proconsul30 (between the non-hominoid primates and the hominoids). Darwin’s third expectation — of higher-taxon stratomorphic intermediates — has been confirmed by such examples as the mammal-like reptile groups31 between the reptiles and the mammals, and the phenacodontids32 between the horses and their presumed ancestors. Darwin’s fourth expectation — of stratomorphic series — has been confirmed by such examples as the early bird series,33 the tetrapod series,34,35 the whale series,36 the various mammal series of the Cenozoic37 (for example, the horse series, the camel series, the elephant series, the pig series, the titanothere series, etc.), the Cantius and Plesiadapus primate series,38 and the hominid series.39 Evidence for not just one but for all three of the species level and above types of stratomorphic intermediates expected by macroevolutionary theory is surely strong evidence for macroevolutionary theory. Creationists therefore need to accept this fact.
YEC Dr. Kurt Wise, Toward a Creationist Understanding of Transitional Forms

There are many transitional forms between fish and tetrapods:
https://www.earthhistory.org.uk/transit ... er-v-dover

[Richard Aberdeen]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #1]

What you call "design flaws" in creation are a result of evil and as such, they are not design flaws. Much of what you consider to be "flaws" are in fact, the best way to ensure the survival of living forms of life within a reality of good and evil.

The main problem with modern atheism is the inability to recognize invented language terminology that doesn't exist in reality. For example, there is no such thing as "nature" or the "natural world." Rather, all of the known evidence clearly demonstrates deliberate design and creation. Thus, in reality, the only thing that exists is "creation", not an invented "natural world", which is clearly just a human construct; a lie invented to explain away the obvious, that we live within a created cosmic reality. In fact, there is zero evidence that anything can randomly exist unto itself, let alone something as overwhelmingly complex as the universe and life contained therein.

More explanation and overwhelming evidence can be found here:
www.FreedomTracks.com/science.html

[Richard Aberdeen]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #3]

So-called "junk" DNA has been clearly debunked by modern scientists themselves. Much of DNA consists of non-coding "switches", originally thought to be "junk" but later determined to be completely and entirely necessary to the organism involved. One of the best examples is the difference between humans and chimpanzees, which is small regarding coding DNA, but immense regarding "switching" DNA. It is the switching DNA that separates all living forms of life and which makes humans very different from chimps. Such "switches" are not "junk" as you very wrongly claim.

Disproving Junk DNA can be found here, quoting actual practicing scientists:
www.FreedomTracks.com/science.html

[Richard Aberdeen]

[Replying to 1213 in post #2]

So-called "junk" DNA has been clearly debunked by modern scientists themselves. Much of DNA consists of non-coding "switches", originally thought to be "junk" but later determined to be completely and entirely necessary to the organism involved. One of the best examples is the difference between humans and chimpanzees, which is small regarding coding DNA, but immense regarding "switching" DNA. It is the switching DNA that separates all living forms of life and which makes humans very different from chimps. Such "switches" are not "junk" as he very wrongly claims.

Disproving Junk DNA can be found here, quoting actual practicing scientists:
www.FreedomTracks.com/science.html

[1213]

So-called "junk" DNA has been clearly debunked by modern scientists themselves. ....

Good. But, by what I know, it is still claimed that there is lot of mutations and rudiments, which indicates things were intact before and things are degenerating from the original good state.

[Drich]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #1]

-Or said flaws could be evidence of degradation, not evolutionary improvements. Kinda like making a copy, of a copy. of a copy. 0f a c0py.. 0f @ c0py... of time the resolution fades and the copy is not as good as the original.

[Jose Fly]

So-called "junk" DNA has been clearly debunked by modern scientists themselves.

That's simply not true. There are sequences that we know are non-functional, including some that you don't want to start functioning (e.g., transposons that can cause cancer if they become active).

Much of DNA consists of non-coding "switches", originally thought to be "junk" but later determined to be completely and entirely necessary to the organism involved.

Your history is wrong as well. Geneticists knew early on that some sequences that don't code for proteins were functional.

Disproving Junk DNA can be found here, quoting actual practicing scientists:
www.FreedomTracks.com/science.html

FYI, science isn't done via quotes. The data is what matters.

[RBD]

point, with someone agreeing people are only people, and not animals...

I didn't say that. I said that all human beings are people and all people are human beings.
I've also said that all human beings are animals and all people are animals.
Furthermore, not all animals are human beings or people.
Those are all consistent with each other.

Only if people are all animals. Which some people agree with. And only people animals are people. Which most people have to wrap their heads around.

In any case, if any person is not an animal, then not all people are animals. And people animals my think they're people too, but they're only animals.

All animals are people, but not all people are animals.

This is backwards. All people are animals, but not all animals are people.

Oh well, back to the beginning.

Ok, so what animals are people

Human beings.

You mean people animals.

Human beings are the people that are not animals. They're only being human, not animals.

and what animals are not people?

The animals that aren't human beings.

And the people animals, that are not human beings, but are animal beings...

Might as well end it on a fun note.

[RBD]

Which of course is all just evasion nonsense: The declared relationship of noncreation evolutionists, is that all people in body and in spirit are the same as all animals.

No noncreation evolutionists say that, or at least if they do, you and I agree that they're wrong.

Good. I'm corrected. Not all noncreation evolutionists also deny spiritual things.

Where did "spiritual things" come from?

That's the age old question. Either the angels and people are created by the one true God. Or, all Gods and people are uncreated and eternal without beginning...

It's like every time you're close to getting it, you intentionally throw a curve ball in to make sure that what you're saying is nonsense.

1Co 2:14
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.


Just because you don't believe in spiritual things, doesn't mean spiritual intelligence doesn't exist. You're arguments to the contrary may be foolish, but they still prove the existence of intelligent spiritual beings.

While ancient pagans are not evolutionists, they did believe in the uncreated spiritual things of all living creatures, where man, bird, or tree. As well as the nonliving things of nature having their own spirits: Stars, planets, air, clouds, and waters...

Modern pagans may be primate-man evolutionists too. And they are the only noncreation evolutionists that have sense enough to know, that without creation, nothing natural, living, and thinking, can have any original beginning: Old pagan universal deism.

Whatever. Being right about biology apparently doesn't keep someone from being wrong about gods. There aren't any gods, Christian, pagan, or otherwise.

Whatever. Being an evolutionist doesn't keep someone from acknowledging the spiritual things of intelligence.

And since all spiritual beings are created with beginning by the one true Creator and Spirit, or the gods with spiritual intelligence are uncreated without beginning: pagan deism.

those who deny both creationism and deism, are just trying to deny their own intelligence either has a beginning, or is eternal. By the denial itself, they still can't have no intelligence at all. Even foolishness proves spiritual intelligence exists, which must either be created with all things, or is uncreated and eternal as all things.

This is similar to your misunderstanding about people and animals: Some theists understand biology, but not everyone that understands biology is a theist.

This is similar to your misunderstanding about people and animals: Some theists understand evolution, but not everyone that understands evolution is an ideological evolutionist.

Since no animal is a person,

Human beings are both people and animals.

Some people believe that. No animal believes it or anything else. They're not spiritual beings with intelligence.

no person is an animal.

All people are animals.[/quote]

Some people believe that. They behave accordingly.

2Pe 2:12
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Except in some people's own minds. But no animal thinks that at all...

What?

No animals believe nor argue anything at all. They're not spiritual beings with intelligence.

[RBD]

Or, even a bug.

Of which you share dna, fact.

Of which I've said the same many times. The Bible says all flesh is made of the same basic stuff: Dust. And so science as proven, that all natural DNA is shared by all natural flesh.

But you seem to have backed off from bugs being your spirit-brothers with the same intelligence. Now, that's not really praiseworthy, but it does show more intelligence than before.

Also fact, you have no dna evidence of your god or of its myth book being true.

That's because spirit does not have natural DNA. Tt's the definition of the spiritual vs the natural.

And again, just because you say "evolutionary origin of species" for self delusional reasons,

Take that up with Darwin and his ideological followers.

Darwin has nothing to do with your misuse of terminology.[/quote]

You have nothing to do with Darwin's use of terminology. That's often the case for 2nd and 3rd generation ideologues. They don't even know where their ideology comes from.

Origin of species is ideological, because evolution of species has no origin of beginning, but only evolution of species without origin.

The whole pseudo-study of abiogenesis is due noncreational evolution of species.

it isn't the origin of life.

Of course not. Evolution isn't the origin of anything. Without creation there is no origin, but only everlasting substance, life, and intelligence6h without beginning.

Energy and matter cannot be destroyed. [/quote]
Nor created. Like all unlearned ideologues, you half-truth science as well as theology.

The thermodynamic law denies creation of any matter, including intelligence. Therefore, there can only be pagan universal deism with the uncreated natural universe, life, and intelligence, that is without original beginning.

No sign of intelligence from any mythical god creature made up by bronze age goat herders designed to manipulate the gullible has been detected.

There's more sign of intelligence in pagan deism, than a noncreational evolutionist that believes anything has an original evolutionary beginning. By definition alone that's more dysfunctional than a spiritual atheist. But then it's argued by someone who says they have the same intelligence as bugs, right? No?

That's why Darwin's 'Origin' of the species is his personal ideological insert into proven evolution of the species. It's his theoretical alternative to creation of the species.

You really don't know your bible or science. It tells you it's better to keep silent when stupid on a subject because when you open your mouth you remove all doubt that's the fact, like you've just done.

Proverbs 17:28: 28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Proverbs 12:23: A prudent man conceals knowledge, But the heart of fools proclaims foolishness.

Stating as a fact without proving the fact, removes all doubt the statement has no fact.

And quoting from a God, that someone says has no sign of intelligence, removes any doubt that God knows a fool proclaiming foolishness.

An uncreated evolutionary universe with life and intelligence without origin, is old pagan universalism and deism. They called them the primordial gods, and pseudo-scientists call it soup. Gods without beginning have more intelligence than stupid soup.

What has that to do with reality or the proven fact new species had derived from previous common ancestors through the recombining of the gene pool via evolutionary process, also predicted by Darwin correctly that if it was true the evidence will be found in the fossil records, and was?

through the recombining of the gene pool via evolutionary process,

That sounds really cool. Good job maestro. You know it's just for show, when it has nothing to do with the argument.

Especially when the argument has nothing to do with the challenge: If all species are by evolution, and not by creation, then there is no origin of any species, but only uncreated natural matter and intelligence: Old pagan deism.

What's happening here isn't even an attack on origin of species being by evolution and not creation. It's just stating the natural conclusion of old pagan theologians, philosophers, and naturalists, that know all things must either be created from the beginning, or uncreated with no beginning. There is no other possibility for the natural universe, life, and intelligence.

if anything begins at any time, then it must be by creation, since the thermodynamic law says something cannot begin from nothing. Therefore, everything begins by creation, or everything is without beginning: natural matter, life, and intelligence. Old pagan universal deism without beginning.

Anyone trying to deny both, is denying their own intelligence has any created beginning, nor is without beginning: I.e. their own intelligence doesn't exist at all.

But the heart of fools proclaims foolishness.