Defective Design—Part 1

Evolution has been a disputed theory, ever since Darwin so eloquently described it, over 150 years ago. Most of the controversy and resistance to the concept of evolution has been led by adherents of Christian fundamentalism. The core cause of that Christian opposition has stemmed from the fact that evolution presents an explanation that contradicts a literal interpretation of the Bible's Book of Genesis—that the world was created by the monotheistic God as a perfect and final design… that is, by an “Intelligent Design."

I won't go into a justification of the theory of evolution here—it has been verified countless times by strong scientific evidence. But I wish to address one specific fallacy of the intelligent design idea that I believe adds to undermining it... the fact that there are several examples in nature of not intelligent design but, in fact, defective design. The operation of the human body is an excellent example. If, as Christianity declares, humans are made in the image of God, then shouldn't we humans represent the epitome of intelligent design? In fact, however, our bodies exhibit several defective behaviors, of which I will describe two.

Before launching into these flaws, I want to make it clear that evolution has no plan. There is no goal or end product of evolution. One can easily come to feel that the beauty, elegance, and balance of the natural world was brought about by a super-intelligent, guiding hand. How could our world be so wonderful, without that intentional design? Evolutionary science has irrefutably demonstrated what the actual process is—one that slowly builds, step-by-step, on a series of in-the-moment choices. It just happens on its own. 

Here is how it goes: mutations—in the form of genetic variations—constantly occur and are then passed on to the next generation. Those new variations then find themselves in competition with preexisting forms. The winner survives and procreates, sending its genes into the future. The loser will not get a chance to procreate and will go extinct. Thus a minutely-improved version comes into being. Very soon there will be another tiny mutation—favorable or not—and if favorable, it will add its tiny, improved modification to the organism.  Gradually, this is how all the millions of species on planet Earth came to be in their current form... beautiful and elegant. And all creatures will continue to evolve—slowly but inexorably bringing about new and varied life forms.

One key aspect of how this process works, however, is that there is no backing up—there is no chance to correct any potentially flawed changes that are made along the way… flaws that at the time are of no consequence. At each tiny step of the process a winner is declared, as the fittest critter survives and multiplies. The winner need not be perfect; just a minuscule bit better than the last.

So sometimes a mutation occurs, and because it is a momentary improvement, it gets built into an organism. It may later prove to have not been the best long-term change, but that less-than-perfect initial change is now a permanent aspect of the organism, which must be dealt with as best it can. Now let me describe those two flaws of the human organism that got built in that I mentioned above. Because they cannot be removed, we have to deal with their defective behaviors.

Two examples of human defective design, next time…