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.

[A Freeman]

If the Biblical God was real and all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful there would never have been any suffering, injustice and death. All living things would have been forever happy. Based on the Biblical God's evil commands and the presence of suffering, injustice, and death in the world, I am standing by my conclusion that the Biblical God is imaginary and evil.

Total nonsense.

The ONLY way someone could come to the above conclusions is to completely ignore the FACT that we have been the instruments of our own suffering, injustice and death.

We have -- of our own free-will -- abandoned the perfect Law given to us by our All-Loving, All-knowing and All-Powerful God, specifically to protect us from all of this evil, oppression, injustice, suffering and death.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the "I AM" thy God, to walk in His Ways, and to keep His Commandments and His Statutes and His Judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the "I AM" thy God shall bless thee in the land where thou goest to possess it.
30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, where thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore CHOOSE life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
30:20 That thou mayest love the "I AM" thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He [is] thy Life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the "I AM" sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob/Israel, to give them.

1. God's Law contains the PERFECT system of governance, which is a theocracy. In that system, there is no one to lobby or bribe. There's no one to invent new rules to further enrich a select few while impoverishing and oppressing the rest. No one to send our youth off to war, to protect corporate interests. And there's no money making scam of an election process, where hundreds of billions are spent to put on a show to provide the public with the ILLUSION that they are choosing between "the lesser of two evils".

Instead, humans have built a series of corporate-fictional demon-crazy democracies, or corporate-fictional socialist or communist states, all of which places power in the hands of a select few, which can be easily controlled by the banking institutions that fund their ponzi schemes. Governmental systems that are the cause of most of the human suffering in this world, and which have been used to start all of the wars that have maimed, crippled and killed BILLIONS.

2. God's Law contains the PERFECT system of justice, where everyone is subject to exactly the same Law, Statutes and Commandments. A system which has a proven track-record of consistently providing TRUE JUSTICE FOR ALL, based on the evidence for each case. And which does NOT incorporate on "case precedents" into an ever-changing system where what was "legal" one day is "illegal" the next.

Instead, humans have built corporate fictional court systems, where justice is a game in which they always have home-court advantage. And we've filled these court rooms with black-robed judges, who are paid handsomely to enforce man-made rules, policies, procedures, statutes and "codes", all of which are unlawful under God's Law. The result? Often-times criminals get away and innocent individuals are imprisoned. And "civil" matters can sometimes take years and years to settle, thereby ensuring that the lawyers and the courts continue to make lots of money off of their victims/clients.

3. God's Law contains the PERFECT agricultural system, where there are no toxic chemicals or GMOs, and where the land is allowed to rest every seven years, to ensure its nutrients are replenished. A totally natural and sustainable agricultural policy.

Instead, humans have created mechanized farming, which exposes and destroys 4-8" of topsoil annually. We then poison the soil with chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and insecticides which run off into the water-table, further poisoning the drinking water and the fish. Further, we poison the water directly, with chemicals like fluoride and lithium (among dozens, sometimes hundreds of other chemicals) and fill the skies with heavy metal particulate and radioactive particles (e.g. aluminum, barium, strontium, and caesium), which change weather patterns and rain down on us, the soil and the water, to further poison everything.

In the lakes and oceans we have worked diligently to commercially fish out over 90% of the pelagic fish, while using heavy trawlers to destroy the ocean floor to harvest the very sea creatures (by the thousands of tons) which were designed NOT to be eaten, but to be part of the planetary waste-management system to clean up messes. Completely and totally insane.

4. God's Law contains the PERFECT economic system, with built-in short-term and long-term debt relief, to ELIMINATE poverty and the crime which poverty causes. An economic system where unlawful usury is eliminated, which is the mechanism by which the international banking cartel has unlawfully stolen the wealth of nations and individuals.

Instead, humans have created a predatory financial system based upon corporate fictions and fraudulent fractional reserve banking, where money is literally created out of thin air (either on computer screens or at the printing presses) and where virtually everyone is in debt-slavery. A system in which the entire world is being driven by banksterism and war-profiteering to maintain commerce and profit margins.

5. God's Law contains the PERFECT healthy diet which not only maintains healthy human bodies, but protects and preserves our natural environment as well. Not only would all of the toxic chemical and GMOs be eliminated, but the ingestion of unclean animals -- which were never designed to be eaten -- would be eliminated.

Instead, humans have decided to harvest the filthiest animals on the planet, e.g. swine and sea creatures that don't have fins and scales, etc., and unclean birds and waterfowl, all of which were designed to be part of the planetary waste-management system. And this is insanity continues not only to our own detriment, but to the detriment of the entire planet, as it threatens to collapse the food-chain.

So instead of cowardly blaming our Creator -- while foolishly claiming He doesn't exist -- why not start taking personal responsibility for YOUR own actions. If everyone was doing that, and learning to work together WITH nature and its/our Creator, we could have a veritable utopia, i.e. "heaven on Earth" that this place was always MEANT to be.

But that requires obedience to our Creator and His Perfect Law, given to us to protect us from all of this evil and to set and keep us free. A Perfect Law given to us which requires us to TRULY love one another by NOT taking advantage of others, including future generations,who suffer because of our greed/materialism which is very obviously destroying the planet.

[Diagoras]

That is why Satan is telepathically feeding his scientists, who work for the G.M. companies, with this insane technology*

That’s a major clue that this and the subsequent rants about laws have strayed far from the debate topic.

[A Freeman]

Sharing a few specifics about God's Perfect Law, and encouraging others to read, study and actually THINK about it, is very obviously on topic, as it is further proof that God's Designs are PERFECT.

We have God's Perfect Law.

We have DNA, the super-intelligent programming language of life.

We have an entire world that is self-sustaining, despite totally irrational, out-of-control humans trying to destroy it.

We are literally surrounded by evidence of perfection at every level, and yet most lack the intelligence to see beyond their own flawed and illogical standards of judgment, which they hypocritically rarely if ever apply to themselves.

[Diagoras]

Sharing a few specifics about God's Perfect Law, and encouraging others to read, study and actually THINK about it, is very obviously on topic, as it is further proof that God's Designs are PERFECT.

We have God's Perfect Law.

We have DNA, the super-intelligent programming language of life.

We have an entire world that is self-sustaining, despite totally irrational, out-of-control humans trying to destroy it.

We are literally surrounded by evidence of perfection at every level, and yet most lack the intelligence to see beyond their own flawed and illogical standards of judgment, which they hypocritically rarely if ever apply to themselves.

As a reminder for the ‘General Reader’ out there, the debate is centred on:

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.

Nothing there about a god’s law, perfect or otherwise.

‘Perfect design’ hasn’t been proven. The OP has offered multiple examples of imperfection, and although one (‘junk DNA’) has been shown to be a weak example in context, no strong rebuttal has been made for the others.

Much of the rest of your post is pejorative (“irrational”, “lack the intelligence”, “flawed”, “illogical”) and off-topic. We are not debating whether humans are ‘out if control’ and trying to destroy the world.

[1213]

...If the Biblical God was real and all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful there would never have been any suffering, injustice and death. All living things would have been forever happy. ...

So, you would allow evil people live forever and make life eternal suffering for all?

[1213]

But it does ‘self-correct’. One obvious example: plenty of Christian denominations now accept gay priests,...

I wouldn't call it self-correcting, when the group rejects teachings of Jesus and becomes something else than Christian.

I’m not sure that your statement there complies with forum rules:

15. It is not permitted to say another person or group is not a Christian or call them a cult if the person or group identifies as Christian (this includes Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, or any group that claims to be Christian).

There are demonstrably Christian denominations that have changed their rules around accepting gay priests.

That is interesting. If we go as you say, the word Christian is meaningless. Originally it was not so, it meant a disciple of Jesus. And according to Jesus, persons is his disciple, if he remains in his word. What you say basically means Jesus would be against the rules here.

…The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Acts 11:26
Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32

[marke]

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.

Marke: The fact that mutations are generally not transferable to offspring is not a very good support for evolution, but design flaws may not be flaws at all, but imply appendages not fully understood.
AI Overview
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The Importance of the Appendix in the Human Body
Yes, historically, doctors and scientists did widely consider the appendix to be a vestigial organ with no known purpose. However, recent research suggests that the appendix plays a role in the immune system, and may serve as a reservoir for beneficial gut bacteria.

[A Freeman]

Sharing a few specifics about God's Perfect Law, and encouraging others to read, study and actually THINK about it, is very obviously on topic, as it is further proof that God's Designs are PERFECT.

We have God's Perfect Law.

We have DNA, the super-intelligent programming language of life.

We have an entire world that is self-sustaining, despite totally irrational, out-of-control humans trying to destroy it.

We are literally surrounded by evidence of perfection at every level, and yet most lack the intelligence to see beyond their own flawed and illogical standards of judgment, which they hypocritically rarely if ever apply to themselves.

As a reminder for the ‘General Reader’ out there, the debate is centred on:

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.

Nothing there about a god’s law, perfect or otherwise.

‘Perfect design’ hasn’t been proven. The OP has offered multiple examples of imperfection, and although one (‘junk DNA’) has been shown to be a weak example in context, no strong rebuttal has been made for the others.

Much of the rest of your post is pejorative (“irrational”, “lack the intelligence”, “flawed”, “illogical”) and off-topic. We are not debating whether humans are ‘out if control’ and trying to destroy the world.

The title of this thread, as everyone can very plainly read for themselves, is as follows:

Design flaws in organisms indicate evolution, not intelligent design

Anyone who actually studies God's Perfect Law, and puts it into practice in their own lives, should be able to see its amazing HEALING properties, on both the spiritual and physical planes, as well as the very obvious, and FLAWLESS logic it employs. It should likewise become self-evident that what we (mankind) are doing is very illogically destroying our own life-support system.

This should, in any rationally-minded individual, invoke some level of HUMILITY. And, for those actually able to humble themselves, it would logically follow that people who are so insane they are actively destroying their own life-support system are absolutely in no position to judge the natural world or its Creator. Nor would someone afflicted with such insanity even know what a flaw is, much less be able to distinguish between the flawless and the fatally flawed.

When coupled with a careful and logical study of DNA, which itself is literally a programming language for life (written in quaternary rather than binary code) and an entire world FILLED with obvious evidence of intricate design details from the sub-atomic level to the global level (and beyond), it should become self-evident that the ONLY flaws here on Earth are in our own thoughts, words and actions.

Hebrews 8:7-12
8:7 For if that first [Covenant] had been [followed] faultlessly, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8:8 For finding fault WITH THEM, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel [ten "Lost" tribes] and with the House of Judah:
8:9 Not according to The Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued NOT in My Covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
8:10 For this [is] The Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people:
8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for ALL shall KNOW Me, from the least to the greatest.
8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Therefore, it logically follows that our focus should be on our OWN flaws -- which are many -- and on working to eradicate those flaws, so that we can finally see things as they really are, including the perfect, flawless logic and design employed by our Creator in EVERY realm.

[Diagoras]

…including the perfect, flawless logic and design employed by our Creator in EVERY realm.

I ignored the off-topic rant preceding this claim to focus on your claim here.

My suggestion to you is: provide some evidence of perfect design (e.g. of the eye) that disproves the points made by the OP. How can the human eye be said to be ‘perfectly designed’?

[A Freeman]

…including the perfect, flawless logic and design employed by our Creator in EVERY realm.

I ignored the off-topic rant preceding this claim to focus on your claim here.

It wasn't "off-topic" though, nor a "rant", as it specifically addresses an entire world FILLED with evidence of our Creator's FLAWLESS design, was it?

If you wish to ignore what was shared to your own detriment that's certainly your decision, but there's no reason for you to be dishonest nor for you to try to dishonestly label what others have shared for everyone's benefit.

My suggestion to you is: provide some evidence of perfect design (e.g. of the eye) that disproves the points made by the OP. How can the human eye be said to be ‘perfectly designed’?

My suggestion to you would be to open both your human eyes and, more importantly, your spiritual eyes, and start observing the world around you as it REALLY is, instead of how you (the ego really) perceives it. And then prepare to be amazed!

Logically, until one correctly understands the intended purpose of human life here on Earth, and seeks answers from a FLAWLESS Source, how can they possibly determine whether it meets the design criteria or not?