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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

[Diagoras]

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?

Presupposes an intended purpose. Presupposes a flawless source. Presupposes ‘design’.

You’re not using logic very well in this instance.

[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.
ellbeing.


Marke: The idea that humans evolved from animals or evolved larger heads or other changes is highly speculative and not based on solid scientific observations. Drawing theoretical conclusions is not the same thing as providing irrefutable proof of scientific facts. Writers make a mistake when they claim evolution is proven by assortments of conclusions from data that do not irrefutably prove the evolution theory. Like Christian beliefs in God's creation are supported by a host of reasonable conclusions based upon scientific data so evolution is also a belief based on conclusions drawn from data but not irrefutably proven.

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Fossil apes and human evolution | Science
Yes, scientific evidence strongly supports the fact that humans have evolved over time. This evidence comes from a variety of sources, including the fossil record, genetics, and the study of human behavior. Human evolution refers to the gradual process by which humans, including our shared human ancestors, have changed over millions of years.

Marke: "Strongly supports" is not the same thing as "Irrefutably proves."

[A Freeman]

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?

Presupposes an intended purpose. Presupposes a flawless source. Presupposes ‘design’.

You’re not using logic very well in this instance.

Only to someone who is completely unobservant of their natural surroundings, and has no idea of what logic really is, would assume everyone else is equally impaired, or that they are in a position to judge that which they know nothing about.

This thread's premise assumes that there are design flaws in organisms, based upon an extremely limited understanding of the fit, form and function of those organisms, and offers a "conclusion" that these perceived flaws are allegedly evidence of "evolution" (Darwinism really) rather than design.

There's a word for people who accuse others of doing what they are actually doing themselves isn't there?

[A Freeman]

https://www.thestemspectrum.org/post/ho ... -our-world



https://www.goldennumber.net/dna/

[Diagoras]

This thread's premise assumes that there are design flaws in organisms

So please offer a counter-theory as to why these features are ‘perfectly designed’ to be the way they are.

[A Freeman]

This thread's premise assumes that there are design flaws in organisms

So please offer a counter-theory as to why these features are ‘perfectly designed’ to be the way they are.

You are literally living inside one of billions of bio-electrical machines, that can be fueled by its natural surroundings and which is self-repairing if it isn't too badly damaged. Not a machine made of crude bits of wires, printed circuit-boards and plastic, that needs to be externally powered or charged every few hours, but which can survive on nothing but its own energy reserves and freshwater for weeks if necessary.

All the while we travel on a planetary size spaceship that is in stable orbit around its parent star, with an extremely complex and interdependent ecosystem, where plant and animal life coexist in a symbiotic relationship. A planet that magically happens to have a planetary-scale filtration system, and a planetary scale temperature buffering system and planetary scale waste management system, all of which has worked flawlessly for thousands of years.

Add to that a moon that just happens to be at the exact distance from the Earth to be exactly the same relative size as the sun when viewed from the surface of the Earth. A moon with an orbital plane that is precisely what it needs to be off of the ecliptic plane so that we can use it to accurately track and predict solar and lunar eclipses. Eclipses which can be tied to historic events occurring over thousands of years, just in case we don't have a paper calendar or iPhone handy.

And all of this is going on while you demand to be shown "evidence" of intelligent design, while at the same time pretending to be the arbiter of what is allegedly logical and what is illogical.

Stripped down to its base component, the alternative hypothesis to intelligent design is "shite happens". That may work well for a bumper sticker, but it isn't very scientific nor observant nor honest, is it?

[Diagoras]

You are literally living inside one of billions of bio-electrical machines, that can be fuelled by its natural surroundings and which is self-repairing if it isn't too badly damaged.

And which developed and grew from a single cell just 0.1mm in diameter. And which functions well despite a number of sub-optimal features (see OP for details).

All the while we travel on a planetary size spaceship

Otherwise known as a ‘planet’.

that is in stable orbit around its parent star

On human lifetime timescales, certainly.

with an extremely complex and interdependent ecosystem

So, not all directed by one ‘super-intelligent’ being, then?

A planet that magically happens to have

<bolding mine>

Never a satisfactory answer.

a planetary-scale filtration system, and a planetary scale temperature buffering system and planetary scale waste management system, all of which has worked flawlessly for thousands of years.

<bolding mine>

You’re understating that by a few orders of magnitude. Learning how the Earth’s various systems developed over time is a fascinating topic.

Add to that a moon that just happens to be at the exact distance from the Earth to be exactly the same relative size as the sun when viewed from the surface of the Earth.

Look up ‘orbital resonance’ and ‘the music of the spheres’. Really fascinating.

A moon with an orbital plane that is precisely what it needs to be off of the ecliptic plane so that we can use it to accurately track and predict solar and lunar eclipses.

Yep. Science. Better than chicken bone divination or sacrificing goats.

And all of this is going on while you demand to be shown "evidence" of intelligent design

All of this is being explained by science, while you can’t even offer a reasonable explanation for how the human eye was designed ‘intelligently’.

while at the same time pretending to be the arbiter of what is allegedly logical and what is illogical.

Ad hominem.

Stripped down to its base component, the alternative hypothesis to intelligent design is "shite happens".

Excluded middle fallacy. This ignores ‘natural laws’.

So, can you offer a ‘design’ theory for the human eye?

[A Freeman]

So you're a worshipper of Rudolf Virchow, "the pope of medicine"?

[Diagoras]

I hadn’t heard of Rudolf Virchow before, so thanks for the reference. Obviously I don’t ‘worship’ him (or indeed, any other scientist) but I can admire his achievements.

Fascinating as a tangent as that might be, there is still the outstanding topic from the OP to address.

[A Freeman]

I hadn’t heard of Rudolf Virchow before, so thanks for the reference. Obviously I don’t ‘worship’ him (or indeed, any other scientist) but I can admire his achievements.

Fascinating as a tangent as that might be, there is still the outstanding topic from the OP to address.

Obviously you do worship Rudolf Virchow (and other "scientists"), because you've not only adopted his unproven hypothesis, but feel you can quote it as if it allegedly is fact (imagining his vain babblings to be "an achievement").

And with regard to how this alleged tangent relates directly to the OP: Those whose minds have been so utterly corrupted as to believe that truth is supposedly a lie and that the lies they've been sold are allegedly "scientific facts" are simply not in a position to judge things they know nothing about, by criteria they make up out of thin air (like Virchow's hypothesis).

We have an entire, multi-trillion dollar a year chemical-pharmaceutical-medical industry that is based on nothing but LIES, so they can sell known toxins and known carcinogenic procedures to their victims/parishioners who "admire their achievements" (i.e. who worship them as gods and thus are foolish enough to buy their poisonous potions/witches' brew).

There is not one single shred of evidence indicating there is a "design flaw" in any living organism. That doesn't mean there aren't issues that were caused by ignorant and arrogant human tampering and our propensity to destroy our natural environment instead of LEARNING to work WITH nature. It also doesn't mean there aren't parts of our natural surroundings that we simply don't understand; there obviously are MANY things which are either misunderstood or not understood at all. But our ignorance of our own arrogance blinds us from this very obvious truth.

EVERYTHING on this planet, and in the universe, is specifically and very intelligently designed to follow the natural laws CREATED to govern it all, and to automatically adjust (e.g. the programmed trait of natural selection, where the strongest of the species survive).

What you and several others here on this forum are promoting in ignorance, unwittingly or otherwise, is the satanic notion of "order out of chaos" which is something that has NEVER been observed because it NEVER happens. THAT is why no one has EVER demonstrated that random mutations can somehow create new information, or improve existing information, just as noise can never "mutate" into harmony or a clear, coherent signal, regardless of how much time passes.