If humans are created via intelligent design, why are we so flawed?
Posted by James on February 26, 2012 · 9 Comments
Question by Nice guy: If humans are created via intelligent design, why are we so flawed?
Supposedly humans are the crown of creation. However, if one compares humans with animals, the only component that sticks out is our brain. In all other aspects, our body is at best mediocre compared to animals. Our senses are not well developed and even if we train them we never get close to most animals. Our immune system is crap; animals are on average much healthier that we are and we even have doctors to keep certain trouble away from us. Our skeleton is not made for upright walking and brings us back pain and other trouble with great regularity. Even our brain is not well designed since we only use a fraction of it. Among humans, good design requires talent and experience and a deep understanding of the nature of the object to be designed. Supposedly God, if infinite, should have all of these traits without limits. However, if we humans are the product of intelligent design by a God, then it appears to me that the result is mediocre at best. Take the human eye. Often cited as evidence for intelligent design, even we humans have come up with artificial eyes that are far superior to the human eye. So if we supposedly are evidence for intelligent design, my respect for the designer has just dropped a notch. As I designer, I would try to use the best components for my design, and not just for one part of it, unless I have a restricted budget.
Best answer:
Answer by Fireball
flaws come from sinning. Pollution etc.
Add your own answer in the comments!
if God created everything, he made a lot of mistakes. The universe is filled with chaos, our natural world filled with meaningless violence and horrible suffering and death. Whole species are wiped out on a whim. Evil sometimes is rewarded, good punished. Men have nipples and sit on vestigeal tailbones. Whales have fingers but don’t play the guitar. There are 12,000 species of ants.
I seldom get into this argument, but I believe that many of our flaws are only as troublesome as we make them to be.
Others are put there to give us reasonable goals to meet, others are there after generations of sin and neglect.
Bottom line is though, flaws are temporary in every shape and way. Once we pass they are gone forever.
Man was originally created perfect and flawless. Sin ruined that.
EDIT: WHY ASK A QUESTION THAT YOU DON’T WANT THE REAL ANSWER TO. YOUR OPINION WILL NEVER TRIUMPH OVER TRUTH.
I find when people ask these type questions trying to find some fault with God they are basically creating a smoke screen that they can hide behind so they can avoid dealing with their accountability to God and the sin in their lives. The ruse doesn’t impress or fool God friend. He sees deep into your heart, and you have to deal with him in this life or the life to come. Your choice.
I don’t think we done too badly given the fact we were duped into accepting a double helix as opposed to the twelve stranded DNA we originally had
You say “We Humans” Oh come on don’t you have the courage of your convictions to admit” We Reptilians” and start accepting responsibilities for your own actions for a change
Human with a capital ” H ” BTW
You’re looking at things highly skewed. We are what we are due to our brains. The reason we’re so sickly also because of our brains. We were able to figure out how to cure diseases and skirt around things that should ordinarily kill us and cull the herd. Because of that, natural selection doesn’t work properly, so defective and weak genetics is passed along. Our skeleton is designed to walk upright. Compared to our relative, whose skeleton is designed to hold the major organ in place with the rib cage with a small pelvis, as we evolved and stood upright more and more often to reach food, our rib cage shrunk and our pelvis became larger and shaped more like a bowl to support the organs.
I could address all of your points, but it’s a waste of time because it looks like you made up your mind. You clearly have a lot of valid questions or observations, just not enough intelligence or information to come to intelligent conclusions. While I do not believe in intelligent design, there’s no valid reason to suggest we haven’t evolved exactly the way we needed to up until we got too big for our britches, as it were. But our evolution isn’t over. Just like the impact man’s tinkering has had on the planet and changed its natural course, so will the tinkerings of man effect the course of man.
1. The human body was perfect when God first created it in Adam and Eve. The bodies we have today are fallen state. Still, our bodies still work very well, and actually surprisingly so in spite of the ways we abuse our bodies. It’s quite resilient, and keeps on going until it simply can’t take the abuse anymore, then dies.
2. God gave us a superior brain but lessened the other senses because He did not design us to be running around searching for food and trying to keep from being eaten. That is why we don’t need heightened senses or greater physical strength and endurance like the animals. We were designed to be the managers of this Earth, which requires brainpower but not much physical strength.
3. We don’t just use “a fraction” of our brain. That’s an urban myth. We use all of it.
4. Our eye is perfectly suited for the environment in which we live. The fact that it works at all is a miracle. The eye of an octopus is perfectly designed for the environment in which it lives. The eye of an eagle is perfectly designed for the environment in which it lives. It all goes back to point #1, that humans are designed to use their brains to find food, not their senses, like the animals.
5.Our immune system is actually excellent, as long as you feed it the right nutrition. Most of the food we eat today is so lacking in basic nutrition, it’s a wonder more people aren’t sick. People who eat a 100% vegetarian diet actually remain quite healthy throughout their lives.
6. The muscles, bones and tendons that allow us to walk upright are perfectly formed. Backaches are usually caused by poor posture (which can be corrected) or improper lifting and bending (which can also be corrected). Other causes come from improper nutrition, which goes back to point #5.
7. All of the other “imperfections” you see are a result of the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve had perfect bodies that were far superior to ours in all respects. We have lost that perfection since then, and our bodies have succumbed to diseases, mutations, etc. These are not due to “design”.
If Humans were not created by “Intelligent Design,” why are you able to criticize? Well, actually, your reasoning faculties are a poor argument for intelligence in your design. You have so little!
REVELATION 22:11.
11. “He that is UNJUST, let him be Unjust still:
and he which is FILTHY, let him be Filthy still:
and he that is RIGHTEOUS, let him be Righteous still:
and he that is HOLY, let him be Holy still.”
THE FOUR LEVELS OF PERCEPTION by L. Ron Hubbard
4. Differentiation: the intelligent ability to perceive
the differences between similar things.
3. Association: the intelligent ability to perceive
the similarities between different things.
2. Identification: the insane inability to perceive
the differences between different things.
1. Dissociation: the insane inablity to perceive
the similarities between similar things.
0. Death: the inability to perceive anything at all.
ALL LIVING THINGS are conceived in one of four possible default Life Energy categories. This is determined by the mean of their parents’ life energies at their conception. It is very hard to change, positively or negatively. It is important to determine, early on, which category we are in, and if necessary, make remdial changes, or proceed to develop ourselves better.
God’s stupidity is wiser than Human’s wisdom. be very careful what you say. if you do not see the Wisdom in God’s designs, the fault lies with you, not with God.
A total fool says that the only component that sticks out is our brain!
Talk to men and women in iron lungs. Paraplegics! maimed men who have lost their thumbs, fingers, or hands! Let them teach you respect for the Human body, and the wisdom that formed it!
Say not, “Our senses are not well developed….”
Say rather, “MY senses are not well developed…!”
In what respects did God incompetently calibrate your senses?
Perhaps you would like to be smelling the garbage bin outside, or your toilet bowl, while you are eating your dinner?
Perhaps you like the metals of your cooking pots so much, you would like to savour them as you eat? As you drink your water, you would maybe like to count every pollen spore and bacterial cyst that drifts into your cup before you pour and swallow?
Would you like to hear every Lover’s Quarrel on the block? Okay- how about when you’re trying to get to sleep, then? Would you like to hear the Le Mans chicane swerving of blood coursing through the capillaries of your little toes- since you wouldn’t want inefficient ears, now would you?
If your skeleton is not made for walking upright, Mr. Quasimodo, please feel free to crawl down the street on your way to work. Though it baffles me to wonder who would employ someone so lacking in Vitamin B1 as yourself….
Would you like to be so strong, that you can stick your hand through your door, crush utensils, destroy furniture- if your attention slips- the basic SUPERMAN problem of “living in a world made of cardboard.”
As for your brain not being well designed because you use only a fraction of it- SPEAK FOR YOURSELF! Many people have learned to use all 100% of their brain functionality. Scientologists, for instance.
The thing is, why would you *want* to use all of your brain’s functionality? What can you do with it?
Total Recall is only 10% of the mind’s ability. The mind is not limited to the brain, and can render it redundant. I know you didn’t know that.
People who insult their Creator know very little.
Disrespect for the Human eye is a total new one! I NEVER saw that coming! (Sorry! Couldn’t resist.) How would you like to have to count every blade of grass in lawns. See every flying insect for five miles.
See what everyone is doing behind closed doors, and brick walls.
Infra-red, Ultra-Violet. Yeah! how about developing a favorite colour that will blind you over time- even give you sunburn and skin cancer?
Pehaps you’d like to see X-rays, Cosmic rays, and Background Radiation? You think God is so stupid, He didn’t think to give you vision you couldn’t turn off when yopu wanted. What if you could see your body heat- and it kept you up at night!
The Human Mind, when developed according to The Will of God, has the fundamental Powers of Total Recall, ESP (all sense channels), Telekinesis; Teleportation, and Translation. This is only half of our capabilities. There is insufficient room to go into further detail.
You should deeply repent of your blasphemy, and pray that The Glorious God mercifully grant you to witness the extent of the marvels he built into your mind and body.
Does anyone still doubt that Atheists are insane? HERE’S PROOF!!!
1. “IF ONE COMPARES HUMANS WITH ANIMALS, THE ONLY COMPONENT THAT STICKS OUT IS OUR BRAIN.”
I object to his use of the word “our.” This guy is not playing with a full deck! His IQ looks like a shoe size! He’s lost it! (Did he ever *have* it?)
Perhaps he would prefer to have the stamina of a horse, and the speed of a cheetah in order to run everywhere. The shortened life-cycle of such hi-metabolism DUMB ANIMALS obviously does not bother him at all. if we could breathe underwater, we would probably never bother with the land at all. We would have taken considerably longer than 6,000 years to figure out electricity.
Forget about metallurgy, aerospace, literature, and other vaunted aspects of our culture. Playing tag with Jaws would sure settle excitement value. In the sea, you cannot bed down without waking up to find something trying to have you for breakfast. What a healthy environment to raise the kids.
Perhaps NICE GUY would like the metabolism of a tortoise- live 300 years, easy- move everywhere at the blistering speed of 100 miles per decade…. God really missed designing us with better bodies.
The opposable thumb is really meaningless. Why should God have given us such a useless appendage, when he could have given us wings- forgetting no bird over 10lbs can fly. He could have given us flippers- we should be applauding His Superior Wisdom- since swimming is so much more important than anything.
Would tiger claws would be really an asset- since he thinks we are no better than the beasts who tear other creatures up? To eat them.
Shouldn’t God have given NICE GUY the arms of the oranguatan, so he could swing through the trees and dig lice out of his ***, with the greatest of ease? After all, since He gave him the brains, why did He not go on and finish the job?
“OUR SENSES ARE NOT WELL DEVELOPED AND EVEN IF WE TRAIN THEM WE NEVER GET CLOSE TO MOST ANIMALS.”
Like, we don’t have enough trouble getting to sleep in the cities.
NICE GUY wants us to be “Cosmically Aware” of every cockcroach, car, and jet plane in the district. God should have been intelligent enough to know what we really need.
I’m sure your girlfriend (uh, you do have a girlfriend, right? Sorry for asking,) is a very beautiful woman. (Legally blonde, no doubt!) Would you still be able to think so, if you could see every pore on her face, hear every rasp of mucus in her throat…. and places- smell every fart you can’t now? Every internal gurgle of the expensive dinners you buy her? You really want all that? (This is what annoys me about writers of my favorite comic book characters- like DAREDEVIL, WOLVERINE, STORM- who all have acute hearing. That ALONE is enough to ruin their lives. when you add olfactory and taste senses to the mix, there is no way someone like that can enjoy a normal social life! Everything will offend!)
“OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM IS CRAP.”
Speaking for myself, MY immune system is EXCELLENT.
I do not sabotage it by taking all sorts of nonsense I shouldn’t.
If I am injured, I know cannot take anything with sugar in it.
My immune system has to handle millions of bacteria in my digestive tract that want to add ME to their menu. I can boost my immune system when necessary by FASTING- as God Commanded- which elimnates the intestinal flora, enabling my immune system to eliminate threats it might otherwise need help with. So, I do not require medicine. (ALL SICKNESS IS DUE TO SIN- Deut. 28.)
“OUR SKELETON IS NOT MADE FOR UPRIGHT WALKING.”
Really? crawl down the street, and tell the people ignorantly walking upright, that you are making a better use of your skeleton than they are. Humans can run 30 mph, climb mountains, walk tightropes, ride Harleys. You the lone genius telling us our skeletons are not suitable for doing all of that. As a martial artist (I made yellow belt in Taekwondo, once) I know how the skeleton has to be properly maintained and its joints exercises EVERY DAY to prevent stiffening and pain. you think lions don’t get backache?
“EVEN OUR BRAIN IS NOT WELL DESIGNED….”
Speak for yourself, Charlie!
“…SINCE WE USE ONLY A FRACTION OF IT.”
L. Ron Hubbard published a littel manual in 1950, detailing a method by which a person would be able to make 100% use of their mind- where only 10% is used “normally.” He gained wide acceptance at first, until he accidentally uncovered the MK-ULTRA programme. Proving the US Government had been secretly turning people into spies and suicide-assassins without their knowledge or consent by kidnapping people and brainwashing them via an easy, overnight treatment. A vast disinformation campaign was set up to invalidate his findings- which can be easily verified by anyone who buys his easy-to-read book, and implements its techniques.
God Commanded by Moses that His worshippers use 100% of their spirit, soul, and body to serve Him. Only the prophets obeyed Him- and they
The thing is, most “poor design” arguments come from ignorance. We are constantly finding previously unknown functions (important functions) for the supposed vestigial structures and so-called “psuedogenes.”
For instance, in Oct. ’07, CNN.com had the article “Purpose of Appendix Believed Found.” Some scientists discovered that it is a safe house for bacteria and can reboot the digestive system if needed.
Evolutionists told us the appendix, the pineal gland, the pituatary gland, and a hundred other things were vestigial, only to have science find out they had a function after all. How many people were exposed to increased infections during the tonsillectomy craze of the 1960s?
But the thing is, if the Creator is the God of the Bible, then we are told that this is a cursed earth (all of creation is suffering as a result of man’s sin in Gen. 3); everything is in a state of progressive degeneration—bad things are supposed to happen and things are expected to get worse (e.g. mutational load). Unlike God, the creation is wearing out like a garment (as it says in Psalm 102:25-26).
It’s like the example of a gardener digging up an ancient book—the book is falling apart, it’s pages are mostly stuck together, and the type has faded. Does the current condition of the book mean that it never carried a message and that it wasn’t designed? The book is in a degenerative condition, but there is no denying that it was designed for a purpose and optimal for doing it’s job at one point in time.
An unbeliever looks at the earth and finds examples of what he or she believes are evidences of poor design. Yet, it is very likely they might be witnessing degeneration from the Fall, or again that they are simply ignorant of the purpose.
As it has been said, “We will not assume, therefore, that because an unbeliever’s reasoning ability is flawed, this proves his brain was not designed.”
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/vestigialorgans.asp
http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/designgonebad.html
And here is something specifically for you on the eye:
http://www.detectingdesign.com/humaneye.html