Truth Saves - Unintelligent Design

Un-Intelligent Design


	Basis of Comparison ID supporters claim the designer’s intelligences is far superior to man's but life's design doesn’t even hold up to man's standards of intelligence. Not only have we noticed flaws but we also find ways to improve life's designs through the aid of everything from medications to eye glasses. Claiming one's god is the designer is an insult to that god's intelligence.

Although Intelligent Design is not a science we can still test whether or not life appears intelligently designed. At first glance it looks to be so, but after a closer look it obviously isn't. 99% of all animals that ever existed are now extinct because their design failed the test of time. When closely examined, although complex and amazing, the living world is filled with sloppy designs. Also, species contain re-used parts of other species that were jury rigged and tinkered with in an attempt to fit the new species' needs. Not only could have life’s complexity have evolved through natural means, but it must have done so because their physical and genetic structures are all inconsistent with the demands of intelligent design.

Sloppy Design

If you take a closer and educated look at the structure of various life forms you will notice life is full of sloppy design. If life did have a designer, such sloppy designs prove that the supposed designer was hardly worthy of the name intelligent. Here are just a few examples how sloppy life's designs can be.


	Choking We breath and intake food through the same pipe. Although we have a valve to guide food down the esophagus it easily malfunctions which allows food to get lodged in the windpipe resulting in choking. A dolphin has a separate pipe for the intake of food and berating but humans have a rather sloppy design. Not only is using the same pipe for the intake of both food and air a poor design flaw but our bodies rely on a valve that is also poorly designed and malfunctions. A very simple solution for humans would be to have the air flow from the nose connect to the windpipe AFTER the point where food commonly gets lodged. Even someone with the most basic level of intelligence can come up with a more intelligent design than our natural one.


	Rabbits The rabbit has become an icon for unintelligent design. When rabbits eat plant matter they start by chewing it up in their mouth. Then the food passes by through their stomach continuing pass the small intestine, pass the large intestine and into the caecum. The caecum is a fermentation chamber towards the back of the rabbit. After food is fermented it must go to the small intestine, but wait, the food already passed it. The rabbits have to poop out the food into pellets called cecotropes then turn around and eat those pellets. This second time around the food enters the body where it passes the stomach again and then enters the small intestine. There the nutrients are absorbed into the blood stream. Where is the intelligent design in that?


	Lack of Vitamin C Our bodies need vitamin C. A lack of this vitamin results in a nasty disease known as scurvy and eventually death. Virtually all animals and plants have the ability to synthesize their own vitamin C, but not humans. Humans cannot produce this vital vitamin on their own because of a very sloppy design flaw. The required gene is defective in humans. Having a defective gene like this in the design of our human bodies is far from intelligent, it is pure sloppiness.


	Spine Our vertebral column is an extremely poor design for a support column. Back pain is one of the most common health complaints resulting in more than 15 million doctor visits each year. The spine requires a series of S curves to support the body which in turn causes the lower region of the column to suffer from excessive pressure. The weight can cause disks between the vertebrae to become dislodged pinching spinal nerves causing pain or fracture delicate structures at the back of the vertebrae, a problem that 1 out of 20 Americans have. No other living primate experiences this problem and our spine can only be described as being a sloppy, poor, and unintelligent design. As always evolution can explain why our spine is so terribly designed for humans that walk upright. Quite simply, our spine was not intended for humans that stand upright. It was originally designed to act as an arch, when we became upright it had to function as a weight-bearing column to support our head and balance our weight directly over our hip joints and lower limbs.


	Human Feet The human feet are two ridiculously tiny platforms considering they are suppose to bear the full weight of our upright body. Because of their poor design they leave a large window for error if their arch and alignment isn’t exactly perfect. For people with a reduced arch fatigue fractures often develop. For people with a pronounced arch in their feet the ligaments that support the arch sometimes become inflamed. Not only is the size an unintelligent design flaw but so is it's density. A 350 pound male gorilla has a smaller heel bone than a 100 pound human female, yet the gorilla's heel bone is a lot more dense. The great size of our heel bone does help dissipate the stress delivered by normal walking but this also causes much more surface exposure of our skeletal tissue. The result is an accelerated rate of bone mineral loss as we age, eventually leading to osteoporosis along with fractures of the hip and vertebral. Intelligently designed? By whose standards? Believers of ID claim that the designer is all-knowing but let's set the requirements even lower. At the absolute least in order for something to be considered "intelligently design" it has to be at least intelligently designed by the standards of human intellect. If life was so intelligently designed then why is it that humans have been able to improve upon that design ages ago? The fact that man has created padded foot wear and insoles to improve the arch of your feet is evidence enough that our feet are poorly designed. So poor that even with our added improvements the flaws of our feet's structure are still clearly abundant.


	Birth Defects There are an average of 150,000 birth defects a year in the United States alone. A lot of these birth defects only take a simple error in the genetic code to occur. For example, if a child is born with three Chromosome 21s instead of the standard pair the result is Down Syndrome. Even just exposure to pesticides can cause the genetic code to malfunction resulting in being born with no limbs. If a toy manufacture made a machine that mass produces toys but had a defect rate of 150,000 a year, no one would consider that machine to be intelligently designed by today's standards. Our means of reproduction and passing on genetic code is amazing but it is also a very sloppy process.


	Viruses The human body is very vulnerable to Cancer, HIV and many other viruses that impair our health and can even cause death. No one would consider a virus protection program to be intelligently designed if their computer still got damaged by viruses. With all the viruses that humans get our immune system is extremely sloppy at doing what it was designed to do.


	Wisdom Teeth As many know we have two too many teeth and a jaw does not have enough room for them. The wisdom teeth, third molars, in the back of your lower jaw very commonly grow in sideways, cause pain or serious infection and have to be surgically removed. There is no need for the extra teeth, there is no room for them and they only cause damage. This design is less intelligent than a 10 dimple egg carton with only room for 10 eggs but intended to hold a dozen eggs. Once again, only evolution can provide an answer to this mystery. Our ancient (very ancient) ancestors had longer jawbones which provided enough room for all thirty-two teeth but as humans evolved our skulls have become slightly smaller while our brains have actually become a bit larger. To make room for these changes our jaws have moved lower and further back on our skulls causing our jaws to become shorter. [x] Close

Human Eye
Even such a complex and amazing structure like the human eye demonstrates sloppy design. For example the neural wiring alone causes three problems displaying sloppy design;

Restricted Vision: What we consider "perfect" vision is not perfect because it involves seeing through a network of blood vessels located in front of the retina scattering the passing light. This is equal to designing a camera with the wires running across the front of the camera's lens, something an intelligent designer would not do.
Impaired Vision: With a network of blood vessels running across the front of the retina, instead of behind like on some other creatures, our eyes are left venerable to damage from leaks. A leading cause of impaired vision is due to leaks in the blood vessels damaging the retina that could be avoided if the vessels ran behind the retina. No one in their right mind would run delicate pipe lines above delicate equipment like an uncovered and unprotected computer so why would one assume an intelligent designer would run blood vessels across the top of the retina?
Blind Spot: The optic nerve connects to the brain through a hole in the retina causing a blind spot at the center of our eyes. This again restrains us from having a higher degree of visual quality. Would you design a camera with the wiring going right through the middle of the lens? If you would, that would not be considered intelligent design.

What is really important to take note of is that all of this could easily have been avoided if there were an intelligent designer. Many organisms have eyes in which the neural wiring is neatly tucked away behind the photoreceptor layer. The squid and the octopus, for example, have a lens-and-retina eye quite similar to our own, but their eyes are wired right-side out, with no light-scattering nerve cells or blood vessels in front of the photoreceptors, and no blind spot. Surely an all-powerful designer would have done a better job with man, his supposed crowning achievement. Of course these are not the only imperfections in the human eye: it suffers from all of the normal afflictions of the human body: vulnerability to trauma, disease, and wear and tear. Were the eye perfectly designed, we should expect it to be more resistant to malfunction than it is.

This sloppy design cannot be explained through "Intelligent Design" but has been explained by evolution. The retina of vertebrates evolved as a modification of the outer layer of the brain that evolution progressively modified for light sensitivity. Although the layer of light-sensitive cells gradually took a retina-like shape it retained having a series of nerve connections on its surface. On the other hand, the eyes of mollusks evolved from skin cells, which have wiring below the surface. Because of this mollusk eyes don’t share the same sloppy design flaws that human eyes have.


	Vas Deferens The Vas Deferens is the tube in mammals linking testes to the penis. Instead of going directly from point A to point B it makes a pointless detour looping up and over the Ureter, a duct connecting the bladder to the kidney. It only takes one simple look to see this is a sloppy design. Only evolution can answer this bizarre and unnecessary detour. Quite simply, early ancestors of mammals had testes inside their body. As they descended during the course of evolution the testes could have went behind or in front of the ureter. By chance, they went behind causing the vas deferens to loop up and over the ureter.

Re-used Parts

Because creationism works from scratch it should produce organisms that are optimally designed for the tasks they perform. However life contain numerous vestigialities, compromised versions of organisms that appear fully functional in evolutionary ancestors but lost most, if not all, of their original function. This would not be intelligent design?


	Permanently Covered Eyes The Blind Mole Rat, Cave Salamander and Mexican Tetra are all blind yet their eyes are not damaged or flawed. So why are they blind? Simple, their skin covers their eyes. Unlike most creatures that have eyelids which can open and close, these little creatures don’t have such luxuries. Their eyes are permanently encased behind a solid layer of flesh making vision impossible. Where is the intelligent design in that? That’s like a camera with a lens cap that isn’t designed to come off. These are not primitive eyes or mere light sensitive cells. They are fully developed complex eyes just like that of any other mole, salamander or fish. The actual reason for this is that these creatures spend virtually all of their time with little to no exposure to day light. As generations have passed their eyelids evolved to completely cover the eye permanently. Since their eyes were no longer need without exposure to light they become entirely covered by skin so its sensitivity would no longer be irritated by the dirt.


	Flightless Beetles There are many examples of flightless beetles, such as weevils. These beetles have perfectly formed wings that were common in past ancestors. As with other beetles they also have wing covers on their back but these flightless beetles are flightless because their wing covers are permanently fused shut, rendering the wings useless. Where is the intelligence of designing a creature with useless wings that are permanently trapped inside its body?


	Dandelions Dandelions self-reproduce by means of apomixis and do not reproduce by fertilization like most other living organisms. Despite this they still have flowers and produce pollen, both of which are sexual organs used for sexual fertilization. Where is the intelligences in designing a plant the produces pollen when it has no need for pollen?


	Dewclaws Have you ever noticed the extra claw that appears to be sticking out the side of a dog's leg? It is called a dewclaw and almost all dogs, cats, wolves and tigers have them. What are they for? Nothing, they are a useless extra claw that is usually so high up they don’t even touch the ground when running. They almost always have very little bone or muscle structure and are far too weak structurally to be used for anything like gripping, digging or attacking. On some dogs it's so much in the way that it's surgically removed. Where is the intelligence in design a useless extra claw sticking out of animals’ leg? The actual reason this claw exists is that canines and felines don’t walk on their feet; they actually just walk on only their toes. Evolutionary ancestors to these creatures did walk on their feet and these claws were actual and useful toes and claws for these ancestors.


	Flightless Wings Several species of birds are flightless but still have wings. Some still use their wings for balance when running or help with swimming but others have little use of their wings. The part that makes one question the claim of an intelligent designer is that the wings retain complex structure that is specifically intended for flight and mirrors the wing anatomy of birds that are capable of flight. Commonly the reason these birds can fly is because their wings are too small in comparison to their body weight. The wings of other flightless birds like the Cassowary are visible externally only as a few long and stiff quills. Most of its wing's skeletal structure is found under the skin making the complex frame work of its wings useless. Why would an intelligent designer use the complete structure of wings from flying birds in birds where the mass majority of the wing's structure is not needed? For the record all of the flightless birds that exist today evolved from flying birds, thus why they still retain the same wing structure.


	True Human Tails Scientists have actually discovered the tail genes inside the human genome. Humans contain both the gene to develop tails along with apoptosis (programmed cell death) that plays a significant role in removing the tail while humans are still in the embryo form. The tail genes are retained from distance ancestors to humans and apoptosis was adapted later during the course of our ancestors' evolution. If humans were design by a supposed "intelligent designer" then where is the intelligence of designing both the gene to grow tails and apoptosis to destroy it? Why not just not have the tail gene in the first place? Not to mention that sometimes apoptosis fails causing the tail gene to successfully produce a human tail. Learn More »


	Embryos The embryos of all humans start to grow gills early in their development. The same is also true with the embryos of all other mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians since we all share a common ancestry with fish. There is a specific gene in our DNA that tells our embryo to start developing gills, but before the gills are complete another gene later kicks in telling the gills to form into various other structures. The gills on human embryos are not fully developed or used for respiration but neither are the gills of a fish embryo at that age. The gills are still actually legitimate gills, in their early stages, as the slits do establish contact between the outside and the pharynx. The early stages of development for the gills in human embryos mirrors that of fish embryos. It is not until that later gene (which got added to our DNA later in our evolutionary history) kicks in that the gill development takes a different course than that of fish. Learn More »


	Male Breast Tissue & Nipples Where is the intelligence of designing men with nipples? For some men they may play a small role in sexual stimulation and for very few they can even lactate but for most they are useless. Besides limited to no purpose one cannot ignore the fact that they can even be dangerous as cancer can grow in both male and female breast tissue. Anyone who believes in intelligent design really needs to weigh out the reward of some sexual stimulation and insufficient lactation compared to the dangerous risks of cancer. With all the other means of sexual stimulation out there and more impressive party tricks than male lactation it is obvious that the threat of cancer is not worth it. So why do men have breast tissue and nipples? Does evolution try to claim that man descended from an all female species or that man originally breast feed children? No, obviously that is not the case. In actuality all of us start out with female characteristics, it is not until a later stage of fetal development that the testosterone causes sex differentiation in a fetus. Breast tissue and nipples on males are left over from the earlier stages of our birth that were not fully removed. Why wouldn't a designer who was supposedly intelligent just have a male or female embryo from the start?


	Small Toe If you stop to think about it your small toes are useless. They are not needed for balance and we don't use them when walking. In parts of the world where people go barefoot most of the time it is quite common for their small toes to go missing because of an accident or disease yet their mobility is not hindered at all. What is so intelligent about having an extra and useless toe on our feet? If a designer wanted a fifth toe on each foot to mirror the five fingers on our hands it would have been far more intelligent to have made that extra toe useful and functional. Distant ancestors to humans had more developed small toes as having a fifth digit was useful for climbing trees. Their feet served as extra hands much like that of chimpanzees. As our ancestors stopped living in trees and became bipedal our toes and feet adapted to the new life style. On the other hand, our hands are still used for gripping, hence why our little fingers have not been compromised at all.


	Plantaris Muscle The plantaris is a pencil-sized muscle in the back of our ankles. In humans this muscle is withered away and doesn’t even reach the toes but rather it disappears into the Achilles tendon. Sometimes it is even completely absent in people. The functionality of this muscle is so extremely limited that the loss of it has no effect. Not only is it not needed but like any muscle it can still rupture causing pain due to torn fibers or swelling. Why would a designer who was supposedly intelligent put an unneeded muscle in our ankle that resembles a withered away version of the plantaris muscle in other primates? This muscle was useful to humans' distance ancestors and is still useful for tree climbing primates. In them the muscle is fully developed and is able to cause all five toes to flex at once which is very useful when swinging from tree to tree and grasping.

The Universe

Our universe clearly displays un-intelligent design, especially for life of which can only survive in miniscule specs of the universe. With all of its deadly accidents waiting to happen, it was more likely designed by a James Bond villain than an "intelligent designer."


	On Earth... Volcanoes They spew out deadly molten lava destroying forests and villages. Plate Tectonics Giant plates of earth slide around crashing, causing earthquakes and mass destruction.


	In Space... Drifting Moon Our moon which is needed to stabilize Earth’s orbit is slowly drifting away. Asteroid Impacts Objects of all shapes & sizes fly around randomly, crashing into each other. 20-40,000 small meteorites hit earth every year. It is a matter of when, not if, another giant meteor hits Earth. Like the one that flattened 1,200 square miles of Russia in 1908. Supernovas All stars including our sun are unstable giant time bombs. Black Holes They are all over the universe sucking up & destroying everything in reach. Some are billions times the mass of our sun

Un-Intelligent Design

Basis of Comparison