Should We Have Perfect Bodies?: What Intelligent Design Really Says

BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #010423 - 04/23/2001
 

It's a humbling experience we've all had on the way to the morning shower
-- looking at our bodies in the mirror. Even the physically fit can spot
areas for improvement. And some of us, of course, don't need a mirror to
tell us what needs fixing!

We're not perfect creatures. But do our imperfections prove that we're
evolved by natural selection, and not created by an intelligent designer?
Well, a recent article in the magazine Scientific American makes that very
claim.

Entitled "If Humans Were Built to Last," the article by S. Jay Olshansky,
Bruce Carnes, and Robert Butler argues that the human body reflects the
mindless process of natural selection, and not purposeful design.
Olshansky and colleagues write that many of our physical shortcomings
exist because natural selection causes us to survive "just long enough to
reproduce." Once we've passed on our genes, they say, our bodies start to
fall apart.

If we had been intelligently designed, they argue, we should last much
longer. And we wouldn't choke on food, suffer detached retinas, or a host
of other ailments.

Well, this argument for naturalistic evolution dates back well before
Darwin. The eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume, for one, argued
that the miseries of human existence are best explained by "blind nature,"
not design. But this misrepresents what intelligent design really says. It
also overlooks the powerful insights of the Christian worldview.

First, intelligent design does not say that any currently existing
organism, including human beings, should be perfect. Every designed system
in our present universe is subject to physical laws, and involves
trade-offs with a wide range of functional requirements.

Consider, for example, your throat. The esophagus (the passage to the
stomach) and the trachea (the passage to the lungs) come together at the
top of the throat. When you swallow, a structure called the epiglottis
closes to cover your trachea. You can feel this if you put your finger on
your Adam's apple and swallow.

Sometimes, when people take excessively large bites of food, or if they're
inebriated, the epiglottis may not close properly, and they choke.

Now, Olshansky and company argue that if our throats had been
intelligently designed, this wouldn't happen. They suggest that a better
design would have placed the trachea higher, near the nasal passage. .. .
. Maybe, but maybe not.

You see, it would be impossible to speak if air only passed through your
nostrils, not your mouth. Catching a cold could be a life-threatening
illness, because congestion would block the only pathway for oxygen. And
if you needed more air -- running to catch the bus, for example -- sorry,
opening your mouth for extra oxygen won't help.

Yes, humans occasionally choke. But there is absolutely no evidence that
another system would work better. It's easy to speculate about what an
intelligent designer would have done, but there's a world of difference
between speculation and science.

The Christian worldview tells us not to expect perfection. While God
created the world, it's also fallen -- a world with illness and pain,
waiting to be redeemed by God's new creation.

So remember that the next time you look in the bathroom mirror. If your
current model is due to expire, don't worry about it: There's an
incomparably better one coming!
 

For further reference:

Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Indianapolis, IN:
Hackett Publishing Company, [1776] 1980.

Olshansky, S. Jay, Bruce A. Carnes, and Robert N. Butler. "If Humans Were
Built to Last." Scientific American, March 2001, pp. 50-55.

Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries

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