#25: Are there design errors in creations?
Many atheists I argue with would claim that there is no creator, because if there was one, then how come there are what they call “design errors in his creation”?!!
Well, I will not discuss what they consider a design error, but rather I would discuss what is an error in the first place.
An error is something that is a deviation from the intended design or something or a mismatch between a function and the purpose of something. Hence, if someone is considering the concept of an “error” you would be by default a certain purpose/design against which he will identify errors.
But, since we are not the claimed designer, is it fair in the first place to make the assumption of the design according to our point of view, or it so rather logical to ask the designer himself about his intent, purpose, and design parameters of his own creation?!
Meanwhile, if we only know so little about anything around us, especially biological structures that prove more and more complex beyond our comprehension the more we learn about it; then do we at all have the right to criticize the design of a creature that is made of components that we do not understand?!!
So, for example, if someone looks at a car and finds a spoiler at the tail of the car, does he have the right to criticize it under any of the following premises:
1. He thinks that spoilers look like wings and that a wing has no function in a car,
2. He does not understand why it is there while it makes dimes obstruct the hind vision of the driver.
3. He sees that it is not very ergonomic in terms of opening the back hood.
4. He expects that the car was previously used as a flying machine and that the spoiler is a vestigial component that was left there for no purpose.
Out of all the above or some of them, the observer then concludes that the design of this car was made through a random compute program that has collected random design elements from unrelated fields and then directed a robotic production line to assemble it and that its design lacks purpose or harmony.
And, if some engineer designed it, then that engineer must be a bad engineer as a spoiler has no obvious function to the car, in his opinion.
Now, this same observer, after he grows up a little and studies aerodynamics, he understands that spoilers have a stabilizing effect for fast cars,
And then, he stumbles on a document about the purpose of the car, and he knows that it was primarily built to run on freeways and in-car races…!
And then suddenly the spoiler makes sense, due to combining a better understanding of science on his part, and also knowledge about purpose and design from the creator himself!
So, now we ask the question, is it fair that someone would be audacious enough to claim that God’s creation has flaws?!
I leave you with this thought.