If I were a deity, I would be ashamed if I designed humans. Here are some awful "design" flaws which are easily explainable with evolution, but make no sense if the human body was designed from scratch.
1. That our respiratory system and gastrointestinal system share the same tube at any point. Evolutionary explanation: building upon preexisting structures to allow for multiple functions is far more common and requires fewer mutations than the development of completely separate, independent structures. Why this is a flaw for design: choking. A deity would easily be able to make two separate tubes that were just near each other, never haveing to significantly change the positions of any other internal organs or external features to prevent the choking hazard produced by this "design", which has no benefits over two separate tubes. In fact, the tubes are separate for most of their length. But not for enough of it to prevent thousands of deaths every year in just the U.S. alone, B.E.CPR - Become Educated in CPR .
2. The strain on our spines. Evolutionary explanation: freeing up the hands was more advantageous than back problems were disadvantageous during and before reproductive years, thus this trait was naturally selected for. Why this is a flaw for design: a deity could easily design a skeleton that allowed for bipedal movement without creating horrific back problems. These issues are excessively common in our species, along with issues with most of our supporting joints, such as our knees and hips. These problems are not something that has to occur in order to achieve bipedal movement, so why make a design that has these issues?
3. Shoulder and other joint instability. Evolutionary explanation: it is a consequence of allowing for a wider range of motion; natural biology just won't be able to produce joints that don't have reduced stability with increased mobility. Why this is a flaw for design: unless the designer has limits, this is inexcusable. Tendons would just have to be made stronger to fix this, really.
now for the bad ones people sometimes bring up. These aren't really "design flaws", but sometimes people bring them up as if they are.
1. Eye placement. I have heard some people argue that our eye placement is bad, that they should be placed farther apart to give us a wider field of vision, or some other such nonsense. Our eyes are fine where they are, in fact, this is typical eye placement for predators, and humans were primarily hunter gatherers way back. Eyes farther apart would prevent us from having as much focus on objects as we do, and make us less precise. This is only an advantage for prey animals, who aren't looking to target moving objects, but rather need to detect movement from as wide a view as possible. Are our eyes the greatest design in the animal world? No, but they aren't bad by any means, and they get the job done. What use would freeing up our hands be if we didn't have the ability to focus our eyes and be dexterous with them?
2. Feet not like hands: Our limbs no longer make it much of an advantage to have feet that function like hands, which many other apes do. Our bodies are unstable enough as it is without us trying to hop around carrying stuff with both our hands and one of our feet.
3. Ear placement and nose placement: these are similar to the eye placement arguments. Our ears are forward so we can communicate with people easier (collect all visual and auditory information while facing the same direction), and we can always use our ever so handy hands to bring things to our face for smell, or just bend over a bit. Besides, would we really want our noses any closer to our anuses than they have to be? I sure don't.
1. That our respiratory system and gastrointestinal system share the same tube at any point. Evolutionary explanation: building upon preexisting structures to allow for multiple functions is far more common and requires fewer mutations than the development of completely separate, independent structures. Why this is a flaw for design: choking. A deity would easily be able to make two separate tubes that were just near each other, never haveing to significantly change the positions of any other internal organs or external features to prevent the choking hazard produced by this "design", which has no benefits over two separate tubes. In fact, the tubes are separate for most of their length. But not for enough of it to prevent thousands of deaths every year in just the U.S. alone, B.E.CPR - Become Educated in CPR .
2. The strain on our spines. Evolutionary explanation: freeing up the hands was more advantageous than back problems were disadvantageous during and before reproductive years, thus this trait was naturally selected for. Why this is a flaw for design: a deity could easily design a skeleton that allowed for bipedal movement without creating horrific back problems. These issues are excessively common in our species, along with issues with most of our supporting joints, such as our knees and hips. These problems are not something that has to occur in order to achieve bipedal movement, so why make a design that has these issues?
3. Shoulder and other joint instability. Evolutionary explanation: it is a consequence of allowing for a wider range of motion; natural biology just won't be able to produce joints that don't have reduced stability with increased mobility. Why this is a flaw for design: unless the designer has limits, this is inexcusable. Tendons would just have to be made stronger to fix this, really.
now for the bad ones people sometimes bring up. These aren't really "design flaws", but sometimes people bring them up as if they are.
1. Eye placement. I have heard some people argue that our eye placement is bad, that they should be placed farther apart to give us a wider field of vision, or some other such nonsense. Our eyes are fine where they are, in fact, this is typical eye placement for predators, and humans were primarily hunter gatherers way back. Eyes farther apart would prevent us from having as much focus on objects as we do, and make us less precise. This is only an advantage for prey animals, who aren't looking to target moving objects, but rather need to detect movement from as wide a view as possible. Are our eyes the greatest design in the animal world? No, but they aren't bad by any means, and they get the job done. What use would freeing up our hands be if we didn't have the ability to focus our eyes and be dexterous with them?
2. Feet not like hands: Our limbs no longer make it much of an advantage to have feet that function like hands, which many other apes do. Our bodies are unstable enough as it is without us trying to hop around carrying stuff with both our hands and one of our feet.
3. Ear placement and nose placement: these are similar to the eye placement arguments. Our ears are forward so we can communicate with people easier (collect all visual and auditory information while facing the same direction), and we can always use our ever so handy hands to bring things to our face for smell, or just bend over a bit. Besides, would we really want our noses any closer to our anuses than they have to be? I sure don't.
![[serious]](/data/avatars/m/160/160873.jpg?1431539545){kind=avatar}
