[jdimov9]

You don't seem to understand much about evolution, or life. Claiming that evolution is a random, unguided "whatever works" process is mere ignorance. To everyone who has ever looked around (or listened around, or sensed around) even for one moment, it is beyond obvious that not only evolution works "by design", but that this design is supremely personal and the ultimate in creativity. So the implied negative connotations in your "creationist" label are misplaced.

[sctb]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12165775 and marked it off-topic.

[enraged_camel]

Evolution is about selecting mutations that provide the species with survival and reproductive advantages. Since said mutations are indeed totally random, it does also introduce a certain level of randomness to evolution itself.

[sinxoveretothex]

Ok, so there's a "designer" out there engineering rapists, murderers, limbless people, mentally handicapped people? Why the hell did the designer create maggots that feed on people's nose tissues[1]?

More to the point: what's the design goal? To quote EY [2]:

> But when you look at all the apparent purposefulness in Nature, rather than picking and choosing your examples, you start to notice things that don't fit the Judeo-Christian concept of one benevolent God. Foxes seem well-designed to catch rabbits. Rabbits seem well-designed to evade foxes. Was the Creator having trouble making up Its mind?

> When I design a toaster oven, I don't design one part that tries to get electricity to the coils and a second part that tries to prevent electricity from getting to the coils. It would be a waste of effort. Who designed the ecosystem, with its predators and prey, viruses and bacteria? Even the cactus plant, which you might think well-designed to provide water fruit to desert animals, is covered with inconvenient spines.

I don't deny that if there is a "designer", then he gets a lot of points for creativity.

I mean, it takes a lot of "creativity" to design an 8 limbed baby [3], twins sharing the same body [4] or a child with a skull that won't stop growing [5]. Sure, it's very "creative" and even personal I guess (I mean, when you get ostracized for having an "elephant face" it sure appears to be very meant and taken very personally). So I guess you're right in at least one metaphorical sense.

[1] http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2c8_1249503802

[2] http://lesswrong.com/lw/kr/an_alien_god/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM82Hs0LEpc

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K57IcN9DWXo

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW2SWfoPD5c