How can we respond to the argument of "suboptimality" or under-design? One atheists bluntly wrote that if God exists he is certainly an under-achiever! That is a bold statement, but it makes clear the point that they wish to make. There are numerous examples of design and wonder in our world, but there are many instances of what looks like faulty design. That is, there are things that do not work so well. Life is filled with disappointments and failures. One of the so-called "Murphy’s Laws" is: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong!

I want to give some replies to the charges against design that we have raised. (See Reason & Revelation, January 1989 and November 1991.)

Man does not have enough information at his disposal to make judgments concerning divine intent and design. One might look at the vastness of the universe and wonder why all the wasted space. Why 93 million miles to the sun? A smaller sun could be closer to the earth. Much of the earth is filled with deserts and waste land. The earth is four-fifths water and only one-fifth land. An atheist would argue: What builder would construct a house with five rooms, only one of which could be inhabited? Such argues for poor design.

But consider the following: 1) The oceans provide a huge reservoir of moisture which is constantly evaporating and condensing, thus falling upon the land as refreshing rain. 2) It is a well-known fact that water heats and cools at a much slower rate than does the solid land mass. This explains why desert regions can be so blistering hot in the daytime and freezing cold at night. Water holds its temperature longer, however, and provides a sort of natural heating/air-conditioning system for the land areas of the Earth. Our temperature extremes would be much more erratic than they are, were it not for this factor. 3) Humans and animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. On the other hand, plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. We depend upon the world of botany for some of our oxygen supply. What many fail to realize, however, is that approximately 90% of our oxygen comes from microscopic plants in the seas. If our oceans were appreciably smaller, we would soon be out of breath! There is design in the land/water ratio.

Some of these things scientists have been able to discern. There is much more that we do not know. I may never understand why most wisdom teeth are not useful, or why we have appendixes that give us trouble. What I may think is under-design or faulty design may be because I do not have all the information that I need to make an informed decision.

Dr. Wayne Friar in A Case For Creation related the following story. He wrote, "My daughter was playing with her pet rat one day when a question occurred to her. Daddy, she said, Why does a rat have scales on its tail? You know perfectly well, I replied. The reptiles that were ancestral to rats and all other mammals had scales on their tails as well as on the rest of their bodies. Because there was no particular disadvantage to having them, they persisted in rats to this day. Quit putting me on, Daddy. I know you don’t believe that. You cannot win it seems. But it is true that one is hard put to discern the reason for the manifold adaptations that organisms possess. What I should have said to my daughter (and eventually did say) was that God had put the scales there for reasons He knew to be perfectly good ones but which may take us a lot of research to discover, since He has not told us what they are. Still, the fact was that I could not explain the presence of those scales." (1983, 30-31.)

In order to successfully argue the point that something is suboptimal, one must know what is optimal. Man not only does not know all the factors involved in any particular "design question," but neither does he know what is the best design. What is the best possible world? Who but God can answer such a question? Man is putting himself in the place of God when he challenges God on the condition of this world.

I recall a man who once challenged God. At long last, God answered. This is what he said to the man.

"Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?" (Job 38:3-8.)

I recall Paul writing, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?" (Rom. 9:20-21.)

An evolutionists wrote: "The case for evolution has two sides: positive evidence---that evolution has occurred; and negative evidence---that the natural world does not conform to our expectation of what an omnipotent, omniscient, truthful Creator would have created." (Science on Trial, Douglas Futuyma, 198.) This is the heart of the problem. Man presumes to be able to think and act as God. If I were God, this is what I would do. But man is not God. Solomon wrote, "Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few." (Eccl. 5:2.)

A third reply to suboptimality is progressive degeneration. Scientists agree that as far as energy is concerned our world is "running down." But some of these issues belong to theology, not science. What is optimal?, discussed above, and degeneration belong to the field of theology. That is, there are spiritual reasons why our world is the way that it is.

It is at least possible that an object once clearly reflected purposeful design, but as a result of a process of degeneration, the design has been clouded or erased. Consider the following example:

"Suppose a gardener, digging in a pile of rubbish, discovers an ancient book. Its cover is weathered, its pages are mostly stuck together, the type has faded, etc. It is, for all practical purposes, completely illegible. Does the current condition of the book mean that it never had a message---that it never evidenced design? Of course not. Though the book is in a degenerative condition, and the message has faded with time, there is no denying that the book was at one point quite communicative." (R & R, Wayne Jackson, 1989, 2.)

The earth was once a paradise in Genesis 1 & 2, but the big change in our world came in chapter 3. Our world shows evidence of that "Fall of man." God cursed the world that he had made because of man’s sin. Look at how comprehensive that curse is---the ground, the serpent, the man and the woman. What does it mean when God curses something?? One of teachers, Lamar Plunkett, said that the only thing that man can do is "cuss." It takes God to curse something. When He does, that thing or person will know the difference. Ask Adam and Eve if there was a difference between living in paradise and living outside.

In addition, just three chapters later (Genesis 6), an additional destruction came upon the earth, Noah’s Flood. God said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repented me that I have made them." (Gen. 6:7.) "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Gen. 6:13.) Note the last phrase, I will destroy them (man) with the earth. This destruction accounts for the appearance to the world and man today. Paul wrote poetically, "For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now." (Rom. 8:22.) Solomon said that man was made upright, but he sought our many inventions. (Eccl. 7:29.)

Man is in a state of progressive degeneration until death finally overtakes him. Death has a theological reason---sin. Science does not take this into account. God is not an under-achiever; He is a just God who has judged this world. This world has been destroyed by a curse and by the Flood. The apostle Peter said that some who disregard God willingly ignore the Flood. (2 Peter 3:5.) There is a reason why man has heart disease, eye problems, joint pains, tumors, mental illness, etc. There is a reason why there is a booming market for drugs and pain medication.

It is pathetic to hear unbelieving scientists talking about mutations, adaptations, natural selection, an old earth billions of years of age, trying to explain the present condition of our world. They will not admit the possibility of God being in the picture. He created the world and in the beginning it was "very good." (Gen. 1:31.) God also "destroyed the earth with man."

Atheists have not only denied God and called him an under-achiever, but they have often issued a challenge to God. It is called the "I-dare-you-to-strike-me-dead" challenge. Robert Ingersol at the turn of the twentieth century made the challenge often in his public addresses denying the existence of God. Some years ago in New Mexico, another atheist concluded his presentation with that same old challenge. He waited for a moment and nothing happened. He triumphantly told his audience that God did not exist. The following morning, an article appeared in the local newspaper. It was entitled "The Parable of the Ants."

The Parable of the Ants

"Two ants were crossing the desert when they came across two giant ribbons of steel spanning the countryside. Said one to the other, What is this? His friend replied, This is a railroad track, and upon it runs a huge machine called a train. The train is dispatched by an operator in a distant city, who regulates its activity. Incredible! protested the little unbelieving ant, as he crawled upon one of the rails. If there is such an operator, I challenge him to send a train down here right now and run me over!" (Reason & Revelation, January 1989, 3.)

Thus ended the short but powerful story. No one needed the parable interpreted. What railroad president, in his right mind, would dispatch a train all the way to the New Mexico desert to answer the challenge of a mere ant? What sort of intelligence would that reflect?

The truth is that God has imposed upon man a death penalty. Puny man cannot dictate to God how and when to punish man. Let the unbeliever try to reverse the penalty of death upon him. God is patient with man. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, said the psalmist. His plan and desire is to redeem us, not to destroy us eternally.