1. God uses material agents to carry out His purposes. Some of these
agents (humans, animals) have varying degrees of volition which makes their
actions unpredictable. Some of that unpredictability will contribute to an
imperfect creation.
2. As Robert pointed out, it's difficult to point the finger at a design
imperfection without understanding the design objectives. This argument of
course works against design theorists. They can't identify all the design
criteria either.
3. The various agencies God uses to create and govern His creation don't
share His attributes of omnipotence and omniscience and therefore cannot be
expected to produce a nature as perfect as perhaps God could were He to
work directly.
For evolution it's pretty clear that imperfection is not a problem.
1. The gene pool may not contain the constructs needed to perfect some
adaptation
2. Its effect on survivability may not be strong enough to yield a
significant difference in reproductive success.
3. The imperfect feature may be a byproduct of some other feature which is
quite important for survival.
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)
hamilton@gmr.com (office) | whamilto@mich.com (home)