If intelligent design is true then God's a crap designer

Everyone must have read quite a bit about the the pushing of "Intelligent Design" as a valid alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. The basic precept is that some elements of organisms are so perfectly functional that they had to be designed by an intelligence of some kind. Also, it holds that there are gaps in Darwin's theory such as a lack of a fossil record to show every step of the way from evolution from single celled life forms to the present day. Another common misperception that the intelligent design and creationist proponents push is that human beings are a more 'advanced' life form and therefore a more evolved one from the other animals we share the planet with.

An example that is often cited is that of the eye. They say that while the eye is of obvious evolutionary advantage there is no advantage in having half an eye or a sub-evolved eye. An eye is a part of an organism that reacts to the light around the creature and the brain interprets that reaction and builds an image inside the brain that is an intepretation of its surroundings. If evolution is to be believed then how could a creature evolve from having no eyes to a complete eye - there are no creatures in existence (they say) that half only half evolved vision - therefore at some point in history some intelligence must have designed a fully functional eye and given it to us. But there is an advantage in having half an eye and there are creatures that have half evolved eyes - anything that is going to respond to the light is going to give a creature a definite advantage in understanding its surroundings and therefore of survival. There are several species of fish who's skin reacts to the light, the brain can interpret this reaction and use it to understand its surroundings. Is this not an advantage? A sub eye is definitely better than no eye at all.

The fact that the fossil record does not show every creature in between us and the amoeba doesn't disprove anything about the theory of evolution. The only way an animal is going to be recorded as a fossil if, when it dies, it has a skeleton that is preserved by its surroundings. If it has no skeleton then there is no record. And, even if it does have a skeleton it is more than likely that the skeleton will be destroyed by its environment long before it has a chance to be petrified and preserved for all eternity to allow us to find it. Even if it has been preserved it is more than likely that when it is uncovered it will be destroyed before it is recognised for what it is. And, all things considering, the fossil record has proved to be far more conclusive in proving the theory of evolution than we could have hoped when one considers all of the mishaps that could have happened to the remains of our thousands upon millions of ancestors.

Many creatures today have leftover traits that are no longer used. If an intelligent designer had built everything on Earth then why would he have made whales and dolphins air breathers? Why would some species still possess remnants of hip bones and even leg bones? Why would a designer give us an appendix that's only apparent purpose is to get infected and potentially kill us? How come so many of us are born with genetic defects? If we're designed how come we're so fragile? In short, if someone did design us why did he do such a crap job???

Intelligent design holds with some aspects of evolution. It believes that there are some minor changes that occur to species through specialisation but it holds that because we are so complex and so complicated that something MUST have designed us. To me, as a non-scientist, this is just bad science. A proponent of intelligent design says I believe one part of evolution because it is obvious and I can see it but I don't hold with another part because it is too complicated for me to understand. Basically, the "scientists" are saying it is too hard for them so they give up and use the creationist claim that God must have done it.