Argument from poor design
（重定向自Suboptimal design）
![](/Images/godic/202502/13/Atheismsymbol_endorsed_by_AAI.svg5424.png")
![Natural selection is expected to push fitness to a peak, but that peak often is not the highest.](/Images/godic/202502/13/Fitness-landscape-cartoon5424.png")
![Artist's representation of an ectopic pregnancy. Critics cite such common biological occurrences as contradictory to the 'watchmaker analogy'.](/Images/godic/202502/13/Ectopic5424.png")
The argument from poor design, also known as the dysteleological argument, is an argument against the existence of a creator God based on the following reasoning:
The argument is structured as a basic modus tollens: if "creation" contains many defects, then design is not a plausible theory for the origin of our existence. It is most commonly used in a weaker way, however: not with the aim of disproving the existence of God, but rather as a reductio ad absurdum of the well-known argument from design, which runs as follows: