First, to me this is not a question of religious faith, but of intelligent design as a scientific argument. There is no attempt at ridicule whatsoever. Quite the opposite. I am open to being won over to the intelligent design argument if it can be reconciled with the fact that birth defects and other defects exist.
Evolution as a concept is nearly useless in physics. In fact, physicists assume that things are holding constant to a degree, and if that is a symptom of design so be it.
First of all I do not buy into the ID argument at all.
Nevertheless, if we look at human designed items we find flaws, despite the fact that we fancy ourselves intelligent.
It is the concept of a benevolent God that is challenged by unwarrented suffering. The two Christian perspectives that I am aware of are:
1. God's ways are not man's ways..in my view a non-answer
2. It's all Adam's fault.
What evidence would you accept?
And if the evidence is presented, then what standard of proof would be sufficient to convince you that it is a viable theory? Must it be proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Must it be clear and convincing? Must it be sufficient to produce probable cause?
"Evolution-only" has not met any of those evidenciary standards. While the scientific evidence suggests that the creation has been endowed with a built in mechanism for change, there is no evidence that the mechanism was not designed and there is no evidence that the mechanism itself was generated by the random movement and combination of atoms and molecules. This, of course, begs the question of where the atoms themselves came from and why the atoms themselves would contain within them the intelligence to generate life and then build an incredibly complex mechanism for the regeneration of that life.
The mere fact that there are defects in the umpteenth generation of specifically desgined organisms is evidence that the tendency of the evolutionary process is toward increased randomness rather than increased order. But I digress.
Do you think there is a defect in the soul in any of childrren born with those diseases?