First of all let me make it clear that I have little interest in the abstract variety of this debate, which is a complete and utter red herring: you see, this is a very common theist strategy of always shifting the debate to more tenable forms. For example, it is not that difficult to argue for the existence of a completely abstract creator in the philosophical form of the so called "first cause", divorced from the more specific claims of religion. However, its much, much harder to defend the absurd claims of religions like Islam, e.g. the farcical claim that Allah created that wretched excuse for Bedouin poetry that is the Quran before even creating the universe. Now I don't bother with all those abstract philosophical debates on God but here is a religious individual peddling his religion, a debate I can engage in.
Now Fodder3, if I am not mistaken, according to Islam, more than 14 billion years ago, before (and per cosmology, there is no "before" the big bang anyways, the question might actually even be meaningless since per general relativity, time and therefore - cause and effect - is part of the physical structure of space, which came into being along with the big bang) even creating the universe, Allah, whose magic arse was atop his "throne (kursi)", created a pen and then "commanded" it write out the Quran. So such amazing "decrees" like the one where Mahumit got to marry his adopted son's hot wife (Zaynab bint Jahsh) was created before the creation of the entire universe! Tell me Fodder3, why did the great God decide to dedicate AN ENTIRE CHAPTER on some obscure desert Bedouin called Abu-Lahab (I wonder what relevance the eternal chapter of the Quran, Al-Massad, will have to the humans in the year 4000?). Im not ever going to take the truth value of Islam seriously until you can give me a satisfactory answer to that question.
You see, the great Physicist, and idol of mine, Richard Feynman, chose, above all else, the following reason to reject religion.
You must be registered for see links
To quote him: "and so altogether I can't believe the special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large because they seem to be too simple, too connected, too local, too provincial...", he goes on to impugn Christianity in particular, contrasting its very "local" nature on that physically insignificant rock called planet earth with the size of the universe ("it isn't in proportion", he says). What do you think Richard Feynman would have thought about the claim that God created a chapter on Mr Abu-Lahab in his magic book before he even created the universe?
Now I am going to answer the rhetoric (and that appears to be all you are good at, besides abusing the caps lock button that is) that is your first paragraph - a red herring though it may be, since as I have discussed, abstract issues of design and all that do not corroborate in the slightest the religion of Islam. Let me show you how we Physicists answer all those questions: its called the anthropic principle.
You must be registered for see links
And what this says is that, intelligent observers can only be found in an environment fine-tuned for life, IPSO FACTO. The fact of the matter is that, there is a lot of different environments out there in the universe: there are doubtless billions of billions of planets, and the absolute, vast majority of them have environments that make it impossible for life to naturally inhabit them.
If God created the universe, he clearly didn't seem to have homo-sapiens in mind for you see, if Fodder3 were to be magically teleported to most of the other planets out there in the universe, he would die within a few seconds in the absolute majority of them (planets with Earth-like conditions are very rare). In fact, Fodder3 would ultimately die in every part of the universe except for a tiny, utterly insignificant compared to the size of the universe but nevertheless special piece of rock called the Earth.. And yet Fodder3 seems to think that the universe is designed for him!
By the way, artificial cells are nothing special.
You must be registered for see links
On a related note, I am proud to say that my country very recently became the first to legalize the so called three-parent baby form of in-vitro fertilisation, in which the mitochondrial DNA - but only the mtDNA and not the nuclear DNA found in the nucleus of cells - of one woman's egg cell are replaced with a donars.
You must be registered for see links
You see, in this "perfect" world God has created, there exists a type of genetic disease (which you cannot control in any way and are simply born with) called mitochondrial disease, caused by mutations in the special type of DNA found in the mitochondria (an organelle of the cell associated with energy production) of those "perfect" egg cells, with people being afflicted with the diseases often ending up with problems in multiple organ systems as they live their lives.
But Scientists defeated Allah some 20 years ago in this game by inventing a way to manipulate his "perfect" creation responsible for this type of disease at the genetic level. And the UK recently legalized the use of this completely artificial genetic manipulation.
And if you still didn't get it Fodder3, the individuals born through this technique have DNA coming from three individuals, something completely unnatural in our species. So yes, we have created life unlike anything found in Allahs natural world. And you better believe that it is going to get much, much worse in the future as genomics continues to make its rapid progress (but this is a long enough post already). We will defeat Allah again and again in your life-time, kid.