In reply to Jeffrey.

Not at all. "Intelligent design" implies a vision of an endpoint, with an overall controller guiding the progress. While I can't speak for Linus I doubt he ever envisioned Linux getting to where it is today. Natural selection implies the strongest survive. There are still a number of "weak" items in the kernel - if only because not enough people can agree on "better". Evolution implies change - sometimes radical change - and things have certainly changed.

Linus isn't a prophet but I think it fair to consider him precise in his speech. He used exactly the words he meant.