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Our Design Is No Accident
Bruce Malone
This is from Search for the Truth.
Author: Bruce Malone
Vestigial features are those parts of an organism, which are
thought to be useless or no longer needed. The human tailbone is
commonly to be such a feature. Vestigial features are taught to be
leftover from an organism’s ancestors as it has evolved to a new way
of life. The idea of vestigial features has been used as evidence
for evolution since 1859 when Darwin first proposed that such
features were evidence of descent of one organism from a completely
different one. The logical consequence of this alleged
transformation is that the "new" creatures will be left with some
features, which are no longer needed in its new environmental niche.
Belief in evolution demands that we believe that each type of animal
on earth is a result of descent from some previous life form. If
this were the case, almost every creature should have many leftover
features, which are no longer needed. Yet the more we learn about
biology, the more we discover that every part of an organism serves
some useful function. For example, the appendix is often said to be
a useless leftover part of the human body. We know that the appendix
serves as a type of lymphatic tissue in the first few months of life
to fight disease. It is no more a useless feature than one of your
lungs is useless just because you can survive with only one lung.
The acceptance of the idea that some parts of the human body are
useless leftovers has had very tragic consequences. Based on the
misguided concept that the human colon was a vestige of the past,
Sir William Land and dozens of other surgeons stripped the colons
from thousands of patients in order to "cure" a variety of symptoms.
Many died. As late as the 1960's many people had their tonsils
removed. This practice was again fueled by the mistaken belief that
the tonsils were a useless leftover feature from our past. It is now
known that they serve as an important disease fighting function and
should not be removed.
There are true vestigial features as the blind eyes of cave
salamanders. Blind salamanders have non-functional eyes because they
live their entire lives in total darkness. At sometime in the past,
normal salamanders found a niche in dark caves and apparently only
those who mutated to blindness had a need to stay in the total
darkness where they could compete for existence without blindness
being a disadvantage. However, these salamanders are still
salamanders, a mutation to blindness is hardly an upward improvement
in complexity, and no new information has been added to the DNA of
the salamander.
As to the question of the human tailbone, anatomists tell us that
the tailbone serves a very important function in the human
physiology. The coccyx(tailbone) is the point of insertion of
several muscles and ligaments including the one which allows man to
walk completely upright. Without a tailbone, people could not walk
in a completely upright manner, dance a ballet, perform gymnastics,
or stroll down the street with their arm around their spouse. Hardly
a useless, leftover, vestigial feature! The human body is designed
for maximum versatility-it is far more versatile than the body of
any other creature. What other animal can perform the range of
movement required for activities as diverse as ice-skating, pearl
diving, skiing, and gymnastics. This range of movement would be
impossible without the tailbone.
In summary, evolution predicts that there should be leftover
features as one organism turns into another. Creation predicts that
although some life forms have degenerated and lost use of an
original function, every part of an organism was designed to serve
some useful primary or backup purpose. As we learn more about the
biology of living organisms, including ourselves, it is readily
apparent which theory fits the data. |
