The Gift of Tongues

Whether it’s a boneless blob, a two-foot-long spaghetti noodle, or a ballistic missile, every tongue that God designed beautifully meets the needs of its owner. While we may extol the wonders of a few showy tongues in the animal kingdom, most of us know very little about the variety of tongues out there. We even forget about our own tireless tongues, which work hard daily, manipulating food, forming words, and much more, until—CHOMP—that one in a million occasion when the tongue fails to evade the teeth and we cry out, painfully aware of this sensitive organ.

Though we might take the tongue for granted, evolutionists give tongues a top tier in the vertebrate origin story. In a May 2023 Science article titled “Tales of the Tongue,” author Elizabeth Pennisi claims, “Without tongues, few if any terrestrial vertebrates could exist.”1 Supposedly, when animals first started crawling onto land 400 million years ago, a world of new food options opened to them. But they faced a problem. In the water, animals swallow food by taking water in through the mouth and gill rakers to catch food and direct it down the throat. But as soon as they leave the water, these creatures cannot swallow. Some scientists speculate that for millions of years, the first land dwellers would go for a swim every time they needed to swallow.

In the Science article, evolutionary biologist Kurt Schwenk called the variation in vertebrate tongues “replete with astonishing examples of almost unbelievable adaptation.” Yet in the same Science article, functional morphologist Sam van Wassenbergh states that the origin of tongues “is one of the biggest mysteries in our evolutionary history.”

While adaptation likely played a role in the vast array of tongues, there’s no mystery about the origin of this “small member” (James 3:5) and its fantastic variety. God is the genius behind the tongue in all its surprising forms and functions. He created the first creatures’ fully formed tongues on days five and six of creation week, and he wound into those creatures the genetic variability to adapt their tongues in a post-fall world. The blind chance process of evolution could never have produced the intricate detail and diversity of this overlooked organ that whispers the brilliance and thoughtfulness of the Creator.

A Multi-Purpose Tool

The tongue tells of an ingenious, economical Creator who designed different body parts to serve more than one function.

The giraffe uses its long tongue not only to reach high leaves, but also to reach around its head and clean its ears.

Having no eyelids, geckos use their long tongues as handy windshield wipers to clean and moisten their eyes.

Bats click their tongues to echolocate, allowing them to fly safely and locate prey in the dark.

Most people have heard of the Jacobson’s organ (a group of sensory cells in the nasal chamber) in snakes and lizards, but many animals, including many primates, have this organ that enhances the sense of smell. The difference is that snakes and lizards can touch the Jacobson’s organ with their tongues after flicking them out to collect odor chemicals in their environment.

Dogs, birds, and cats sometimes regulate their body temperature by panting. As air flows over the tongue and mouth, the moisture evaporates and lowers the body temperature.

Cats use their tongue for grooming and cooling off. Their tongues are covered in tiny spines called papillae with a u-shaped cavity on the tip for wicking up their saliva. The cat rakes its spiny tongue through its fur and back into the mouth to coat the papillae in saliva and start over. The saliva’s enzymes dissolve blood and grime that would otherwise cause fur tangles and possible infections.2 And as moisture evaporates from the fur, a hot cat can become a cool kitty.

Let’s Eat

Whatever their other jobs, all tongues have one delicious duty in common: to help people and animals eat. From acquiring and selecting food to moving food around in the mouth and enjoying the flavors, the tongue has a full-time job in food service.

Surfaces

Tongues have many surfaces to aid in food prep. Lots of animals have sticky tongues for snagging small prey. Cats have sandpaper tongues to strip meat from bones. Some bats have hairy tongues to help them slurp the most nectar. Penguins have barbed tongues that help them get slippery fish down their gullet.

Flexibility and Sensitivity

Though it has a smooth surface, the human tongue is incredibly flexible. Unlike other muscles of the body, the tongue is not connected to a bone at each end, allowing remarkable range of motion. This flexible construction helps us to move food around our mouths and swallow without getting bitten (at least most of the time). In tandem with the tongue’s flexibility, the tip of the human tongue is packed with nerves, making it more sensitive to touch than other parts of the body. This sensitivity aids in searching through food for potential dangers such as tiny bones. It also is versatile, adjusting to all sorts of food textures, from sinewy steak to soft oatmeal to crunchy carrots to juicy broths.

Taste

The tongue also allows us to enjoy what’s on our menu. Tasting food provides motivation to eat; however, delicious food and drinks can add a richness to daily life that goes far beyond our needs. After the fall, taste buds filled an important role of detecting bitter substances that might indicate spoiled food or harmful substances.

The Tongue Team

Over 750 species of bacteria live in your mouth, but don’t rush to the nearest mouthwash and tongue scraper. The invisible megalopolis in your mouth, particularly on your tongue, seems to be important to your health. For example, certain bacteria on the tongue help convert nitrates into nitric oxide, which plays an important role in cardiovascular health. Studies show that cleaning your tongue too enthusiastically, specifically using antiseptic mouthwash twice daily, can lead to higher systolic blood pressure in just one week.

Tongue Tether

The tongue’s roles aren’t its only display of diversity. While most mammal tongues are rooted in the back of the mouth, some animal tongues anchor in surprising places. The pangolin’s tongue starts at the bottom of its ribcage to accommodate its length, and the nectar bat’s tongue comes from between the heart and the sternum. The woodpecker’s tongue begins in the nostril and wraps around the skull to come out the beak. Many fish like minnows and carp have a tongue-like muscular structure attached at the top of the mouth. Frogs famously fetch their food with lightning-fast tongues connected in the front of their mouths.

Gift of Gab

While God gifted many of his creatures with unique uses for their tongues, perhaps the greatest is the gift of gab in humans. Many animals communicate with each other using body language and various sounds like chirps, whistles, or growls. And some birds have thick, nimble tongues that allow them to imitate human speech by manipulating the sounds from their syrinx (voice box). But only humans carry on complex conversations. God designed not only our tongue but also our brain, vocal cords, lips, and even our respiratory system to work in concert to form words.

Even though we cannot fling it out at lightning speed to capture prey like a chameleon or lure in a hapless victim like an alligator snapping turtle, the human tongue is the most powerful of them all. With the gift of language comes a sober responsibility. Scripture declares that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

Swallowing the Truth

Evolutionists just cannot swallow the truth. Rather than believe in a brilliant, all-powerful God who designed land-dwelling, swimming, and flying creatures with ballistic, noodle-like, agile, and eloquent tongues, each designed to do what it does well, they choose to believe stories of pioneering creatures who ventured onto land and continued living there, even though they could not even swallow food. The tongue didn’t shape life on earth, but it is a marvelous feature that sustains all sorts of life.