Are Our Bodies Poorly Designed?

A recent article from the Daily Mail, a UK newspaper, was titled “From eyes in the wrong place to a belly full of bugs: The bits of your body that nature got wrong.” Now, the author, Lucy Elkins, outlines a number of areas where evolutionists believe that our bodies are badly flawed—things that supposedly evolved poorly.

Now, among the list of ridiculous claims Elkins makes is the argument that the appendix “seems to have no real function.” Of course, the appendix example is really part of a long- discredited belief many evolutionists have held: the idea that many parts of our bodies are just useless “vestigial” organs, remnants of evolution. But you know, it’s been proven that the appendix actually has some important functions, such as exposing our immune system to antigens from bacteria so it can tell the difference between friendly and unfriendly organisms. (Read more about these functions in this article from our website: Cutting Out a Useless Vestigial Argument.)

Elkins then argues that our wisdom teeth are also supposed vestigial organs. She writes, “there is also absolutely no need for us to have wisdom teeth. . . . ‘over time, our diet has become softer as we have developed methods of cooking and processing food. As a result, the muscles around the jaw need to exert less force on it—causing it to shrink over the years. However, our teeth have not evolved at the same rate, so we are left with a smaller jaw but the same amount of teeth.’”

You see, Elkins’ entire viewpoint is based on evolutionary assumptions. But from the biblical worldview, God has designed our bodies with useful features, not useless ones. Now, the effects of sin have certainly led to mutations in our bodies that can cause problems for some people. Some people’s jaws are too small for wisdom teeth, but the vast majority of people do have room for their wisdom teeth. We can’t call some part of our body as “useless” simply because we don’t understand it—or because evolutionary assumptions tell us that it’s a useless remnant from long ages of evolution. (For a more detailed explanation of wisdom teeth, see this article from Dr. John Morris at the Institute for Creation Research: www.icr.org/article/539.)

In her article, Elkins criticizes the design of our eyes, hearts, ears, intestines, stomachs—even our cartilage! And while not all of her ideas are directly related to the idea of supposed vestigial organs, they are fueled by an evolutionary worldview. Now, there’s just not enough space in a blog post to respond to each of her claims. But I urge you to look through the vestigial organs topics page on the Answers in Genesis website. You’ll find a list of articles that do address many of these criticisms and that outline the true function of these supposedly “useless” parts of our bodies.

Furthermore, I encourage you to get a copy of Dr. David Menton’s (AiG–U.S.) Body of Evidence DVD series, where he explains just how intricately our bodies are designed.

And we say to Lucy Elkins—why don’t you design your own human body and see it how goes? Oh, and before you do that, you’ll need to design your own molecule of heredity like DNA. And don’t copy God’s design for DNA—you’ll need to invent your own!

On our website yesterday, Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell (AiG–U.S.) has published a longer, more detailed analysis of the claims presented in the Elkins’ article: Organ Recital: A Parade of Presumed Design Flaws Devoid of Truth.

“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:14).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Thanks to AiG researcher/writer Steve Golden for his help in preparing this blog.