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by looking at the human body and its physiology, we can realize that it was NOT created by an all knowing and all powerful "god", who would supposedly be a perfect engineer. "god" would supposedly create a body that was maximally efficient and durable.
but is the human body such an engineered machine ? NO !
our blood is buffered with the equilibrium between carbon dioxide and carbonic acid. a buffering system based on phosphoric acid would be more effective. obviously the only reason we have carbon dioxide / carbonic acid in our blood, is that CO2 was abundant in the atmosphere as we were evolving. it was not because some engineer decided that it would be the best buffer for our blood.
The fact that we stand on two legs, given the structure of our musculoskeletal system, shows that our body was NOT designed by an engineer. Over the course of a single day, disks in our lower back are subjected to pressures equivalent to several tons per square inch. All that weight hurts our spine, knees and joints. We all suffer from back pain to some extent at some point in our lives. A "god" who can enginner an efficient and durable body, whould NOT desing our bodies the way they are.
Now consider the human eye. The light-sensitive photocells are backwards, pointing towards the back of the eye, instead of towads the light. The optic neurons are on top of the photocells, in the path of the light ! NO engineer would design the eye that way, with neurons blocking the path of the light, and photoreceptors pointing away from the light ! Octopus eyes are not made that way, so why humans ? Its simple: Evolution.
Why do humans have an appendix at the end of the small intestine ? it serves no function at all, and occasionally gets infected and must be surgically removed. What crazy engineer would put a useless part in the body that is only a liability ?
The human embryo has a yolk sack, but the embryo is nurished through the umbilical cord. Why would an engineer put a yolk sack when it is not used ? Simple: it is a remnant of the evolutionary past of humans.
humans do not have the best eye sight or hearing or smelling ability among animals. We can't run all that fast, we can't swim that well, and we sure can't fly.
all this for the "ultimate creation of god" ???
I don't think so !
After a moslem replied to this article, I answered him in the following:
"For instance, it is indeed laughable that you draw a comparison between the eye structure in humans and that of a fairly primitive organism such as the Octapus"
comparisons between different organisms is not at all laughable. It is a very common observational tool that scientists use to understand how different organisms opperate. It is obvious that humans, as well as octapuses and eagles and bees all have eyes. But it is not immediately obvious why their eyes are different and how they work differently from each other. It is very instructive to compare the structure and function of those different eyes.
What is truly laughable, is your lack of real scientific knowledge and understanding, and how you just copy and paste a bunch of stuff from some creationist web site, and you call what I say "laughable", when in fact I am merely echoing the ideas of distinguished and accomplished scientists. (like Richard Dawkins)
"You have to understand that we "humans" use our eyes differently than the rest of the animal world. Reading which is something you apparently do a lot of, for example, is specific to humans"
Like I said, you lack real understanding of biology, and the evolution of human physiology and culture.
Human eyes evolved MILLIONS of years ago, whereas reading only came about no more than 10,000 years ago. It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that human eyes have been designed for reading !!! If reading had to do with eye function, then chimpanzees could read too. actually they can to some extent, but obviously the difference is in their brain, and not in their eyes. The human ability to use language comes from the language centers of the brain (Broca's, Wernekes', etc.), and not from the eyes. Human language evolved on the order of 50 to 100 thousand years ago, whereas human eyes evolved MILLIONS of years ago (when humans had not yet diverged from the apes).
"Please try to be more judicious in your search for answers. Selective amnesia is the worst enemy of a true researcher."
please try to learn some science, before you go around copying stuff from creationist web sites, and before you call a bunch of nut cases who support creationism as "accomplished scientists". no real scientist takes those loonies seriously !!! Just take a look at the most prestigious scientific journals (""Nature" and "Science"), and you will not see a single article by those m.oronic creationists. In fact the FACT (no longer just a theory) of evolution is fully supported by all articles in those journals.
selective reading is the halmark of a dogmatic religionist.
"The greatest of all creations is man himself, the marvellous machine — precise and efficient. "
the human body is anything but precise ! If the human body was precise, they would not have to invent robots to manufacture everything from automobiles, to computer chips and boards. Human muscles are very jittery, and movement planning and coordination is imprecise. voluntary control of movement is not perfect. many times our brain's motor centers initiate a movement which we regret a couple seconds later (closing of the locked car door eventhough we see the key is still inside - we cringe as we close the door, but we are unable to prevent ourselves from doing it, because of the delay between congnition and motor execution).
the human body is also not efficient. muscles waste a lot of heat. not only that, they get filled up with lactic acid during strenuous activity, leading to cramping and fatigue.
"The human skeleton is flexible, with hinges and joints that were made to move. "
like I said, the human skeleton is NOT efficiently designed for the way we walk and sit. that is why so many people suffer from back pain and joint pain. The human body was not designed to last very long. For example, women start to rapidly loose their bone mass after their estrogen levels fall after menopause. Almost every human will eventually suffer from arthritis.
"despite the defects from genetic copying errors (mutations) that have accumulated since the Fall of man brought on the Curse (Genesis 3)."
What a bunch of BULLSHIT !!!!
genetic mutations have NOTHING to do with the "fall of man" !!! The book of Genesis is a FAIRY TALE , and NOT a book of science and genetics !!!! Genetic mutations are a NATURAL result of the structure of DNA ! They occur in ALL living organisms on earth !!! Even as we sit under fluourescent lamps, or walk under the sun, our skin cells suffer from DNA mutations (the Threonin bases in our DNA form crosses with each other - this is caused by ultraviolet radiation, and has NOTHING to do with "fall of man"). These mutations are then CORRECTED by enzymes that maintain our DNA. Only a minor fraction of these mutations remain uncorrected (one out of millions). These mutations can lead either to cell death (if they affect critical functions), or they can lead to altered characteristics, or they can lead to cancer (by damaging the cell's growth control mechanisms).
besides damage from ultraviolet radiation and heat damage, the main source of mutations is errors made during replication of DNA. When the DNA molecule replicates (during cell division and creation of sperm and egg), there are occasional copying errors made by the enzymes that carry out the DNA replication. There are other enzymes that go over the DNA after replication, and correct those errors. But like I said, once in a while they miss, and the mutation (error in copying DNA) remains.
Genetic (DNA) mutations are exactly that which lead to the occurance of changes which allowed humans to domisticate wild plants, and develope agriculture, around 10 to 13 thousand years ago. For example, wild almonds contain a chemical (amygdalin) that releases the poison cyanide. That is what gives some almonds their bitter taste. Obvious a person can die if they eat too many such almonds. But, a SINGLE GENE MUTATION makes some almond plants unable to synthasize amygdalin, and therefore they do not taste bitter. Obviously humans prefered to eat and plant the nonbitter almonds, and therfore created a selective pressure on almond plants to produce nonbitter almonds.
That is exactly how evolution works: random mutations, coupled with natural selection. random mutations create changes in characteristics and properties of organisms, and natural selection determines if the mutants survive, or the wild types. random mutations created non-bitter almonds, and natural selection (human preference) determined that the mutants would grow more than the wild-types.
The book of Genesis is just a book of stories, and NOT a book of science !!!
Yes the human body (as well as animal bodies) are very wonderous and complex systems. But the human body is definately NOT the best body in the world. it is NOT the strongest (try wresteling with an elephant), it is NOT the fastest (try racing with a cheetah), it is NOT the tallest (giraffe), it is NOT the best addapted to cold or hot climates (humans could live in arctic only after learning to use skin from other animals - also, some bacteria can live in tempretures below zero centigrade, and over 100 degrees centigrade, that is, freezing or boiling water).
Humans do NOT have the best eyes (eagles are better), the best ears (bats are better), or the best smell (dogs are better).
"The control centre of the human body is the human brain. It is by far the most complex information-management system in the universe."
we have not yet visited the entire universe to be able to make such a statement. Even right here on earth, humans themselves will create (in a few decades) machines which will surpass the human brain in computational power and "information-management" !!! The human brain is the product of millions of years of evolution, not "creation" by some "god" !
"‘So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them’ (Genesis 1:27)."
That's make a nice bed-time story for kids (Harry Potter ?), but as far as scientific claims, the Book of Genesis is a piece of garbage ! It is humans who created this "god" in their own image, not the other way around !!!
Now go learn some real science !
Program on PBS about Evolution
instead of embarrassing yourself by associating wiht creationists, I suggest you realize that these so-called "holly" books are just collections of fables and myths and fairy tales, created by humans. they are NOT books of modern science, and they are NOT blue prints of the universe from "god" !
if you take these books seriously and literally, then you put yourself in the precarious position of supporting such statements such as "the earth is flat", "the sun sets in muddy water", "the moon is a lamp", "women were made out of man's ribs", "noah made a ship and put all creatures on it", and other such laughable scientifically incorrect statements.
the so-called "holly" books have been proven WRONG on all their claims on science: The Earth is NOT flat; the Sun does NOT set in muddy water, or anywhere else for that matter - it just goes out of view due to rotation of Erath; the Moon is NOT a lamp (it only reflects the light from the Sun, women were NOT created out of men's ribs - they co-evolved together when sexual reproduction evolved on Earth; the so-called "Noah's flood" was a myth created by people in Babylonia and other peoples around the Mediteranean and Black Sea, when there was a cataclysmic break in the land-wall that separated the two bodies of water, and there was a huge flood in that region. There was no flood that covered the whole Earth, and even if there was, notbody could put all of the Earth's creatures into one ship !
so, like I said, if you take what the bible and koran say literally, you end up supporting such stupid and laughable statements. So, just take Genesis and everything else in those books as just being myths and fables created by humans, and save yourself from the embarassement of associating with creationist nut cases !