Evolution Claims
Evolution is the old heathen doctrine of chance. It professes to eliminate design and a personal active Creator. The theory of natural selection allows no design, no intelligence, no interference, no control, by the Creator.
He does not interfere even by means of law. M. M. Metcalf, a prominent evolutionist, says, “The last stand was made by those who claim that supernatural agency intervenes in nature in such a way as to modify the natural order of events. When Darwin came to dislodge them from this, their last intrenchment, there was a fight.” Yes! the fight will last while any one tries to substitute chance for the control of Almighty God.
With that said, that fight will continue as long as there is breath in us, because we know that creation is the truth, it is defendable to the inth degree, and if we are not willing to stay in the fight, countless lives will be lost to the evil one.
We have been given a Holy and divine assignment to lead as many people from the gates of hell as possible.
The universe teems with countless evidences of intelligent design of the highest order, whether it is found in the starry heavens, or in the law and order of the atoms hiding from the most powerful microscope.
All things came by chance or by design.
Prof. Vernon Kellogg says: “Darwinism may be defined as a certain rational causo-mechanical (hence non-teleologic) explanation of the origin of species.” Translated into plain English, this expression means that Darwinism excludes all design and control by a Creator, and gives all credit to chance pure and simple. All species originated by chance, without interference by a supreme Being. This senseless doctrine of chance has been condemned by man seeking and professing truth in every age.
Is mathematically possible for the Human Body to have evolved by chance?
I would like to make this observation:
a 200-part system is a ridiculously primitive element compared with living systems. Modern research by NASA has demonstrated that the most basic type of protein molecule that could be classified living is composed of at least 400 linked amino acids. Each amino acid, in turn, is made up of a specific arrangement of four or five chemical elements, and each chemical element is itself a unique combination of protons, neutrons and electrons. Golay has demonstrated that the chance formation of even the simplest replicating protein molecule is 1 in 10 to the 450th power.
Wysong has calculated the probability of forming the proteins and DNA for the smallest self-replicating entity to be
1 in 10 to the 167,626 power, even when granting astronomically generous amounts of time and reagents, who can imagine what the chance formation of a more complex structure or organ such as the cerebral cortex in the human brain would be? It contains over 10,000,000,000 (ten thousand million, 10 billion) cells each of which is carefully arranged according to a specific design, and each of which is fantastically complex in itself!
Schutzenberger of the University of Paris at a conference on
“Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution,
“concluded that the probability of evolution by mutation and natural selection is inconceivable.
I quote
“We believe that it is not conceivable. In fact, if we try to simulate such a situation by making changes randomly at the typographic level…on computer programs we find that we have no chance. (i.e. less than 1/10 to the 1,000 power) even to see what the modified program would compute; it just jams”
(Schutzenberger, algorithms (processes) and the Neo-Darwinian Theory of Evolution, in mathematical challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution.)
The facts are clear. We serve an awesome God. He created everything in such a complex manner that humans can’t even count high enough to consider the odds, computers can’t count high enough. We were barely able to compute the odds against a simple 200-part organism developing by chance and found it was impossible.
With that in mind, in today’s lesson we will be looking at the human body, there is so much information, and it is so astounding it takes a while to take an honest look at the important argument against evolution.
A human Body
is composed of over 30 different kinds of cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, nerve cells, etc.), totaling approximately 100 trillion cells in an average adult (Beck, 1971, p.189). these cells come in a variety of sizes and shapes, with different functions and life expectancies. For example, some cells (e.g., male spermatozoa) are so small that 20,000 would fit inside a capital “O” from a standard typewriter, each being only 0.05 mm long. Some cells, placed end-to-end, would make only one inch if 6,000 were assembled together. Yet all the cells of the human body, if set end-to-end, would encircle the Earth over 200 times. Even the largest cell of the human body, the female ovum, is unbelievably small, being only 0.01 of an inch in diameter.
Cells have three major components. First, each cell is composed of a cell membrane that encloses the organism. Second, inside the cell is a three-dimensional cytoplasm-a watery matrix containing specialized organelles. Third, within the cytoplasm is the nucleus, which contains most of the genetic material, and which serves as the control center of the cell.
The lipoprotein cell membrane (lipids/proteins/lipids) is approximately 0.06-0.08 of a micrometer thick, yet allows selective transport into, and out of, the cell. Evolutionists Ernest Borek has observed: “The membrane recognizes with its uncanny molecular memory the hundreds of compounds swimming around it and permits or denies passage according to the cell’s requirements” (1973, p. 5.)
Inside the cytoplasm, there are over 20 different chemical reactions occurring at any one time, with each cell containing five major components for: (1) communication; (2) Waste disposal; (3) nutrition; (4) repair; and (5) reproduction. Within this watery matrix there are such organelles as the mitochondria (over 1,000 per cell in many instances) that provide the cell with its energy. The endoplasmic reticulum is a “…transport system designed to carry materials from one part of the cell to the other” (Pfeiffer, 1964, p.13). Ribosomes are miniature protein-producing factories. Golgi bodies store the proteins manufactured by the ribosomes. Lysosomes within the cytoplasm function as garbage disposal units.
The nucleus is the control center of the cell, and is separated from the cytoplasm by a nuclear membrane. Within the nucleus is the genetic machinery of the cell (Chromosomes and genes containing deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA.
The DNA
is a super molecule that carries the coded information for the replication of the cell. If the DNA from a single human cell were removed from the nucleus and unraveled (it is found in the cell in a spiral configuration), it would be approximately six feet long, and would contain over a billion biochemical steps. It has been estimated that if all the DNA in an adult human were placed end-to-end, it would reach to the Sun and back (186 million miles) 400 times.
It should also be noted that the DNA molecule does something that we as humans have yet to accomplish: it stores coded information in a chemical format, and then uses a biologic agent (RNA) to decode and activate it. As Darrel Kautz has stated: “Human technology has not yet advanced to the point of storing information chemically as it is in the DNA molecule” (I “googled” this information on 12/13/2017 and found it may now be possible on a limited basis) (1988, p. 45, emp. In orig.’ see also Jackson, 1993, pp. 11-12).
If transcribed into English, the DNA in a single human cell would fill a 1,000 volume set of encyclopedias approximately 600 pages each (Gore, 1976, p. 357).
Yet just as amazing is the fact that all the genetic information needed to reproduce the entire human population (about five billion people as this writing/ now over 7 billion people) could be placed into a space of about one-eighth of a square inch.
In comparing the amount of information contained in the DNA molecule with a much larger computer microchip, evolutionist Irvin Block remarked: “We marvel at the feats of memory and transcription accomplished by computer microchips, but these are gargantuan compared to the protein granules of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA” (1980, p. 52).
In an article written for Encyclopedia Britannica, Carl Sagan observed
that “the information content of a simple cell has been estimated at around 1012 bits [i.e., one trillion BT/WJ]…” (1974, 10:894). To emphasize to the reader the enormity of this figure, Dr. Sagan then noted that if one were to count every letter in every word of every book in the world’s largest library (over 10 million volumes), the final tally would be approximately a trillion letters.
Thus, a single cell contains the equivalent information content of every book in the world’s largest library of more than ten million volumes! Every rational person recognizes that not one of the books in such a library “just happened.” Rather, each and every one is the result of intelligence and painstaking design.
What, then, may we say about the infinitely more complex genetic code found with the DNA in each cell? Sir Fred Hoyle concluded that the notion that such complexity could be arrived at by chance is “nonsense of a high order” (1981b, p. 527). In their text on the origin of life, Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen addressed the implications of the genetic code.
We know that in numerous cases certain effects always have intelligent causes, such as dictionaries, sculptures, machines, and paintings. We reason by analogy that similar effects have intelligent causes. For Example, after looking up to see “BUY FORD” spelled out in smoke across the sky we infer the presence of a skywriter even if we heard or saw no airplane. We would similarly conclude the presence of intelligent activity were we to come upon an elephant-shaped topiary(the art or practice of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes) in a cedar forest. In like manner an intelligible communication via radio signal from some distant galaxy would be widely hailed as evidence of an intelligent source. Why then doesn’t the message sequence on the DNA molecule also constitute primacies evidence for an intelligent source? After all, DNA information is not just analogous to a message sequence such as Morse code, it is such a message sequence…
We believe that if this question is considered, it will be seen that most often it is answered in the negative simply because it is thought to be inappropriate to bring a creator into science (1984, pp. 211-212, emp. In orig.).
The intricate and complex nature of the DNA molecule- combined with the staggering amount of chemically-coded information that it contains – speaks unerringly to the fact that this “super molecule” simply could not have come into existence due to blind chance and random natural forces operating through eons of time, as evolutions have claimed. This is not an adequate explanation for the inherent complexity of the DNA molecule. Andrews was correct when he stated:
It is not possible for a code, of any kind, to arise by chance or accident… A code is the work of an intelligent mind. Even the cleverest dog or chimpanzee could not work out a code of any kind. It is obvious then that chance cannot do it… this could no more have been the work of chance or accident that could the “Moonlight Sonata” be played by mice running up and down the keyboard of my piano! Codes do not arise from chaos (1978. Pp. 28-29).
Indeed, codes do not arise from chaos. When Dawkins suggested that “superficially, the obvious alternative to chance is an intelligent Designer,” obviously he intended his comment as a somewhat mocking insult aimed at theists who were capable of thinking only “superficially” (1982, p. 130, emp. added). However, it hardly is superficial to suggest that obvious design demands a designer. In fact, that is the exact point the theist is stressing: an intelligent Designer is demanded by the evidence.
The Body’s Systems
The average adult has 206 bones in his body (an infant can have up to 350, but many of these fuse during the maturation process). The human skeleton accounts for about 15-20% of the body’s weight, with bones serving several important functions.
(1) Bones have been designed to be a rigid support for the organs and tissues of the body. They are like the interior framework of a house. The skeletal system is “something of an engineering marvel, strong enough to support weight and carry burdens, yet flexible to cushion shocks and allow for an extraordinary variety of motion” (Miller and Goode, 1960, p. 25, emp. added). Who was the engineer responsible for the marvel known as the skeletal system?
(2) Bones function as protective devices for many of the softer parts of the anatomy. For example, certain sections of the skull, which are independent in infancy but have grown together in the adult, offer protection for the fragile brain. The 12 pairs of ribs form a cage to shield the heart and lungs. The back-bone (called the spinal column) is made up of 33 block-like bones that are ingeniously designed to allow movement, yet these bones protect a major feature of the nervous system—the spinal cord.
(3) Bones also serve as levers. Miller and Goode have noted: When our muscles move us about, they do it by working a series of articulated levers that make a most efficient use of every ounce of muscular motive power. The levers are the bones of the body’s framework, fitted together with the neatness of jigsaw pieces and hinged by joints that must win the admiration of any mechanic (1960, p. 25).
(4) Bones also have a metabolic function. Until fairly recently, it was assumed that bones were inert tissue. However, studies have revealed that they are “constantly being remodeled” (Beck, 1971, p. 626). They provide a reservoir of essential minerals (99% of the calcium and 88% of the phosphorus, plus other trace elements), which must be rebuilt continuously. For example, without calcium, impulses could not travel along the nerves, and blood would not clot. Too, red blood cells (180 million of which die every sixty seconds), certain white blood cells, and platelets arise in the marrow of the bones.
Incredibly, when a bone is broken it immediately begins to repair itself. And, after the repair process is complete, it will be even stronger than it was before. Brand and Yancey have commented: Perhaps an engineer will someday develop a substance as strong and light and efficient as bone, but what engineer could devise a substance that, like bone, can grow continuously, lubricate itself, require no shutdown time, and repair itself when damage occurs? (1980, p. 91).
In order for the skeletal system to be effective, it must have several attributes, among which are strength, elasticity, and lightness of weight. Amazingly, the bones possess all of these characteristics. A cube of bone 1 square inch in surface will bear, without being crushed, a weight of more than 4 tons. Ounce for ounce, bone is stronger than solid steel. And yet, a piece of bone will stretch 10 times as much as steel. A steel frame comparable to the human skeleton would weight 3 times as much.
Alexander Macalister, former professor of anatomy at Cambridge University, has suggested: “Man’s body is a machine formed for doing work. Its framework is the most suitable that could be devised in material, structure, and arrangement” (1886, 7:2).
The Foot
As a specific example of bone design, consider the bones of the foot. One-fourth of all the body’s bones are in the feet. Each human foot contains 26 bones. The feet have been designed to facilitate a number of mechanical functions.
They support, using arches similar to those found in an engineered bridge. They operate as levers (as in those occasions when one presses an automobile accelerator peddle). They act like hydraulic jacks when a person tiptoes. They catapult a person as he jumps. And feet act as a cushion for the legs when one is running.
All of these features are quite helpful—especially in view of the fact that an average person will walk about 65,000 miles in his/her lifetime (equivalent to traveling around the world more than two-and-a-half times).
The skeletal system demonstrates brilliant design, to be sure. The conclusion is inescapable that there must have been a brilliant Designer behind it.
The circulatory system
consists of the heart, blood, and blood vessels, and has several important functions.
First, the circulatory system transports digested food particles to the various parts of the body.
Second, it takes oxygen to the cells for burning food, thus producing heat and energy.
Third, it picks up waste materials and carries them to the organs that eliminate wastes from the body as a whole.
The heart is a small muscle
https://youtu.be/oHMmtqKgs50
(or, as some would say, two muscles connected in tandem) in the upper chest cavity. Dr. Michael DeBakey has called it a “busy machine” that pumps blood to all part of the body (1984, 9:132a).
In the adult male, the heart weighs about 11 ounces, and is about the size of a large fist; a woman’s heart is slightly smaller. Miller and Goode have described this marvelous muscle as a “pump with a built-in motor” (1960, p. 63, emp. added).
The question comes to mind: Is it not the case that something built always has a builder? The heart is the strongest muscle in the body. Normally it beats (in an adult) at about 70 to 80 times per minute. When the body needs an extra supply of blood (e.g., during vigorous exercise), it can beat 150 to 180 times a minute—an automatic regulating feature that clearly indicates design.
Note this unwitting testimony from an evolutionist.
“The heart and blood vessels do more than speed or slow our blood flow to meet [the body’s] needs. They carry the scarlet stream to different tissues under differing pressures to fuel different actions. Blood rushes to the stomach when we eat, to the lungs and muscles when we swim, to the brain when we read. To satisfy these changing metabolic needs, the cardiovascular system integrates information as well as any computer, then responds as no computer can” (Schiefelbein, 1986, p. 124, emp. added ).
The force the heart exerts is tremendous. It can squirt a stream of blood about 10 feet into the air. In the span of a single hour, the heart generates enough energy to lift a medium-sized car 3 feet off the ground (Avraham, 1989, p. 13).
The heart is an involuntary muscle that beats about 100,000 times a day, or nearly 40,000,000 times in a year. It pumps about 1,800 gallons of blood a day. In a lifetime, a heart will pump some 600,000 metric tons of blood!
What causes the heart to beat, however?
It contains a small patch of tissue called the sinus node, or cardiac pacemaker. Somehow, about every 8/10 of a second, it produces an electrical current (a jumpstart) to certain nerve fibers which stimulate the muscular contractions that send the blood flowing (at up to 10 miles per hour) throughout the body.
The body’s blood supply, which gets depleted of oxygen, is pumped back to the heart. From there it is conveyed to the lungs, where it is re-oxygenated and sent once more to the various parts of the body. Blood, therefore, is being continuously pumped into, and out of, the heart with its rhythmic beating.
Evolutionists Miller and Goode have conceded that “for a pump that is keeping two separate circulatory systems going in perfect synchronization, it is hard to imagine a better job of engineering (1960, p. 68, emp. added). Yet this amazing device, which they admit is “hard to describe as anything short of a miracle,” allegedly was produced by blind forces in nature (1960, p. 64, emp. added).
Medical authorities have observed that the heart’s efficiency (i.e., the amount of useful work in relation to fuel expended) is about twice that of a steam engine (see Lenihan, 1974, p. 131). If intelligence was required to invent the steam engine, does it not stand to reason that intelligence lies behind the human heart?
The Blood
Fifteen centuries before Christ was born, Moses declared that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). This inspired truth was uttered more than 3,000 years before English physician William Harvey (1628) discovered the circulatory system.
Actually, blood is classified as a tissue. The body contains about 5 to 6 quarts of this liquid tissue. The blood consists of plasma (which is mostly water), salts, a protein called fibrinogen, antibodies (which help fight disease), enzymes, and hormones.
The plasma helps maintain chemical balance in the body, regulates the body’s water content, and assists in controlling temperature. The blood also contains solid materials—red cells, white cells, and platelets. The 25 trillion red cells transport oxygen throughout the body, and carry carbon dioxide back to the lungs (via the heart).
The white cells (5 different kinds) attack bacteria and other germs. They are the body’s defensive army. The platelets (15 million in a single drop of blood) help the blood to clot when the body is wounded. They are the body’s repairmen.
Harmful bacteria and worn-out cells are filtered out of the blood by the liver and the spleen. The kidneys also remove waste products from the blood system. The blood has a very effective garbage disposal system. Who could possibly believe that these wonderfully integrated mechanisms simply happened by mere chance?
In order for blood to accomplish its vital work, it must remain at a relatively constant temperature. A radical drop in body temperature can damage the cells, and if the temperature rises above 108°F, one cannot survive for long.
Amazingly, however, there is a thermostat in the brain that monitors the temperature of the blood as it flows through that organ. When the air temperature drops, the heart slows down and the blood vessels constrict, forcing the liquid tissue to flow deeper within the body where it can remain warm. When the weather gets warm, or when we exercise, the arterioles open and the blood is dispersed within the skin, effectively functioning like a radiator (see Schiefelbein, 1986, p. 128).
The blood vessels
constitute an incredible pipeline system networking the entire body. These vessels come in three basic types:
(1) arteries (and smaller arterioles) are vessels that carry blood away from the heart;
(2) veins (and smaller venules) transport the blood back to the heart; and
(3) capillaries are microscopic vessels that link the smallest arteries with veins.
If all of the body’s pipelines were connected endto-end, it has been estimated that it would stretch to a length of between 60,000 and 100,000 miles.
The system is “so efficient” that the entire process of circulation, “during which every cell in the body is serviced, takes only a total of 20 seconds” (Avraham, 1989, p. 41). Would any rational person deny that a major city’s pipeline system was designed? Hardly. The body’s skillfully constructed transportation system clearly evinces design, hence a Designer.
Lenihan confessed:
“The circulation is an example of a multipurpose system, often found in the body but generally beyond the capability of the engineering designer” (1974, p. 5, emp. added).
In this connection, it might be noted that medical scientists, in the interest of extending human longevity, have attempted to fashion numerous artificial organs.
All such efforts have met with only limited success.
As one authority noted:
“…no synthetic spare part—however well engineered—can match the capacity of the organ a normal human being is born with” (Mader, 1979, p. 367).
Miller and Goode admitted that
“no engineering genius has invented a pump like the human heart” (1960, p. 6).
Dr. Pierre Galletti of Brown Medical School described artificial body parts as
“simplistic substitutes for their sophisticated natural counterparts” (see Cauwels, 1986, p. ix).
Man can attempt to duplicate the Grand Designer’s handiwork, but he never can hope to approach the wisdom and skill of the Creator.
The arteries have been fashioned in such a way as to be both elastic and porous. The elasticity accommodates the surging blood, and also helps regulate body temperature. But how is the blood able to make its way, against gravity, back up the veins to the heart?
The veins, it turns out, contain one-way valves with open ends that face the heart—analogous to the valves in an automobile engine (Miller and Goode, 1960, p. 71). The blood is pushed partially upward by force from the heart, but it also is propelled by muscle movements that massage the veins, pushing the blood forward through the valves. In the veins of the legs, these valves are spaced about every half inch.
The capillaries are the smallest yet most abundant of the blood vessels. It takes about 120 short capillaries to measure 3 inches. All of them laid end-to-end, however, would circle the equator twice (Avraham, 1989, p. 40).
The blood is pumped into the capillaries with a force sufficient to drive the plasma and its rich cargo through the porous walls of these tiny vessels, thus re-nourishing the cells. This procedure requires a very “precise balance of pressures between the blood flowing within their walls and the fluid in and around the body’s cells” (Schiefelbein, 1986, p. 114).
Without question this delicately balanced system affirms design. Some struggle to avoid such a conclusion, but at times they admit that: If, like the scientists of an earlier day, we assumed a constant guiding purposefulness in our biological universe, we might say that the capillary system is the purpose of the circulation, that the entire system, heart and all, was designed for just this end (Miller and Goode, 1960, p. 77, emp. added).
The nervous system
is the “communication center” of the body, and consists of:
(1) the brain;
(2 the spinal cord; and
(3) the nerves,
which spread out from the brain and spinal cord to all parts of the body, somewhat like the root system of a tree. The nervous system has many functions.
It regulates the actions of organs like the muscles, liver, kidneys, etc. It monitors the senses, such as seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. It also controls our thinking, learning, and memory capabilities.
The specialized nerve receptors in the sensory organs receive information from the environment. To chose just one example, in the skin their are some 3 to 4 million structures sensitive to pain. There are a half-million touch detectors and more than 200,000 temperature gauges. These tiny receptors, plus those in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, etc., constantly send data to the brain.
This information is transmitted (at up to 45 feet per second, or 30 miles per hour), via the nerve fibers to the brain. The transmission involves both electrical and chemical energy. The brain analyzes the data and determines the appropriate action to be taken.
Noted science writer, John Pfeiffer, an evolutionist, has called the nervous system “the most elaborate communications system ever devised” (1961, p. 4).
Who devised it? A number of years ago, the prestigious journal, Natural History, contained this statement: “The nervous system of a single starfish, with all its various nerve ganglia and fibers, is more complex than London’s telephone exchange” (Burnett, 1961, p. 17).
If that is true for the nervous system of the lowly starfish, what could be said about the infinitely more complex nervous system of the human? The brain, located in the protective case called the skull, is the most highly specialized organ in the body.
The late Isaac Asimov, well-known science writer and humanist, once stated that man’s brain is “the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe” (1970, p. 10).
Who arranged it?
Paul Davies, atheistic professor of mathematics and physics at the Universe of Adelaide, observed that the human brain is “the most developed and complex system known to science” (1992).
The human brain,
which weighs about three pounds, consists of three main areas.
The cerebrum is the thinking/learning center. It deciphers messages from the sensory organs and controls the voluntary muscles.
Evolutionist William Beck spoke of the “architectural plan” characteristic of this region (1971, p. 444).
Does not an “architectural plan” require an architect? The maintenance of equilibrium and muscle coordination occurs in the cerebellum.
Finally, there is the brain stem, which has several components that control the involuntary muscles—regulating heartbeat, digestion, breathing, etc. Let us consider several aspects of the brain’s uncanny abilities. [Incidentally, human beings, unlike animals, are the only creatures who think about their brains!]
The brain’s memory storage capacity is incredible. It has been compared to a vast library.
The late evolutionist of Cornell University, Carl Sagan, wrote:
The information content of the human brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among the neurons—about a hundred trillion, 1014 bits. If written out in English, say, that information would fill some twenty million volumes, as many as in the world’s largest libraries.
The equivalent of twenty million books is inside the heads of every one of us. The brain is a very big place in a very small space (1979, p. 275). It has been suggested that it would take a bookshelf 500 miles long—from San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon—to house the information stored in the human brain. Would anyone actually contend that this kind of information content “just happened”? Evolutionists do.
A popular science journal employed this analogy.
The brain is an immense computer with 110 circuits and a memory of perhaps 1020 bits, each of these being five to ten orders of magnitude more complex than any computer yet built. It is still more fascinating that the brain performs this work, using only 20 to 25 watts compared to the six and ten kilowatts used by our large computers (Cahill, 1981, 89[3]:105).
One writer has suggested that “many researchers think of the brain as a computer. This comparison is inadequate. Even the most sophisticated computers that we can envision are crude compared to the almost infinite complexity and flexibility of the human brain” (Pines, 1986, p. 326).
The Cray-2 supercomputer has a storage capacity about 1,000 times less than that of a human brain. One authority stated that “problem solving by a human brain exceeds by far the capacity of the most powerful computers” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1989, 2:189).
No rational person subscribes to the notion that the computer “just happened by chance” as the result of fortuitous accidents in nature. The computer obviously was designed, and that demands a designer. Nobel laureate Sir John Eccles, an evolutionist, conceded the design evinced by the brain’s amazing memory capacity when he wrote: We do not even begin to comprehend the functional significance of this richly complex design…. If we now persist in regarding the brain as a machine, then we must say that it is by far the most complicated machine in existence (1958, pp. 135,136, emp. added).
If the less-complicated computer indicates design, what does this say for the infinitely more complex human brain? Evolutionist Richard Dawkins has argued that the Universe is without design. In spite of that, however, he wrote:
The brain with which you are understanding my words is an array of some ten million kiloneurons. Many of these billions of nerve cells have each more than a thousand “electric wires” connecting them to other neurons. Moreover, at the molecular genetic level, every single one of more than a trillion cells in the body contains about a thousand times as much precisely-coded digital information as my entire computer. The complexity of living organisms is matched by the elegant efficiency of their apparent design. If anyone doesn’t agree that this amount of complex design cries out for an explanation, I give up (1986, p. ix).
In addition to its phenomenal memory capacity, the brain also exhibits extraordinary ability in its orchestration of muscular movements. Suppose you decide that you want to pick up a pen and some paper from your desk. Your brain will have to send signals to your hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders, which will direct the manipulation of 60 different joints and more than 100 muscles.
In addition to moving the muscles directionally, the brain regulates the exact force needed for a particular task. Opening the car door of your classic 1937 Chevrolet requires 400 times more torque (turning force) than dialing a rotary style telephone. Picking up a paper clip requires only a fraction of an ounce of force, whereas pulling on your socks and shoes necessitate about 8 to 12 pounds of force.
The brain compensates for multiplied thousands of these kinds of variables in daily life. Too, it does its work efficiently in terms of energy use. One scientist observed that “half a salted peanut provides sufficient calories for an hour of intense mental effort” (Pfeiffer, 1961, p. 102).
Evolutionist Robert Jastrow concluded:
The average human brain weighs three pounds, consumes electrical energy at the rate of 25 watts, and occupies a volume of one-tenth of a cubic foot. …a machine matching the human brain in memory capacity would consume electrical energy at the rate of one billion watts—half the output of the Grand Coulee Dam—and occupy most of the space of the Empire State Building. Its cost would be in the neighborhood of $10 billion. The machine would be a prodigious artificial intelligence, but it would be only a clumsy imitation of the human brain (1981, pp. 142,143).
One of the astounding features of the brain is its ability to process and react to so many different circumstances at once. While an artist is working on a painting (using his voluntary muscles at the behest of this brain), he can: smell food cooking and know whether it is turnip greens or steak; hear a dog barking and determine if it is his dog or a neighbor’s; feel a breeze upon his face and sense that rain is near; and be reflecting on a warm friendship of the past.
Even while all of this is taking place, the brain is regulating millions of internal bodily activities that the person never even “thinks” about.
Logical contemplation of these facts can only lead one to agree with prominent brain surgeon, Robert White, who wrote:
“I am left with no choice but to acknowledge the existence of a Superior Intellect, responsible for the design and development of the incredible brain-mind relationship—something far beyond man’s capacity to understand” (1978, p. 99).
Jastrow himself even admitted: “It is not so easy to accept that theory [Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection—BT/WJ] as the explanation of an extraordinary organ like the brain” (1981, p. 96).
Dr. Jastrow went on to say: “Among the organs of the human body, none is more difficult that the brain to explain by evolution” (1981, p. 104). And it is not just the brain that is “difficult to explain by evolution.” Were space to permit, we could examine numerous other body systems (e.g., digestive, reproductive, etc.), each of which provides clear and compelling evidence of design.
Atheistic philosopher Paul Ricci has suggested:
“Although many have difficulty understanding the tremendous order and complexity of functions of the human body (the eye, for example), there is no obvious designer” (1986, p. 191, emp. added).
The only people who “have difficulty understanding the tremendous order and complexity” found in the Universe are those who have “refused to have God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28).
Such people can parrot the phrase that “there is no obvious designer,” but their arguments are not convincing in light of the evidence at hand.