Vestigial Structures and "Junk" DNA
While preparing a science lesson on animal physiology, this question came to my mind. Naturalists use the existence of seemingly atrophied or near-useless organs and structures as evidence of physiological transition in an evolutionary timeline.
For example, if you have a vermiform appendix hanging out in your body, not doing much, then it seems to follow that it did serve a purpose long ago that is no longer needed in this stage of human evolution. I don't believe questions about why emus have wings or whether manatees once had legs are wrong to ask (is this not the purpose of science?), but I think they lead to better answers than evolution.
Did someone say Answers? Here are some web articles on vestigial structures you might find interesting:
For example, if you have a vermiform appendix hanging out in your body, not doing much, then it seems to follow that it did serve a purpose long ago that is no longer needed in this stage of human evolution. I don't believe questions about why emus have wings or whether manatees once had legs are wrong to ask (is this not the purpose of science?), but I think they lead to better answers than evolution.
Did someone say Answers? Here are some web articles on vestigial structures you might find interesting:
Are there several organs in the human body that have no useful purpose? Are there “badly designed” parts of our body?
- Cutting out a useless vestigial argument
- Do any vestigial organs exist in humans?
- Embryonic development
- Evolution and medicine
- The evolution of childbirth?
- The Human Vermiform Appendix—a General Surgeon’s Reflections (Semi-technical)
- Is lack of room for wisdom teeth proof of evolution? (ICR)
- Is Our “Inverted” Retina Really “Bad Design”? (Technical)
- Is the Backwards Human Retina Evidence of Poor Design? (ICR Origins Issues)
- Oh! My aching wisdom teeth!
- The miracle of tears
- Our eye movements and their control: part 1 (Technical)
- Our eye movements and their control: part 2 (Technical)
- That Troubling Laryngeal Nerve? (ICR Origins Issues)
What about design features in animals that seem to have no use, such as wings on penguins? Why have evolutionists had such interest in claiming that this supports evolution?
- How manatees lost their legs?
- Of penguins and people
- The platypus
- The panda thumbs its nose at the dysteleological arguments of the atheist Stephen Jay Gould(Technical)
What about “Vestigial” (“junk”) DNA that evolutionists claim is a useless leftover of evolution?
- “Junk” DNA—past, present, and future, part 1 (Semi-technical)
- “Junk” DNA—past, present, and future, part 2 (Semi-technical)
- Are pseudogenes “shared mistakes” between primate genomes? (Technical)
- Evolution: fact or fiction?
- Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs)—evolutionary “junk” or God’s tools?
- Human/chimp DNA similarity continues to decrease: counting indels
- If human and chimp DNA are so similar, why are there so many physical and mental differences between them?
- The junk dealer ain’t selling that no more (Semi-technical—Access Research Network)
- “Junk” DNA: evolutionary discards or God’s tools? (Technical)
- The living database
- Pseudogene function: regulation of gene expression (Technical)
- Pseudogenes and Origins (Technical, Geoscience Research Institute)
- Pseudogene function: more evidence (Technical)
Recommended Resources
Dr. DeWitt shows how evolutionary assumptions have led to the mistaken belief that DNA is filled with “junk” leftovers from millions of years of evolution. On the contrary, this supposed junk has proven to play many essential roles.
| 
You have never seen a presentation regarding the value and dignity of human life that is as powerful and as respectful as this. The question is not whendoes life begin, but when does a personbegin?
|
