Vestigial organs revisited – creation.com

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The argument from ‘vestigial organs’ has been refuted many times by creationists, but some evolutionists still think it is a good argument against creation. Halldór M. from Iceland writes:

Greetings, I was wondering if you could write an article that refuted this article here: [Web link removed as per our feedback rules—Ed.].

Not sure how scientific they are or if their information is accurate but it seemed like a very updated version of the vestigial argument for evolution.

Kind regards,

Halldór M.

Iceland

CMI’s Lita Cosner replies:

Dear Halldór,

I’ll take these ‘useless organs’ one at a time. Sometimes the author of the list didn’t use the proper name; when that’s the case, I’ll use the author’s name for it in quotes, with the proper name in parentheses.

Wisdom teeth: Wisdom teeth almost exclusively cause problems in countries where the diet consists of soft foods. Through most of human history, the average diet consisted of foods which required more work to chew, resulting in better jaw development with more room for the teeth. See Are wisdom teeth (third molars) vestiges of human evolution?

“Neck” (or cervical) ribs: I would consider something that develops in only 1 of 200 people and causes problems when it does to be pathological and a result of abnormal development. In short, an example of human devolution, rather than evolution.

“Third eyelid” (plica semilunaris): This is one of the places where the author of the list shows his/her ignorance. The plica semilunaris actually has a critical function for the health of the eye. It secretes the sticky substance that hardens into the crust we sometimes find around our eyes when we wake up. This substance surrounds any particles that find their way into the eye, making them less likely to scratch the eye, and making it easier for the tears and eyelids to remove the particles from the eye. If we didn’t have this organ, our eyes would be much more prone to painful injuries that would affect our sight, and also make us more susceptible to related infections.

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