Evidence of design in the human body
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:09 am
JSM17 made an observation in another thread that I wanted to elaborate on. Instead of replying and potentially take that thread off track (it's the one about atheism) I thought I would start a new one.
First, let me say that I have been fascinated with the Creation vs Evolution discussion for many years. For that to make sense requires me to elaborate on myself for a second and I hope I don't bore anyone with this. I'm an engineer for my "day job" and growing up I was surrounded by engineers in my family. Engineers ask a lot of questions. I also grew up in a Christian family and so I listened and learned both sides (one at home, the other at public school) of the "story", so to speak, the story of faith in a Creator and the story of faith in Evolution. Yes, please note I called the opposite side "story of faith in Evolution" for a reason: general evolution cannot be quantifiably demonstrated in a lab and therefore, the conclusion of general evolution is built on inferences from things that can be observed. Hold on to that thought for a second as I will come back to it.
I like using personal experiences and application to any subject because it provides relevance and clarity to thoughts and conclusions. So, here's another personal story. At the young age of 27 I developed high blood pressure and my doctor couldn't figure out why even after a lot of poking and testing. About 4 years later in a simple blood test for an insurance policy did the answer arrive as to my problem: hyper-active thyroid commonly called Grave's Disease (after the doctor that quantified it). If you don't know what your thyroid is or does, trust me, that when it goes off track you'll learn about it VERY QUICKLY.
And you'll learn a lot of other things too about how delicate of a balance the human endocrine system really is. There is a set of hormones that comprise the thyroid system and is broken down in a series of stages of composition used by the body (T1 through T4) and a series of stimulating and counter hormones to regulate the production and up take of the hormones. I don't know the total count involved, I'm not a MD, but I know of at least 6 hormones I've been told of relating to thyroid operation.
Now, the real application to this thread. I've spent a lot of years asking questions to various doctors about the thyroid and why mine went crazy. I've had 4 doctors over the years and done a lot of my own research and +50% of all cases like mine just get the label "idiopathic". No that doesn't mean the patient is an idiot (some may think that about me though ), but that the root cause cannot be determined. Given all of the doctors and research on just one system of the body, the thyroid, and they can't come up with the answer to a common problem (in any year several hundred thousand people in the USA are diagnosed), what does that tell us about the human body and man's knowledge of how it works? And the thyroid is just one hormone system of the body with literally dozens more that do not operate in isolation but work together to make the human body operate. My thyroid whacked out and in the process messed up the regulation of several other hormone functions, that's why I had high blood pressure.
With that background then I'd like to ask a few questions that I ponder often regarding Evolution. I ask them because they help frame my conclusions and test what is reasonable or not.
1) How did the thyroid system evolve?
2) How did the reliance and interaction of the hormonal system evolve?
3) In light of the above, how did the human body evolve then from single cell what I call non-systems, to the enormously complex and inter-dependent system it is?
It is in light of these questions and my experience with the inability of the Medical community to find the root cause of a common disease, that I frame the phrase "story of faith in Evolution". If all of medicine can't explain why a single endocrine system breaks a majority of the time in discovered cases, why is it reasonable to believe they know conclusively how that same system got here via general evolution? And that is why to my thinking it is far more reasonable to conclude that the systems that comprise my body were designed by a Creator to be they way they are instead of chance and natural selection offered by the General Evolutionary Theory. Both require "faith" to reach their conclusion because we can put neither in a "lab" and are reached based on evidence and reasoning. What I ask you, the reader, is which is more reasonable?
First, let me say that I have been fascinated with the Creation vs Evolution discussion for many years. For that to make sense requires me to elaborate on myself for a second and I hope I don't bore anyone with this. I'm an engineer for my "day job" and growing up I was surrounded by engineers in my family. Engineers ask a lot of questions. I also grew up in a Christian family and so I listened and learned both sides (one at home, the other at public school) of the "story", so to speak, the story of faith in a Creator and the story of faith in Evolution. Yes, please note I called the opposite side "story of faith in Evolution" for a reason: general evolution cannot be quantifiably demonstrated in a lab and therefore, the conclusion of general evolution is built on inferences from things that can be observed. Hold on to that thought for a second as I will come back to it.
I like using personal experiences and application to any subject because it provides relevance and clarity to thoughts and conclusions. So, here's another personal story. At the young age of 27 I developed high blood pressure and my doctor couldn't figure out why even after a lot of poking and testing. About 4 years later in a simple blood test for an insurance policy did the answer arrive as to my problem: hyper-active thyroid commonly called Grave's Disease (after the doctor that quantified it). If you don't know what your thyroid is or does, trust me, that when it goes off track you'll learn about it VERY QUICKLY.
And you'll learn a lot of other things too about how delicate of a balance the human endocrine system really is. There is a set of hormones that comprise the thyroid system and is broken down in a series of stages of composition used by the body (T1 through T4) and a series of stimulating and counter hormones to regulate the production and up take of the hormones. I don't know the total count involved, I'm not a MD, but I know of at least 6 hormones I've been told of relating to thyroid operation.
Now, the real application to this thread. I've spent a lot of years asking questions to various doctors about the thyroid and why mine went crazy. I've had 4 doctors over the years and done a lot of my own research and +50% of all cases like mine just get the label "idiopathic". No that doesn't mean the patient is an idiot (some may think that about me though ), but that the root cause cannot be determined. Given all of the doctors and research on just one system of the body, the thyroid, and they can't come up with the answer to a common problem (in any year several hundred thousand people in the USA are diagnosed), what does that tell us about the human body and man's knowledge of how it works? And the thyroid is just one hormone system of the body with literally dozens more that do not operate in isolation but work together to make the human body operate. My thyroid whacked out and in the process messed up the regulation of several other hormone functions, that's why I had high blood pressure.
With that background then I'd like to ask a few questions that I ponder often regarding Evolution. I ask them because they help frame my conclusions and test what is reasonable or not.
1) How did the thyroid system evolve?
2) How did the reliance and interaction of the hormonal system evolve?
3) In light of the above, how did the human body evolve then from single cell what I call non-systems, to the enormously complex and inter-dependent system it is?
It is in light of these questions and my experience with the inability of the Medical community to find the root cause of a common disease, that I frame the phrase "story of faith in Evolution". If all of medicine can't explain why a single endocrine system breaks a majority of the time in discovered cases, why is it reasonable to believe they know conclusively how that same system got here via general evolution? And that is why to my thinking it is far more reasonable to conclude that the systems that comprise my body were designed by a Creator to be they way they are instead of chance and natural selection offered by the General Evolutionary Theory. Both require "faith" to reach their conclusion because we can put neither in a "lab" and are reached based on evidence and reasoning. What I ask you, the reader, is which is more reasonable?