science and the
Bible by Bolton Davtdbeiser, Chairman, Scianca Diviiien, Siala Cattata
STRENGTHEN CHILDREN’S FAITH
S f r e m e T R ó fo
W e h a v e previously considered two types of vestigial organs and will now consider a third. There are vestigial organs or structures which do not normally occur in the body but which, when they do occur, are thought to represent “ throw backs” to a condition found normal ly in a remote ancestor. For example, humans have no ribs in the neck, but ribs in this area occur normally in certain living and fossil reptiles. Occasionally a human being is bom with a pair of ribs in the neck, and such cervical ribs are thought by evolutionists to be another indication of our reptilian ancestry. However, the fact is that twice as many women as men have this con dition, and hence if we carry this bit of evidence to its logical conclusion we come to the absurd position that men evolved from reptiles a consider able length of time before women did. Another way of saying the same thing is that since this “throw back” is so much more common in women than in men, it indicates that women are more closely related to reptiles than men are. Extra ribs may also occur below the normal range of the ribs, in the lumbar region. Such ribs are called “ gorilla ribs” because this condition is common in gorillas. This supposed ly shows our affinity to these beasts, but extra ribs here are said to be three times as common in men as in women. This would seem to indicate that women evolved from an ape like stock before men did and that men are more closely related to apes than women are. Thus from the evidence which extra ribs give to evolutionary theory, we have the double absurdity that men evolved from reptiles before women did and women evolved be
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fore men from our common ancestor with the apes. Ribs develop next to the vertebrae and hence the positions at which they occur abnormally are restricted to the areas just above and just below their normal positions. Thus it seems coin cidental that they are abnormally found where they more commonly occur in reptiles and in gorillas. Occasionally ribs are forked in front. This abnormality is not con sidered a “ throw back” to any kind of ancestor, for nothing normally has ribs which fork in this manner. Another anomaly in human beings is rudimentary breasts or mammary glands in abnormal positions. They may occur near the arm pits as they do normally in some species of bats, but this does not mean that we are closely related to bats. Mammary glands may also occur in the inguinal region as they do normally in some whales, but it would be ridiulous to claim that we are near relatives of the cetaceans. In fact, rudimentary mammary glands have developed at very many places on the body, in cluding the back and on the arms and legs, where they do not normally occur on any animal. Furthermore, if such abnormalities indicate anything about ancient an cestry the more common anomalies, such as harelip and cleft palate, should have some evolutionary signi ficance also. But they have no such significance. Corresponding defects in experimental animals are found to be hereditary in some cases or to be induced by radiation or by vitamin- deficient diets. The evidence for evolution provid ed by vestigial organs was once con sidered to be very strong and is still generally presented in textbooks, but it has many weaknesses.
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