Evolution Cruncher
Chapter 16 Vestiges and
Recapitulations
You
have no useless or unnecessary structures inherited from
earlier life-forms
This chapter is based on
pp. 751-773 of Other Evidence (Volume Three of our three-volume
Evolution Disproved Series). Not included in this paperback chapter are
46 statements in its appendix, along with specialized charts. You will
find them, plus much more, in the encyclopedia on this website.
We will deal with two
topics in this chapter.
First, there are
supposedly "vestigial organs." These
are useless structures found in human embryos and adults.
Are there remnants of
evolution in your body? The Darwinists say there are. These are said to
be unneeded organs, which your animal "ancestors" used and
then passed on to you.
Obviously, the "proof" is that you have useless, no longer
needed organs which are "vestiges" (left-overs) from your
evolutionary ancestors.
Second, there are
supposedly "recapitulated organs."
You are supposed to have had these when you were growing in the womb. These
are said to be unnecessary structures found only in human embryos,
which you inherited from creatures in your evolutionary past.
In this chapter, we will
carefully consider the claims of evolutionists in regard to both of
these points. It is important that we do so; for, regardless of how
foolish their claims may be, they are given prominent space in the
textbooks that you and your friends read.
1 - VESTIGES
ORGANS
FROM THE PAST—Evolutionists
tell us that there are "vestiges" in people that prove the
theory of evolution. These vestiges are supposed to be human body
parts that are no longer needed, and are just castoffs from some
earlier creature that we descended from. Because earlier creatures
needed them—and we do not—is supposed to prove that we
descended from those earlier life-forms. That is how the theory
goes.
A vestigial organ, by
evolutionary definition, is an organ that was once useful during a
previous stage of your evolution; but, in the course of time, that organ
was no longer needed and continued to remain in the body. To say it
differently, changes in physical structure rendered certain organs
redundant, but they still remain in the body.
The "theory of
vestiges" has gained prominence as a major "proof" of
evolution, only because there is no other evidence in either the present
or the past of transition of one type of animal or plant to another. Yet
in this chapter we will learn that there are no vestiges!
Frankly, the situation
for evolutionists is a matter of desperation. When there is nothing else
to turn to, Darwinists are willing to grasp at any possibility that
might help their cause.
The vestiges argument
was one of the few "scientific evidences" the evolutionists
were able to present at the 1925 Scopes Trial. Zoologist *Newman, a
zoologist, made this statement on the witness stand for the defense:
"There are,
according to Wiedersheim, no less than 180 vestigial structures in the
human body, sufficient to make of a man a veritable walking museum of
antiquities."—*Horatio Hackett Newman, quoted in The World’s
Most Famous Court Trial: The Tennessee Evolution Case (1990), p. 268.
In the first half of
this chapter we will deal with vestiges, and will answer two questions:
(1) Do we have any vestigial organs? (2) If we do,
would they prove evolution?
SOME OF
YOUR USELESS ORGANS—What
are all these useless organs that we are supposed to have within us?
*Charles Darwin said they included wisdom teeth. *Robert
Wiedersheim, a German disciple of Darwin’s, wrote a book in 1895 in
which he listed 86 vestigial organs: including valves in the veins,
the pineal gland, the thymus, bones in
third, fourth, and fifth toes; lachrymal (tear) glands,
and certain female organs. Later he expanded it to 180.
Earlier Darwinists assumed that if they were ignorant of an organ’s
function, then it had to have no function.
School textbooks as
recent as the 1960s listed over 200 vestigial (useless) structures in
the human body, including the thyroid and pituitary
glands!
To date, not one
dedicated evolutionist has been willing to have all his "vestigial
organs" removed. To do so,
would require taking out most of his endocrine (hormonal) glands!
In
reality, the list of "useless organs" has steadily decreased
as scientific knowledge has increased. As our knowledge and
understanding of physical structures has multiplied, we have arrived
at the point where there are no more vestigial ones! Today ALL
organs formerly classed as vestigial are known to have a function during
the life of the organism!
The truth is that the
theory of useless organs as a proof of evolution was based on rank
19th-century ignorance of those organs! No capable biologist
today claims that any vestigial organs exist in human beings. But,
unfortunately, that fact is not mentioned in the school textbooks. You
will still find them talking about your "vestigial organs"
which prove evolution!
EIGHT
USELESS ORGANS—Here
are some of these supposedly useless organs in your body:
1 - The
Tonsils. Here
is one of those "worthless organs," which we now know to be
needed. These two small glands in the back of your throat help
protect you against infections.
2 - The Appendix.
This is the classic
"useless" organ of evolutionary theory. Science recently
discovered that man needs this organ; it is not useless after all. It
helps protect you from gastrointestinal problems in the lower ascending
colon. The appendix is now known to be an important part of what is
called the reticulo-endothelial system of the body. Like the
tonsils, the appendix fights infection.
"There is no longer
any justification for regarding the vermiform appendix as a vestigial
structure."—*William Straus, Quarterly Review of Biology
(1947), p. 149.
Because the appendix
becomes swollen at times, it was said to be vestigial and useless. But
people have far more problems with their lungs and stomachs than they
have with their appendixes. We hope the evolutionists do not decide to
call any more organs "vestigial," and begin cutting them out
also!
The fact that tonsils
can be cut out without apparent harm is a major reason for calling them
"vestigial." But you will also survive if your eyes and arms
are cut off, and no one considers them "vestigial," or useless
organs.
It would be well to
clarify the special role of the tonsils and appendix: The human
alimentary canal is a long tube leading from mouth to anus. Near each
opening, the Designer placed an organ to protect your entire
gastrointestinal tract from pathogenic invasion while you were an
infant. The appendix was crucial during your first months, and your
tonsils during your first several years. In later years, you do not have
as urgent a need for either your tonsils or your appendix as you did
while you were a small child.
According to *Science
News, March 20, 1971, both the tonsils and appendix are now
believed to guard us against Hodgkin’s disease.
3 - The Coccyx.
Another organ declared useless, by
evolutionists, is the coccygeal vertebrea (the coccyx). This is
the bottom of your spine.
Scientists have found
that important muscles (the levator ani and coccygeus) attach to
those bones.
Without those muscles, your
pelvic organs would collapse; that is, fall down. Without them you could
not have a bowel movement, nor could you walk or sit upright.
4 - The Thymus.
Try cutting this one out,
and you will be in big trouble! It was once considered a worthless
vestigial structure, but scientists have discovered that the thymus
is the primary central gland of the lymphatic system. Without it, T
cells that protect your body from infection could not function properly,
for they develop within it. We hear much these days about the
body’s "immune system," but without the thymus you would
have none.
"For at least 2,000
years, doctors have puzzled over the function of the thymus gland.
Modern physicians came to regard it, like the appendix, as a useless,
vestigial organ, which had lost its original purpose, if indeed it ever
had one. In the last few years, however . . men have proved that, far
from being useless, the thymus is really the master gland that regulates
the intricate immunity system which protects us against infectious
diseases . . Recent experiments have led researchers to believe that the
appendix, tonsils and adenoids may also figure in the antibody
responses."—*"The Useless Gland that Guards Our
Health," in Reader’s Digest, November 1966.
5 - The Pineal
Gland. This is a
cone-shaped structure in the brain, which secretes critically needed
hormones, including, for example, melatonin which inhibits secretion
of luteinizing hormone.
6 - The Thyroid
Gland. Many years ago,
surgeons found that people could live after having their thyroid cut
out, so it was decided that this was another useless organ. Ignorance
breeds contempt. Yes, you may survive without your thyroid, but you will
not do very well. The thyroid gland secretes the hormone, thyroxin,
which goes directly into the blood. This hormone is essential to
normal body growth in infancy and childhood. Without it, an adult
becomes sluggish. Either an oversupply or an undersupply of thyroxin
will result in over-activity or under-activity of many body organs.
Deficiency of this organ at birth causes a hideous deformity known as cretinism.
Thyroxin triggers cell batteries (the mitochondria) to provide
energy to the cell for all its functions.
7 - The Pituitary.
Once claimed to be
vestigial, this organ is now known to ensure proper growth of the
skeleton and proper functioning of the thyroid, adrenal, and
reproductive glands. Improper functioning can lead to Cushing’s
syndrome (gigantism).
8 - The
Semilunar Fold of the Eye. *Charles
Darwin, and others after him, claimed that the little fold in the inner
corner of your eye is a vestige of your bird ancestors! But contemporary
anatomy books describe it, not as a vestige, but as a very necessary
part of your eye. It is that portion of your conjunctiva that
cleanses and lubricates your eyeball.
9 - Other Organs.
There are many more such
organs in your body which, at one time or another, evolutionists
declared to be worthless. Well, such organs are not useless as was
thought. Gradually the list of "vestigial organs" lessened as
their function was discovered. For example, it was said by one scientist
(Wiedersheim) that ear muscles were totally unnecessary.
Later research disclosed that without those tiny muscles within the
inner ear, you would not be able to hear properly.
"Many of the
so-called vestigial organs are now known to fulfill important
functions."—*Encyclopedia Britannica Vo1. 8 (1946 ed.), p.
926.
The more we study into
these "useless" vestiges, the more we find ourselves in awe
before a majestic Creator who carefully made us all.
A better name for some
of these supposedly vestigial organs, of which evolutionists make so
much, would be "organs of unknown function." Fortunately,
in our time knowledge is taking the place of ignorance in regard to the
reasons for the various structures of the human body.
A
SPECIAL PURPOSE—All this
talk about useless organs calls our attention to the fact that
everything within us has a special and important purpose.
It
also emphasizes that Someone very intelligent designed our bodies! We
did not just "happen" into existence.
Evolution teaches that
all organs developed by chance, and that some eventually happened to
have a reason for existence. Later on, quantities of these useless
organs tagged along when one species evolved into a new one. Thus, if
evolutionary theory were true, there ought to be large numbers of
useless organs in your body! But scientific research discloses that
there is not one!
Instead, careful
investigation reveals that every part of you is very special, very
important, and carefully planned. All the other creatures and plants in
the world were carefully planned also. There is a special purpose for
each of their organs also.
It took an extremely
intelligent Master Designer to accomplish all of these biological
wonders we call "plants" and "animals." Chance
formation of molecules into various shapes and sizes could never produce
what was needed.
FOUNDED
ON IGNORANCE—How did
such a foolish idea become accepted in the first place? It happened in a
time of great ignorance. The whole idea of "vestigial
organs" was originally conceived back in the early 1800s, at a
time when physicians were still blood-letting in order to cure people of
infection. But, since that time, there has been an immense quantity of
research in every imaginable field. There is now no doubt by
competent biologists that every large and small part of the human body
has a special function during the life of the individual.
It strongly appears that
the true "vestigial organ," in earlier times, was
an ignorant mind—a mind that did not know why organs were in
the body and was too impatient and lazy to do the laborious work needed
to identify functions.
HINDERS
SCIENCE—Reputable
scientists now recognize that the evolutionary teaching of "vestigial
organs" actually retarded scientific knowledge for decades.
the evolutionary teaching of "vestigial
organs" actually retarded scientific knowledge for decades.
the evolutionary teaching of "vestigial
organs" actually retarded scientific knowledge for decades.
the evolutionary teaching of "vestigial
organs" actually retarded scientific knowledge for decades.
Instead of finding out what the appendix was for, it was called
"vestigial" and was cut out. Researchers were told it was a
waste of time to study any possible use for it.
For the same reason,
lots of children have had their tonsils removed, when they really needed
them!
"The existence of
functionless ‘vestigial organs’ was presented by Darwin, and is
often cited by current biology textbooks, as part of the evidence for
evolution . . An analysis of the difficulties in unambiguously
identifying functionless structures . . leads to the conclusion that
‘vestigial organs’ provide no evidence for evolutionary
theory."—*S.R. Scadding, "Do ‘Vestigial Organs’
Provide Evidence for Evolution?" Evolutionary Theory, Vol. 5 (May
1981), p. 394.
APPENDIX
ANCESTRY—The appendix
is the special body structure pointed to by evolutionists as a prime
example of a vestigial organ—an organ used by our ancestors, which we
do not now use. Well, if that is true, then we ought to be able to
trace our ancestors through the appendix in a direct line! In addition
to man, which animals have an appendix? Here they are: rabbits,
apes, wombats, and opossums! Take your pick: all four are totally
different from each other. Which one descended from which? Oh, the
evolutionist will say, we descended from the ape. Well, did he descend
from the wombat?
PROOF OF
DEGENERATION—(*#1/6
Scientists Speak about Vestigial Organs*) (*#1/6
Scientists Speak about Vestigial Organs*) Would vestigial organs
prove evolution? Actually, if we had useless organs in our bodies,
they would prove degeneration, not evolution! The Darwinists have their
theory backward. They claim we are moving upward, and then point
to supposedly degenerate organs in our bodies to prove it. Here is an
example of this backward thinking:
"If there were no
imperfections, there would be no evidence to favor evolution by natural
selection over creation."—*Jeremy Cherfas, "The
Difficulties of Darwinism," New Scientist, Vol. 102 (May 17, 1984),
p. 29. (Cherfas was reporting on a lecture series by Steven Jay Gould at
Cambridge University.)
"No evidence." *Cherfas, an expert in his field, is essentially saying this: There is
no evidence anywhere in the plant and animal kingdom pointing to
evolution of one species to another, and there are no such findings
among fossil discoveries indicating plant or animal evolution in the
past. All we can rely on is vestigial organs! There is no other
evidence!
We might mention here an
interesting idea of some evolutionists. They think that all our
"vestigial organs" once worked, but later became
dysfunctional. They say that we then invented other organs to take their
place. But if this is true, then we are devolving downward, for we
used to have more complex bodies with many organs, and now we keep
having less complex organs—and many of them are no longer functioning!
Darwinists claim that
some of our organs are falling into disuse. Yet, in contrast, the
evolutionists provide us with not one NEW, developing organ to take
their place!
Not one evidence of
evolution is to be found by anyone. In contrast, the "vestigial
organs" idea, if it could be true, would only prove the opposite:
devolution!
2 - RECAPITULATION
Evolutionists tell us
that there are two important proofs of evolution from one species to
another. These are "vestigial organs" and "recapitulation."
We have examined the foolish
claim that "vestigial organs" exist in our bodies.
Let us now turn our
attention to "recapitulation."
For years, evolutionists declared that this was one of their most
invaluable proofs of evolution. What is this "outstanding
evidence" of evolutionary theory?
EMBRYONIC
SIMILARITIES—The
concept of "recapitulation" is based on the fact that
there are similarities among embryos of people, animals, reptiles,
birds, and fish.
It is true that
embryonic similarities do indeed exist.
Babies, before they are born, look quite a bit alike during the first
few weeks. This includes people babies, raccoon babies, robin babies,
lizard babies, and goldfish babies. They all begin as very tiny
round balls. Then, gradually arms, legs, eyes, and all the other
parts begin appearing. At one stage, there is just a big eye with
skin over it and little flippers.
(An embryo is an
organism in any of the various stages of its development after
fertilization and before hatching or birth. The human embryo is called a
fetus after the first five or six weeks of development. Animal
embryos in their later stages of development are also called fetuses.)
PURPOSE
AND PLANNING—Each
part of every embryo was designed and made according to a definite
purpose. But when animals are just beginning to form—and while
they are very, very small,—there is only one ideal way for them to
develop.
The problem here is one
of size and packaging. Literally hundreds of thousands of parts are
developing inside something that is extremely small. There are simply
too many extremely tiny organs clustered in one near-microscopic object.
When creatures are that tiny, there are only a very few ideal ways for
them to be shaped, in order to develop efficiently.
Ongoing
"change" is a basic dictum of evolution. If that is so, then
by now—after millions of years of evolving—all those embryos ought
to look very different from each other!
But instead we see
fixity of species throughout nature today, as well as in the fossil
record. Advance planning was required on the part of Someone who
carefully thought it through. And that Person designed ALL of those
babies—whether they are pigs, frogs, bats, people, pigeons, or cows. The
fact that embryos are alike in their earlier weeks reveals they were all
designed and made by the same Creator.
But keep in mind that we
are only talking about appearance, not structure and function. Even
though a finch embryo and a tiger embryo look alike, everything else
about them is different!
CHICKENS,
LIZARDS, AND FISH—In
place of such a glorious ancestry, the evolutionist says "No, it
cannot be so! Humans surely must have evolved from peculiar
creatures,—for why would their embryos have a yolk sac like a chicken,
a tail like a lizard, and gill slits like a fish?"
The recapitulation
theory is that human embryos have organs that are leftovers from
ancestors.
For example, gill slits like a fish! What good are fish gills in your
body? Such organs are useless, totally useless to people, so they must
be "vestiges" from our ancestors. Since those organs were
needed by earlier creatures, but not by us, that proves that we are
descended from those lower forms of life. So human embryos are
said to repeat or "recapitulate" various stages of
their ancestors (such as the fish stage), and this recapitulation is
declared to be an outstanding evidence of evolution.
The two key points in
the above argument
of the
Darwinists are these:
(1) Human
embryos have organs which scientific research has proven to be useless.
We know they are useless because they have no relation to any human
function. (2) These useless organs in human embryos are actually
special organs used by lower animals. The conclusion is that
these useless, recapitulative organs prove that we evolved from fish,
lizards, and similar creatures.
GIL SLITS, YOKE SAC, AND
TAIL
That is how the theory goes. We have
here a variation on the "vestiges" (useless organs) theme,
plus the strange notion that embryos repeat (recapitulate) their
evolutionary past as they develop in
eggs or inside their mother.
RECAPITULATION—Reading
in scientific books, you will come across the word, "recapitulation,"
the theory that human embryos are really little better than the
left-over parts of fish, chickens, lizards, and other animals.
Did you ever notice that
big words are sometimes used as proof in themselves?
Because it is a big word, therefore it must be true.
The phrase the evolutionists use to describe their "recapitulation
theory" is this: "Ontogeny (on-TAH-jen-ee) recapitulates (ree-cah-PIH-chu-lates)
phylogeny (fil-AW-jen-ee)." A very learned phrase
indeed. "Ontogeny" is the history of the development of
an organism from fertilization to hatching or birth, and "phylogeny"
is the imagined evolutionary development of life-forms. But these
big words only cover over a very foolish theory.
CHICKEN
SAC—This is the
so-called "yolk sac" in your body.
In
a baby chick, the yolk sac is the source of nourishment that it will
continue to live on until it hatches. This is because the chick embryo
is in an eggshell and has no connection with its mother. But in a
baby human being, this little piece of bulging flesh has no relation to
a chick yolk sac, except for the shape. It is a small nodule attached
to the bottom of the human embryo, even before it develops feet.
A very tiny human being
is connected to its mother and receives nourishment from her; therefore
it does not need a yolk sac, as a baby chick does. But a human embryo
needs a means of making its own blood until its bones are developed.
Although nourishment passes from the mother
to the embryo,—blood does not. That tiny human being must make its
own. You and I make our blood in the marrow of our bones, embryos are
only beginning to form their bones and the marrow within them. Because
they do not yet have bones to make their blood, embryos, for a time,
need another organ elsewhere to fulfill that function.
The first blood in your
body came from that very tiny sack-like organ, long before you were
born. When it is removed from an embryo, death immediately follows.
The problem is that it
takes blood to make the bones that will make the blood! So a wonderful
Designer arranged that, for a short time in your life, a little nodule,
for many years called a "useless organ" because scientists
were ignorant of its purpose, would make the red blood your body needed
until your bones were made!
LIZARD
TAIL—Well, that
eliminates the "yolk sac." What about the "lizard
tail?" Even though it looks like a "tail" in a human
embryo—it later becomes the lower part of the spinal column in the
child and adult. But why then is it so much longer in the embryo?
The spinal column is
full of very complicated bones, and the total length of the spine
starts out longer in proportion to the body than it will be later.
This is just a matter of good design. There
are such complicated bones in your spine that it needs to start out
larger and longer in relation to the body. Later, the trunk grows bigger
as internal organs develop.
But there is a second
reason—the complex nerves in your spine: Scientists have recently
discovered that another reason the spine is longer at first than
the body is because the muscles and limbs do not develop until they are
stimulated by the spinal nerves! So the spine must grow and mature
enough that it can send out the proper signals for muscles,
limbs, and internal organs to begin their growth. For this reason, the
spine at first is bigger than the limbs, but later the arms and legs
become largest.
Would you rather have
your well-functioning backbone, knowing that, when you were tiny, it was
slightly longer than the rest of your trunk? Or would you rather it had
been the same size back then? If so, it would be degenerate now, and you
would have to lie in bed all day. And the rest of your organs would
never have developed properly. Come now, what is all this talk about
"useless organs?" What organ could be more necessary than your
spine!
FISH
GILLS—The third item
in the embryo that the evolutionists claim to be useless vestiges are,
what they call, "gill silts" in the throat of
each tiny human being. They say that these
"slits" prove that we are descended from fish. But the
theory, that people in their embryonic stage have gill slits, is
something that knowledgeable scientists no longer claim. Only the
ignorant ones do.
In the embryo there
are, for a time, three small folds to be seen in the front of its
throat. These three bubble outward slightly from the neck. Examining
these folds carefully, we find no gills to extract oxygen out of
water, and no gill slits (no openings) of any kind. These are
folds, not gill slits! There are no slits and no gills.
More
recent careful research has disclosed that the upper fold
contains the apparatus that will later develop into the middle
ear canals, the middle fold will later become
the parathyroids, and the bottom fold
will soon grow into the thymus gland.
"The pharyngeal arches
and clefts [creases] are frequently referred to as bronchial arches
and bronchial clefts in analogy with the lower vertebrates, but since
the human embryo never has gills called ‘bronchia,’ the term
pharyngeal arches and clefts has been adopted for this book."—*Jan
Langman, Medical Embryology, 3rd ed. (1975).
So once again the
evolutionists are shown to be incorrect. For years they claimed that
those three small throat folds were "gill slits," proving that
we descended from fish; the bulb at the bottom of the embryo was
a "yolk sac," proving that we descended from chickens;
and the lower part of the spine is a "tail," proving that we
are descended from lizards or something else with a tail!
Remember again, it is a
matter of packaging a lot into a very small space. Embryos do not need
to look handsome, but they need to function and grow in an extremely
small space. There simply is not enough room for such a tiny one to look
different or beautiful—and still develop properly.
The
Designer solved this problem very nicely.
Frankly, as we consider
all that we have learned about Similarities, Vestiges, and Recapitulation,
it is remarkable that (1) men can be so ignorant,
(2) that they can criticize so freely such marvelous workmanship as
is found in the embryo and the human body, and (3) that such
ignorant men are considered by so many others to be wise men of science.
A ROUND
BEGINNING—Yes, it is
true that we begin our lives as "small round things," but this
does not prove that we are descended from bats because they start their
lives as "small round things" also! If we only look on the
outside appearance of the small round things, then perhaps we are
related to marbles, BBs, and ball bearings! Indeed, that is what
this idea of "gill slits," "yolk sacs," and
"tails" is all about: the theory is just looking at
outside appearances instead of trying to learn the real reason those
structures are there.
TOTALLY
UNIQUE—Each of us began
as something as small as a dot on a word on this page. Yet if we
examine that almost microscopic egg, we find that that human dot has
totally different genes and chromosomes than the egg of any other type
of animal or plant. Only the outside appearance may be somewhat similar
to that of other embryos. As
it grows, its structures will continue to become more and more diverse
from those of any other kind of plant or animal. Every species of animal
and plant in the world has blood cells different than all others, and a
totally unique DNA code.
"The fertilized egg
cell contains in its tiny nucleus not only all the genetic instructions
for building a human body, but also a complete manual on how to
construct the complex protective armamentarium—amnion, umbilical cord,
placenta and all—that makes possible the embryo’s existence in the
womb."—*Life, April 30, 1965, pp. 70, 72.
ERNST
HAECKEL—(*#2/30
Scientists Speak about Recapitulation [includes Haeckel’s charts] /
#3/9 Haeckel’s Fraudulent Charts*) (*#2/30
Scientists Speak about Recapitulation [includes Haeckel’s charts] /
#3/9 Haeckel’s Fraudulent Charts*) *Ernst Haeckel was the
man who, in 1866, first championed the strange idea of vestiges;
that, during the first few embryonic months in the womb each of us
passes through various stages in which we have gills like a fish and
tail like a lizard. He called it the Law of Recapitulation, or
Biogenetic Law.
"This theory is
indispensable for the consistent completion of the non-miraculous
history of creation."—*Ernst Haeckel, The History of Creation
(1876), Vol. 1, p. 348.
By the mid-20th century,
reputable scientists recognized that Haeckel’s theory was without a
scientific basis and ridiculous.
But we are still waiting for the textbooks
and popular magazines to learn the news.
"Seldom has an
assertion like that of Haeckel’s theory of recapitulation, facile,
tidy, and plausible, widely accepted without critical examination, done
so much harm to science."—*Gavin De Beer, A Century of Darwin
(1958).
A carefully contrived
fraud was involved in the promulgation of this theory.
*Darwin hinted at recapitulation in his
1859 Origin of the Species, so his devoted disciple, *Thomas H.
Huxley, included a pair of drawings of canine and human embryos in an
1863 book he wrote. *Darwin placed those same drawings in his 1871 book,
Descent of Man. *Ernst Haeckel, in Germany, seized upon
Darwin’s suggestion and announced his so-called "Biogenetic
Law." In a two-volume 1868 set and its 1876 translation, History
of Creation, and later in another book in 1874, *Haeckel
published fraudulent charts to prove his "law." These
charts have been faithfully reprinted by evolutionists since then (one
of the latest was *Richard Leakey’s Illustrated Origin in
1971).
Haeckel had drafting ability, and he
carefully redesigned actual embryo pictures so that they would look
alike. For this purpose, he changed shapes and sizes of
heads, eyes, trunks, etc. For his ape and man skeleton pictures, he
changed heights and gave the ape skeletons upright postures.
HAECKEL’S FRAUDULENT
PICTURES
will
On a nearby page,
you will see two examples of *Haeckel’s fraudulent pictures. Top
left: Haeckel’s dog and human fake embryos; both made to look
alike when they actually are quite different. Top right: What a
dog and human embryo really look like. Center: Haeckel made one
woodcut, then had it printed three times with the titles
"dog," "chicken," and "tortoise." Bottom:
Haeckel made one ovum woodcut and had it printed three times, labeled
"dog," "monkey," "man."
Haeckel was later
repeatedly charged with fraud.
Wilhelm His, Sr. (1831-1904), a German embryologist, exposed the hoax in
detail in an 1874 publication (Unsere
Korperform) and concluded that Haeckel was dishonest and thereby
discredited from the ranks of trustworthy research scientists. It is to
be noted that Wilhelm His prepared the scholarly books on embryological
development which are the foundation of all modern human embryology. Yet
neither Haeckel’s fraud, nor His exposé, has ever been widely
discussed in English scientific publications, and never in any
publication for the public eye.
"The biogenetic law
has become so deeply rooted in biological thought that it cannot be
weeded out in spite of its having been demonstrated to be wrong by
numerous subsequent scholars."—*Walter J. Bock, Science, May
1969 [Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University].
In 1915, *Haeckel’s
fraudulent charts were even more thoroughly exposed as the cheats they
actually were.
"At Jena, the
university where he taught, Haeckel was charged with fraud by five
professors and convicted by a university court. His deceit was
thoroughly exposed in Haeckel’s Frauds and Forgeries (1915), a
book by J. Assmuth and Ernest J. Hull. They quoted nineteen leading
authorities of the day. F. Keibel, professor of anatomy at Freiburg
Unviersity, said that ‘it clearly appears that Haeckel has in many
cases freely invented embryos or reproduced the illustrations given by
others in a substantially changed form. L. Rutimeyer, professor of
zoology and comparative anatomy at Basle University, called his
distorted drawings a sin against scientific truthfulness deeply
compromising to the public credit of a scholar.’ "—James
Perloff, Tornado in a Junkyard, p. 112.
It is of interest that,
in 1997, *Dr. Michael Richardson, an embryologist at St. George’s
Medical School in London, assembled a scientific team that photographed
the growing embryos of 39 different species. In a 1997 interview in the
London Times, *Richardson said this about Haeckel:
"This is one of the
worst cases of scientific fraud. It’s shocking to find that somebody
one thought was a great scientist was deliberately misleading. It makes
me angry . . What he [Haeckel] did was to take a human embryo and copy
it, pretending that the salamander and the pig and all the others looked
the same at the same stage of development. They don’t . . These are
fakes."—*Michael Richardson, quoted in "An Embryonic
Liar," The London Times, August 11, 1997, p. 14.
*Thomas Huxley, in
England, and *Ernst Haeckel, in Germany, were *Darwin’s leading late
19th-century defenders. Always a man of intense energy, Haeckel,
at the age of 62, while his elderly wife lived at home with him, was in
the midst of an almost-daily love affair which he had continued for
years with an unmarried woman 34 years younger. At the same time he was
conducting his enthusiastic public lectures on recapitulation, using
fraudulent charts which he prepared for his lectures and books. When
Haeckel rented a hall for a lecture, he would drape the front with
charts of ape and human skeletons and comparative embryos. Nearly all of
the pictures had been doctored up in some way, to show similarities.
IMPORTANT:
You will find *Haeckel’s charts, along with much supporting data, on
our website (*#3*). evolution-facts.org
Yet, in spite of such
full disclosure, *Haeckel’s "biogenetic law" and fraudulent
drawings have been printed in school textbooks down to the present day.
Desperate for some kind of
evidence for their pet theory, evolutionists cling to their dishonest
champion.
HAECKEL’S
LAW—Even though
Haeckel called it a "law," recent scientists have less
complementary words for it:
"[It is] a theory
that, in spite of its exposure, its effects continue to linger in the
nooks and crannies of zoology."—*G.R. De Beer and *W.E.
Swinton, in *T.S. Wastell (ed.), Studies in Fossil Vertebrates.
In recent years, an
instrument, called the fetoscope, has been developed which, when
inserted into the uterus, permits observation and photography of every
stage of the human embryo during its development. As a result of
research such as this, it is now known that at every stage fetal
development is perfect, uniquely human, and entirely purposive. There
are no unnecessary processes or structures.
"As a law, this
principle has been questioned, it has been subjected to careful scrutiny
and has been found wanting. There are too many exceptions to it."—*A.F.
Huettner, Fundamentals of Comparative Embryology of the Vertebrates, p.
48.
DEVELOPMENTAL
DIFFERENCES—Haeckel’s
so-called "law" teaches that all embryos not only look alike,
but that they must all develop in the same way, thus proving their
ancestry.
But, actual
embryological growth of various species reveals many differences in
development;
so many that they entirely disprove Haeckel’s
"Recapitulation" theory. For example, what would Haeckel do
with the crabs? One type hatches out of a larval form (the zoeas) which
is totally different than the adult form. Yet other crabs hatch out
directly as miniature crabs! Many other such oddities could be cited.
Skilled embryologists,
such as *Huettner, tell us that the whole idea underlying recapitulation
is utter foolishness. The processes, rates, and order of
development in the various species vary widely. Huettner, for
example, explains that there never is a true blastula or gastrula
in the mammals. Also, organs do not develop in the same order as they do
in the smaller creatures. In the earliest fishes, there are teeth but no
tongue. But in the mammalian embryos, the tongue develops before the
teeth. Huettner says there are numerous other such examples.
According to
recapitulation theory, the appearance of an embryo reveals its ancestry.
All frog embryos look identical, so how can it be that nearly all
frogs lay eggs—while one of them, the Nectophrymoldes
occidentalis of New Guinea, brings forth its young live! This
requires a womb, a placenta, a yolk sac and other modifications not
found in the other frogs. Did that one frog descend from humans or
vice-versa—or what did it descend from? Its embryo is just like
all the other frog embryos. (Another frog is a marsupial.)
Similarly, out of all
the earwigs in the world, there is just one live-bearing earwig! Out of
all the sharks in the world, there is just one that has a placenta!
Examination of their embryos provides no solution to these puzzles. The
earwig embryos all look alike, and so do the shark embryos.
Recapitulation theory is
just too shallow to really explain anything. Only Creation can explain
what we see about us in nature.
The similarities found in embryos point
to a single Creator, not to a common ancestor.
DIFFERENT
TYPES OF ORGANS—According
to the theory of recapitulation, the embryo-like parts of the adult
repeat each stage of what its adult ancestors were like.
According
to the theory of recapitulation, the embryo-like parts of the adult
repeat each stage of what its adult ancestors were like. Which
is a strange idea, is it not?
Here are some
interesting facts about things, found in embryos, which are not to be
found in their supposed "ancestors,"
Embryos frequently have
two types of organs while their supposed "ancestors" only had
one!
First, some organs do
not function until after the infant is born. Such organs do not
change. Such an organ would be the lungs. For this reason people
only develop one set of lungs in their lifetime.
Second, some organs have
a special function prior to birth, as well as afterward.
Such
organs frequently change form two or three times. Examples would
include the heart and kidneys.
If recapitulation were
correct, such multi-changing hearts and kidneys should also be found in
adult mice and minnows.
But this
never occurs in the adult form of animal life.
"The theory of
recapitulation . . should be defunct today."—*Stephen J.
Gould, "Dr. Down’s Syndrome," Natural History, April 1980,
p. 144.
The respiratory surface
in the lungs develops late in an embryo,
yet how could the earlier forms (which it is supposedly copying) have
survived without having it immediately.
DIFFERENT
DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE—The
sequence of embroyonic development in a human is radically different
than its supposed "ancestors." The
sequence of embroyonic development in a human is radically different
than its supposed "ancestors." If the human embryo really
did recapitulate its assumed evolutionary ancestry, the human embryonic
heart should first have one chamber, then change it into two, then
three, and finally four chambers. For
that is the arrangement of hearts in the creatures we are supposed to be
descended from.
But instead of this,
your heart first began as a two-chambered organ, which later in fetal
development fused into a single chamber. This single chamber later,
before birth, changed into the four-chambered heart you now have.
So the actual
sequence of heart chambers in a human fetus is 2-1-4 instead of the one
required by recapitulation: 1-2-3-4.
Another example would be
the human brain which, in the fetus, develops before the nerve cords.
But, in man’s assumed ancestry, nerve
cords developed before the brain.
Still another example is
the fact that the fetal heart develops before the blood vessels
while, in man’s presumed forbears, it was the other way around.
"The theory of
recapitulation was destroyed in 1921 by Professor Walter Garstang in a
famous paper. Since then no respectable biologist has ever used the
theory of recapitulation, because it was utterly unsound, created by a
Nazi-like preacher named Haeckel."—*Ashley Mantagu, debate
held April 12, 1980, at Princeton University, quoted in L.D. Sunderland,
Darwin’s Enigma, p. 119.
When, during that
debate, a comment was made just afterward that recapitulation was still
being defended and taught in various colleges and universities,
*Montague said this:
"Well, ladies and
gentlemen, that only goes to show that many so-called educational
institutions, so-called ‘universities,’ are not educational
institutions at all or universities; they are institutes for
miseducation."—*Op. cit., p. 120.
BASIC
THEORY FAULTED—There
is yet another inherent flaw in the recapitulation theory. According
to the theory, each creature passes something on to the next species,
which then tosses in something more to be passed on. But that has also
been proven to be untrue.
The fish passes its gills on to
its descendant, the bird, as a vestige ever after to be in bird
embryos. The bird passes both the gills and yolk sac on to the
monkey, who thereafter has gills, yolk sac, and its own monkey tail.
The monkey passes all three on to mankind as a legacy of
embryonic useless organs. THAT
is the theory.
Why then does the fish
embryo have—not only its own fish gills,—but also the, fish, animal,
bird, and reptile embryos uniformly have the so-called "fish gill
slits, the "bird yolk sac," and the "monkey tail"!
The theory does not even agree with itself.
QUESTIONS—Considering
all that we have learned about embryos, we stand amazed:
How can their DNA codes,
each of which are totally different, provide each of them with
look-alike embryos? Mathematically, their separate codes should not be
able to do this—yet
the DNA regularly does it.
Why do look-alike
embryos grow into different species—each
species with different blood, etc., than all the others?
How can so much be
packed into such small packages,
and then grow into such totally different adult forms?, and then grow
into such totally different adult forms?
How can all there is in
you begin with a dot smaller than the dot at the end of this sentence?
How can any man, having viewed such
marvelous perfection in design and function, afterward deny that a
Master Craftsman planned and made it?
EVOLUTION
COULD NOT DO THIS
Porpoises
(bottle-nosed dolphins) never hurt humans, but crush vicious barracudas
and kill deadly sharks. It is sonar (underwater sound radar) that enables them
to successfully plan their attacks. With their high-pitched squeaks,
they can identify the type of fish, and measure its distance and size.
Porpoises have a special region in their head which contains a
specialized type of fat. Scientists call it their "melon," for
that is its shape. Because the speed of sound in the fatty melon is
different than that of the rest of the body, this melon is used as a
"sound lens" to collect sonar signals and interpret them to
the brain. It focuses sound, just as a glass lens focuses light. The
focused sound produces a small "sound picture" in the
porpoise’s mind—showing it the unseen things ahead in the dark,
murky water.
It has been discovered that the composition of this fatty
lens can be altered by the porpoise in order to change the sound speed
through the melon—and thus change the focus of the lens to accord with
variational factors in the surrounding water! There is also evidence
that the composition of fat varies in different parts of the melon. This
technique of doublet lens (two glass lenses glued together) is used in
optical lenses in order to overcome chromatic aberrations and produce
high-quality light lenses. The porpoise appears to be using a similar
principle for its sound lens system!
CHAPTER 16 -
STUDY AND REVIEW QUESTIONS
VESTIGES AND RECAPITULATION
GRADES 5 TO 12 ON A GRADUATED
SCALE
1 - Is this sentence
true? "If we had useless organs in our bodies, they would prove
degeneration, not evolution."
2 - Select one of the
following, and write one or two paragraphs on the importance of it in
the human body, why you need it, and how it helps you: (1) tonsils; (2)
appendix; (3) coccyx; (4) thymus; (5) Pineal gland; (6) thyroid gland;
(7) pituitary; (8) semilunar fold of the eye.
3 - Explain the size
problem: why all embryos—human or otherwise—tend to look alike at an
early age.
4 - Write a
one-paragraph report explaining the importance of one of the following
in the developing embryo: (1) "yoke sac," (2) embryonic
"tail," (3) "gill slits." Show why they are not what
the evolutionists claim them to be.
5 - Prepare a brief
biography on Ernst Haeckel, his frauds, and how they were exposed. Go to
our website and look at his fraudulent charts.
6 - Select one of the
following and explain how it disagrees with the recapitulation theory:
(1) development of the human heart, (2) development of the human brain,
(3) timing of fetal heart vs. fetal blood vessels.
7 - Explain this sentence: "Why
then does the fish embryo have, not only its own fish gills but also the
bird yolk sac and the monkey tail?"
EVOLUTION
COULD NOT DO THIS
If it was not for the sunbird,
the African mistletoe would very quickly die. Yet both have been doing
just fine since they were first created. When the sunbird comes to the
mistletoe flower, it has to tell the flower to open up! Otherwise it
would remain forever closed. Carefully, the bird puts its long bill
inside a slit in the flower. This triggers the flower,—and it opens
instantly and shoots out its anthers, which hits the bird with pollen
all over its feathers. Then the bird goes to the next flower, repeating
the process, and pollinating it in the process.
You have just completed
Chapter 16 Vestiges and
Recapitulations
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Chapter 17 Evolutionary
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