The Otolaryngologist

Recently I had a routine check of ears to see if my hearing was all right. First I went to a test by the audiologist. Then I talked briefly with the otolaryngologist who said I was fine. While in the office, I was intrigued by the long name of his title and picked up a brochure describing it. An otolaryngologist treats ears, nose, throat, and the head and neck. It does not deal with the brain or with organs below the neck and throat. It normally does not deal with the outward appearance of the external organs but just their functioning.
Here is a quote from the brochure: “Otolaryngologists are ready to start practicing after completing up to 15 years of college and post-graduate training. To qualify for certification by the American Board of Otolaryngology, an applicant must first complete college, medical school (usually four years), and at least five years of specialty training. Next, the physician must pass the American Board of Otolaryngology examination. In addition, some otolaryngologists pursue a one- or two- year fellowship for more extensive training in one of eight subspecialty areas.” These deal with children, balance, allergy, reconstructive surgery, head and neck, throat, nose, and sleep. The paragraph concludes, “Some otolaryngologists limit their practices to one of these eight areas.”
Does something about this strike you as inconsistent with evolution? A man or woman finishes high school and then continues with intensive college and post-graduate studies, not to make these organs, but just to understand them and how they can be treated when not functioning normally. Yet evolution states this complexity came about through random mindless accidents over time. That is not even logical. How could such order and complexity come about accidentally?
One of my sons was born with a misshaped left ear. When he was five, a plastic surgeon promised to do his best to cut and sew it into the shape of a normal ear. But he promised, “It will never look like the other. Only God can make an ear.” He did a wonderful job. But he was right. It didn’t look like the other, and his limited hearing could not be improved. Only a wise Creator can make these marvelous organs that enable us to live and learn.

Herbs

Those of us who believe in design have no surprise that the flowers, stems, leaves, fruits, roots, and bark of many herbs have great medicinal value. After all, God is a loving Creator and, even when sin ruined the creation, He still had a heart to provide a remedy for sin in sending His Son. He also provided remedies for some of the resulting health issues. Here are a few examples.

The Foxglove plant is used to make medicine to treat heart disease. Neem trees from India are used to make soap and shampoo (as is the oil from coconuts), and can also help with digestion and diabetes. When the oil from the Neem tree, taken from fruits and seeds, is rubbed into wounds, it helps stop infections and is also used to treat malaria. Mint, chamomile, myrrh, sage, eucalyptus are all used in toothpaste. Some use the white liquid from the trunk of the banyan tree to stop a toothache. The seeds of the opium poppy, though misused throughout history, do contain a milky juice that is made into morphine, an effective painkiller. The original aspirin was a chemical taken from the white willow tree. Elderberries and echinacea are effective disease fighters. Quinine, one of the best treatments for malaria, is extracted from the bark of the Cinchona tree.

Garlic is famous for its pungent odor. But garlic is effective is warding off colds in ways more than just keeping sick people away from you! It also is used to treat heart disease and asthma. Ginger is used to treat arthritis and can help with digestion. Cranberry juice helps treat urinary infections, Periwinkle plant to treat leukemia. Primrose helps people sleep and is used as a painkiller. Cayenne or red pepper is excellent to help in clotting blood.

Aloe vera is used in cosmetics, skin creams, and as a drink to help in digestion. When the leaves are broken, they ooze a clear liquid that is excellent in treating sunburn, wounds, bruises, insect stings, and acne.

Even the ‘cow food’ alfalfa has great value to us. The Chinese use it to treat kidney stones, the ancient Greeks bladder and kidney conditions. It has been called Buffalo Herb, Lucerne, and Purple Medic, but is best known as alfalfa, Arabic for ‘father of all foods’. Alfalfa is rich in vitamins A (eye health), E (heart and cardiovascular health), U (treats peptic ulcers), B6 (stimulates protein and fat metabolism), K (blood clotting and liver functions), and D (regulates the use of calcium and phosphorus in the body). Alfalfa also contains many valuable minerals such as calcium and phosphorus (bone and teeth health), iron (needed in hemoglobin), manganese (lowers blood sugar levels), potassium (muscle tone and nerves), chlorides (regulates fat, sugar and starch metabolism), sodium (regulates fluid balance), and silicon magnesium (stimulates brain function).

“Today about one quarter of all modern medicines are either made from plants or based on plant products. About 50,000 different types of plants are used to make medicines and herbal remedies.” (How We Use Plants for Medicine and Health, Salley Morgan, p. 5) I can’t help wondering if the good Lord has not provided cures for many of the world’s present plagues in the plants He made. Instead of spending so much money on artificial medications, perhaps we should invest more time and money in finding natural cures.

Human Speech

Human speech is a wonder, and an enigma to evolutionists. Nothing in the animal world even approaches the complexity of human language. Speech starts in the brain. “What we want to say is initiated in an area of the left cortex called ‘Wernicke zone’. This communicates with ‘Broca zone’, involved with grammatical rules. Impulses go from these areas to the muscles involved in speech. These zones are connected with the visual system (so we can read), auditory system (so we can hear what others say, understand and answer) and also have a memory bank for recalling valuable phrases.” (http://news.softpedia.com)
These messages in the brain must be translated into a complex, coordinated set of movements resulting in sounds and words that communicate. About 100 muscles of the chest, neck, jaw, tongue, and lips must work together. Each neuron involved is bound to just a few muscle cells to make the vast number of movements possible. The sounds are made in the larynx (voice box) which is set deep in the throat. “That placement creates a sound chamber that allows us to make language expressive. Moreover, the placement prevents us from breathing and eating or drinking at the same time. But we are not born that way. A newborn’s larynx is placed higher up in the throat, allowing a baby to breathe and suckle at the same time. By the time a child is six, and has no need to suckle and breathe at the same time, but is learning language, the larynx has moved to its adult position.” (creationmoments.com for Sept. 11, 2009) It has been conjectured that an infant can make all the sounds of any language but slowly loses those not involved in its native tongue.
The sounds are then altered by higher or lower tones, the shape of the mouth, and the movement or placement of the tongue, lips, and teeth at a rate of two or more movements per second. We add to this complexity accents, grammar, expression, intonation to convey exactly what we are thinking.
The Bible states that Adam talked with God from day one. In fact, that day he named all the animals and welcomed his wife. Evolution cannot accept this but is puzzled just how the ability to speak could have evolved. Evolutionist Stephen Pinker expresses this dilemma (from Pinker, S., (1994). ‘The Big Bang’, Chapter 11 of The Language Instinct, pp. 332-369. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company): “. . . a uniquely human language instinct seems to be incompatible with the modern Darwinian theory of evolution, in which complex biological systems arise by the gradual accumulation over generations of random genetic mutations that enhance reproductive success. Either there is no language instinct, or it must have evolved by other means.”
How humans evolved such a vastly more complex system of communication I leave them to puzzle over. I find it much easier to accept the word of the only one present in the beginning to tell about it, God Himself.

Hanging Around the Joint

As we saw last time, bones are amazing structures. They give our bodies shape, support, and protection. But were it not for joints, bones would eliminate our mobility.
For every motion our bodies make, two muscles are needed- one to move it, and the other to return it. So, for example, to move the arm, we need the triceps muscle to extend it, and the bicep muscle to bring it back. Of course some bones are only protectors, like the skull. But it is significant that adults have over 600 muscles but only 206 bones.
The body contains four different kinds of movable joints. The ball and socket joint at the shoulders and hips allow a great deal of motion in most every direction. The hinge joint allows motion in only one direction, as a door on a hinge. This is found in the elbows, knees, fingers and toes. If we had a ball and socket joint in these places instead of a hinge joint, we would either be much weaker, or we would need many more muscles to support these bones. The limited movement of the hinge joint gives us greater strength.
The pivot joints found in the vertebra have decreasing freedom from the neck to the back. This means we can move our head from side to side but have greater strength in our back for support. Finally, gliding or saddle joints in the feet and hands allow us to move them up and down, back and forth. All the moving bones are held together by cartilage that is both strong and flexible.
Of course, we also have immovable joints between the plates of the skull. A baby’s skull contains five separate plates that compress slightly to make childbirth easier. They also allow the growth of the brain but eventually fuse together, usually by age 2.
Notice that from the shoulders and hips down, joints allow less and less freedom and bones provide increasing strength. There is an amazing parallel between these types of joints and God’s laws found in the Bible. The less freedom a law allows, the more important it is for the strength of an individual and a society. I commend you to search it out.
Imagine the bone structure of a person evolving without joints, with the wrong types of joints, with immature joints, or without cartilage. This might end the human race before it got started! It is so much easier to believe our bones and joints were designed by a Master who knew just what we would need.

Our Amazing Bones

Our Amazing Bones

Several years ago I was told the chassis mounts on my car were rusted out. It was time to replace it. In thinking back on the faithful auto, I wonder, “Wouldn’t it be great if I had a self-repairing car chassis? If something broke, it would fix itself. Cars could last indefinitely!”
Our body chassis (skeleton) can do just that. This is because bones are living organs, filled with blood vessels and nerves. Take, for example the femur (thigh bone). This long bone consists of an outer covering called the periosteum. It is made of dense bone tissue. Beneath this protective cover are the osteons, made of mineralized, layered cylinders. This are laced with small, bubble-like spaces containing living bone cells. In the center is the spongy bone containing marrow. Blood vessels run through the osteon and spongy regions to deliver oxygen and remove wastes. In children, this marrow is actively making new red and white blood cells. However, by adulthood, this job is largely done by the hips, ribs, shoulder blades, breastbone, collarbone, and spinal vertebrae. The long bones then contain yellow marrow which is largely fat. But if the need for a large quantity of blood arises, the kidneys send a chemical signal to these long bones to convert yellow marrow to red marrow to make additional red cells.
The structure of a bone is both light-weight and strong, stronger than equivalent steel. But obviously, it can break and severed nerves and swelling cause pain. When a break occurs, an amazing series of events takes place to repair it. The first step is the clotting of broken blood vessels. Then the area is penetrated with blood vessels that were not severed to provide oxygen for the living cells and needed materials for repair. Two types of cells are active- osteoblasts that form new bone cells, and osteoclasts that remove unwanted bone tissue. Thus, the area of the break is built out with a callous, but remodeled eventually to remove any trace of the break. This process, and the bones themselves, all declare to those who are willing to see it that they are designed by an infinitely wise Creator.
Though our bones are all internal and, for most of us, no one ever sees them, we couldn’t function without them. Some bones, like the skull and ribs, serve as protectors, while others, like hips, arm and leg bones, support us and give us our shape. Bones are great restrictors. They limit where and how far we can move. For example, we can only move our legs at the hips, knees, and feet. Even these motions are limited by the types of joints we have, but we will discuss these next time.
There is a lesson here from our Designer. Limitations are good. They provide structure and greater freedom. Yes, that’s right; limitations provide freedom. Without structural bones, we would be a mass of organs rolling from one place to another. We could move each limb freely but this freedom would result is greater restrictions.
God has established laws of right and wrong. Those who refuse to submit to His ‘restrictions’ in the name of greater freedom ultimately find themselves in bondage. Jesus promised, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32