Shuswap Creation Youth Group

        For years vestigial body parts have been used as proof of evolution, and still today they're used as arguments to prove it. How do they prove it? Well, they're useless, left-over parts from the ancestors we 'evolved' from. Sounds like good proof right? Useless parts left in our body from our long past relatives, using up valuable energy to develop.
    Wait a minute. Are they use-less, really? Let's take a closer look.
     




One of the most common vestigial organs is the appendix. It  has been said for years the appendix is vestigial, once used by our 'ancestors' to digest tough foods they ate (maybe tree bark).
    In recent years it has been discovered that our appendix isn't really so use-less. It is a 'safe-haven' for good bacteria. After a bout of cholera, or even a bad round of diarrhea, it helps 'reboot' the system. Gut bacteria is essential for digestion, and without the appendix in a case of one of these sickness we could be in real trouble.
 

   The spleen is an organ also once thought to be vestigial, but now proven to be useful. It is the largest organ in the lymphatic system. It is important, to keep body fluids  balanced. It also acts as a blood filter, controlling the amount of red blood cells in the body. The spleen helps fight infections too! If it senses dangerous bacteria or viruses, it works with the lymph nodes to create white blood cells which will fight off the viruses.
    A studied showed that veterans who had lost their spleens, were twice as likely than those who had not, to die from heart disease and pneumonia. All in all the spleen is certainly not a useless organ.
       

     The coccyx or 'tailbone' is still considered a 'left-over' organ, though it does have a few uses. The coccyx is used as an attachment spot for ligaments, muscles, and tendons. It also functions as an insertion point of some of the muscles of the pelvic floor. It also supports and stabilizes a person who is in a sitting position.}



    Wisdom teeth are also thought to be vestigial. They certainly do seem useless, and they have to be surgically removed many times. So do they or can they serve any purpose? Yes, they could. The problem was shown in a study done by Dr. Safarti
  

Dr. Safarti reminds the reader that modern dentistry has identified the problem with wisdom teeth as being primarily linked to the diet in modern cultures.  In non-technological cultures, impacted wisdom teeth are extremely rare as their tougher diet exercises their jaw muscles properly during chewing, thus helping the jaw to develop properly. The grittier diet also results in tooth wear, and the normal compensation for this loss of tooth surfaces is mesial migration (tooth movement towards the front of the mouth) making more room for the back molars. The modern diet fails both to provide the same jaw exercise, so the jaw doesn’t develop to full size, and to provide tooth wear that would enable them to avoid crowding (Bergman 1998). - See more at: http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/vestigal_organs.html#Muscles

  
There are many other supposed vestigial body parts, but I think we'll save them for another day. God truly didn't create us with 'useless' organs.
       

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. ~ Psalms 139:12