BBC'S EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
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This part
of the documentary, The Human Body, prepared by BBC dealt with
the human brain. In this episode, the information provided about the
brain was supplemented with the usual evolutionist propaganda clichés,
and the complexity in the human brain was described as a "miracle of
evolution."
Saying that Chance Created Millions of
Miracles is Absurd in the Highest Degree
A great deal of information has so far
been provided about birth and the human body in the BBC documentary,
The Human Body. One of the most frequently repeated phrases
in the program is "this is a miracle of evolution." BBC speaks of
evolution as something conscious, which knows what it is doing, makes
plans, and flawlessly organizes inanimate objects and atoms, and the
channel is perhaps not aware of the real significance underlying this
logic.
"The miracle of evolution" means "the
miracle of chance," since according to the theory of evolution inanimate
substances organized themselves as the result of coincidences to produce
all living things. According to this claim, atoms such as carbon,
phosphate, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen gave rise to proteins, cells,
bacteria, fish, birds, starfish, dolphins, leopards, elephants, bees,
ants, eagles, lions, roses, oranges,the human brain, the human heart,
the human hand (which still cannot be replicated with all our present-day
technology), the eyes, and man himself, who thinks, takes decisions,
reads, understands what he reads, and feels joy, sorrow, and excitement-and
all this by chance. Every one of these complex and flawless structures
and features is a miracle, and there are an infinite number of miracles
in the universe. There is no doubt that to claim that all these came
about by chance is "absurd in the highest degree." Charles Darwin,
the architect of the theory of evolution, realized this and made the
following confession about the eye, just one of these countless complex
structures:
To suppose that
the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus
to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light,
and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could
have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd
in the highest degree.1
When you press a button with your finger
a series of processes occurs in your brain. Firstly, thousands
of receivers in your fingertip go into action.
1) The first receivers affected are the nerve endings in the
fingertip. Pressure changes their shape and there is an electrical
discharge.
2) This electrical current passes to the nerve fibres known
as the axon.
3) It moves through the spinal cord at 133 metres per second.
4) After the signal enters the spinal column
5) it moves in the opposite direction to the medulla oblongata
in the brain.
6) From here it moves to the thalamus and reaches the sensory
cortex, its final destination. All these processes happen in
less time than it takes you to blink your eye. |
The human brain possesses features which
are far superior to computers equipped with even the most advanced
technology. Evolutionists, however, who accept that a computer
could never come about by the random coming together of substances
such as silicon, wire and glass, nevertheless claim that the
human brain, so far superior to any computer, could form by
the chance coming together of carbon and nitrogen atoms etc.
This is very definitely a major contradiction. |
In order to better understand how stupid
it is to maintain that all living things and all the structures and
organs in them came about by chance, it will be sufficient to recall
just a few of the features of the brain, the subject of the BBC documentary.
An adult's brain contains some 10 billion
neurons (nerve cells). Neurons have projections called "axons" and
"dendrites," and by means of these, the neurons are interconnected.
Thanks to these connections, known as synapses, one neuron is able
to send messages to another. In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,
the famous biochemist Michael Denton states that the number of connections
between neurons is in the region of 1 quadrillion (1015 or 1,000,000,000,000,000).
He then goes on to say:
It is hard to imagine
the multitude that 1015 represents. Take half of the United
States, which is 1 million square miles, and imagine it being covered
by forest, with 10,000 trees per square mile. On each of the 10,000
trees, which are on each of the one million square miles, there are
100,000 leaves. That's how many connections are crammed inside your
brain.2
Cars, for instance, which emerge as the
product of a conscious design and the collaboration of engineers,
are exceedingly functional. If the evolutionist claim is to
be accepted, however, then it needs to be accepted that a perfect
car could emerge by chance, on its own, with all its technical
accessories. That is a most illogical claim. That being the
case, it must be understood that it is far more irrational still
to maintain that living things, which possess a far more complex
and flawless design than that in the car, could be the product
of chance. |
Every one of these countless and interlinked
connections in the brain, an organ so small it fits into the human
skull, has been created in exactly the form required and for a specific
purpose. Thanks to these connections, the result of the superior design
in God's creation, we are able to perform various functions at the
same time with no confusion arising. For example, you can listen to
music at the same time as reading these words, while also sipping
a cup of coffee. At the same time, moreover, your brain regulates
you heartbeat, allows you to breathe by carefully keeping the oxygen
levels in your blood at a fixed rate, regulates your body temperature,
calculates which of your muscles in your hand need to contract, and
by how much, in order for you to lift your cup to your lips without
spilling it, and also performs detailed calculations necessary for
your sense of balance to allow you to remain on your feet, and it
does all this without your being aware of it. Hundreds of different
functions like these are carried out by the brain in the most perfect
manner throughout our lives. Yet, we are quite unaware of all these
calculations going on in it.
An article called "Computing from the
Brain," in New Scientist magazine, drew the following analogy
regarding the brain's extraordinary performance capability:
In crude terms, the
human brain is a natural computer composed of 10 to 100 billion neurons,
each of which connects to about 10,000 others, and all of which function
in parallel. …Neuronal systems take about 100 processing steps to
perform a complex task of vision or speech which would take an electronic
computer billions of processing steps.3
As we have seen, the human brain possesses
far superior features to computers produced by the most highly advanced
technology. Yet, for some reason evolutionists, who accept that computers
could never come about by the chance combination of such substances
as silicon, wire, and glass, refuse to accept that the human brain,
so far superior to any computer, could not have come about by chance
combinations of atoms such as nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Indeed,
they harbor not the slightest doubts, or at least choose to give that
impression. The fact is, however, that if designers, engineers, a technical
team, materials in the right quantity and of the right quality, and
expert knowledge are necessary for the construction of a computer, then
the same thing applies to the brain. Yet, none of these things is to
be found in nature. In order for the materials in nature to give rise
to birds, fish, horses, flowers, and human beings of all races, it is
clear that they need the existence of a superior Creator, possessed
of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and power, as well as a flawless design
capability. That creator is God, the Lord of all, Who created all the
worlds from nothing.
There is no Mechanism in Nature Which
Could Turn the Ape Brain into a Human One
A classical evolutionist claim was repeated
on the BBC documentary, in which it was suggested that the brains
of our ape-like ancestors turned into the human brain over a period
of some 2.5 million years. An analogy was drawn: The brain capacity
of our ape-like ancestors was compared to a small Fiat car engine,
and that of modern man to a much more developed sports car engine.
In fact, this comparison undermines the
evolutionists' own thesis. Everyone knows that no car engine could
turn into another, more highly developed one as the result of chance.
Not even in trillions of years, let alone 2.5 million. In fact, under
the laws of physics, it will age and wear, rot, and eventually fall
apart. In order for such an engine to emerge, a designer possessing
the knowledge and ability to develop it is essential.
Furthermore, there is an important fact
that even evolutionist scientists are forced to admit: The main difference
between the ape and human brains is not just a question of capacity
and size. Materialists attempt to reduce all human characteristics,
and thus the functioning of the brain, to matter. Yet it is today
agreed that the features of the human soul cannot be reduced to matter.
Man's ability to speak, think, decide, plan, his desires and wishes,
his artistic and aesthetic abilities, his ability to possess ideologies,
to produce ideas and to dream, and the virtues of love, loyalty, and
friendship are not the product of the functioning of the brain. The
human soul is something beyond matter, and that on its own is a challenge
to materialism.
In his book, The Mystery of the Mind:
A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain, the evolutionist
neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield is forced many times to admit that
the human soul cannot be accounted for in terms of the functioning
of the brain. Some of these confessions read:
After years of striving
to explain the mind on the basis of brain-action alone, I have come
to the conclusion that it is simpler (and far easier to be logical)
if one adopts the hypothesis that our being does consist of two fundamental
elements [brain and mind (or soul)]. 4
I conclude that
there is no good evidence . . . that the brain alone can carry out
the work that the mind does.5
Therefore, comparing the ape brain to that
of man avails the evolutionists not at all, since it is clear that no
mechanism in nature can give man the characteristics that make him human.
It is God, the Lord of all the worlds, Who gives man his soul, creates
him out of nothing, and makes him different from all other living things
by breathing His spirit into him.
An Important But Ignored Subject:
IT IS NOT THE EYE WHICH SEES
As you drop off to sleep you might dream
of yourself as listening to a concert with hundreds of other
people. Yet as you listen to this music, you could actually
be hearing it in a soundless garden. You can experience nothing
beyond the perceptions reaching your brain. That applies when
dreaming and in real life … |
Although an important scientific truth
is expressed in the BBC documentary, that truth is not emphasized
in the way it should be. The documentary says: "Our eyes are only
a window. It is our brain which sees around us. The eye merely forms
the first stage."
This phrase, which one encounters in
biology textbooks beginning in middle school, is actually very important,
containing as it does a secret which can entirely alter a person's
way of looking at the world.
People imagine they see the world with
their eyes. The fact is, however, that the eyes and the cells which
comprise them are merely responsible for turning the light reaching
them from the outside, via chemical processes, into electrical signals.
These electrical signals later arrive at the visual center at the
back of the brain, which is where the image we see takes shape. For
instance, someone reading these lines at this moment sees them in
the visual center in the back of his brain. In other words, it is
not actually the eyes that see. So, who is it that sees the image
in the visual center and reads these words? Who is it that watches
with excitement, joy, or sorrow the bright, colorful, three-dimensional
image which forms within the darkness of the brain?
The same question also applies to the
senses of hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Even as one listens to
one's favorite song, it is not one's ears that are doing the hearing.
Their task is merely to collect sound waves. The cells in the ears
turn the sound waves reaching them into electrical signals, and forward
them to the hearing center in the brain. That favorite song is then
heard there. You hear the voice of your best friend in your brain.
But who is it that hears these sounds within the dark confines of
the brain, enjoying the melody and rhythm?
The answer to these questions shows that
every thinking human being possesses a soul. Another important point
revealed by this scientific fact is this: Everything we see, hear,
and touch throughout our lives is perceived in our brains. In other
words, we can never actually see or touch the originals of things.
What we are always in contact with is perceptions in the brain, and
it is impossible ever to have direct experience of these objects by
means of these perceptions. For that reason, everyone, even in a crowded
room, is actually watching the perceptions in his brain, and is essentially
alone.
We may consider our dreams in order to
arrive at a better understanding of this. Someone who dreams of attending
a lecture in a packed hall is actually lying in bed alone. The image
of the lecture forms within his brain. It is impossible for that person
to realize he is dreaming until he wakes up, and he remains convinced
that he is attending a real lecture.
A person can easily see how meaningless
all his desires regarding this world are when he stops to think
a little. Nobody can ever actually really possess the car or
house or position he thus desires. These are nothing but images
in our brains. That being the case, someone who is aware of
this must immediately turn to Our Lord, Who created him, and
not be swept away by worldly desires. |
The German psychiatry professor Hoimar
von Ditfurth explains how we can never see the outside world:
No matter how we
put the argument, the result doesn't change. What stands before us
in full shape and what our eyes view is not the "world." It is only
its image, a resemblance, a projection whose association with the
original is open to discussion.6
Someone who exercises his mind a little
will grasp this concept, which reveals the true nature of the life
of this world and helps one realize just how hollow and meaningless
the passions and desires aimed at this world truly are. The money
in someone's wallet, the yacht he buys for millions of dollars, his
holding company, and his new model car are all images which form within
his brain. That individual can never touch or see the originals of
these. All he perceives is images forming at the back of his brain.
This is a scientific fact. The responsibility of all people of reason
and good conscience is to grasp this concept before "waking from sleep,"
in other words before dying, and not to be deceived by becoming caught
up in the life of this world.
You can find the details and scientific
accounts of this great truth, which entirely alters one's perspective
on life, on the website www.secretbeyondmatter.com,
which contains the works of Harun Yahya, which have had such an enormous
impact all over the world.
Conclusion
Characteristics peculiar to human beings,
such as thinking, taking pleasure, having ideas, and feeling love,
compassion, nostalgia, affection, joy, sorrow, happiness, and excitement,
cannot be accounted for from a materialist and Darwinist perspective.
These ideologies hold that all living things emerged by chance from
inanimate matter, and they are totally unable to explain how it is
that inanimate objects should one day have begun to possess the capacity
for thought, decision-making, having ideas, and artistic and aesthetic
taste.