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

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.

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. *Newman, a zoologist, made this statement on the witness stand for the defense:

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?

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For the same reason, lots of children have had their tonsils removed, when they really needed them!

"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?

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

On page 734, 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.

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:

*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.

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.

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.

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 from 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.

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 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.

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.

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 forebears, it was the other way around.

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:

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?

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?"

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