Page 511 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Harun Yahya

ment. In The Blind

Watchmaker he writes:

Any engineer would
naturally assume that
the photocells would

point towards the
light, with their wires
leading backwards to-

wards the brain. He
would laugh at any
suggestion that the
photocells might
point away from the

light, with their wires
departing on the side Michael Denton, professor of biology,
nearest the light. Yet this and his book

is exactly what happens in all vertebrate eyes. 67

However, Dawkins and those who accept what he says are wrong because of
Dawkins's ignorance of the eye's anatomy and physiology.
A scientist who gives a detailed account of this matter is molecular biologist Michael Denton of the
University of Otago who is also one of the most prominent critics of Darwinism today. In "The Inverted

Retina: Maladaption or Pre-adaptation?," published in Origins and Design magazine, he explains how the
inverted retina that Dawkins presented as faulty is actually created in the most efficient manner possible
for the vertebrate eye:

. . . consideration of the very high energy demands of the photoreceptor cells in the vertebrate retina suggests
that rather than being a challenge to teleology, the curious inverted design of the vertebrate retina may in fact

represent a unique solution to the problem of providing the highly active photoreceptor cells of higher verte-
brates with copious quantities of oxygen and nutrients. 68

To understand this fact stressed by Professor Denton but unnoticed by Dawkins, we must first recog-
nize that the retina's photoreceptor cells need a high level of energy and oxygen. While our eyes are open
to perceive light, these cells are the locus of very complex chemical reactions every second. Photons, the

smallest particles of light, are perceived by the cells and, as a result of the highly detailed chemical reac-
tions begun by the photons, perception occurs and is repeated every instant. This reaction is so complex
and rapid that, in Denton's words, "the photoreceptor layer has one of the highest metabolic rates of any known
tissue." 69
To keep up this high rate of metabolism, of course, the retina cells need a great deal of energy. A

human being's retinal cells consume 150% as much oxygen as renal cells, three times as much as ones in
the cerebral cortex and six times as much as the cells that make up the cardiac muscle. Moreover, this
comparison is made on the basis of the entire retina layer; the photoreceptor cells, which make up less

than half of this layer, actually need more energy than the whole layer estimates. In his encyclopedic
book, The Vertebrate Eye, G. L. Walls, describes the photoreceptors as "greedy'' for both nutrients and oxy-
gen. 70
How do these cells, that enable us to see, meet their extraordinary need for nourishment and oxygen?
Through the blood, of course, like the rest of the body.

Where, then, does the blood come from?
At this point, we see why the inverted retina is a perfect sign of Creation. Right external to the retina
layer lies a very important tissue of veins that envelop it like a net. Denton writes:

Adnan Oktar 509