Page 723 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

The appendix (right), which evolutionists thought to be a vestigial
organ, has now been understood to play an important part in the
body's immune system. The coccyx at the lower end of the vertebral
column is also not a vestigial organ but provides an attachment for
our pelvic organs so that they will not collapse.

It was also discovered that the tonsils, which were included in the same list of vesti-
gial organs, had a significant role in protecting the throat against infections, particularly

until adolescence. It was found that the coccyx at the lower end of the vertebral column
supports the bones around the pelvis and is the convergence point of some small muscles
and for this reason, it would not be possible to sit comfortably without a coccyx.
In the years that followed, it was realized that the thymus triggered the immune sys-
tem in the human body by activating the T cells, that the pineal gland was in charge of
the secretion of some important hormones such as melatonin, which inhibits secretion

of luteinizing hormone, that the thyroid gland was effective in providing steady
growth in babies and children and in metabolism and body activity, and that the pi-
tuitary gland controlled skeletal growth and the proper functioning of the thyroid,
adrenals, and reproductive glands. All of these were once considered to be "vestigial or-

gans." Finally, the semi-lunar fold in the eye, which was referred to as a vestigial organ by Darwin, has been
found in fact to be in charge of cleansing and lubricating the eyeball.
There was a very important logical error in the evolutionist claim regarding vestigial organs. As we have
just seen, this claim was that the vestigial organs in living things were inherited from their ancestors.
However, some of the alleged "vestigial" organs are not found in the species alleged to be the ancestors of
human beings! For example, the appendix does not exist in some ape species that are said to be ancestors of

man. The famous biologist H. Enoch, who challenged the theory of vestigial organs, expressed this logical
error as follows:

Apes possess an appendix, whereas their less immediate relatives, the lower apes, do not; but it appears again
among the still lower mammals such as the opossum. How can the evolutionists account for this? 278

Beside all of this, the claim that an organ which is not used atrophies and disappears over time carries a
logical inconsistency within it. Darwin was aware of this inconsistency, and made the following confession
in The Origin of Species:

There remains, however, this difficulty. After an organ has ceased being used, and has become in consequence
much reduced, how can it be still further reduced in size until the merest vestige is left; and how can it be finally
quite obliterated? It is scarcely possible that disuse can go on producing any further effect after the organ has

once been rendered functionless. Some additional explanation is here requisite which I cannot give. 279

Simply put, the scenario of vestigial organs put forward by evolutionists contains a number of serious
logical flaws, and has in any case been proven to be scientifically untrue. There exists not one inherited ves-
tigial organ in the human body.

Adnan Oktar 721