Page 745 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

Evolutionist Errors Regarding the Origin of the Ear

The irreducibly complex system in the ear is something that evolutionists can never satisfactorily ex-

plain. When we look at the theories evolutionists occasionally propose, we are met by a facile and superficial
logic. For example, the writer Veysel Atayman, who translated the book Im Anfang War der Wasserstoff (In the
Beginning was Hydrogen), by the German biologist Hoimar von Ditfurth, into Turkish, and who has come
to be regarded as an "evolution expert" by the Turkish media, sums up his "scientific" theory on the origin of
the ear and the so-called evidence for it in this way:

Our hearing organ, the ear, emerged as a result of the evolution of the endoderm and exoderm layers, which
we call the skin. One proof of this is that we feel low sounds in the skin of our stomachs! 323

In other words, Atayman thinks that the ear evolved from the ordinary skin in other parts of our bodies,

and sees our feeling low sounds in our skin as a proof of this.
Let us first take Atayman's "theory," and then the so-called "proof" he offers. We have just seen that the
ear is a complex structure made up of dozens of different parts. To propose that this structure emerged with
"the evolution of layers of skin" is, in a word, to build castles in the air. What mutation or natural selection ef-
fect could enable such an evolution to happen? Which part of the ear formed first? How could that part, the
product of coincidence, have been chosen through natural selection even though it had no function? How

did chance bring about all the sensitive mechanical balances in the ear: the ear drum, the hammer, anvil and
stirrup bones, the muscles that control them, the inner ear, the cochlea, the liquid in it, the tiny hairs, the
movement-sensitive cells, their nerve connections, etc.?
There is no answer to these questions. In fact, to suggest that all this complex structure is just "chance" is
actually an attack on human intelligence. However, in Michael Denton's words, to the Darwinist "the idea is

accepted without a ripple of doubt - the paradigm takes precedence!" 324
Beyond the mechanisms of natural selection and mutation, evolutionists really believe in a "magic
wand" that brings about the most complex systems by chance.
The "proof" that Atayman supplies for this imaginary theory is even more interesting. He says, "Our feel-
ing low sounds in our skin is proof." What we call sound actually consists of vibrations in the air. Since vi-
brations are a physical effect, of course they can be perceived by our sense of touch. For that reason it is quite

normal that we should be able to feel high and low sounds physically. Furthermore, these sounds also affect
bodies physically. The breaking of glass in a room under high intensities of sound is one example of this. The
interesting thing is that the evolutionist writer Atayman should think that these effects are a proof of the evo-
lution of the ear. The logic Atayman employs is the following: "The ear perceives sound waves, our skin is af-

fected by these vibrations, therefore, the ear evolved from the skin." Following Atayman's logic, one could
also say, "The ear perceives sound waves, glass is also affected by these, therefore the ear evolved from
glass." Once one has left the bounds of reason, there is no "theory" that cannot be proposed.
Other scenarios that evolutionists put forward regarding the origin of the ear are surprisingly inconsis-
tent. Evolutionists claim that all mammals, including human beings, evolved from reptiles. But, as we saw
earlier, reptiles' ear structures are very different from those of mammals. All mammals possess the middle

ear structure made up of the three bones that have just been described, whereas there is only one bone in the
middle ear of all reptiles. In response to this, evolutionists claim that four separate bones in the jaws of rep-
tiles changed place by chance and "migrated" to the middle ear, and that again by chance they took on just
the right shape to turn into the anvil and stirrup bones. According to this imaginary scenario, the single bone
in reptiles' middle ears changed shape and turned into the hammer bone, and the exceedingly sensitive

equilibrium between the three bones in the middle ear was established by chance. 325
This fantastical claim, based on no scientific discovery at all (it corresponds to nothing in the fossil
record), is exceedingly self-contradictory. The most important point here is that such an imaginary change
would leave a creature deaf. Naturally, a living thing cannot continue hearing if its jaw bones slowly start en-
tering its inner ear. Such a species would be at a disadvantage compared to other living things and would be
eliminated, according to what evolutionists themselves believe.

Adnan Oktar 743