How can creationists explain the human appendix?

[Papias]

mark wrote:

when the actual purpose of the organ emerges they simply move on to something else.

Except that, as pointed out before, "vestigial" does't mean "has no use", so saying that the "actual use" is discovered is completely irrelevant to the discussion. It's as if, amid our discussion of whether or not the appendix is vestigial, you said "but it can't be vestigial, because it is pink!".

It's easy to recognize this common misunderstanding because it can lead to "uses" for the organ being proposed.

It's widely known, among doctors, that the appendix is vestigial, regardless of whether or not natural selection has found some secondary, diminished use for it.

Papias

 

[SkyWriting]

The only explanation that makes sense is for the appendix to be a vestigial organ that has become useless through evolution (note that evolution does not imply improvement -- just change).
It's got no perceivable use an...<Snip>

It does too...got.

"For years, the appendix was credited with very little physiological function. We now know, however, that the appendix serves an important role in the fetus and in young adults. Endocrine cells appear in the appendix of the human fetus at around the 11th week of development. These endocrine cells of the fetal appendix have been shown to produce various biogenic amines and peptide hormones, compounds that assist with various biological control (homeostatic) mechanisms. There had been little prior evidence of this or any other role of the appendix in animal research, because the appendix does not exist in domestic mammals. "

What is the function of the human appendix? Did it once have a purpose that has since been lost? : Scientific American

 

[miamited]

*nod* So God put what is effectively an organ which can burst and kill you at any time thanks to appendicitis because 'oh I don't know but I trust Him'?

If you take a look at Jesus, He seemed to dislike the fact of afflictions and had sympathy and compassion for those of us who have them (not that this means that we should be utilitarians or sacrifice morality to soothe an affliction). I'm pretty sure God has a similar attitude and wouldn't put a ticking time bomb in us.

Which is why I blame evolution as a theistic evolutionist. Thankfully, this situation will probably solve itself over time and the appendix will just cease to be a part of a normal person's body. *shrug*

For now, we have the practice of modern medicine. Wonderful, wonderful modern medicine. <3

James

Hi audacious,

For us old guys it would be nice if you'd use larger type font, but do as you will. I'm not much of one that believes man really has to have all the answers for why God did what He did and how He did it. He just is God and He created all things just as He created them. Is my being able to explain why I have four fingers rather than three, not counting the thumb as a finger of course, important to why God made the hand like He did?

I mean, God could have made the human hand with three slightly larger fingers and we could still do the same things as far as grasping and holding? God could have made hair follicles so that they don't close up and lose their ability to grow new hair, but He didn't. Is there some purpose I need to understand in why He made hair follicles as He did?

What I know is that God made the first human body and that all since then have been created like the first and they have all had an appendix. Do I really need to understand why God put an appendix in the human body to be able to believe the truth of God? I don't. It's there. God made it to be in the first human body and it has been in pretty much every one since and whether or not I understand or know its purpose and function, isn't part of the equation for me.

But, when people try to take what God has made and use those very things to explain away the truth, well, then my thoughts turn to the Scriptures that warn us to be very, very careful of that which is falsely called knowledge. So, here you are trying to use what you believe to be a 'useless' human organ to explain that the truth of God cannot be. It is just not possible that God made the first man Adam some 6,000 years ago as the Scriptures declare because you know for a fact that this organ is some leftover piece from our previous and somewhat different ancestors. You teach that as your knowledge about the human body.

God bless you.
In Christ, Ted

 

[SkyWriting]

Do I really need to understand why God put an appendix in the human body to be able to believe the truth of God? I don't. It's there. God made it to be in the first human body and it has been in pretty much every one since and whether or not I understand or know its purpose and function, isn't part of the equation for me.

What's important is that you took the step of faith and decided it had a purpose.
Following that decision, I took 6 seconds and researched "The function of the appendix".
In 20 seconds I had answers. Thank God I had such strong faith so see me through
that valley of death.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.