Welcome to The Creator Revealed.
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I'm Tim
Standish. I'm a scientist.
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And I work for the
Geoscience Research Institute
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in Loma Linda, California.
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This program and
this entire series
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is about the creation
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and what it can tell
us about the Creator.
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Yeah, I'm Shelley Quinn
and we just want to thank you
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for joining us today.
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This program is in two segments.
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The first half of the program
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you will get some
scientific information,
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just enough to kind
of whet your appetite.
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In the second part,
we will be talking about
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a practical and
biblical application.
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What is the life
lesson we get from this?
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Paul said in Romans 1:20,
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"That God's invisible attributes
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were seen in
everything that He created.
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He imprinted or encoded
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His artistic
ability in His love,
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if you will, on His creation."
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And today, we're
going to talk about
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a well-noted biologist
who's probably more famous
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for being an atheist
and how he mocks the design,
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God's design of the eye.
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Yes, you know what I
like about Romans 1:20
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is that it points us
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in a very clear
way to the creation.
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God says, "Go and look,
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taste and see
that the Lord is good."
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Amen.
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And there's no
hesitation about it.
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Unfortunately, there
are some people who think
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that you cannot see
the hand of the Creator
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in the creation.
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And some of them actually are
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a certain kind of Christian.
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I hope we all wind up in heaven.
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I'll say that, you
know, all of our eyes
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obviously will be opened
at that particular point.
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But while we're here,
the Bible encourages us
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to look at the creation
to appreciate what is there.
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And particularly when
it comes to human beings,
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the Bible tells us
beautiful things to expect
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when we look at how
a human being is made.
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I love this text.
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This is Psalm 139:13, 14,
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"For you
created my inmost being,
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you knit me together
in my mother's womb."
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Isn't that
fantastic imagery there?
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Yes. I really like it.
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That's actually why I use
the NIV version, it has that...
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It summarizes that imagery
so nicely there for this text.
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And then it goes on,
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"I praise you
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because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made,
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your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
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Amen.
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That's the biblical
view of a human being
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created by God,
created in the image of God.
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We expect as
Bible-believing Christians
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to see something wonderful.
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But, of course, we
all know we can't pretend
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that there is not another
view of what a human being is.
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So let's look at one way
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in which that
has been expressed.
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This is Charles Darwin writing.
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Now you'll
remember that Charles Darwin
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was a materialist.
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He believed really
that the only thing
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was the material world.
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And here's what he says,
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"Man in his arrogance
thinks himself a great work
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worthy the
interposition of a deity."
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So human beings think that
we're fantastic and therefore,
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you know, God
somehow or other made us,
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he's turning
things completely around.
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"More humble and I believe truer
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to consider him
created from animals."
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But that was in
1838. That's right.
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This is long before
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the publication
of his famous book
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the Origin of Species.
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So I've always heard that
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it was because of his research
and the origin of species
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that he turned
to an "evolutionist"
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and denied God,
but that clearly...
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That's really a
commonly held myth.
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Darwin was clearly a
dedicated materialist
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before he ever
went on the voyage
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that he went on around the world
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actually looking at things.
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And he was searching
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for a naturalistic
explanation for things.
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That's what his
particular theory
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of evolution
really is all about.
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Trying to come up with
an alternative explanation
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to what is pretty much
obviously true to most people.
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And that is the human beings
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and the rest of everything
we observed was created
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in some way for a
purpose interestingly enough.
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Yes.
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So, yes, you already
mentioned Richard Dawkins
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and Richard
Dawkins is an atheist.
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You could think of him as
being an atheist evangelist.
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Say, well, you're a
Christian evangelist, Shelley,
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he's an atheist evangelist,
and he's very articulate.
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I appreciate his
writings actually
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because he
doesn't try to pretend,
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he tells you
precisely what he thinks.
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So he's talking
about the human body.
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Now remember, this
Darwinian view of things
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inclines us to see things
in a negative sort of way.
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No, we're kind
of cobbled together,
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we are not a product
of any intelligent thought
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or any planning.
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No, infinitely wise God made us.
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So we don't expect to
see infinitely wise things
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in the creation.
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This is what he says.
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And he's talking
about the human eye.
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So if you're
watching this on television,
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he's talking
about the instruments
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that you are using to
see us with amazing clarity.
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Who isn't amazed
by the human eye?
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Well, it turns out,
Richard Dawkins isn't?
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He says, "Suppose I tell
you that the eye's photocells,"
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so these are the
cells at the back of the eye
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that are detecting light.
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Okay.
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"The eye's photocells
are pointing backwards,
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away from the
scene being looked at.
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The wires," that
would be the nerves,
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"connecting the
photocells to the brain
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run over all the
surface of the retina,
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so the light rays
have to pass through
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a carpet of massed wires
before they hit the photocells.
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That doesn't make sense
and it gets even worse."
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So let's take a look at
what he's talking about here.
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Here's the human eye.
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Most of us will be familiar
with the basic architecture.
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At the back of the eye
there are light sensitive cells
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and at the front you
can see there is a lens.
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So if you're
looking at my smiling face,
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what's happening is that
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lens is focusing an image of me.
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Well, both of us, on
the back of your eye,
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and those light sensitive
cells are detecting that image.
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So as the light
falls on it, they change,
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and they then send a
signal through the nerves.
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Back to our brains
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and that's why we
see things the way we do.
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So here is what
Dawkins is concerned about,
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the nerves that
pick up that signal,
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they run over the front
of the light sensitive cells,
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they don't go behind.
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And he thinks
that's a terrible design.
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So let's zoom in here
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on just a little
part of that retina
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and take a look at
what his issue is with it.
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All right?
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And so here we have
our light detecting cells.
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All right.
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There they are
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and those light detecting cells,
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they use a lot of energy.
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That means they
need a lot of oxygen...
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Lots of blood.
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They need sugar then that's
all bought by the blood, right.
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So they need a blood
supply to supply them.
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That's why if
you injure your eye,
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you've probably noticed
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there's a lot of blood involved.
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Yes.
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And if you ever tried
looking through blood,
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you've probably noticed that,
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that's not
really a good strategy.
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It's quite opaque.
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So if you put the blood
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in front of the
light sensitive cells,
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you couldn't see anything.
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The blood has to go behind.
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So this is a design necessity
that we're looking at here,
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the blood is behind.
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If you have the blood there,
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you can't in the same
place have the nerves, right?
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You can only have one
thing in one place at a time.
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So therefore,
the nerves have to go
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in front of the
light detecting cells.
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So when light comes in...
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This is according to Dawkins,
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and this was a
commonly held view.
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When the light comes in, it
passes through those nerves,
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and it gets dissipated a bit.
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So that would reduce
the clarity of what we see.
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And Dawkins thinks
this is a bad design.
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But we can see
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it's actually necessary
that things be this way
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or else our eyes wouldn't work.
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I should tell you,
there are other designs
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on how this works.
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They suit the purposes
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of those animals
that have that design.
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But this... So for
an eagle or someone...
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Well, actually, an eagle
would have this kind of design.
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Okay.
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I'm talking about
things like octopuses.
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Oh, okay. Okay.
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Their eyes,
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the same general
camera type eye as ours,
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but their retina is
arranged differently.
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And it suits the
purposes of an octopus...
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Yes.
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But not the
purposes of a human being.
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Okay.
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So this is what
Dawkins is complaining about.
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He says, this is bad design,
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even though
everybody would admit,
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"Hey, you know, our
eyes work remarkably well."
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Yes. Okay.
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So then he goes on and he says,
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"One consequence
of the photocells
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pointing backwards
is that the wires,"
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remember that's
the nerves there,
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"that carry their data
00:11:03.09\00:11:04.89
somehow have to
pass through the retina
00:11:04.93\00:11:07.70
and back to the brain.
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What they do, in
the vertebrate eye,
00:11:09.26\00:11:10.93
is all converge
on a particular hole
00:11:10.97\00:11:13.60
in the retina, where
they dive through it.
00:11:13.64\00:11:16.20
The hole filled with nerves
is called the blind spot."
00:11:16.24\00:11:19.71
And this is the
most shocking statement.
00:11:19.74\00:11:21.38
He says, "It's
not just bad design,
00:11:21.41\00:11:24.05
it's the design
of a complete idiot."
00:11:24.08\00:11:27.85
But it's
interesting being an atheist
00:11:27.88\00:11:30.09
that he is still
calling it a design.
00:11:30.12\00:11:32.19
Isn't that interesting?
00:11:32.22\00:11:33.56
Yes, yes.
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This is a fascinating thing
00:11:35.62\00:11:36.96
because
frequently people will argue,
00:11:36.99\00:11:38.93
"Oh, something
is badly designed,
00:11:38.96\00:11:40.93
therefore, it's not designed."
00:11:40.96\00:11:42.30
No, we experience
bad design all the time
00:11:42.33\00:11:46.74
but the things
are still designed.
00:11:46.77\00:11:48.74
Yes.
00:11:48.77\00:11:50.11
The issue is really how
competent the designer is.
00:11:50.14\00:11:55.44
So let's see what
he's talking about here.
00:11:55.48\00:11:56.91
You see there where
the nerves go through,
00:11:56.95\00:11:58.95
that's the blind spot.
00:11:58.98\00:12:00.42
He has a problem with that.
00:12:00.45\00:12:01.95
You will probably notice
that most people have two eyes.
00:12:01.98\00:12:06.19
And the great thing is
because of our two eyes,
00:12:06.22\00:12:09.89
we have this 180
degree view of everything,
00:12:09.92\00:12:13.33
and the blind spot
isn't in the same place
00:12:13.36\00:12:15.26
in both eyes.
00:12:15.30\00:12:16.63
So your brain puts
the image together,
00:12:16.67\00:12:18.03
you don't see any blind spot.
00:12:18.07\00:12:19.40
Okay.
00:12:19.43\00:12:20.77
This is actually
brilliant design.
00:12:20.80\00:12:22.44
There's
something else that's more
00:12:22.47\00:12:23.81
recently been discovered,
and that is that, in fact,
00:12:23.84\00:12:26.98
the light does
not get dissipated.
00:12:27.01\00:12:30.81
What happens is
00:12:30.85\00:12:32.41
there are these
special glial cells
00:12:32.45\00:12:34.42
act like fiber
optics, and what they do
00:12:34.45\00:12:36.38
is they carry
that light through.
00:12:36.42\00:12:39.02
How fascinating. So
it isn't dissipated.
00:12:39.05\00:12:41.59
What happened was the designer
00:12:41.62\00:12:44.03
actually
anticipated that problem
00:12:44.06\00:12:47.80
with the nerves running
over the front of the eye...
00:12:47.83\00:12:50.53
That's amazing.
00:12:50.57\00:12:51.90
And engineered in
a brilliant solution.
00:12:51.93\00:12:54.94
And because of
that brilliant solution,
00:12:54.97\00:12:57.74
human beings can
do amazing things.
00:12:57.77\00:13:00.18
We have these
sensors and those sensors
00:13:00.21\00:13:03.14
are coordinated
by our amazing brains
00:13:03.18\00:13:06.61
so that we can see, we can hear,
00:13:06.65\00:13:10.19
we can put all of
this information together,
00:13:10.22\00:13:12.52
and we can
understand to some degree
00:13:12.55\00:13:15.86
the creation that we all enjoy.
00:13:15.89\00:13:17.39
So poor Richard
didn't have this information,
00:13:17.43\00:13:20.30
when he's mocking
God's design of eyes.
00:13:20.33\00:13:22.10
He didn't have the information
about the glial cells.
00:13:22.13\00:13:24.60
He had all the
other information.
00:13:24.63\00:13:26.30
Yes. Yeah.
00:13:26.33\00:13:27.67
But he's been disproven, right?
00:13:27.70\00:13:29.40
Well, it's been shown
that that was a foolish
00:13:29.44\00:13:32.27
and presumptive view of things.
00:13:32.31\00:13:33.98
Remember, the Bible
encourages us to look for God.
00:13:34.01\00:13:38.71
Amen.
00:13:38.75\00:13:40.08
Evidence of God
00:13:40.12\00:13:42.48
to contemplate what He created
00:13:42.52\00:13:45.29
and what we can learn about God.
00:13:45.32\00:13:47.49
Nature, the creation,
doesn't tell us everything.
00:13:47.52\00:13:50.69
Amen. But it tells us plenty.
00:13:50.73\00:13:52.83
So there are a number of points
00:13:52.86\00:13:55.20
that we can get
out of this I think.
00:13:55.23\00:13:57.27
Okay.
00:13:57.30\00:13:58.63
The Creator is revealed
in the design of humans.
00:13:58.67\00:14:02.30
His love is shown in
His provision of senses,
00:14:02.34\00:14:05.77
such a sight,
00:14:05.81\00:14:07.14
so that we can appreciate
and enjoy the creation
00:14:07.18\00:14:09.61
He made for us.
00:14:09.64\00:14:10.98
His love is evident
in the way He anticipated
00:14:11.01\00:14:13.65
and solved problems
created by design necessities
00:14:13.68\00:14:18.25
so that we enjoy senses
far better than are minimally
00:14:18.29\00:14:22.12
necessary for survival.
00:14:22.16\00:14:23.96
And He demonstrated His love
00:14:23.99\00:14:25.43
by providing us
with nervous systems
00:14:25.46\00:14:27.83
designed for a
relationship with Him.
00:14:27.86\00:14:31.63
When you
consider the human eyes,
00:14:31.67\00:14:33.10
certainly, you
see that there had
00:14:33.13\00:14:35.20
to be intelligent design.
00:14:35.24\00:14:37.04
We're going to
take just a short break.
00:14:37.07\00:14:39.41
We'll be back in 60 seconds
00:14:39.44\00:14:41.58
to talk about the
practical life application.
00:14:41.61\00:14:45.31