Evolution of the Human Eye: Problem Solved?
Wednesday November 3, 2004
A common argument offered by creationists is that biological structures like the eye could not possibly have developed via natural selection. Therefore, they conclude, such structures must have been created specially. To counter this biologists have offered ways in which eyes could have evolved naturally - and now some may have discovered evidence to back it up.
According to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory:
Researchers in the laboratories of Detlev Arendt and Jochen Wittbrodt have discovered that the lightsensitive cells of our eyes, the rods and cones, are of unexpected evolutionary origin - they come from an ancient population of light-sensitive cells that were initially located in the brain. "It is not surprising that cells of human eyes come from the brain. We still have light-sensitive cells in our brains today which detect light and influence our daily rhythms of activity," explains Wittbrodt. "Quite possibly, the human eye has originated from light-sensitive cells in the brain. Only later in evolution would such brain cells have relocated into an eye and gained the potential to confer vision."
The findings are very interesting and would confirm what biologists have been saying for years. That is, after all, how science works: though research and study, not make-believe and wishful thinking. Creationist rhetoric about how such a "perfect" structure like the eye must have been created ignores the fact that the human eye is incredibly imperfect. Cephalopod eyes, for example, lack our blind spot. Zebrafish can repair their retinas after injury whereas we can't. Many species can see in far more wavelengths than us.
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Comments
what an idiot!
Care to expand on that, uh, “comment”?
The human eye is not only incredibly designed, but also the perfect Form of other incredible designs. Would you like me to shoot why/how?
Meron: I find it hard to believe that if you really could demonstrate that the eye was “designed” you feel any need to ask for permission to do so or hesitate to do so. Indeed, I doubt that you can even provide a testable, meaningful definition of what would distinguish a “designed” structure from an evolved one.