Mar 14, 2010

The Evolution of the Eye



The eye is a controversial organ, indeed. It is one of the main body parts creationists point to when espousing the "evidence of a designer," and the argument over its development has persisted for nearly two centuries. Creationists propose that the eye could not evolve in a vacuum, that no discernible transitional phase has ever been observed, and that its complexity is irreducible (meaning ostensibly that, due to its complexity, the eye could not have evolved whatsoever). To make a simpler analogy, which "scientist" Michael Behe uses in his book, Darwin's Black Box, how could a mouse trap evolve independent of creation? You can find numerous supposed refutations of evolution in man-made examples. Has a house ever been constructed which has not been designed by man? Could a jumbo jet be made from a whirlwind sweeping through a junkyard? And so on.

The affirmation of the eye's evolution is rather simpler to explain than I would have thought, actually. It need not even get too bogged down in scientific jargon in order to be convincing. The above video shows in detail how the eye developed into what it is today and also how different creatures bear differing evidence of eye development. It is basically a process of gradual development, with light-sensitive cells turning into a minor recess in what will become an ocular cavity, after which the gathering of cells become the eye itself, able to manipulate light into the objects we perceive.

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