Claim CB361:
Vestigial organs (if any really exist) are not
evidence of
evolution. They just show decay consistent with the second law of
thermodynamics.
Source:
Morris, Henry M. 1985. Scientific Creationism. Green Forest, AR: Master
Books, 75-76.
Response:
- Vestigial organs include more than atrophied organs. The bones of the
middle ear, for example, are vestiges of jaw bones of ancestral
tetrapods.
- Loss of organs is sometimes an advantage. For example, loss of legs is
adaptive in whales. Thus, losses of organs often are evolution driven
by natural selection. They are evidence of evolution when their
vestigial forms show similarities to earlier nonvestigial forms.
- The second law of thermodynamics allows for more
than decay.
created 2003-6-9
