BBC's Evolution of The Human Brain Error

This part of the documentary, The Human Body, prepared by BBC dealt with the human brain. In this episode, the information provided about the brain was supplemented with the usual evolutionist propaganda clichés, and the complexity in the human brain was described as a "miracle of evolution."

Saying that Chance Created Millions of Miracles is Absurd in the Highest Degree

A great deal of information has so far been provided about birth and the human body in the BBC documentary, The Human Body. One of the most frequently repeated phrases in the program is "this is a miracle of evolution." BBC speaks of evolution as something conscious, which knows what it is doing, makes plans, and flawlessly organizes inanimate objects and atoms, and the channel is perhaps not aware of the real significance underlying this logic.

"The miracle of evolution" means "the miracle of chance," since according to the theory of evolution inanimate substances organized themselves as the result of coincidences to produce all living things. According to this claim, atoms such as carbon, phosphate, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen gave rise to proteins, cells, bacteria, fish, birds, starfish, dolphins, leopards, elephants, bees, ants, eagles, lions, roses, oranges,the human brain, the human heart, the human hand (which still cannot be replicated with all our present-day technology), the eyes, and man himself, who thinks, takes decisions, reads, understands what he reads, and feels joy, sorrow, and excitement—and all this by chance. Every one of these complex and flawless structures and features is a miracle, and there are an infinite number of miracles in the universe. There is no doubt that to claim that all these came about by chance is "absurd in the highest degree." Charles Darwin, the architect of the theory of evolution, realized this and made the following confession about the eye, just one of these countless complex structures:

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.1

When you press a button with your finger a series of processes occurs in your brain. Firstly, thousands of receivers in your fingertip go into action. 1. The first receivers affected are the nerve endings in the fingertip. Pressure changes their shape and there is an electrical discharge. 2. This electrical current passes to the nerve fibres known as the axon. 3. It moves through the spinal cord at 133 metres per second. 4. After the signal enters the spinal column 5. it moves in the opposite direction to the medulla oblongata in the brain. 6. From here it moves to the thalamus and reaches the sensory cortex, its final destination. All these processes happen in less time than it takes you to blink your eye.

In order to better understand how stupid it is to maintain that all living things and all the structures and organs in them came about by chance, it will be sufficient to recall just a few of the features of the brain, the subject of the BBC documentary.

An adult's brain contains some 10 billion neurons (nerve cells). Neurons have projections called "axons" and "dendrites," and by means of these, the neurons are interconnected. Thanks to these connections, known as synapses, one neuron is able to send messages to another. In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, the famous biochemist Michael Denton states that the number of connections between neurons is in the region of 1 quadrillion (1015 or 1,000,000,000,000,000). He then goes on to say:

It is hard to imagine the multitude that 1015 represents. Take half of the United States, which is 1 million square miles, and imagine it being covered by forest, with 10,000 trees per square mile. On each of the 10,000 trees, which are on each of the one million square miles, there are 100,000 leaves. That's how many connections are crammed inside your brain.2

The human brain possesses features which are far superior to computers equipped with even the most advanced technology. Evolutionists, however, who accept that a computer could never come about by the random coming together of substances such as silicon, wire and glass, nevertheless claim that the human brain, so far superior to any computer, could form by the chance coming together of carbon and nitrogen atoms etc. This is very definitely a major contradiction.

Every one of these countless and interlinked connections in the brain, an organ so small it fits into the human skull, has been created in exactly the form required and for a specific purpose. Thanks to these connections, the result of the superior design in God's creation, we are able to perform various functions at the same time with no confusion arising. For example, you can listen to music at the same time as reading these words, while also sipping a cup of coffee. At the same time, moreover, your brain regulates you heartbeat, allows you to breathe by carefully keeping the oxygen levels in your blood at a fixed rate, regulates your body temperature, calculates which of your muscles in your hand need to contract, and by how much, in order for you to lift your cup to your lips without spilling it, and also performs detailed calculations necessary for your sense of balance to allow you to remain on your feet, and it does all this without your being aware of it. Hundreds of different functions like these are carried out by the brain in the most perfect manner throughout our lives. Yet, we are quite unaware of all these calculations going on in it.

An article called "Computing from the Brain," in New Scientist magazine, drew the following analogy regarding the brain's extraordinary performance capability:

In crude terms, the human brain is a natural computer composed of 10 to 100 billion neurons, each of which connects to about 10,000 others, and all of which function in parallel. …Neuronal systems take about 100 processing steps to perform a complex task of vision or speech which would take an electronic computer billions of processing steps.3

As we have seen, the human brain possesses far superior features to computers produced by the most highly advanced technology. Yet, for some reason evolutionists, who accept that computers could never come about by the chance combination of such substances as silicon, wire, and glass, refuse to accept that the human brain, so far superior to any computer, could not have come about by chance combinations of atoms such as nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Indeed, they harbor not the slightest doubts, or at least choose to give that impression. The fact is, however, that if designers, engineers, a technical team, materials in the right quantity and of the right quality, and expert knowledge are necessary for the construction of a computer, then the same thing applies to the brain. Yet, none of these things is to be found in nature. In order for the materials in nature to give rise to birds, fish, horses, flowers, and human beings of all races, it is clear that they need the existence of a superior Creator, possessed of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and power, as well as a flawless design capability. That creator is God, the Lord of all, Who created all the worlds from nothing.

There is no Mechanism in Nature Which Could Turn the Ape Brain into a Human One

Cars, for instance, which emerge as the product of a conscious design and the collaboration of engineers, are exceedingly functional. If the evolutionist claim is to be accepted, however, then it needs to be accepted that a perfect car could emerge by chance, on its own, with all its technical accessories. That is a most illogical claim. That being the case, it must be understood that it is far more irrational still to maintain that living things, which possess a far more complex and flawless design than that in the car, could be the product of chance.

A classical evolutionist claim was repeated on the BBC documentary, in which it was suggested that the brains of our ape-like ancestors turned into the human brain over a period of some 2.5 million years. An analogy was drawn: The brain capacity of our ape-like ancestors was compared to a small Fiat car engine, and that of modern man to a much more developed sports car engine.

In fact, this comparison undermines the evolutionists' own thesis. Everyone knows that no car engine could turn into another, more highly developed one as the result of chance. Not even in trillions of years, let alone 2.5 million. In fact, under the laws of physics, it will age and wear, rot, and eventually fall apart. In order for such an engine to emerge, a designer possessing the knowledge and ability to develop it is essential.

Furthermore, there is an important fact that even evolutionist scientists are forced to admit: The main difference between the ape and human brains is not just a question of capacity and size. Materialists attempt to reduce all human characteristics, and thus the functioning of the brain, to matter. Yet it is today agreed that the features of the human soul cannot be reduced to matter. Man's ability to speak, think, decide, plan, his desires and wishes, his artistic and aesthetic abilities, his ability to possess ideologies, to produce ideas and to dream, and the virtues of love, loyalty, and friendship are not the product of the functioning of the brain. The human soul is something beyond matter, and that on its own is a challenge to materialism.

In his book, The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain, the evolutionist neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield is forced many times to admit that the human soul cannot be accounted for in terms of the functioning of the brain. Some of these confessions read:

After years of striving to explain the mind on the basis of brain-action alone, I have come to the conclusion that it is simpler (and far easier to be logical) if one adopts the hypothesis that our being does consist of two fundamental elements [brain and mind (or soul)]. 4

I conclude that there is no good evidence . . . that the brain alone can carry out the work that the mind does.5

Therefore, comparing the ape brain to that of man avails the evolutionists not at all, since it is clear that no mechanism in nature can give man the characteristics that make him human. It is God, the Lord of all the worlds, Who gives man his soul, creates him out of nothing, and makes him different from all other living things by breathing His spirit into him.

An Important But Ignored Subject: It Is Not The Eye Which Sees

As you drop off to sleep you might dream of yourself as listening to a concert with hundreds of other people. Yet as you listen to this music, you could actually be hearing it in a soundless garden. You can experience nothing beyond the perceptions reaching your brain. That applies when dreaming and in real life …

Although an important scientific truth is expressed in the BBC documentary, that truth is not emphasized in the way it should be. The documentary says: "Our eyes are only a window. It is our brain which sees around us. The eye merely forms the first stage."

This phrase, which one encounters in biology textbooks beginning in middle school, is actually very important, containing as it does a secret which can entirely alter a person's way of looking at the world.

People imagine they see the world with their eyes. The fact is, however, that the eyes and the cells which comprise them are merely responsible for turning the light reaching them from the outside, via chemical processes, into electrical signals. These electrical signals later arrive at the visual center at the back of the brain, which is where the image we see takes shape. For instance, someone reading these lines at this moment sees them in the visual center in the back of his brain. In other words, it is not actually the eyes that see. So, who is it that sees the image in the visual center and reads these words? Who is it that watches with excitement, joy, or sorrow the bright, colorful, three-dimensional image which forms within the darkness of the brain?

The same question also applies to the senses of hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Even as one listens to one's favorite song, it is not one's ears that are doing the hearing. Their task is merely to collect sound waves. The cells in the ears turn the sound waves reaching them into electrical signals, and forward them to the hearing center in the brain. That favorite song is then heard there. You hear the voice of your best friend in your brain. But who is it that hears these sounds within the dark confines of the brain, enjoying the melody and rhythm?

The answer to these questions shows that every thinking human being possesses a soul. Another important point revealed by this scientific fact is this: Everything we see, hear, and touch throughout our lives is perceived in our brains. In other words, we can never actually see or touch the originals of things. What we are always in contact with is perceptions in the brain, and it is impossible ever to have direct experience of these objects by means of these perceptions. For that reason, everyone, even in a crowded room, is actually watching the perceptions in his brain, and is essentially alone.

A person can easily see how meaningless all his desires regarding this world are when he stops to think a little. Nobody can ever actually really possess the car or house or position he thus desires. These are nothing but images in our brains. That being the case, someone who is aware of this must immediately turn to Our Lord, Who created him, and not be swept away by worldly desires.

We may consider our dreams in order to arrive at a better understanding of this. Someone who dreams of attending a lecture in a packed hall is actually lying in bed alone. The image of the lecture forms within his brain. It is impossible for that person to realize he is dreaming until he wakes up, and he remains convinced that he is attending a real lecture.

The German psychiatry professor Hoimar von Ditfurth explains how we can never see the outside world:

No matter how we put the argument, the result doesn't change. What stands before us in full shape and what our eyes view is not the "world." It is only its image, a resemblance, a projection whose association with the original is open to discussion.6

Someone who exercises his mind a little will grasp this concept, which reveals the true nature of the life of this world and helps one realize just how hollow and meaningless the passions and desires aimed at this world truly are. The money in someone's wallet, the yacht he buys for millions of dollars, his holding company, and his new model car are all images which form within his brain. That individual can never touch or see the originals of these. All he perceives is images forming at the back of his brain. This is a scientific fact. The responsibility of all people of reason and good conscience is to grasp this concept before "waking from sleep," in other words before dying, and not to be deceived by becoming caught up in the life of this world.

You can find the details and scientific accounts of this great truth, which entirely alters one's perspective on life, on the website www.secretbeyondmatter.com, which contains the works of Harun Yahya, which have had such an enormous impact all over the world.

Conclusion

Characteristics peculiar to human beings, such as thinking, taking pleasure, having ideas, and feeling love, compassion, nostalgia, affection, joy, sorrow, happiness, and excitement, cannot be accounted for from a materialist and Darwinist perspective. These ideologies hold that all living things emerged by chance from inanimate matter, and they are totally unable to explain how it is that inanimate objects should one day have begun to possess the capacity for thought, decision-making, having ideas, and artistic and aesthetic taste.