Home » Intelligent Design » The Appendix Finds A Job. Or Had One All the Time…

The Appendix Finds A Job. Or Had One All the Time…

October 6, 2007 Posted by Paul Nelson under Intelligent Design
61 Comments

Human appendix

“Yeah, so what. So I spend a lot of time at this one Starbucks, sure, when other organ systems are busy working. Venti dark roast, room for cream.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t put in my time on the job.”

“Do you really think natural selection would have kept me on the payroll this long if I wasn’t doing something?”

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61 Responses to The Appendix Finds A Job. Or Had One All the Time…

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  1. 61
    PatrickOctober 11, 2007 at 5:16 pm

    Saw this updated Wikipedia entry and liked it:

    Historical Interpretation: Vestigiality

    The most common explanation is that the appendix is a vestigial structure with no absolute purpose. In The Story of Evolution, Joseph McCabe argued thus:

    The vermiform appendage—in which some recent medical writers have vainly endeavoured to find a utility—is the shrunken remainder of a large and normal intestine of a remote ancestor. This interpretation of it would stand even if it were found to have a certain use in the human body. Vestigial organs are sometimes pressed into a secondary use when their original function has been lost.

    One potential ancestral purpose put forth by Darwin[3]: that the appendix was used for digesting leaves as primates. Over time, we have eaten fewer vegetables and have evolved, over millions of years, for this organ to be smaller to make room for our stomach.
    The appendix is more developed in Old World monkeys.
    The appendix is more developed in Old World monkeys.[4]

    [edit] Recent Interpretation: Immune Use

    Loren G. Martin[5], argues that the appendix has a function in fetuses and adults. Endocrine cells have been found in the appendix of 11 week old fetuses that contribute to “biological control (homeostatic) mechanisms.” In adults, Martin argues that the appendix acts as a lymphatic organ. The appendix is experimentally verified as being rich in infection-fighting lymphoid cells, suggesting that it might play a role in the immune system. A. Zahid[6] suggests that it plays a role in both manufacturing hormones in fetal development as well as functioning to ‘train’ the immune system, exposing the body to antigens in order that it can produce antibodies. He notes that doctors in the last decade have stopped removing the appendix during other surgical procedures as a routine precaution, because it can be successfully transplanted into the urinary tract to rebuild a sphincter muscle and reconstruct a functional bladder.

    Researchers at Duke University are currently being lauded for having solved the mystery, after proposing that the appendix serves as a safe haven for useful bacteria when illness flushes them from the rest of the intestines, a function that would be useful in sparsely populated areas where people would be less likely to pass these germs to one another.[7] This would explain the strong immune activity and the apparent health of those without one in developed countries- potentially in combination with the possibility that strong antibiotics prevent us from using the appendix for the reason it developed.

    I had previously tried to update this entry with our new knowledge of its function but it was quickly deleted in favor of “no known function” and Darwin, evolution, blah, blah, blah… Despite this new entry being very neutral and informative how long do you think it will be before a Darwinist edits that out?

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