[Citation Needed]

Today I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I'm going to demolish a creationist argument about vestigal organs and reveal one of their favorite tactics all in one fell swoop. This is yet another article from that goldmine of creationist deception, Answers in Genesis. The article in question is titled 'Vestigal' Organs: What do they prove? As it turns out they prove evolution, although AiG would never admit that much. Let's get cracking.

First, it is in principle not possible to prove that an organ is useless, because there is always the possiblity that a use may be discovered in the future. This has happened with over a hundred alleged useless vestigial organs which are now known to be essential.

Since the article jumps into the fray without so much as a cursory explanation, I'll have to give you some background. A Vestigial structures are parts of an animals body (or even parts of its genetic code) that have lost their original function through evolution. The classic example of this in humans is the Vermiform Appendix, which has an unfortunate tendency to catch potentially lethal infections.

It's also worth noting that while the article claims that hundreds of supposedly vestigial organs are now known to be essential, it does not give a single example of one such organ. Nor does it cite a source for its claim. Remember this, because it is going to be a recurring theme throughout the article.

Second, even if the alleged vestigial organ were no longer needed, it would prove devolution not evolution. The creation model allows for deterioration of a perfect creation. However the particles-to-people evolution model needs to find examples of nascent organs, i.e. those which are increasing in complexity.

Here the writers are just making up words. There is no such thing as devolution. Evolution does not work backwards, as they seem to claim. Their claim that organisms can deteriorate and thus gain useless organs is one that has no evidence to back it up whatsoever. They have not published a single paper on it. They give no mechanism by which it could happen. They have not studied this supposed process and do not have a shred of proof for its existance. And of course they do not cite a source for their claim. It's rubbish.

Wings on birds that do not fly?
There are at least three possibilities as to why ostriches, emus, etc have wings:

a) They derived from smaller birds that once could fly. This is possible in the creationist model. Loss of features is relatively easy by natural processes; acquisition of new characters, requiring new DNA information, is impossible.

The claim that DNA information cannot be gained is ridiculous. The genetic variation that is the raw material for natural selection comes from mutations. Their claim is a blatant lie.

b) The wings have a function. Some possible functions, depending on the species of flightless bird, are: balance while running, cooling in hot weather, warmth in cold weather, protection of the rib-cage in falls, mating rituals, scaring predators (I’ve seen emus run at perceived enemies of their chicks, mouth open and wings flapping), sheltering of chicks, etc. If the wings are useless, why are the muscles functional that allow these birds to move their wings?

The wings may well have a function. Remember, vestigial does not mean useless. It just means that the structure no longer serves its original purpose. It may be useless or it may have some use, but it is not what it was clearly made to be. The wings on flightless birds may be useful for something, but they are clearly useless as wings. Yet, they are just as clearly wings. They are vestigial structures, remnants from an earlier evolutionary era. The main error that the writers make in this article, and probably the biggest mistake people make when thinking about vestigial structures, is that vestigial structures are useless. They may not be. But they are vestigial all the same.

c) It is a result of ‘design economy’ by the Creator. Humans use this with automobiles, for example. All models might have mounting points for air conditioning, power steering, etc. although not all have them. Likewise, all models tend to use the same wiring harness, although not all features are necessarily implemented in any one model. In using the same embryological blueprint for all birds, all birds will have wings.

A wing is hardly the same thing as a mounting point. It's a major part of a bird. Why have them there at all if they don't do much of anything? It would be like an air conditioning system that has everything except a compressor. Sure, you could use it for something, but why have it there at all if it doesn't condition the air?

Pigs with two toes that do not reach the ground?
Does this mean that the shorter toes have no function? No one has demonstrated this. Pigs spend a lot of time in water / muddy conditions for cooling purposes. Perhaps the extra toes make it easier to walk in mud (a bit like the rider wheels sometimes seen on long trucks which only touch the road when the truck is heavily loaded). Or perhaps the muscles attached to the extra toes give strength to the ‘ankle’ of the pig.

The writers do not cite any proof for their theories. They can speculate as to what a pigs toes may do, but they give us no proof of any kind. Sure, a pigs toes might do a lot of things. But until they can prove that they do something, we have no reason to believe any of their baseless claims.

Why do male humans have nipples?
See also Male Nipples Prove Evolution?

This is answered in Bergman and Howe’s book ‘Vestigial Organs’ are Fully Functional (below right). Males have nipples because of the common embryological plan followed during early embryo development. Embryos start out producing features common to male and female—again an example of ‘design economy’. Nipples are a part of this design economy. However, as Bergman and Howe point out, the claim that they are useless is debatable.

What is the evolutionist’s explanation for male nipples? Did males evolve (devolve) from females? Or did ancestral males suckle the young? No evolutionist would propose this, so males nipples are not evidence for evolution or evidence against creation

This is true, as far as I can tell. Of course no citation is provided.

Why do rabbits have digestive systems that function ‘so poorly that they must eat their own feces’?
This is an incredible proposition. One of the most successful species on earth would have to be the rabbit! The rabbit’s mode of existence is obviously very efficient (what about the saying ‘they breed like rabbits’?). Just because eating feces may be abhorrent to humans, does not mean it is inefficient for the rabbit! Indeed rabbits have a special pouch called the cecum, containing bacteria, at the beginning of the large intestine. These bacteria aid digestion, just as bacteria in the rumen of cattle and sheep aid digestion. The rabbit produces two types of fecal pellet, a hard one and a special soft one coming from the cecum. It is only the latter which is eaten to enrich the diet with the nutrients produced by the bacteria in the cecum. In other words, this ability of rabbits is part of their design; it is not something they have learnt to do because they have ‘digestive systems which function so poorly’. It is part of the variety of design which speaks of creation, not evolution.

They seem to be right about this. Of course they don't give any source for this claim, but I'm not nearly so lazy. You can learn all about cecotropes and the animals who eat them in Mammal Review 31 (1) on pages 61-80 in an excellent article by Hirofumi Hirakawa. See, it's not so hard to cite your sources! Which makes you wonder why creationists are so reluctant to do so.

Legless lizards
It is quite likely that the legless lizards, etc. could have derived from the original created kind, and so the structures would be consistent with this. ‘Loss’ of a structure is of no comfort to evolutionists as they have to find a mechanism for creating new structures, not losing them, and there is no such mechanism to explain how evolution from ’amoeba to man’ could occur. Genesis 3:14 suggests that snakes maybe once had legs. Brown (CRSQ 26:54) suggests that monitor lizards may have been the precursors of snakes.

A CITATION! It's a miracle! Sure it leads to another creationist source, but at least it's a start. There is in fact a mechanism to explain how evolution from 'amoeba to man' could occur (the Theory of Evolution), but they still don't expalain this mysterious mechanism that could allow animals to devolve. Probably because it doesn't exist.

Adaptation and natural selection are a biological fact; evolution is not.

Adaptation and natural selection are evolution. It is the thing and the whole of the thing. Natural selection describes how organisms evolve. The fact that they acknowledge natural selection but deny evolution boggles the mind. Natural selection is the mechanism through which evolution occurs, and the mechanism which just a paragraph above they claimed did not exist! Their willful ignorance is amazing!

Natural selection can only work on the genetic information present in a population of organisms—it cannot create new information.

I'll refer to the article on mutations I linked to earlier. They are wrong again.

For example, if reptiles have no genes for feathers, no amount of selection will produce a feathered reptile. Mutations in genes can only modify or eliminate existing structures, but not create new ones.

It can through gene duplication or hoizontal gene transfer. In fact, I'll just link you to article on molecular evolution, a field of study which the authors apparently do not know about.

If in a certain environment a lizard survives better with smaller legs, or no legs, then varieties with this trait will be selected for. This might be more accurately called devolution, not evolution.

It certainly sounds like evolution to me. The authors seem to think that not having legs is bad for a snake, but if the environment makes a lizard with smaller legs more likely to survive, than it is evidently good. Saying that it is devolution is just an arbitrary judgement with no basis in fact.

The Appendix
See also Your Appendix—It’s There for a Reason!

It is known that the appendix contains lymphatic tissue and has a role in controlling bacteria entering the intestines. It functions in a similar way to the tonsils at the other end of the alimentary canal, which are known to increase resistance to throat infections, although once also thought to be useless organs.

No citation is given for this either. And again, vestigial does not mean useless. Some scientists believe that the appendix does serve a purpose, but because it is prone to infection and it can be removed with no loss of health it is probably more trouble than it is worth. In any case, it is still an evolutionary relic of a more complex organ such as is seen in modern monkeys.

Hip bones in whales
These bones are alleged to show that whales evolved from land animals. However, Bergman and Howe point out that they are different in the male and female whales. They are not useless at all, but help penis erection in the males and vaginal contraction in the females.

Vestigial does not mean useless. Also, no citation is given for this either. While the pelvis in whales may serve some purpose, it is clearly no the original one.

Vestigial does not mean useless. That is an important fact that the AiG team would do well to remember. But most of all, this article shows how creationists fail to cite sources for their claims. Without sources their claims are worthless. This is one thing that seperates them from real scientists.