Divine Design: The Complexity and Uniqueness of the Human Body

After Earth’s initial week, the Lord God surveyed the products of his creative activity, and it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Everything was perfect for its intended purpose.

One thing, however, towered above all else: the human species. The unique variety of its features illustrates its supremacy. Mankind surpassed all other creatures because humanity was fashioned in the very “image” of God—spiritually speaking (Gen. 1:26-27).

Aside from humanity’s transcendent intellectual, moral, and spiritual qualities, his physical features constitute a museum illustrating divine design. In the patriarchal period, the wise Job commented that God had clothed him with “skin and flesh” and “knit” him “together with bones and sinews” (Job 10:11). Centuries later, David would declare: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psa. 139:14).

In an attempt to encourage unity among the Christians in Corinth, Paul appealed to the analogy of the human body and the divinely designed unity characteristic of it. He affirmed that God set the various members of our bodies in place, just as it pleased him (1 Cor. 12:18). It has been noted that both verbs are in the Greek aorist tense, asserting that the body came together as a whole at a specific point in time, not in a gradual development, as an evolutionary process would suggest (cf. Gen. 2:7; Vine, 173). No secondary means were employed in the creation process (Stigers, 66).

The human body is a galaxy of ten interrelated systems so perfectly orchestrated that arguing that they developed gradually using a naturalistic, evolutionary process requires a mentality of considerable dullness. Let us consider these briefly. My book, The Human Body: Accident or Design?, provides a more complete discussion.

Skin System

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. It is a very complicated and busy place. A piece of skin the size of a quarter contains one yard of blood vessels, four yards of nerves, one hundred sweat glands, and more than three million cells. The skin has two primary layers, which wear down but constantly replace themselves. The skin protects the body’s valuable inner fluids and organs and keeps contaminating debris from invading. When skin is damaged or cut, it can repair itself. Is there any humanly contrived machine that can do this?

Skeletal System

The average adult has 206 bones serving several functions. Bones are supporters, somewhat like the interior framework of a house. Additionally, they protect other vital organs (e.g., the brain, heart, and lungs). Some bones and companion muscles function as levers with the arms and legs, facilitating this marvelous human machine. Bones also have metabolic functions, providing calcium, phosphorus, and other essential minerals. Red and white blood cells also are manufactured within the bones.

Muscular System

The body has more than six hundred muscles, which have been designed as its “engines.” These muscles are classified as voluntary and involuntary. The former is used, for example, when one raises his arm or runs. The pumping of the heart illustrates the latter. Some can function in both capacities (e.g., the blinking of the eye). Each muscle has an energy package manufactured from the food supplied to the body.

The muscle system of the human hand has been described, even by a skeptic, as a “highly complex mechanical device” (Wylie, 25). What kind of “complex mechanical device” ever created itself? Twenty-eight facial muscles facilitate a man’s ability to make numerous expressions, including a smile. Two evolutionists concede that only humans can communicate with a smile (Miller and Goode, 22). Why are humans so unique?

Digestive System

We must eat to survive, but food must be digested before it can be utilized to produce energy. The average person will consume some forty tons of food during a lifetime. We chew food with individually crafted teeth and prepare it for swallowing by the tongue (with its tastebuds). Swallowing is a “highly specialized ... complex” muscular movement (Beck, 518).

Our food is bathed in saliva, designed to moisten and lubricate it. The saliva assists in the process of turning starches into sugar. It also contains germ-killing bacteria. Isn’t it amazing that the stomach can digest a steak—without digesting itself? The stomach lining replaces itself about every three days. Amazing!

Circulatory System

The circulation system consists of the heart, blood, and blood vessels. This mechanism has three functions: (a) transporting food particles to all parts of the body; (b) carrying oxygen to facilitate the burning of food, thus producing energy; and (c) conveying waste items to disposal organs.

The heart is impressive. It beats automatically about 100,000 times each day. It pumps blood, transporting food and oxygen to all body parts and back. The blood is subsequently sent to the lungs for re-oxygenation and to another roundtrip throughout the body. Even some evolutionists praise the system as an outstanding example of “engineering” (Miller and Goode, 68). Who was the Engineer?

Nervous System

The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and nerves and branches into various body parts. It is the body’s communication system.

Can you imagine someone suggesting that the communication systems of New York City or San Francisco developed by chance? The nervous system regulates organs (e.g., muscles), monitors the senses (e.g., seeing and hearing), engages in reasoning, and stores and retrieves memories.

Isaac Asimov, a radical humanist, described the human brain as “the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe” (10). Who arranged it? Richard Dawkins, the arrogant atheist of Oxford, described the brain as having a “complex design” (ix) but asserted it had no designer. Agnostic Dr. Robert Jastrow suggested that the human brain is the most challenging thing to explain by the evolutionary model (104).

Sensory Organs

We will mention two of the twenty sensory networks in the human body: seeing and hearing.

The human eye is the most phenomenal camera known to the human mind. Light enters the eye at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. It then is adjusted for dimness or brightness, distance, shape, etc. It instantly refocuses from an ant nearby to the moon 240,000 miles away. There are 137 million nerve endings that transfer messages to the brain at 300 miles per hour.

The ears are no less remarkable. Sound waves enter the ear at a speed of 1,087 feet per second. Through a complicated process, these waves send specific vibrations to some 25 thousand auditory receptors, which then are transferred to the brain for interpretation. The inner ear contains as many “circuits” as the phone system of a large city. Biblical revelation declares that God “planted the ear” and “formed the eye” (Ps. 94:9; cf. Prov. 20:12).

Various other systems could be surveyed to demonstrate the body’s remarkable design (and are discussed in my book). The respiratory, excretory, and endocrine organs are phenomenal.

The reproductive system is another example of divine design in the human body. God fashioned this incredible mechanism to continue the human family and the pleasure of the marital relationship.

Atheism has no clue how it originated. Skeptics confess: “The origin of sex is as darkly in mystery as the origin of life itself” (Miller and Goode, 230). Neither the origin of life nor the sexual phenomenon is a mystery to those who know where to look for the information. The explanation is in the grandest book ever to challenge the mind of man—the Bible!

Did God Make Mistakes in Designing the Human Body?

Finally, we need to mention this. Some have argued that certain “flaws” in the human body nullify the claim that it points to a perfect Creator. We would answer in the following ways.

First, some things characterized as flaws may not be understood yet. Tonsils and the appendix once were in this category.

Second, one must acknowledge that human sin has resulted in physical degeneration over the centuries. Before the Genesis Flood, people lived for hundreds of years. Now, the average age of mankind generally hovers close to 70, as prophesied in scripture (Psa. 90:10).

Praise Jehovah for your body, and use it in his service!