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The Human Eye
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Q: I have been reading a book written in the 17th century which claims that animals do not have the eye muscle that is required to look up. However, man has a special muscle for looking up. This would be a great illustration showing that God created man to look up to him. However, I am afraid to use 17th century science to make a point. Is this true about the muscles in the eye?
A: Great question. There are many differences between the eyes of man and all the various creatures in God's creation. Acuity, motion detection, light sensitivity, peripheral field, color perception, just to name a few. However, most of these differences deal with the internal structure and function of the eye and its interrelatedness with the accompanying brain function. There are scientific views that consider the eye an extension of the brain. This is due to the degree of connectedness and the fact that the size of the optic nerve and the percentage of the brain dedicated to processing vision is quite large. Our Lord said that "if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" in Matthew 6:22. It sounds like to me He knows what He is talking about, and we need to be very careful about what we let in our windows to the soul.The outer muscular connectivity is another issue. I am not an anatomist, and a thorough search of secular and creation science materials at my disposal was inconclusive on this matter. With that said, I will give you my best guess. Without testing this, I do believe I have noticed this functionality in dogs, and maybe cats also. Specifically, I am referring to the ability for the eyes to independently roll upwards. However, there are insects and ocean crustaceans with stationary eyes that do not move at all. Since the term "animal" generally refers to anything non-human, with the possible exception of micro-organisms, making the sweeping statement that animals cannot look up would seem unreasonable to me and at least somewhat false. A thorough study of the eye will yield many amazing illustrations to the eternal truth of God's holy Word. It will also produce awe and wonder over the fabulous complexity of the most complicated nanotechnological optical devise in the known universe. Our eyes have 137 millions light receptive pixels in our retinas. The high dollar digital cameras sold today only have between 8 and 10 million. The cone receptors in our eyes have chemicals sensitive to the different wavelengths of light that our brains represent as color. Yes, color is a representation in our brains. The only scientific differences in light is the measure of its wavelength. It is our brains that assign color. The chemicals in the cones stimulate an electro chemical response that is transmitted over the optic nerve to our brains. This information is transmitted real time at the rate of at least 30 times per second. In the brain the information is reconstructed into a three dimensional hologram of our surroundings replete with depth, color, brightness, and texture. This hologram is refreshed at an astounding rate which allows us to perceive seamless motion that is continually compensated based upon our own position and movement. But alas, this is but a sampling of the amazing structure and functionality of the eye. We truly are truly fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
God bless, Chris Wilhoit
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