A Tooth for a Tooth - Glenn Conjurske

A Tooth for a Tooth

by Glenn Conjurske

We have all seen, in so-called “science” books, encyclopedias, etc., lines of pictures of supposed prehistoric men, those at the beginning looking more like apes, but each one looking more human, until we arrive at man as he is. This line of pictures is supposed to depict the upward evolutionary progress of the human race, from its subhuman origins, to its present state of advancement. This, of course, is not “science” in any sense of the word, for it is based upon no facts at all. One of the men in this chain, the Piltdown man, was a deliberate fraud, and the others are merely artist’s conceptions, the product of the mistakes and the imaginations of the evolutionists. The Neanderthal man and the La Quina woman were both crafted from the same small handful of bones, and then presented as two distinct links in the chain. The evolutionists were evidently desperate for evidence. All the actual bones which went to make up this evolutionary chain would be insufficient to make a good pot of soup. The only real basis for the whole menagerie is the will of the so-called scientists to believe in it.

The sort of mistakes and imagination which form the basis of this unscientific science are thus described by Harry Rimmer:

“One such case is clearly illustrated by the famous Nebraska Man. …

“It was Mr. Harold Cook who discovered this famous fossil man, and the new race was named Hesperopithecus Haroldcookii in honor of the discoverer. There is a tremendous literature built up around this fossil man of North America, and the most conservative estimate of the age of this creature is one million years. …

“What was this find, and just what did Mr. Harold Cook discover in the State of Nebraska? One tooth. Yes, you read it aright the first time: one (1) tooth. Just a tooth! No, not teeth; tooth. This famous tooth was examined by the greatest scientists in the United States, and was accepted as proof positive of pre-historic man in America, and beyond the shadow of a doubt he lived here at least one million years ago.

“One of the great specialists who examined the tooth was the eminent Dr. William K. Gregory, a man of unimpeachable standing in the sphere of science that deals with the age of man and his supposed evolution from an ape-like ancestor. He is Curator of Comparative Anatomy in the American Museum of Natural History and also Curator of Fishes; he is also Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at Columbia University. He is the author of many scientific works, and his next volume for the which the world of evolution waits is entitled ‘Our Face From Fish to Man.’ He is undoubtedly the greatest living champion of the theory of a simian ancestry for man.

“It was Dr. Gregory who named the Hesperopithecus tooth, ‘the million dollar tooth.’ He studied it, examined it, and ‘experted’ it from every possible angle, and attested it as a tooth from a human of such vast antiquity one million years was a conservative guess.

“Another great scientist who accepted all the conclusions of this tooth and its exponents is the eminent Dr. Fairchild Osborn. In his tremendous address before the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia on April 28, 1927, Dr. Osborn placed Hesperopithecus at the very bottom of the tree depicting the ascent of man, and called him the oldest. He says this Hesperopithecus find is the most ancient evidence of man in the year 1927, and places him far down below Neanderthal, or Eoanthropus, or even the famous Pithecanthropus Erectus of recent lamented memory.

“It would be utterly impossible in the scope of such a paper as this to review the extensive literature and multiplied references to this evidence of man’s antiquity from this one find alone; and equally useless. For now the rest of the skeleton of this famous pre-historic man of Nebraska has been found, and it turns out to be an extinct peccary, a species of pig that is now extinct in the territory covered by the United States, but once found here in large numbers. The solemn array of experts, the doctors, the specialists, the comparative anatomists, the eminent authorities and the curators who agreed that this was a man were all wrong; it was the tooth of a pig. What supreme confidence we may enjoy in the future, when this same imposing array of brains attest the next wonderful find! Solemnly, with every assurance that their science justified their dogmatic conclusions, they made a whole race of men from the tooth of a pig long since dead, and even found that man’s age to be one million years back. …

“This is not the only case where this had been done, and far-reaching conclusions have been based on such insufficient evidence. Another famous scientific balloon, filled with hot air, has been deflated now that the much advertised ‘Southwest Colorado Man’ has been shown to have been entirely constructed from a tooth of a small horse of the Eocene period. ‘Give us a tooth!’ seems to be the cry of the experts; and they will supply all the rest from imagination and plaster of paris.”

We pause here just long enough to point out how all of this exposes the real basis of evolutionary “science.” That basis is prejudice, or the determination to believe in evolution, and of course to find the “missing links.” When a miner goes a digging, in the settled belief that “There’s gold in them there hills,” every piece of fools’ gold which he unearths will of course be gold in his mind. So the evolutionist turns every buried tooth, though it belonged to a pig or a horse, into a million-year-old cave man. “Give me a tooth!” is their cry, and they will make what they will of it.

Well, then, let us by all means give them a tooth—-a tooth for a tooth. Let us put away the tooth of the pig, from which the imaginations of the scientists have leaped into cloud land, and put in its place a real human tooth—-a tooth which can easily be verified to be a real human tooth, even by the most prejudiced and dishonest scientist. This we may do with ease, for all of us have teeth. Select any tooth in your own mouth. No, don’t pull it out and hand it over to the scientists, for then it might soon be written up in the scientific journals as the tooth of a million-year-old duck or goose—-the evidence being not quite sufficient to determine which. No, by all means leave the tooth firmly planted in your own jaw, where even a scientist must surely acknowledge it to be a real human tooth.

Having each selected a tooth, we may now begin to extrapolate from that tooth, to prove a few other things. No, we do not mean to extrapolate after the manner of the scientists. We will need no wild imagination, no invention of evidence, no reveries in cloud land, no plaster of paris, no cunning artists, no conjectures about the size of your brain or the curve of your spine—-nothing of the sort. We will proceed entirely upon the ground of known and observable facts. This, after all, is science. Reveries in the land of unproved theories and missing links are just tomfoolery, and to call them “science” is just dishonesty. We want nothing of that. We want only solid and demonstrable facts, and such conclusions as an honest consideration of those facts may legitimately force upon a reasonable mind.

Now then, having selected a tooth in your own mouth, suffer me to direct your thoughts to a few solid facts about that tooth. The first fact is this: that tooth (as either blind chance or intelligent design would have it) does not exist alone. No, it is but one in a long row of teeth. That row exists in the form of an elongated semicircle, containing biting or cutting teeth at the center, and crushing or grinding teeth at either end, with teeth rather suited to tearing at the corners. This is not theory, but fact.

A single tooth, we may observe, would be of little use, whether it were a cutting, tearing, or grinding tooth, but any one of the three, positioned as it is in such a row of teeth, immediately becomes a most useful item.

Or does it? Not really—-unless, of course, we happen to have another such row of teeth, positioned exactly above or below it. A cutting tooth could cut but little, and a grinding tooth could grind but little, if they were positioned above a soft gland or muscle. Neither would it be of any use if it were found protruding from your knee cap, or your rib cage. The usefulness of this row of teeth is absolutely dependent upon its being positioned adjacent to another such row, which is its exact counterpart. And my reader knows very well that it is so positioned. This is another fact.

But have these facts no significance? Do they not indicate design? Given only the facts—-no theories, no prejudices—-do not the facts themselves argue in favor of design? I think they do. But as yet we have only scratched the surface. We must proceed further, and we shall find hundreds more of such facts, all of them equally certain with those few which we have mentioned already, and all of them pointing just as surely in the direction of design.

The single tooth with which we started is not alone, but exists as part of a well formed row of teeth. That row is not alone either, but is placed adjacent to another row, which is its exact counterpart. This is marvellous, but it is not enough. If both of those rows of teeth were fixed and immobile, they would be of no use at all. But here is the next fact: (as blind chance, we are told, has arranged the matter), the lower row of teeth is set in a hinged jaw, so that it can be moved. The hinges themselves are marvellous also. They are not like door hinges, which allow only the opening and shutting of the door, but are in fact universal joints, which allow free movement up and down, and from side to side, thus facilitating both biting and grinding. They even allow a slight movement (just enough, as chance or design would have it) from front to back, giving the lower teeth a comfortable position of rest inside the upper row, but allowing the front teeth to be lined up exactly for the purpose of biting.

Ah, but I have caught myself using the word “purpose.” I assure my readers it was entirely undesigned, and yet the simple facts so effectually force upon the mind the conviction of design and purpose, that it is difficult to avoid the terminology. Even the biology teacher which I had in high school, while teaching us evolution, constantly spoke of the “purpose” of the various bodily organs, directly in the teeth of his own doctrine. An evolutionist can consistently speak of function, but not of purpose. Does chance operate with purpose?

But more. Even given the marvellous facts which we have examined already, these rows of teeth, hinges and all, would be of precious little use if they were not surrounded as they are with muscles. Take away your cheeks, and see what you can chew. Besides being as pretty as skeletons, we would likely be as gaunt as skeletons also, for all the food would fall out the sides while we endeavored to chew it.

Well, but we suppose that man, intelligent as he is, might figure out how to wrap a hand around his rows of teeth, to keep the food from falling out while the grinders grind it, but what is to keep it from falling in? We need a muscle inside the rows of teeth as well as outside, and (as chance or design would have it), we have one. We have in fact, a most marvellous muscle there, most flexible and dexterous. Now the result of all of this is the ability to chew. Two rows of teeth, exact counterparts to each other, positioned exactly adjacent to each other, one of them hinged so as to allow free movement in all directions, with flexible muscles both inside and outside those rows of teeth, so as to keep the food between the grinders—-all these are facts. All these facts point to design, and the more of such facts we pile one on top of the other, the less chance remains that chance can have had anything to do with the matter. When Aaron claimed that he cast a heap of gold into the fire, “and there came out this calf,” he claimed what no sober mind will believe. A golden calf is not made by chance, but by design. How much more a living, moving set of teeth, such as we have described thus far.

Yet still we have only scratched the surface. Those marvellous muscles called cheeks entirely flank the rows of grinders but there they end. The cutting teeth have some marvellous muscles flanking them also, but they are not solid as the cheeks, but are made to open. (And I catch myself again, saying “made,” but how can I help it, with such facts before me?) If we had but one cheek, extending entirely around our rows of teeth, this would serve admirably to keep the food in while we chewed it, but it would of course serve also to keep the food out, so that we could never chew it at all. We must have some muscles on the front side which will part and open, or the whole scheme will be useless. And there those muscles are, as if by unerring design.

But we are not finished yet. We observed before that these rows of teeth form elongated semicircles. The back end of this semicircle is open. Through this open end the food may pass without hindrance, when once it is chewed. This looks like design also.

Observe then that the whole mouth, which we have now fairly well described, has every part which is necessary for its function, and every part in its proper place. The mouth is a passage way for food. The muscles at the beginning of the passage way are made to open to admit the food. One row of the teeth is hinged to open for the same purpose. Observe also that the cutting or biting teeth are just inside the opening—-exactly where we would put them if we were to design this mouth—-while the grinding teeth are further back, just before the opening at the other end, which allows the finished product to pass out of the mouth. Indeed, so marvellous is the whole design, that if this is the work of chance, it appears to be actually miraculous. But the plain fact is, it is very much easier to believe that such miracles are the work of an intelligent Designer, than that they are the work of blind and unguided chance.

But still we have scarcely begun. This mouth also contains a number of marvellous little glands, which produce a wet and slippery lubrication for the whole process. The process of chewing would perhaps be possible without that lubrication, but it would not be very comfortable, nor very efficient. Imagine chewing a soda cracker or a sugar cookie with a mouth wholly dry, without a drop of saliva. Your teeth would not smoothly glide against your cheeks and tongue, but would chafe and stick. Your snack would not be formed into a smooth paste, but only dust and powder. You would find it dangerous, in fact, even to breathe while chewing such a mouthful, for you would be inhaling dust and crumbs with every breath.

But happy for us, we do have such glands for lubrication in our mouths, and if design did not put them there, then surely chance did as well in the matter as design could have done, and we may believe also that Aaron cast a heap of gold pieces into the fire, and there came out a golden calf, crafted by neither God, man, nor devil, but purely the result of chance. Evolutionists like to hide behind “hundreds of millions of years”—-as though that would help their case at all. How many hundreds of millions of times must we cast a heap of gold into the fire, before we will see a perfect calf come out? We are not dealing here with what is improbable, but with what is impossible. And yet a golden calf is the very extreme of simplicity compared to a living, functioning human body.

But on to a few more facts. One of the most marvellous things about these lubrication glands is that they know when to work—-or something which runs them knows when to work them. Only think about salted peanuts, only look at them, with the intention of putting them into your mouth, and immediately your salivary glands begin to pour forth their lubrication. This is marvellous indeed, and it is but one among a thousand of facts equally marvellous.

Another fact more marvellous still is this: that same tongue which makes it possible to grind our food, by keeping it between our grinders, makes it possible also to taste and enjoy that food. How it does this we cannot now inquire. We all know that it does, and in this surely we may see the evidence not only of design, but also of goodness. In plain English, we see here the evidence of God.

But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I am getting ahead of my reader’s faith also. Perhaps his faith will allow him only to believe in those things which are supported by no evidence whatever (unless we admit the tooth of the pig). Perhaps his faith cannot rise so high as to believe in the existence of intelligent design and purpose, on the basis of known facts. Far be it from me to tax his faith. I will simply proceed to more facts, for we have scarcely scratched the surface as yet.

We have proceeded through the lips, past the biting teeth, between the cheeks and tongue, through the grinders, to the opening at the back. Now all of this ingenious structure would be of no worth whatever if the opening at the back simply dumped the food out the back of our heads. But no, the opening at the back (by chance or design) leads directly into a tube, which leads directly into a sack, filled with juices designed to digest that food.

But I see that I have slipped again, all unintentionally, and used that word “designed.” But who could resist? Who could believe anything else? Who could believe that those “digestive juices” come by chance to be in the stomach, or that they happen by chance to possess those properties which make them “digestive”? He who believes this must at any rate grant that in this case, as in a thousand others, chance has worked veritable miracles, and certainly done as well as design possibly could have.

Let the reader recall, we began with one tooth, precisely as the scientists have done in some notorious cases. From that one tooth we have proceeded, not with plaster of paris and imagination, not into the regions of unproved assertions, which have not one shred of evidence behind them, but entirely upon the ground of well known facts. Our contention is that the further we proceed along that road of facts, the more powerful becomes the conviction that all of this is the result of intelligent design. At length, as one solid fact is piled upon another, this conviction becomes so overwhelming that we are forced to cry out in absolute wonder, with a wise man of old times, “I am fearfully and wonderfully MADE.” (Psalm 139:14). Yes, “MADE,” by a wise and skillful MAKER, who proceeded on the basis of an intelligent design. But perhaps my reader has not yet come to that point. Perhaps his faith is so great that he is able to believe the impossibility that all of this marvellous design is the result of blind chance, rather than the probability that it is the work of an intelligent designer. About that I trouble myself but little, for we have scarcely begun to consider the evidence as yet. The whole array of facts, most of which are yet to come, may perhaps bring his great faith down to the level of reason, and compel him to believe in an intelligent Creator.

To proceed, then, the whole of this wonderful apparatus which we have described thus far would be entirely worthless, except for the presence of a vast network of blood vessels filling every part of it, and all of those blood vessels of course filled with blood—-blood to pick up the food broken down by the digestive system, and carry it away to the rest of the body. Now it so happens, as if by design, that such a system of blood vessels actually exists, many thousands of miles of them, extending to every cell in the body, carrying a constant supply of food to those cells, in order that they might live and work. This indeed is more marvellous than our hinged rows of teeth, but it is just as much a fact, and surely just as much an indication of design.

And here I must point out that I am forced by lack of space, and indeed by lack of ability, to very much simplify the entire system. I can state nothing more than its most prominent features. I must pass over hundreds of details, though as a matter of fact every one of those details would strengthen my case. For example, I have passed over already the fact that the long tube which leads from the mouth to the stomach is so designed and constructed, by means of various muscles, as to move the food from one end to the other, so that we may swallow standing up, sitting down, lying on our backs, lying on our stomachs, or standing on our heads. We may even drink water standing on our heads, if we can once get the water into our mouths. I also passed over the fact that the stomach itself leads into a long intestine, filled with the same sort of digestive juices, and so constructed as to keep the food moving along its length, meanwhile absorbing the good and useful, till at length the waste is deposited at the end, and held there by a circular muscle, over which we have conscious control. All the intervening process, I need hardly say, from the throat through the long intestine, is entirely independent of any conscious thought or action on our part, but continues just the same whether we think or not, and whether we wake or sleep. All this is most marvellous. Yet even this leaves many of the most interesting details untouched, and I can only beg the reader who knows something of the human anatomy to think concerning those details, and to say honestly whether they do not all point invariably in the direction of intelligent design, and an intelligent Designer.

But I must return to this intricate network of blood vessels. The Bible says “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11), and this is a fact. Cut off the blood supply from any part of the body, and that part will shortly die. Every cell in the body must have a continuous supply of blood, to carry away wastes and toxins, and to bring fresh supplies of food and oxygen. The food nicely digested in the stomach is of no use to the brain or the big toe, unless we have also a vast network of blood vessels to make the connections between them. Now it so happens (by chance or design) that just such a network of blood vessels actually exists—-50,000 miles of them—-extending to every cell in the body. Is it possible to honestly believe that all of this came about by chance?

But more marvellous things are yet to come. The cells of the body cannot live upon stagnant blood. Even this vast and intricate network of blood vessels would be of no worth whatever, if it did not both begin and end at a pump. And marvellous to relate, as chance or design would have it, that pump actually exists, pumping away night and day, “whether we wake or whether we sleep,” whether we think about it or not. Every cell in the body needs a constant supply of blood, and this pump is constantly pumping, 70 times a minute, 4000 times an hour, a hundred thousand times a day, thirty-five million times a year, and all this without a single conscious thought on our part.

But more. The living cells of your body need more than food. They must also have a constant supply of oxygen. The cells of your brain cannot live for more than a few minutes without it. But never fear, for the same heart that pumps your blood throughout your body is made up of several chambers and valves, which serve a marvellous purpose—-and this time I used the word on purpose. The blood which is returned to your heart is not sent immediately on its rounds again. No, it is first pumped to your lungs for a fresh supply of oxygen, then back to your heart the second time, and then on its rounds to the rest of your body. Without this additional step, your body could not live at all.

And observe, those lungs, which are absolutely necessary to put oxygen into your blood, just happen (by chance or design) to exist, and to be connected to the heart by blood vessels, and to be themselves riddled with tiny capillaries, by means of which the oxygen may pass into the blood, and the carbon dioxide pass out of the blood into the lungs, to be breathed out into the air.

All this is most marvellous, but observe, even all of this—-this whole digestive system, connected to this whole circulatory system—-would all be worthless, if these lungs were stationary. We must have another pump to work them, to draw the fresh air in, and pump the stale air out. And that pump just happens to exist—-as if Someone had put it there by design. This pump is simpler than the heart, but quite as marvellous in its own way. It works away day and night, whether we wake or whether we sleep, with or without any conscious thought on our part.

Now it is time to stop and survey the field. We have very briefly, and with very much oversimplification, looked at three bodily systems, the digestive, the circulatory, and the respiratory, and I am confident that one thing has been evident to all who will think. That thing is this, that every part is exactly in its place, performing its function, exactly as it was (most obviously) designed to be. This is not the work of chance. It is not the work of blind forces, but of infinite wisdom.

I cannot go on in detail. We have seen already that as we think our way through each bodily organ and system, at every step we are forced to conclude that, marvellous as these bodily systems are, they are all absolutely worthless unless they are connected to some further organ or system which will utilize or sustain them, and at every point we find that just what is required is actually there. No matter where we start in the system, the result will be just the same. Whether we begin with a tooth, or an eye lash, or an ear, and proceed as we have done, we shall find in every case that the whole is worthless unless all is present and operating. This marvellous system must have come into being all together and all at once. It could not have evolved. It was made. Every part of it displays the most exquisite design and purpose. The most wonderful parts of the system we have not so much as mentioned as yet, but we must proceed to mention a few of them, briefly.

The whole body is in constant danger from harmful bacteria. But when those harmful bacteria enter the body, the body actually makes antibodies—-and a distinct and different kind of antibody for every different kind of bacteria. Those antibodies exist for the sole purpose of destroying those harmful intruders—-and here I use the word “purpose” designedly, for who could doubt it? How does your body know when and how to make those antibodies? The fact is, your body “knows” nothing about it. This is the very wisdom of God, built into our bodies in a way that is absolutely inscrutable to us.

We likewise have a whole system of glands and organs in our bodies, which all work together to maintain a delicate chemical balance. Too much sugar in the blood stimulates one gland (in some inscrutable manner) to produce a substance which stimulates another organ to turn that sugar into starch. Too little sugar, and another gland is stimulated to produce the substance which will secure the turning of that starch back to sugar, and releasing it into the blood. Too little oxygen in the blood, and the heart increases its speed. Our blood flows through kidneys, which remove the toxins and impurities from it. There are literally hundreds of such operations going on in our bodies continuously, day and night, without a single conscious thought from us—-and all of those operations necessary for our continued existence. All of this so powerful a proof of design that we can only stand in awe and say, “I am fearfully and wonderfully MADE.”

But once more, and I have done. This body is marvellous in its construction if we consider only those glands, organs, and systems which work together to maintain our health and our life, but the body contains something far more wonderful than this. We have also a vast array of organs and systems which exist primarily for the purpose of our enjoyment. These are a greater proof than the other of the design of God. “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath MADE even both of them.” (Prov. 20:12). This is not only miraculous wisdom, but supreme goodness. The Lord has made the hearing ear, and the singing bird, the tasting tongue, and all the delicious fruits of the earth, the seeing eye, and all the thousands of flowers which fill the earth, the smelling nose, and the fragrance of all of those flowers. And to crown all, “Male and female, CREATED he them,” with all the delights of the physical and emotional relationship between them. Who but God could have designed all of this? I must say that anyone who is capable of believing that all of this came into being by chance has an uncanny ability to believe the miraculous, which he probably claims he cannot believe. With all the evidence of the human body before us, it is every way more reasonable to believe that God is the author of it all, than chance. With all of this before us, we can only humbly bow before our Maker, and affirm from the depth of our soul, “I am fearfully and wonderfully MADE.”

But with all of this evidence of design in our hands—-or rather in our whole bodies—-we are left with two questions: Why do men believe in evolution by chance? and indeed, how can they? The answers to those two questions are not difficult. The Bible provides them both. The plain fact is, if I am made, then I have a Maker, and if I have a Maker, then I am responsible to him. This man does not like. He does not choose to submit to the will of his Maker, and he therefore finds it very inconvenient to believe that he has a Maker. The Bible says, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19).

This still leaves us, however, with the second question. How can men believe in evolution? With a mountain of evidence for creation by design before their very eyes, in their own bodies—-and in this article we have scarcely scratched the surface of that mountain of evidence—-and with no evidence at all for evolution, every creature in the fossil records being perfect and complete in itself, every one of them replete with the evidence of design, with no three-legged or one-winged creatures among them, every one of them as fit to survive as those which have survived, with no “missing links” among them, and no evidence that any creature either has evolved or can evolve into another—-with such evidence before them, how can men believe in evolution? The Bible tells us that also. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:28)—-an unsound mind, which is ruled by passion, not reason. Once more, “…because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, … God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thes. 2:10-13). When men knew the truth, or might have known it, had they chosen to do so, they did not love the truth. God therefore gave them up to an unsound mind, to believe a lie—-to be willingly brainwashed by men who are determined to put God out of his own creation. One of those lies is evolution. Men do not believe this because it is true, or because there is any evidence to support it, but because it suits the state of their heart, which chooses to live in sin, rather than submit to the will of their Maker.

Glenn Conjurske