Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - VISION

                                                                              

                         

                                    VISION*

It states in Psalms that:

Marvellous are Your works…

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

(Psalm 139:14)

It should go without saying that no one really understood just how true those words were at the time they were written. The complexities of organisms and life itself are even now not completely recognized or understood. And each new discovery just makes it that much more difficult to accept that all that we see and experience could have come about by a series of random accidents.

This is probably no where more evident than in that sense we refer to as sight. We tend to take our vision somewhat for granted until something starts to change and then we may appreciate just what an amazing ability it is and how complex is the system behind our sight. The lens that can adjust almost instantly from near to far vision and can see wide-angle to straight ahead, and the iris that can adjust the pupil from low to bright light all through small muscle activity. All of this to focus the light on the retina; made up of about seven million cone cells for different colour perception, about 125 million rod cells for light adaptation, and over 1.2 million nerve cells to organize the data.

This information, which comes into the eye and interacts with the retina, sets up as many as 20 different chemical reactions. These reactions occur as fast as 30 millionths of a billionth of a second**, becoming electrical impulses which in turn are conducted along the optic nerve pathway to the brain where the electrical impulses are reconverted into visual images that we recognize as sight. All of this occurs continuously, as long as we are awake for every particle of light that hits the retina.

The process of vision is much more complicated that one might think, and certainly more complex than would ever be expected to develop by mere chance. It certainly fulfils the Biblical statement:

Marvellous are your works…

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

(Psalm 139:14)

And this is only one example from a system so complex that, overall, it defies explanation other than it was designed by a Master designer. It’s further evidence, as Paul states, that:

…since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, 

being understood by the things that are made, 

even His eternal power and Godhead… 

(Romans 1:20)

But even with all this and more, many still do not want to recognize and acknowledge what should be obvious - that we are not in control of this universe. As Jonathan Swift stated:

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.***

Or as Jeremiah put it:

Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding,

Who have eyes and see not,

And who have ears and hear not…

(5:21)

So, do we recognize that we are indeed wonderfully made or do we see the world without really seeing it?

It is something to think about.  

*Adapted in part from the chapter on Vision from What Darwin Didn’t Know by Geoffrey Simmons. M.D.

**from Spotlight on Oliver Ernst, Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada

***In “Polite Conversation” by Jonathan Swift 1738