definition:  “The standard definition of ‘vestigial’ is an organ that once was useful in an animal’s evolutionary past, but that now is useless or very close to useless. The list of vestigial organs in humans has shrunk from 180 in 1890 to 0 in 1999. Evidently to salvage this once-critical support for evolution, a new revisionistic definition of a vestigial structure is now sometimes used. This definition involves the idea that a vestigial organ is any part of an organism that has diminished in size during its evolution because the function it served decreased in importance or became totally unnecessary. This definition is problematic because it is vague and would allow almost every structure in humans to be labelled as vestigial.”

Lots of debate on this, but I guess I have to say that we do have a few and so do other animals.  At the conclusion of the article:

“Evolutionists never have explained how and why so many structures could exist in humans (like the complex structures that enable music, song and dance) that confirm no survival advantage yet delight millions. Only creation can explain this observation. The clear conclusion is that the concept of evolutionary vestigial organs is useless, or largely speculative, and certainly is not good science.”

I do not think that organs that allow for song, dance and creativity like voice, limbs etc.  are useless nor diminished by the definition of vestigial, but I am also assuming these folks are referring to an ‘organ’ called ‘imagination’ which would allow for sound and limb movement to be delightful…..but ‘imagination’ isn’t an organ so far as I know but rather part of the workings of the brain which IS a viable organ (in most of us) and which would not be vestigial.  I think I may have just muddied up what I am trying to say. 

Oh, I do NOT think eyelashes are vestigial either, they catch snowflakes and other flying stuff!!!

Anyway, how many USELESS organs do you have or THINK you have? 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v14/i2/vestigial.asp

Let’s see, since I’ve gotten a midi keyboard, I NEVER use that Wurlitzer anymore.

I like to think my coccyx isn’t useless.

Hehheh, I can wiggle my ears, thats not useless is it?

I have this little nipple a few inches under the right regular one.  It looks like it would fit Barbie.

The dermatologist says there’s an actual miniature breast under there.

I guess what I lack in size, I make up for in quantittie.

Bebelicious - 12 March 2007 01:55 PM

I guess what I lack in size, I make up for in quantittie.

Bebelicious - 12 March 2007 01:55 PM

I have this little nipple a few inches under the right regular one.  It looks like it would fit Barbie.

The dermatologist says there’s an actual miniature breast under there.

I guess what I lack in size, I make up for in quantittie.

I knew of a woman who had the same except in her armpit. She actually lactated from it when she had her baby. It freaked her right out, because before then, she thought it was a mole.

Hey Mad, that happened to my sister too and I’d never heard of it before!  I’m GLAD you posted that little ditty!!!

My Mom had to have what they thought was a tumor removed (she was in Germany at the time).  It was located in and around her large and small intestines.  The surgeons had a time doing this because it appeared to be an actual-trying-to work organ similar in some ways to the intestines, but then very different in appearance and in whatever it was trying to do. 

They preserved it for study but I have no idea what the outcome of that was.

I agree that eyelashes aren’t useless. Don’t they keep stuff out of your eyes? Either way, there’s always batting your eyelashes to get what you want, that’s pretty useful. Plus, you wish on them!

Since when have tonsils or eyebrows been useless either? They both perform very important functions. If you didn’t have eyebrows every time you sweat you would be blinded by salty fluid running into your eyes from your fore-head, and tonsils help stop infections going down into your trachea and lungs. The Pineal gland it seems also has a function:

“The pineal gland was originally believed to be a “vestigial remnant” of a larger organ (much as the appendix was thought to be a vestigial digestive organ). It was only after the 1960s that scientists discovered that the pineal gland is responsible for the production of melatonin, which is regulated in a circadian rhythm. Melatonin is a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan, which also has other functions in the Central Nervous System. The production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light. The retina detects the light, and directly signals and entrains the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Fibers project from the SCN to the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), which relay the circadian signals to the spinal cord and out via the sympathetic system to superior cervical ganglia (SCG), and from there into the pineal gland.”

So there. *rasp*

You tell ‘em Mort!

Dracul - 12 March 2007 03:03 PM

Either way, there’s always batting your eyelashes to get what you want, that’s pretty useful.

Egad, girls learn their tricky and nefarious wiles at an early age!!!