Intelligent Design part 1

This is the first in a series of short examples of intelligent design in living things as apposed to Darwinism which is a secular religion posing as science. These examples are from the book

"Billions of Missing Links"
(A rational look at the mysteries
evolution can't explain)

by Geoffrey Simmons, M.D.

As one commentator on Amazon put it, this book is "Written for a popular audience" and "offers a whirlwind tour through the natural world and its many wonders".

The first example of intelligent design is the birth process of a human baby:

At a very precise moment nine months after conception, a hormone leaves the unborn child's brain. It travels across the placenta, enters the maternal circulation, and makes its way to the mother's pituitary gland. Although this hormone is a very complicated and convoluted chemical, its message is quite simple: I'm ready, start the delivery process. My lungs have matured enough to breathe on their own, my heart is strong enough to assume control, my gastrointestinal tract is prepared to process food, and my brain is eager to start learning about the world. My ten trillion cells are poised to work together. It's the unborn child, not the mother, who makes this decision. Then, the mother and child orchestrate the journey together.

This is not a spontaneous event. The mother's body began preparations the instant the sperm entered a selected egg. One might even argue that her body began preparing at puberty or even at the time of her birth. Her uterus, now enormously stretched to accommodate the growing fetus, is ready to squeeze down and push. The baby's head has been shifted downward with its arms at its sides and legs tucked in so that it can more easily pass through the birth canal. Only 3.5% of human babies present feet first or breech.

The mother's breasts are engorged with food. Endorphins are flowing to help with the discomfort; hormones are giving her strong maternal instincts. Her vagina has secreted a special glycogen to prevent infection. A connection between the pelvic bones loosens to help the bony portion of the canal expand. Every maternal instinct has been primed. Every system is focused on success. At first, the contractions come slowly, as if the uterus were warming up, but they quickly crescendo to more frequent and forceful squeezes. A myriad of different chemicals and hormones prompt and support every action as billions of muscle cells work in unison to break the bag of waters, dilate the opening in the cervix, and deliver the child.

Every aspect of the the process is well-coordinated, prearranged, rehearsed for millennia, and designed to bring a new life into being. Even the seams in the baby's skull bones have not yet fused, so that its unusually large head will be pliable enough to make it through. As the process unfolds, the adrenal glands add a blast of stress hormones to help the infant cope.

The newborn child will not breathe until it has cleared the birth canal. Anything sooner would lead to certain suffocation. It also will not wait too long. Rising carbon dioxide levels and falling oxygen concentrations will prompt the first breath, or there could easily be permanent brain damage.

Moments before the mother and child completely disconnect, the newborn receives a last-minute transfusion from the umbilical cord. The placenta, which has been purposefully storing nutrients for this moment, infuses extra nourishment. There is evidence that the fetus sends some of its own stem cells into the mothers bloodstream. These newly discovered micro chimera stem cells seem to be purposefully left behind to help maintain the mother’s good health. The child's survival might depend on it.

Every step is pre-programmed. As the newborn takes its first breath, two tiny flaps inside its heart automatically close off a hole between the right side and left side of that organ, which then routes unoxygenated blood to the newly functioning lungs. A large blood vessel that connects the aorta to the lungs also automatically seals off. The artery in the umbilical cord shifts to servicing the new bladder. The placenta detaches on cue and follows the baby out. If it were to precede the child or detach prematurely, the consequences could be disastrous. Soon, the baby's remnant of the umbilical cord dries up and falls away.

The baby arrives with a vernix coating to protect its skin. It also comes with a natural sucking reflex, and mother's first milk is purposefully loaded with all the right nutrients, minerals, vitamins, and a host of required antibodies. The newborn easily fits into the crook of its mother's arm, where the breast and nipple are strategically situated. It instinctively knows how to nurse - plus, it has a unique but temporary hump of high-caloric brown fat in its back, just in case. Lactation causes the secretion of natural contraceptive hormones that will suppress the mother's menstrual cycle. No need for a second baby to compete for mother's milk and threaten its survival.

The is whole process is beyond complexity. It is an evolutionary impossibility, which could never have come about by trial and error, survival of the fittest or a series of "lucky" mutations. If any of these steps were to fail to occur or not follow the right order, the human race would never have existed. They are an all-or-nothing phenomenon. The best explanation, the only rational explanation, is intelligent design.