claimregarding "vestigial organs." Evolutionists claim that some
organs in living things lose their original function over time, and
that such organs then disappear. Taking that as a starting point, they
then try to send out the message, "If the living body had really been
created, it would have no functionless organs in it."
Evolutionist publications at the start of the twentieth century
announced that the human bodycontained up to a hundred organs that no
longer served any purpose, including the appendix, the coccyx, the
tonsils, the pineal gland, the external ear, the thymus, and wisdom
teeth. However, the decades that followed saw major advances in
medical science. Our knowledge of the organs and systems in the human
body increased. As a result of this, it was seen that the idea of
vestigial organs was just a superstition. The long list drawn up by
evolutionists rapidly shrank. It was discoveredthat the thymus is an
organ which produces important immune system cells, and that the
pineal gland is responsible for the production of important hormones.
It also emerged that the coccyx supports the bones around the pelvis,
and that the external ear plays an important role in identifying where
sounds come from. In short, it emerged that ignorance was the only
foundation on which the idea of "vestigial organs" rested.
Wisdom tooth problems stem from the contemporary diet, notbecause they
are vestigial organsModern science has many times demonstrated the
error of the concept of such organs. Yet some evolutionists still try
to make use of this claim. Althoughmedical science has proved that
almost all of the organs that evolutionists claim are vestigial
actually serve a purpose, evolutionary speculation still surrounds one
or two organs.
The most noteworthy of these isour wisdom teeth. The claim that these
teeth are a part of thehuman body that has lost all purpose still
appears in evolutionist sources. As evidencefor this, it is stated
that these teeth give a great many people alot of trouble, and that
chewing is not impaired when they are surgically removed.
Many dentists, influenced by the evolutionists' claim that wisdomteeth
serve no purpose, have come to see their extraction as aroutine
matter, and do not make the same kind of effort to protect them as
they do for other teeth.53 However, research in recent years has shown
that wisdom teeth have the same chewing function as other teeth.
Studies have also been carried out to show that the belief that wisdom
teeth damage the position of other teeth in the mouth is
completelyunfounded.54 Scientific criticism is now amassing ways in
which problems with wisdom teeth which could be solved in other ways
are instead solved by extracting them.55 In fact, the scientific
consensus is that wisdom teeth have a chewing function just like all
the others, and that there is no scientific justification for the
belief that they serve no purpose.
So, why do wisdom teeth cause a substantial number of people problems?
Scientists who have researched the subject have discovered that wisdom
tooth difficulties have manifested themselves in different ways among
human communities at different times. It is now understood that the
problem was seldom seen in pre-industrial societies. It has been
discovered that the way in which soft foodstuffs have cometo be
preferred to harder ones, over the last few hundred years in
particular, has negatively affected the way the human jaw develops. It
has thus been realised that most wisdom tooth troubles emerge as a
result of jaw development problems relating to dietary habits.
It is also known that society's nutritional habits also have negative
effects on our other teeth. For instance, the increasing consumption
of foodstuffs high in sugar and acidhas increased the rate that
otherteeth decay. However, that fact does not make us think that all
our teeth have somehow "atrophied." The same principle applies to
wisdom teeth. Problems with these teeth stem from contemporary dietary
customs, not from any evolutionary "atrophy."
1. Leonard M.S., 1992. Removing third molars: a review for the general
practitioner. Journal of the American Dental Association,123(2):77-82
2. M. Leff, 1993. Hold on to your wisdom teeth. Consumer reports on
Health, 5(8):4-85.
3. Daily.T 1996. Third molar prophylactic extraction: a reviewand
analysis of the literature. General Dentistry, 44(4):310-320
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