The Uniqueness of the Human Body. Don’t Copy Pagan Ways of Worship. Heart Disease Starts in Childhood.

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The Uniqueness of the Human Body

“Many believe that life on earth arose by chance, with human beings as merely more-evolved apes. But the evidence in our makeup says otherwise—pointing to human beings as a special creation.

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“In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” —Sir Isaac Newton

King David once described his own human body as being “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Although it’s now common for biology textbooks to consider people as simply animals, many features make the human body unique.

Let’s look at five of these singular differences.

The astounding geometric proportions of the human body

Consider, for instance, the geometric symmetry of the human body. Leonardo da Vinci, the great artist, inventor and mathematician, made a famous drawing of it.

It’s called the “Vitruvian Man”, in which Leonardo drew a man’s figure with arms and legs extended. He found it fit perfectly into both a square and a circle, the span of the arms being approximately the same as the man’s height.

In addition, when the legs were measured, they were approximately half the man’s height, and his navel was located at the center of the circle. Could all of this precise symmetry have been a result of chance? Or doesn’t it show how truly carefully designed and proportioned the human body was made?

As David went on to say, “You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something” (Psalm 139:15, The Passion Translation, emphasis added).

The erectness of the human skeleton

We tend to take for granted how easily we can stand straight and walk erectly on two legs. Yet there is a uniqueness to how the human body can effortlessly balance itself while walking or running.

Some believe apes and human beings have similar gaits, but they don’t. People are designed to walk upright, while apes were created to live mainly in and among trees, being able to grasp branches with all four limbs. That’s why humans are classified as bipeds (walking on two feet), while apes and monkeys are classified as quadrupeds (walking on four limbs). Apes and monkeys also are ungainly when they walk on two feet, while human beings can gracefully walk erect or speedily run long distances.

Why is there such a difference? Human beings have several anatomical components that are unique. Three of these are the backbone, with its three curves to reduce the load level of the body, the upright knee and the hip joint. Also, the neck and skull joints allow people to carry their heads erect and to face forward without great effort. Lastly, the human foot has a special arch that’s not found in other creatures. It allows one to push either from the front or the back of the foot, giving it tremendous power and balance to lift, jump, twist or run.

Again we have the testimony of Leonardo da Vinci, who knew human anatomy so well. He wrote in his notebooks, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Stuart Burgess, who taught engineering design at leading United Kingdom universities, states: “Creationists believe that the upright human skeleton could not have evolved step by step from a four-limbed creature because many features are required simultaneously. If an ape-like creature had only some of the features required for an upright stature, it would not be able to move properly on either two or four limbs” (In God’s Image: The Divine Origins of Humans, 2008, p. 7).

The skillful abilities of the human hand

In contrast to an ape’s hand, the human hand has a long and fully opposable thumb, where each finger can make direct contact with the tip of the thumb. This allows for carefully grasping objects, like holding a pen for writing, having a delicate touch for typing, playing the piano or performing surgery. Apes don’t have these abilities since their fingers are curved for gripping tree branches.

Furthermore, human fingers have a wider range of motion and can swivel in many angles, allowing them to sculpt fine works of art and participate in many types of sports where balls can be thrown, caught or hit with great precision.

It was another genius like Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, who is quoted as saying, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence” (Charles Dickens’ literary magazine All the Year Round, 1864, Vol. 10, p. 346).

Remarkable human speech and language

There are numerous features of human anatomy that permit people to speak, laugh and sing that apes and monkeys don’t have.

First, human beings have long and deep throats that are essential for producing varied speech and act like a wind instrument. Apes and monkeys, on the other hand, have shallow throats that hinder precise articulation. Our vocal cords are also unique, with some 100 muscles involved overall in the fine-tuning of the voice.

Next are human lips and tongues, which are likewise unique. The lips have the ability to tighten or loosen their muscles to enunciate short or long syllables and act like an adjustable valve of a trumpet. The versatile tongue can fine-tune the articulation of sounds by varying the amount of air coming from the lungs. It does it so rapidly that it can produce up to 90 words per minute!

As Professor Burgess brings out: “Humans have the unique ability to communicate through intricate language. There are approximately 5,000 different languages currently used around the world. Each of these languages involves intricate sounds, sophisticated grammar and a large number of words . . . The ability to speak and sing is just what would be expected if humans had been created, but is not what would be expected if humans had evolved from an ape-like creature” (p. 13).

God, in fact, once stated in regard to speaking, “Who has made man’s mouth? . . . Have not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11).

Our supercomputer brain

“The human brain,” Burgess further notes, “is the most intricately designed structure known to man. The capacity of the human brain is astounding. The brain receives millions of pieces of information every second from sensors around the body” (p. 19).

How does the brain do it?

Inside our heads we have, on average, 86 billion neurons—up to three times more neurons than those of apes. Each neuron can have up to 10,000 signal-connecting gaps called synapses, meaning the brain has some 860 trillion neural connections. It needs all these connections to manage the multiple tasks the human body needs to operate and remain healthy.

We are also endowed with consciousness or sentience, the capacity for abstract thinking, self-awareness and human emotions. The Bible reveals we have a spiritual component to our existence that imparts our marvelous ability to reason to our brains. As Job 32:8 says, “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding” (compare 1 Corinthians 2:11).

The human spirit and brain together form the human mind. This gift from God has enabled people to, for example, compose music, build architectural masterpieces, write books and explore the moon. No other physical creature has the capacity to do any of these things.

Created for a higher purpose

Our human mind shows we were created for a purpose beyond just surviving here on earth. We were made to communicate with not only our fellow man, but also with our Creator God. This comes through the spiritual element in our existence, although many seek to deny it.

As is stated in Genesis 1, God created the various animals each “according to its kind” (verse 25). But then He said: “Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (verses 26-27, emphasis added).

Here is the reason for the uniqueness of humanity. We are not made in accordance with the various animal kinds, but according to the “God” kind—that is, in His image, although initially created at a physical and much lower level (Hebrews 2:6-8).

Mindful of all this, may we all join with David in concluding with the words of Psalm 100:3: “Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-magazine/the-uniqueness-of-the-human-body

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Don’t Copy Pagan Ways of Worship

Deuteronomy 12:29-32

“When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

God knew the traps that Satan lays with alluring ways of worship. He warned His people not to neglect His clear instructions about how He wants to be worshipped. He tells us to never assume that He would like to be worshipped in the way those who worship other gods worship them.

Yet Israel continually fell into this trap, creating a syncretistic religion that combined some elements of biblical commands with the religious customs of the people around them.

Looking at the history of Christianity, it becomes evident that a similar process took place, as pre-Christian customs and celebrations were accepted by much of Christianity, though rejected by those who remained faithful to the teachings of the apostles and prophets.”

For more about how pagan holidays began to eclipse God’s true and meaningful holy days, see From Holidays to Holy Days: God’s Plan for You.”  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/dont-copy-pagan-ways-of-worship/?

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Heart Disease Starts in Childhood

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/heart-disease-starts-in-childhood/

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“By age 10, nearly all kids have fatty streaks in their arteries. This is the first sign of atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death in the United States. So the question for most of us is not whether we should eat healthy to prevent heart disease, but whether we want to reverse the heart disease we may already have.

It was this landmark article, published in 1953, that radically changed our view about the development of heart disease forever. A series of 300 autopsies performed on U.S. battle casualties of the Korean War, average age 22. 22 years old, but 77% of their hearts had “gross evidence”—meaning visible-to-the-eye evidence—of coronary atherosclerosis, hardening of their arteries. Some of them had vessels that were clogged off 90% or more.

As an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, “This widely cited publication dramatically showed that atherosclerotic changes appear in the coronary arteries years and decades before the age at which coronary heart disease…becomes a clinically recognized problem”—before symptoms arise. Follow-up studies on the hearts of thousands more soldiers over the subsequent years confirmed their results.

How young does it go? Fatty streaks, the first stage of atherosclerosis [were] found in the arteries of 100% of kids by age ten. What’s accounting for this buildup of plaque, even in childhood? In the 80s, we got our first clue, with the now-famous Bogalusa heart study, looking at autopsies of those dying between the ages of 3 years old to age 26, and the #1 risk factor was cholesterol.

You could see the stepwise increase in the amount of their arteries covered in fatty streaks as the level of bad cholesterol in the blood increased. As powerful as this was, this was only looking at 30 kids. So, they decided to study three thousand—3,000 accidental death victims, ages 15 through 34.

After thousands of autopsies, there were able to produce a scoring system, able to predict advanced atherosclerotic lesions in the coronary arteries of young people. The higher your score, the higher the likelihood you have these lesions growing in your heart.

So, if you’re in your teens, twenties, early thirties, and you smoke, your risk goes up a point. If you have high blood pressure at such a young age, that’s four points. If you’re an obese male; six points. But, high cholesterol was the worst. If your non-HDL cholesterol (meaning your total cholesterol minus your good cholesterol) is above, like, 220, that’s like eight times worse than smoking.

So, let’s say you’re a young woman with relatively high cholesterol, but you don’t smoke, you’re not overweight, your blood pressure and blood sugars are fine. At your sweet sixteen, there’s just a few percent chance you already have an advanced atherosclerotic lesion in your heart. But, if you don’t improve your diet, by your 30th birthday, there may be like a one in five chance you have some serious heart disease. And, if you have really high cholesterol, it could be closer to one in three.

Bringing your cholesterol down to even just that of a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and you’re down to here. And, if you exercise to boost your HDL, you can extrapolate down a little further. So, what this shows us is that: “Even in 15- to 19-year-olds, atherosclerosis has begun in a substantial number of individuals, and this observation suggests beginning primary prevention at least by the late teenage years, to ameliorate every stage of atherosclerosis and to prevent or retard progression to more advanced lesions.”

You start kids out on a low-saturated fat diet, and you may see a significant improvement in their arterial function by 11 years old. “Exposure to high serum cholesterol concentration [even] in childhood may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis. Consequently, the long-term prevention of atherosclerosis might be most effective when initiated early in life”—as in seven months of age.

“Atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] begins in childhood…” Remember, by age 10, nearly all kids have fatty streaks, the first stage of the disease. Then, the plaques start forming in our 20s, get worse in our 30s, and then can start killing us off. In our hearts, it’s a heart attack. In our brains, it’s a stroke. In our extremities, it can mean gangrene. In our aorta, an aneurism.

If there is anyone watching this video that is older than ten years of age, the choice likely isn’t whether or not to eat healthy to prevent heart disease; it’s whether or not you want to reverse the heart disease you already have.

Ornish and Esselstyn proved you can reverse heart disease with a plant-based diet. But we don’t have to wait until our first heart attack to reverse the clogging of our arteries. We can start reversing our heart disease right now. We can start reversing heart disease in our kids, tonight.”  From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/heart-disease-starts-in-childhood/

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