Our sense organs 45

– a distorted image
evolutionary thought. It concerns the difficulties
of human birth. Josef H. Reichholf discusses this
in an article “Difficult birth for humans – easy in
the case of animals” (in the German magazine
Natur, July 1989, p 57 - 59). He describes the
birth process in the case of some mammals
under the heading “Privilege of the animals: Birth
without pain”.
1 Giraffe: “The newborn calf falls from a height
of more than two metres. But the entire birth
proceeds with very little drama, in relaxed and
tranquil fashion.”
2 Gnu: “The heavily pregnant cow moves along
with the herd, only drawing apart just before giving
birth to a large, well-developed calf, without
haste or complaint. She licks the calf dry, massages
him, and helps the gangly newborn gnu
onto his feet as necessary. From then on, he can
manage on his own. The actual birth takes only a
few minutes, but even this can be too long should
danger threaten. Then the cow simply interrupts
the birth process and runs along, with the calf
already protruding, until it can emerge in safety.”
3 Seals: “On the other side of the earth, the normally
slender female seals, their bodies now distended,
waddle clumsily over the lava rocks onto
the beaches of the Galápagos islands. There, during
the weeks before Christmas, they await the
birth of their pups. Seals also give birth rapidly,
which might be expected in view of the ease with
which the streamlined body of the newborn overcomes
the narrowness of the birth canal. The
process is smooth and precise; only a matter of a
few seconds, involving neither pain nor difficulty.”
After considering other animals as well, Reichholf
concludes: “Wherever we observe the birth of
mammals, it seems to be relatively effortless and
appropriate to their way of life.” Then he comes
to human beings:
“Only man doesn’t fit this pattern. Usually only
one baby is born, and it involves a lot of pain.
And worse still – without assistance, the motherto-be
is practically helpless, especially if it is her
first child.” Then Reichholf again asks the question
as to the “why” of the difficulty of human
birth. He answers as follows:
“Why is it so hard for humans, of all creatures, to
come into the world? This end-product of evolution
regards itself as the crown of creation. Yet
one has the impression that something must
have gone wrong, something important, during
man’s descent. This is the logical conclusion from
comparison to the other higher mammals.”
Reichholf’s observations are perfectly correct, but
his conclusion is erroneous. Nature never
explains itself. We thus require an external source
of information. And the moral of the above is:
Without the Bible, we are left to grope in the
dark as far as most aspects of life are concerned.
No biologist or gynaecologist can really explain
why human childbirth is so difficult and painful.
It is a direct consequence of man’s sin. In the
original creation painless birth was provided. But
after they had sinned, God told Eve: “I will greatly
increase your pains in childbearing; with pain
you will give birth to children” (Gen 3:16).
The real damage caused by the theory of evolution
is not so much that, seen through those
glasses, many facts concerning life and nature
cannot be explained satisfactorily. The real harm
is that it is associated with a rejection or distortion
of the Bible. Paul’s assertion that he believes
everything that is written (Acts 24:14), is also
very important for us, as will become clear in
subsequent chapters where the question of our
salvation is discussed.
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