Our sense organs 45

Foreword
What would you expect from a book called The
Wonder of Man? In German the title is Faszination
Mensch. What fascinates you – what do you
see as wonderful? The work of some great
painter, a virtuoso singer or musician? Or perhaps
it is a sensational athletic achievement, or some
marvellous technological advance.
This book is concerned with the general question:
What is man? What is a human being? A science
writer gave the following answer:
“Man is a wonderful, inconceivably complex being.
Consider the facts: A chemical factory, an electrical
network, climate control, filtration plant – all
these controlled centrally by the brain, a thinking
computer with the additional ability of loving and
hating. Our organism keeps itself alive for several
decades, and through various control mechanisms,
operates almost without friction. We consist
of a hundred million million microscopic
parts, all of which are fantastically fine-tuned to,
and co-operatively integrated with, each other.
When healthy, these parts are continuously rejuvenated
and can even repair themselves.
“This entire marvellous body is kept in operation
by a fist-sized pump, the heart, which beats
100,000 times a day and transports nourishment
throughout the entire body by means of five
litres of blood. The volume of air passing through
our lungs during the course of a day is about
20,000 litres. This provides the necessary oxygen,
and the unwanted gases are exhaled at the same
time. The normal operating temperature is 37
degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, like everything
else, it is subject to wear and tear.
“The human body can be investigated with a
magnification factor of 200,000 by means of
electron microscopes, which enable us to observe
nearly all its deepest recesses.”
Some of the aspects mentioned above warrant
closer consideration. In this book we won‘t con-
8
cern ourselves with the body of some special
person of extraordinary ability and achievement,
but with the faculties we all have in common. We
will take a closer look at just some of the wonderful
and ingeniously planned details of the human
body. You will be amazed, to say the least, and
a little thought will lead you to some vitally
important conclusions.
Plan of this book: There are two main parts. In the
first, many amazing details of the human body
are presented, showing that we are wonderfully
made. This automatically leads to the question:
Whose plans and ideas are incorporated in this
wonderful construction; who made us?
There are essentially only two possible answers:
Either I am the result of blind physical and chemical
processes planned by nobody, or I was made
by an incredibly brilliant Creator. A closer look at
the human body can help us to come to the
appropriate conclusion.
The many numbers given in the first part for various
values require a note of clarification: Textbooks
and scientific articles often give divergent
values for these. This is firstly because there is so
much variation between individuals. Also, because
many of the numbers are so large (e.g. the number
of cells in the body), they can only be estimated
or calculated indirectly. So it is not surprising
that the numbers vary from source to
source.
In the second part of the book we discuss questions
about the essence of man: Why are we like
we are? Why do we behave as we do? Why has
no ideology succeeded in improving man? What
is our future? Is death the end of everything? Is
there an eternity? If so – what can we expect?