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Immune Systems Are Complex and Intelligently Designed

by Owen Borville
​July 18, 2020
​Biology
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The immune system has been described as irreducibly complex and intelligently designed, and could not be the product of millions of years of evolution. The immune system in humans and animals protects the body from harmful substances, harmful pathogens such as germs, bacteria, parasites, viruses, and cell changes that could cause illness and is made up of various organs, cells and proteins. The immune system is made up of a large network of cells, organs, proteins, and tissues to identify and fight these pathogens. Harmful cells that grow inside the body are also identified and fought by the immune system.

If the immune system stops working properly because it’s weak or can't it fight particularly aggressive germs, illness will result. Germs that the body has never encountered before are also likely to cause illness, however, some germs will only cause illness the first time they come in contact with the body. If living things had to evolve an immune system over millions of years, living things could not live long enough to reproduce before death. The immune system must have been set up and created properly from the beginning, as in a mature state.

Without an immune system, there would be no way to fight harmful things that enter the body from the outside or harmful changes that occur inside the body. The main tasks of the body’s immune system are to fight disease-causing germs (pathogens) like bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi, and to remove them from the body, to recognize and neutralize harmful substances from the environment, and to fight disease-causing changes in the body, such as cancer cells.

Activation of the Immune System

The immune system can be activated when encountering foreign bio-materials that the body's immune system doesn’t recognize as its own. These are called antigens. Examples of antigens include the proteins on the surfaces of bacteria, fungi and viruses, toxins, and other foreign substances. When these antigens attach to special receptors on the immune cells (immune system cells), a whole series of processes are triggered in the body. Once the body has come into contact with a disease-causing germ for the first time, it usually stores information about the germ and how to fight it. Then, if it comes into contact with the germ again, it recognizes the germ straight away and can start fighting it faster. Therefore, the immune system is Intelligently Designed.

Innate and Adaptive Immune Systems

There are two sub-systems within the immune system, known as the innate (or non-specific) immune system and the adaptive (or specific) immune system. Both of these subsystems are closely linked and work together whenever a germ or harmful substance triggers an immune response.

The innate immune system provides a general defense against harmful germs and substances, so it’s also called the non-specific immune system. It mostly fights using immune cells such as natural killer cells and phagocytes (“eating cells”). The main job of the innate immune system is to fight harmful substances and germs that enter the body, for instance through the skin or digestive system.

The adaptive (specific) immune system makes antibodies and uses them to specifically fight certain germs that the body has previously come into contact with. This is also known as an “acquired” (learned) or specific immune response. Because the adaptive immune system is constantly learning and adapting, the body can also fight bacteria or viruses that change over time. Specific pathogens can be recognized and remembered in order to heal and protect the body. Therefore, this adaptive nature of the immune system is described as Intelligently Designed and Irreducibly Complex, because it could not have evolved from random chance evolution.

White blood cells, also called leukocytes, exist throughout the body in the blood vessels and are designed to fight pathogens. White blood cells are also found in the thymus gland, the spleen that filters the blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, which are small glands found throughout the body. White blood cells surround and absorb pathogens by breaking them down, including bacteria and remove dead and dying cells, while some white blood cells help to heal wounds. White blood cells produce antibodies (special proteins that fight antigens) and help alert other white blood cells to attack and destroy harmful cells in the body. Antibodies are found in glands near the nasal passage, bone marrow, lymph nodes, lymphatic vessels throughout the body, tissue in the small intestine, spleen in the abdomen, the trachea, and tonsils.

The immune system and white blood cells are developed enough to identify harmful cells and organisms and to distinguish between good and healthy cells that are part of the body. The white blood cells know not to attack healthy cells that are part of the body. Therefore, this is part of the Intelligent Design.

Was the immune system present at the beginning of Creation? This is the likely answer as Adam and Eve would not have needed an immune system in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. The immune system was installed at the creation week and after the Fall, when Adam and Eve needed an immune system, this immune system would have been activated, both the innate system and the adaptive system to help identify and destroy pathogens, including recurring ones.

Many forms of bacteria are good and healthy, and these were likely present at the beginning of creation before the Fall. These good bacteria and pathogens actually improve health and are not harmful. The disease-causing bacteria were likely introduced after the Fall and humans needed an immune system at that time.

Different immune systems exist among humans and animal varieties. Some immune systems in animals, such as marine organisms, are described as simpler than human immune systems. However, this does not mean that human immune systems evolved from simpler animal systems, but that each immune system within each animal variety is different and suitable for each unique environment. Many animals have strong immune systems and their immune system was created and intelligently designed to give each animal the protection they need in their environment. Reptiles live very long lives, even longer than humans and must have very strong immune systems.
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  • HOME
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