The other day I had a conversation with a young boy. The boy was explaining to me that he couldn’t move his baby toe independently of the other toes. He was proud of the fact that he could move his big toe — but his baby toe seemed useless to him. He asked what the purpose of the baby toe was.
That got me thinking.
What is the purpose of the baby toe? Is it a hold-over from a previous version of homosapiens? Will the evoluntionary process eventually mean that we become a four-toe species?
The toes, all five of them, are intrinsic to our ability to ballance while standing and especially while running. This is truest to those who have lost toes. Though incapable of independent motion the baby toe does have muscles. There is not a lot in our bodies that is actually superfluous. Evolution doesn’t leave behind much in the way of extra parts.
Evolution doesn’t leave behind much in the way of extra parts? What about tonsils, appendix, a kidney, spleen, a lung, a testicle, a breast, etc.
Tonsils are a part of the lymphatic system and play a rather important part in our immune system. Scientists are finding more and more that the appendix is not so useless as once thought (http://goo.gl/n3V3ng). Also, I assume you mean an extra kidney, spleen, etc. Otherwise, those are vital organs. Such cases are very rare and usually the result of an error in copying or reading of genetic information.
All of the items I mentioned above are spare parts, not needed to live. You can lead a perfectly normal life without any or all of them.
OK, then what’s your point?
Read my first post if you want to know my point! Duh!
Um, everything you mentioned is important to some degree to the health of the human organism. We may be able to live without them but we are better off with them, and I certainly wouldn’t call them “spare parts”. There may be left overs of evolution, I never said there weren’t any at all, but none of the things you’ve mentioned are.