Why Human Skeletal Joints Are Masterpieces of Engineering
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- One of Britain's top mechanical engineers, Stuart Burgess explains how the skeletal joints in the human body are masterpieces of intelligent design. He also responds to claims by some that human joints are badly designed.
This presentation was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, which was jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Westminster Theological Seminary.
Dr Stuart Burgess has held academic posts at Bristol University (UK), Cambridge University (UK), and Liberty University (USA). He has published over 180 scientific publications on the science of design in engineering and biology. In the last two Olympics he was the lead transmission designer for the British Olympic Cycling Team, helping them on both occasions to be ranked in first place for track cycling. For the last two decades his gearboxes have been used successfully on all the large earth-observation satellites of the European Space Agency. He has received many national and international awards for design, including from the Minister of State for Trade and Industry in the UK. In 2019 he was given the top mechanical engineer award in the UK out of 120,000 professional mechanical engineers.
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I Love this man. Currently working on design as well. Engineers will never believe that the Human body evolved. Evolution makes no sense at all in explaining designs...
And engineers who look into machine learning know that evolutionarily processes require a high level of finetuning to work.
Imagine throwing some chemicals together and for some reason they build with highly instable processes the most advanced self learning process that no human created one comes even close. Even for the simple things we currently use we have to tune and adjust the algorithms for each specific application. But the one built on organic chemistry is somehow succeeding on the first try and is very flexible to all situations in the most hazardous environments.
I don't claim evolution is true. It seems unlikely to me. But even if it is true, it would be just as much of a miracle, if not more so.
Absolutely love this seminar! Not only does he make it simple to understand but in a brief time shows you how wonderfully designed we are
Absolutely! An expertly delivered lecture.
The intricacy and complexity of the human body is truly awe-inspiring, but one could also fill a seminar of this length with the design flaws in our body.
@@shankz8854
Is JUNK DNA and pituitary still on the list of useless organs?
@@shankz8854
@MrAwombat
That's right . Therefore, the surgeon is very careful not to disturb the design and regularity of the body when performing an operation.
@@shankz8854
Suggest the necessary modifications to fix errors.
Thank you Discovery Institute! I love your content!
I am an engineer, a dancer (classical, flamenco and katakh) and I play classical piano and lead guitar, and my second degree is philosophy and sociology and I totally agree, that human body is exceptionally well designed. It’s the only machine that is so multifunctional. Including our cognitive abilities. That Nathan should retire from anything to do with science.
Well after hearing those absolutely absurd claims by Nathan Lents, I would conclude that he is a complete and absolute moron. But then again, I also understand his agenda to spread the lies of evolutionary philosophy. Hopefully people will watch this video and learn the truths of factual science and engineering.
A little editing of your comment would be in order here.
The only one? What about chimps?
So true...this Lents guy was absolutely taken to school in this video. Total smackdown.
@@shankz8854 True that chimps, and all organisms, are wonderfully designed for their habitat and purpose in the world. But humans have a truly unique place in the world that stands out particularly.
You guys are really amazing. Being able to continue doing this despite the considerable pushback you must be receiving. I know that whenever I bring up anything like this on the internet, I feel like I'm fighting against a barbarian horde by myself.
X2
Don't feel discouraged. You are not alone.
Great content and very well explained with fantastic graphics. Most amazing pile of rocks I've ever seen.
Thank you for an incredibly engaging hour!
I'll never look at my feet, or other peoples feet, the same again. So bring out your flip flops and show off those beauties of biomechanics off proudly!! But really, this was so very fruitful and I'm in absolute awe of our wonderful Creator. Thank you to Stuart Burgess and the folks at Discovery Science (Stephen Meyer is one of my favorite humans)
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well
Amen 🔥🙏🏽
I’m a medical student. And no amount of evolutionary BS is going to make me believe in chance that led to such ingenious design of the human body. I chose medicine because the human body just completely amazes every day.
Keep it up friend!
My atheist cousin entered a secular university to study geology (specifically volcanology) and while earning his degree he became a young earth creationist. The deeper his understanding of modern science, the less he believed in the mainstream evolutionary narrative.
@@maikeru1990 That is the most encouraging statement I've read all week. So many young believers have their faith destroyed by these godless universities. PTL that your cousin's eyes were opened!
"A little knowledge of science make a man an atheist, but an in depth study of science makes him a believer in God"
Very well said and very true! For me this was most certainly the case.
Well said
Perfectly placed quote. And so beautifully true. Love that.
Thank you
@@sophiamarquis Sir Francis Bacon said it.
@@sanderossi8013 it’s not true for all. For may it’s the opposite
the fact that we need to spend that amount of research and money on a artificial one speaks volumes
Very enjoyable talk.
Creator Designer 1
Haphazard evolutionists 0
What a Designer we have!
I've been intrigued lately by how our bodies shape themselves from the inside out. The contour of every organ, every bone doesn't just stupidly grow endlessly in random directions, it trims itself to a template and stops there. Amazing!
Should not ignore the *other half* of the Dynamic *Tensegrity* Architecture (i.e. not just Bones) : Ligaments, Cartilage, Tendons, & Muscles !
Human and animal bodies got amazing skeletal engineering that only a designer could have designed it. Great discussion congrats to Dr. Stuart great video.
This Institution gives me hope for science, how can any true student look at everything presented here and say that we cannot teach these concepts because they preclude an intelligent first mover.
I spent a large part of my career designing information systems for a living; design of the elegance showcased in this lecture never comes about by mere chance.
They make fun of the design argument but they attempt to replicate designs from nature because they’re… well designed 😂
I'm not worried about Lents I'm worried about any institution that would continue to employ him after this
Even more amazing is the information processing system inside each cell that makes it possible to translate basic chemical compounds in DNA into efficient structures in the body. It's like billions of microscopic adaptable 3d printers that work in coordination to produce the coded body plan. Information processing (copy, compression, translation, error correction, etc) is not something that just happens, it must be engineered especially when involved in something as intricate as a biological system.
Thanks Mike, I am going to start using that analogy when talking about intelligent design.
and you are barely touching the surface in what you are describing. Walking molecules and self assembling walkways taking things away from those molecular assembly machines. Look up kinesins animation on utube.
An excellent lecture by an expert in his field. When does the overwhelming case for design outweigh "just be chance"? It shows again the need for humility on subjects we are not experts on.
The book "human errors" is loaded with misinformations. I feel pity for those people who took that book seriously.
Isn't it amazing that things that we never esteem can be so amazingly designed.
Superb presentation.
Excellent presentation. Fair, consistent, common sense. Clearly he understands profoundly result in the simple communication of complicated, reasonable ideas. Stay the course. Well done.
Dawkins' argument from authority is a logical fallacy. Truth is absolute and independent, not institutional authority.
If this is a boxing match between Nathan Lents and Stuart Burgess, its knockout at first round by Burgess. 😀
"I praise You, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works! You know me right well!"
Nathan Lents never played an instrument nor danced or did sports professionally. I guarantee that. Otherwise he wouldn’t make such a stupid thesis.
It’s crazy to think how as a Muslim (I’m sure Christianity and Judaism do as well) we are encouraged to pursue hobbies and interests and sports and all manner of things and it’s regarded as a form of worship. Since we would be taking care of the body we were given, using such an amazing machine, and providing it purpose to explore God’s universe. It’s all beautiful
@@mousasaab2652 a computer made life. DNA CODE comes from a computer.
How would an evolutionist explain this? "Once, humans didn't have a lateral arch in the foot. Billions of humans died from this very thing until chance mutation..." Another thing I would love explained from such a viewpoint is the exquisite shaping of these bones. They look weird to us, but they are the exact shape in every human so something has programmed that in. Did billions more die as the Talus developed its current shape?
You could make similar comments about countless other features of organisms, and it is an important point. To the Darwinians I would ask, "where are all the failed random structures in the fossil record"?
What is there to explain? Proto-humans didn’t all die before child-bearing age before they had arched feet. What is it that seems impossible to you?
Then where are all the billions of fossils of these inferior humans...?
@@shankz8854 First I should ask the question, did you watch the video?
Next, what seems impossible to many people, myself included, is the idea that “mistakes” (mutations) in the program (DNA - RNA) causes improvements in the organism’s functional organs and joints.
Well at 53, my right shoulder just started coming apart . . . Sincerely wish I could just check into the *OEM Shop* for Regeneration by the Designer ! 😇
Yeah, the fact that your right shoulder is coming apart proves that it is a structure arrived at by random mutation & natural selection. 🤡
Ask the designer for replacement... ministry of healing actually exists
Your car wears out, did that come about by random mutation and natural selection?
I'm a YEC but I do appreciate the teachings here on ID. Can't agree on the age of all things with you guys but I definitely agree on the design of life.
Reproductive systems have to be the greatest thing in biological engineering. It encompass all the achievements of single design with the addition of it replicating itself.
And one has to wonder how any reproductive system could evolve a little at a time.
@@KenJackson_US ...and independent of each other...male/female.
@@KenJackson_US I like the butterfly in this example. It either worked to make the first one (designed) or it will never work (evolution).
Unquestionably true.
Human sperm + human egg = human blastocyst
This equation cannot evolve and no other combination works.
This is a CHECKMATE and the fake scientists know it.
@@cptrikester2671 what is the current theory by which sexual reproduction evolved?
Great video. Eye opening lecture for any open minded agnost. Loved your humour as well.
"Again and again, the answer is the same: the best of engineering does not compare with what we find in human (...) joints. (...) Every single bone has a purpose and, in fact, every feature of every bone has a purpose." Stuart Burgess
Em Português:
"Repetidas vezes, a resposta é a mesma: o melhor da engenharia não se compara ao que encontramos nas articulações humanas. (...) Cada osso tem um propósito e, de fato, cada característica de cada osso tem um propósito." Stuart Burgess
Excellent
Very informative and engaging talk on a subject of which I have little knowledge of, but much curiosity about. Quite enjoyable discourse.
Whenever skeptics start in with this "bad design" argument, I have to ask a simple question (before even going into the fall): What is it for? How can you tell if a thing is poorly designed if you don't know it's purpose? What of the human body as a whole? What is its purpose? According to materialism, the purpose is whatever the individual body says it is, which is tantamount to no purpose at all.
Afterthought: If you've ever watched an action movie where an important piece of equipment...a new weapon or entire ship, for example...is threatened by a hostile power, you know what a "self-destruct" mechanism is. The practice of scuttling a ship, lest it fall into enemy hands, is such a system.
Death, for us, is precisely that self-destruct mechanism God implanted in creation _for our own good_ . Why? How? Just imagine what would have happened if Adam and Eve had been allowed to eat from Tree of Life after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: "Eternal death." Think a kind of vampirism; eternally aging, yet conscious. That would be a true nightmare.
I'll take it a step further than Mr. Burgess, he keeps maintaining silly sports will make your ankles malfunction. However deliberate exercises focused on strengthening the ankle (or any joint) through the entire range of possible motion (not a limited range) can even let the joints remain healthy even in those situations. The stronger muscles and tendons gain absolute control throughout those crazier situations.
The adaptation the joints like the ankle and foot are capable of is amazing.
I love this man today I attende his seminar I just love the way he explaining...
great explanation, great video. this is the way science should be done
Brilliant!
Evolution is an amazing designer. As a radiographer I have seen 10s of thousands of injured ankles and wrists. If you injure yourself in a standard way there are inbuilt crumble zones that protect the articular surfaces. These injury heal well and quickly. One risk to ankles is shoes that lengthen the leg while reducing the ability for reflexes to work accurately. Having no sensation from the sole of the foot delays reflexes and their accuracy leading to more serious injuries
Astounding. Looking forward to Lents’ response. I wonder if he will? 🤔
It's game set and match... this is practical and Lents is theoretical
The human body, every cell of it, brims over with the infinite wisdom of God, and unfortunately vain man denies the existence of God. Wonderfully explained and shared information. Thanks Brother Stuart Burgess.
👌👌👌thank you soooo much discovery team for bringing forward this amazing design talk from such an amazing person...god bless🙏🙏
I don't understand the limited analysis of this. I would of thought the different interfacing materials and needs would build a stronger case than just bone structure. The fact that ligaments and blood flow considerations are addressed with use of these joints means it is not just form issue but a purposefully designed feature is critical to acknowledge. Great material but could be more. Thank you for what you do!
You would need extra 2 hours
@@visiontransformation agreed....also how bone is a self repairing structure and how alcohol and drug use can impair that.
Please have an Engineer go over the incredible design of our tongue. Thank you
If four-bar linkages can't be used in robotics, then why were my husband and son focusing on four-bar linkages during our son's high school robotics competitions before and up to 2007? My husband, an engineer, knew about four bar linkages; he was merely seeking to apply them to the robot's arm, which would manipulate the game pieces during the competition. In fact, robots in the competition were expected to be sturdy, maneuverable, fast, dextrous, and able to operate autonomously and consistently. They had vision (camera) systems, sensors of various kinds, and had to be programmed by the teams. It was always a treat to go to the competitions and see what different design solutions the teams came up with. As technology has progressed over the years, the competition has progressed with it. Robots these days can easily be designed to do what was impossible twenty years ago. Some of the teams have even taken their expertise into their communities, in some cases designing custom wheelchairs or other devices to assist disabled people.
Yet the human body still beats the best human-designed technology; a couple of drunken teenagers can unintentionally produce a new human being that is capable of growing into a fully functioning adult.
Thank you, very interesting. I work in the moving business and hardly an hour goes by when I am not amazed at the performance of my body. Show me, for example, a car that is 55 years old (like me), in daily use, that is in as good condition as I am - and has hardly ever had to go to a garage! Our creator is an engineer par excellence.
Excellent, God-honoring presentation! I am fascinated by the silent operation of biological mechanisms. What a racket a world full of robotic people and animals would make!
Even if a designer was ruled out, I would have more respect for the results of 1 million years of evolution than for 1 half-arsed Lysenko, or Baric.
Which is why back injuries are the biggest cause of time off work? We evolved with a spine that was intended as a very good suspension bridge, then we decided to walk upright!
All joints are master pieces, whether in animals or plants.
Great presentation. Thank you so much.
A rich man should ask Nathan Lents which of his “pointless” wrist and ankle bones he would like surgically removed to make him better evolved and offer to pay for their removal. Or offer to have them fused since they are “too small” and let’s see how well it improves his range of motion.
Excellent presentation!
Most important thing you said was it's not the designers fault, it's our fault
Problem is; most Darwin evolutionists and atheists thinks they are better than Leonardo da Vinci
Marvelous presentation.
Very good, they'll never learn to stop pushing their evolution religion on science.... From Ireland
Evolutionists criticise the design of things they have no idea how to make.
Fascinating!
Excellent excellent excellent!
"Complexity" is relative. It's just as possible the range of capabilities enabled by the design of the ankle and wrist joints could as easily be a marvel of "simplicity". (another relative word) The "simplicity" or "complexity" of systems are human projections onto those systems.
There's been a lot of lane swapping lately. It would be better if politicians and engineers/doctors/scientists would stop doing each others jobs and go back to doing their own.
The computer making our life probably is using his engineering.
Excellent!
God bless
As a retired radiographer, I listened with keen interest. I have seen 10,000 injured ankles and the same number of injured wrists. I find absolutely no reason to assume a god creator because I understand how evolution works. As an exercise, work out how many ways you are related to ancestors 6,500 years ago. You will find the number is about the same as the number of atoms in the visible universe. We only ever receive what works from our ancestors. They filter out all the failures and promote all the success. Also, the body has 'crumple zones' where fractures are more likely to happen and are more able to be healed quickly and completely. If you have unusual injuries, your body will do its best to ad lib some strategy but often there will be long term consequences.
No wonder the pslamist was insipred to write, " I praise you [Jehovah God] because in an awe-inspiring way I am wonderfully made..." - Ps 139:14
JW?
'Claiming to be wise, they became fools' (Romans 1v22)
Brilliant
Did anyone else think that was Harrison Ford in the thumbnail 😂
I can see it.
Just Amazing so brilliant
A true scientist calling out Dawkins and I’m here for all of it 😂😂😂
And all of that comes from a single cell. God is a greater genius than anyone can comprehend
Didnt know harrison ford was into intelligent design
God created all things. It's so obvious a child can see it.
I would rather hear a person who has designed things about whether the natural world evidenced design. A creative story teller (evolutionist, evolutionary biologist) who has never built anything is less qualified to judge design in the natural world.
Aging is a deliberate process and a consequence of sin. If we did not age, the Skeletal and everything else would last forever.
Great video! So informative! Powerful proof of what we already know: God designed and created the most elegant machines in the world to reflect His glorious wisdom and power! (Romans 1:19-20)
As a layman who has always been interested in mechanics, I observe that the way the biaxial joints are designed gives us the ability to perform extremely complex, precise, smooth operations that would otherwise be impossible.
Interestingly, the hand (at least my own) can be made to lie perfectly flat, that is, with all the major joints in the same plane, the large ends of the bones of all 14 joints in contact with a flat surface. This would seem to provide the maximum compressive strength. This is just an observation: I can only guess what purpose this design feature serves. But it occurs to me that it does make it possible to do push-ups.😊
At the same time, the wrist joint is so flexible that the lower arm can move from perfectly normal to the flat surface through an arc of about 135 degrees!
And the double bones in the arms are not seen in animals that have hoofs, for whom the twisting of the lower leg would be a liability.
I love God’s Intelligent Bioengineering Design!
/In the Newtonian World.
Did this Lents guy never attend a ballet or game of professional soccer? He really thinks our bodies are poorly made?? What the heck...geeze. 🤷♀️
I wonder if Nathan Lents have ever watched this?
Well either good and bad exist or anything anyone says or does is just reflex but why would you have reflex. it never ends does it.
did matter create intellegence or vice versa. since intelligence aint matter then empty space is its container also. and matter really aint needed for intelligence to be but GOD flexing matter is a glorious and beatiful thing keep up the great work.
I totally agree with Dawkins. Totally. But without the "If".
Joints are clearly a result of random mutations by an unthinking process. What else makes perfect sense? :)
As knowledge increases, wonder deepens. ~Charles Morgan
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein
The same thing you say about Lent, can also be said for these called "christian" evolutionists, such as: John Lennox, Frank Turek, and William Lane Craig. These men, and others like them, continue to spout the same old tired evolutionary lies as the atheist's do. Teaching the godless theory may give them tenure, money, fame, open doors in secular universities, and etc..., but it does nothing for the Kingdom of God, nor glorifies Him and His infinite power and wisdom. In fact they make a mockery of His word as they unsuccessfully try to prove the supernatural creation of the world by natural means.
Despite the fact that their false message has been soundly debunked over and over again by the brilliant scientists who work for such ministries, DS, CRI, AIG, and etc..., to spread the truth of the bible and a young earth and literal 6 day creation, they refuse to even consider the evidence, knowing to do so is to admit they've been teaching lies for years. They are prominent examples in the christian community who prove that "most men will never admit they are wrong, and will usually hate you for proving it".
The quote by Dawkins at the end is a bit troubling, if he is saying what I think he is saying. Why should it matter if most of the scientific world is opposed to the bones in the wrist and the ankle being purposeful/functional. If we now know what the bones do, and the advantages they give, who cares what others have thought about these bones for so long. It seems you just go with the science, the discovery, and leave it at that, regardless what preconceptions were. But maybe this was just Dawkin's way of acknowledging Burgesss's insights. This video does make me wonder, however, if there are also atheists, agnostics, nonreligious scientists who are providing critiques of Nathan's work. It seems that they would be motivated to be at the forefront of criticism if they are attempting to be self critiquing of their own theories, objective, nonbiased, dispassionate, etc. Videos of this by ID proponents should be unnecessary in such cases. To be fair, I'm inquiring here. Maybe there are plenty of critiques from scientists of all persuasions of Nathan Lents's work. I would think scientists would even be motivated to provide these critiques in order to prevent religious scientists from getting too much attention for their analysis. But if Lents's book is drawing a lot of critics from those on the unguided evolution side, it seems it'd be getting more single star ratings- those only comprise 2 percent of Amazon's reviews. ... Thoughts?
Great.
Nathan Lents is a clown 🤡
Isn’t evolution amazing! 😂
👌👌👌👌🙏🙏
Lent should go to jail , nothing is correct what he wrote to prove his belief.
😀👍
He Is Lord.
- HA
How to demonstrate humans are masterpieces of design or whatever:
1) Assert humans are designed
2) Oh wow the parts here have uses!! Let me use the language of engineering to describe relatively simple aspects of the wrist and foot.
3) We can't make ANYTHING like that (please ignore the previous 2000 years of Christianity asserting that we can't replicate 'god's creations' only for us to do so when we develop suitable technology).
4) I'll scapegoat a bloke called Nathan to represent all of my opponents. If I can give a face to my opponent I can better belittle them.
5) Everything in the human body is literally PERFECT. Can't be improved at all! And I'll tautologically define any issues that occur as being due to your carelessness. Also ignore how there is massive variability in mammalian skeletal structures that make us worse at certain things than other animals. Of course when I said 'perfect' I meant 'they are perfect because god created it and god only makes perfect things'.
At best this is cringe. At worst it's intentionally dishonest. If you guys need to misrepresent evolution to defeat it, perhaps your design ideas aren't as strong as you think 😅