Our eyes are easy to take for granted! Yet, the more we dig into this amazingly intricate system, the more thankful we become for them. On a new episode ID the Future, I begin a two-part conversation with physicist Brian Miller about the intelligent design of the vertebrate eye.

First, Dr. Miller reviews the evolutionary scenario for the origins of human vision. Charles Darwin himself acknowledged how absurd an idea it was to assume unguided processes could produce the human eye. But that hasn’t stopped generations of evolutionary biologists from proposing an evolutionary path to get from light-sensitive spots to crisp images produced by spherical eyes. Dr. Miller explains where the evolutionary view collapses for lack of empirical evidence to support it. 

Miller explains why it’s helpful to approach biological systems from an engineering standpoint. He highlights the work of the Engineering Research Group at Discovery Institute, a group of engineers and biologists working together to develop a new approach to researching and understanding living things. 

Part 1 rounds out with Dr. Miller walking listeners through the main subsystems and processes involved in human vision, explaining step by step how we go from gathering light from the outside world to producing high-definition images of it that we can comprehend. He also emphasizes the convergence of design in the visual system and the fine-tuning of the laws of nature for high-resolution vision. 

Download the podcast or listen to it here. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!

Dig Deeper

Read these articles by Dr. Miller on the topic:

• “Eye Evolution: A Closer Look“
• “Eye Evolution: The Waiting is the Hardest Part“
• Watch: “Be Grateful for the Intelligent Design of Your Eyes”: