This article is from
Creation 40(4):27, October 2018

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Facing up to design

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by David Catchpoole

Those who would claim that the human face is the result of evolution, not creation, face some huge challenges.

For example, the incredible expressivity of the human face is surely way beyond what is necessary for the survival of our species. Researchers have identified 21 distinct facial expressions—not just the six long-recognized basic emotions of happy, sad, fearful, angry, surprised, and disgusted, but 15 other combinations of these, such as happily surprised, angrily surprised, etc.^1,2

Each of these 21 facial expressions is produced by a unique combination of muscles, i.e. different from that of all the other expressions.¹ The human face has approximately 50 muscles in all, with about half being needed for functions such as eating, speaking, and closing the eyes, but the rest are dedicated to making facial expressions.³ About 20 of these muscles are unique to humans,³ not being found in gorillas and other apes—yet evolutionists claim we share a common ape-like ancestor with them. Did these muscles really originate by a slow step-by-step process because there were survival advantages in having a plethora of facial expressions? Rather, our incredible facial expressivity instead points to us having been overdesigned, which of course implies a designer who did so.³ This is in keeping with us having been specially created by the God of the Bible, in His image (Genesis 1:27), to be relationally emotional, creative, and spiritual beings—contra atheist Richard Dawkins, who claimed we are mere “survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”⁴

This overdesign is proving to be the bane of engineers attempting to realistically emulate our facial expressions in their android robots. Most of the robotic faces tried so far have been composed of a flexible and elastic skin, with internal deformation mechanisms, e.g. motors strategically positioned to pull on wires attached to the inside of the ‘face’.⁵ Researchers admit to being constrained by the mechanisms and materials available, and the limited space in robot heads.¹

One robot, dubbed the FACE bot, had 32 separate motors to control the ‘muscles’ in its head and upper torso.⁶ But independent assessment of the accuracy of the FACE bot in presenting the six basic emotions was not flattering. While viewers were able to recognize when the robot displayed happiness, anger, and sadness, they were less able to identify robotic fear, disgust, or surprise.⁷ And the slow, unlifelike transition between expressions highlighted the problem of what some have termed the ‘uncanny valley’.⁶ This is the uneasy or creepy sensation people have when they see a human-faced robot intended to be realistic, but that isn’t realistic enough—the gap between android and real human is still too wide. (Some viewers’ unease is because they’re reminded of a corpse.)⁷

Surely all this shows that evolutionists should be facing up to the reality that our faces, indeed our whole bodies, were designed—by Someone who clearly wasn’t limited by mechanisms, materials, or the space in our heads. As the Bible says, we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).