Your God-Designed Appendix: Why It’s Not Useless and Why Worldviews Matter in Medicine
Your God-designed appendix was once thought “useless” thanks to an evolutionary view of the body. Let’s talk about it and why worldviews matter (especially in medicine). Let’s begin with an overview of your appendix. Your appendix is part of your 25–30-foot-long digestive system. It is a tiny organ attached to one end of your large intestine.
It is a lymphoid vessel, meaning it offers containment for large numbers of white blood cells that help us fight infections (just like our tonsils).
When it is inflamed, it is a sign of an inflammatory process in the body. It can also be a sign that it is being overworked, active, and not a useless leftover.
When it is struggling, it will often send messages like twinges or mild discomfort, which people are taught to silence with medication, rather than get curious, listen, and make changes accordingly.
This can eventually lead to an extreme inflammatory healing response where surgery may be a life-saving option. In past years, when a patient presented with mild signs of an inflamed appendix, it was common practice to recommend removing it as “prevention” because it was viewed as an unnecessary organ, left over from our evolution.
This idea was cultivated by a certain man in 1871, Charles Darwin, who has shaped the modern medicine taught and practiced today. Let’s take a closer look at his influence.
Charles Darwin claimed the appendix was a useless organ, left over from the process of evolution in 1871. He used the example of this organ as evidence for the theory of evolution. This idea was adopted into the medical community, became mainstream, and led to well-respected doctors advising their patients who presented with symptoms to get their appendix removed, because its presence not only caused more harm than good but was just an “unnecessary organ.”
We now know how important the appendix is. We also know simply removing an organ only silences its messages and can lead to downstream long-term effects like:
Increased risk of infection & twice as likely to experience GI infections like C. diff.
Increased risk of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, & colorectal cancer (PMID: 33594506).
This was not the only organ viewed this way. In 1925, there was a trial in the US over the teaching of evolution in the school system called the Scopes Monkey Trial, where it was revealed that experts supporting evolution believed there were over 180 unnecessary organs (aka vestigial organs) in our bodies.
This history of medicine and view of the human body shines light on the spiritual warfare taking place today:
The idea that the origins of disease & illness are due to:
A natural byproduct of variation, competition, and survival pressures.
And that disease and illness have no moral or spiritual dimension; they are simply part of the ongoing evolutionary “struggle for life.”
Rather than the spiritual truth that modern illness exists today due to the fall of mankind, which created sin, suffering, and impacted the environment we live in today.
It has also led to downstream moral issues, like death being viewed as necessary to further the human race by some evolutionists (who happened to be physicians). Take Mike Breuer, for example, who believed those with appendicitis should be left to die because saving them by removing their appendix meant deteriorating the human race.
He claimed those with a shorter appendix were “more evolved” than those with a longer one.
He believed that evolution was in the process of shrinking the appendix and would eventually eliminate it altogether.
Without being rooted in real evidence, he went on to suggest that people with a longer appendix were more prone to appendicitis and the risk of death if the organ ruptured untreated.
So left to itself, natural selection would tend to kill off people with a longer appendix. This would result in the removal of their supposedly “inferior” DNA from the gene pool. He is quoted as saying, “The surgeon who is rescuing the individual has succeeded in deteriorating the race.”
An evolutionary worldview doesn’t just shape medicine and morality, it also spills over into dogmatic, restrictive diets like Paleo or Carnivore, which are built on the assumption that we’re nothing more than primitive humans trying to survive in a modern world. They work for some, but not for all, and there is a reason for that.
It has even shaped modern-day psychology and mental health care, which neglects the truth of human consciousness and fails to honor humans as interconnected beings: mind, body, and Spirit.
When the body is not viewed as whole, incredibly designed, and knit together with purpose and an incredible healing capacity, healing opportunities are missed and a lot of unnecessary suffering is created.
Returning to our context of physical health, it leads to many unnecessary interventions and long-term consequences such as unnecessary removals of the appendix, gallbladder, thymus gland, tonsils, adenoids, and more.
This reminds me of the words written in Hosea 4:6:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
In our world today, we have completely fallen from God’s original design because we think we know better—down to the foods we prepare and consume, the soil we grow our foods in, the toxins we spray in our environment, the air we breathe, the lifestyles we live, and the “experts” we listen to.
Is it any wonder we suffer from so much illness?
You were not created with unnecessary organs. Your body is incredibly designed with the innate capacity to heal in many instances.
Treating the body as a whole does not mean healing is promised.
Yes, the appendix can be prone to inflammation...
And yes, sometimes removal is needed in extreme circumstances that are life-threatening.
But that is not due to having “unnecessary organs.”
God designed our bodies and called them “very good,” each organ and element created with intention and purpose. And at one time, when we lived in a perfect environment, with a secure attachment to Him, and death did not exist.
But then the fall occurred (Genesis 3), and sin entered the world, and the natural consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We were also designed with free will, and free will is a blessing but it also has natural consequences—we reap what we sow—and since we have the capacity to choose how we will live, some choose to live in a way that harms others or themselves.
These are primary root causes of suffering and illness.
But illness & suffering point us to the brokenness of this world and our hope in Christ, who one day promises ultimate healing and restoration (Revelation 21:4 — “no more death, mourning, crying, or pain”).
As Christians, we know that one day Jesus will return and we will be given new heavenly bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42) to spend eternity with Him.
In the meantime, we also know that God works in ways that we cannot comprehend (Romans 8:28). He creates healing opportunities, and we are called to live in light of that. Taking certain measures like prayer, mindfulness, consuming nutrient-dense food, and moving our bodies has been proven to reduce illness and optimize our health. We are called to steward our bodies to the best of our ability, and live in such a way that people are drawn to the hope within us.
We were created in His image and likeness; we have a mind, body, and soul, and each of these components should be honored in medicine.
Every human is designed incredibly and made in the image of God and should be valued as such. That includes their organs.
When human lives are not valued because we are made in the image of God, they become disposable for the “greater good of humanity.”
In order to protect yourself, be sure to tune into how both you and your health care provider view your body.
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