New Films Dazzle With Awe About the Human Body

Body systems are wondrous
in isolation, but they have to
work with multiple body systems

The Discovery Institute is releasing a new series of 15-minute videos this year, “Secrets of the Human Body” (watch trailer here). Visually attractive with clips of human beings doing ordinary and extraordinary things coupled with animations of the inner workings of body systems, the videos are bringing intelligent design thinking to a wide community in an appealing format. After all, we all have a human body, and who is not interested in how it works?

The Narrators

The narration brings together two experts from different fields: a doctor and an engineer. An engineer? Yes; who better understands the requirements for complex systems than a systems engineer who has managed the development of highly complex and technical systems for major corporations? That narrator is Dr Steve Laufmann. The medical doctor is Howard Glicksman, M.D., who has written numerous articles about body systems. His experience in hospitals and in hospice care underscores the truism that there are a million ways to die, but only one to be alive: all systems must be functioning according to specifications within narrow limits.

#1: Breath of Life

The first in the series, “How the Human Body Is Engineered for Oxygen,” shows that breathing requires much, much more than having lungs. The body must solve numerous engineering problems to get oxygen to every cell, most of which do not have direct access to air. Laufmann’s flowchart diagrams illustrate the cascade of problems that the body must solve, where each solution requires solving more problems. How does the body do it? A man walking to work suddenly realizes he must run to catch a bus. The film describes how his body must instantly regulate multiple systems or the reaction would cause death. From muscles, bones, materials, the heart, the lungs, and some 15 body systems all the way down to molecular machines like ATP synthase, the body solves this massive design problem effectively. We take this for granted but shouldn’t. Interconnected, cooperative solutions are not the product of unguided natural processes.

#2: Awareness

The second in the series, “Living in a 3-D World,” which came out a few days ago, explores vision, hearing, and proprioception as essential elements of navigating multi-dimensional space. These three important senses cannot act in isolation. They all depend on all other body systems to work. Animations describe the musical instrument inside the inner ear that solves difficult engineering problems, such as impedance matching, and the specific protein molecule in the retina that reacts to a photon of light by bending, which must be rapidly restored to its original shape by several other proteins to be ready for the next photon. Billions of signals arrive at the brain each second that must be interpreted. Viewers will enjoy the slow-motion acrobatic feats of bicyclists, skateboarders and gymnasts, but the simple act of walking calmly down a city sidewalk, or standing on a log in a forest listening to a bird, is mind-boggling in complexity.

#3: A third film in the series is currently in production. Word has it that the subject will be reproduction and birth.

Stand in Awe

Like the films from Illustra Media, these new ones from Discovery Institute help arouse awe— a quality that generates wonder, gratitude, and joy in the human heart. They do this by sharing accurate information about nature as modern science has revealed it. We recommend this series to educated friends from junior high to grad school as introductions to intelligent design. The message is calmly stated at the end, without pressure, inviting logical thought: of the types of causes that could build systems like these, which one makes the most sense? Engineers and doctors know better than most that such things do not just happen.

Get the Books, Too

For many more details about the body, see the books by Drs Laufmann and Glicksman: Your Designed Body (Nov 2022), a thick book loaded with facts about multiple body systems, and a newer book, Your Amazing Body, which came out this year (Aug 2025) coincident with the film series. This thinner edition is more accessible for busy readers, and makes a good handout as a conversation starter for unbelieving friends.

If any skeptical friends try to push the hoary argument that the human body is shoddy, the product of millions of years of cobbled contraptions that no skilled engineer would accept, we recommend the books by our frequent contributing author Dr Jerry Bergman: Poor Design, answering such claims, and Useless Organs, a response to the old vestigial organs argument that evolutionists have long used against creation.

As for the rest of us, let us give thanks for the wondrous gifts bestowed on us by our Maker, and use our bodies for His glory!