AN AMAZING FACT: To simulate one-hundredth of a second of the complete processing of even a single nerve cell from the human eye requires several minutes of processing time on a supercomputer. The human eye has 10 million or more such cells constantly interacting with each other in complex ways. This means it would take a minimum of 100 years of supercomputer processing to simulate what takes place in your eye many times every second.
The visual cortex is the part of the brain that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe in the back of the brain. Though computers are getting faster, there is still a level of complexity in processing that doesn’t even come close to the fascinating combination of input from the retina into the visual cortex. The average number of neurons in an adult’s primary visual cortex in each hemisphere is estimated at 140 million. In reality, your eye does not see; it is your brain that “sees!”
Let’s think for a moment about the partnership of the brain and the eye. This helps us understand just how intricate these two organs work together. The brain receives images from both retinas, combines these two pictures, calculates depth of field, recognizes lines and boundaries, analyzes color, determines luminosity, controls the pupil’s diameter, controls eye movement with muscles, reassembles all the pieces into a visual image that is then compared with visual memory, reverses the upside-down image, and even fills in blank spots to make sense of the picture!
As one studies the details of eye/brain function, it affirms the role of a Great Designer in the creation of vision. It would seem utterly impossible to imagine all of these pieces and processes randomly coming together by chance and working. Thank God for our eyesight!
This same loving Creator sees you. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous” (1 Peter 3:12). Isn’t it good to know that we are watched by One who can see all things?
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalms 32:8
