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Discovery Magazine 12/01/2011


To Clot or not to Clot? That is the Question

What happens when you get a small cut or get poked by something sharp? You probably experience some pain because of the nerves under your skin that are cut. And, of course, you will probably bleed from the wound. But have you ever stopped to think about why you usually stop bleeding after a short time? Why don't you just keep bleeding forever—until all your blood runs out of your body?

The answer is coagulation (ko-ag-you-LAY-shun) or blood clotting—a process that God designed to clog up unwanted holes that open in the body, such as cuts or punctures. When your skin is pierced or a blood vessel is cut, red blood cells begin to pour out of the wound, and you see blood on your skin as it comes to the surface. Then, special cells called platelets begin to stick to the edges of the hole that has been made. After a few platelets stick to the edges of the hole, they release a special chemical as a sort of "SOS" call to other platelets to come help—a process called aggregation (ag-ruh-GAY-shun). The platelets continue to join together until the hole has been plugged by the platelet patch. Finally, a protein called fibrin forms a kind of cross-stitch pattern that sews up the hole and keeps the platelet plug in place.

Does it make sense that this process would just happen by accident and at random, as evolutionists would have you to believe? Or does it show purpose and design? Does the behavior of platelets—forming plugs and releasing a chemical "distress call," as well as fibrin's ability to sew up the hole and give support to the platelet plug—show intent or accident? The answer is clear. Someone had to design the process of blood clotting in order for it to work right. God did so because of His love and concern for us.

Another interesting point about blood clotting is that it proves that the Bible came from God. In Leviticus 12:3 we learn that Israelite baby boys were supposed to have a small but potentially dangerous operation performed on them on the eighth day of their life. Why the eighth day? Moses could not have known thousands of years ago what we now know through our technology and understanding of medicine. We now know because of our understanding of prothrombin and Vitamin K—important factors in forming the fibrin pattern mentioned earlier—that the blood clotting process works better on the eighth day than any other day in the life of a male. Moses could not have known this. Only God could have known this and been able to tell Moses (and Abraham) when to conduct that important surgery. We can know without a doubt that there is a God and that the Bible is His Word.



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