Sunday, May 15, 2016

FACIAL MUSCLES, FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, SMILES, ANGER, SURPRISE, CONFUSION, EMOTIONS


SMILES


Good day all you fine folks out there! And how has life been treating you? Very well I hope. My week was pretty good up until yesterday. Then it seemed like one thing after another happened, you know mostly small stuff, and certainly things to laugh about later on. But I was so ready to crawl into bed and thank the Lord for the end of the day.

Speaking of laughing…did you know humans aren’t the only
ones who can smile? Certain vertebrates have some of the same muscle in their face as humans. Horses actually have more than dogs, and dogs have more than chimps. This would seem to be a bit backwards on the evolutionary scale as chimps are supposed to be mankind’s closest cousins. However a very clever Intelligent Designer such as our Creator God, choose to make certain facial expressions universal. Avery
wise choice if you ask me—of course because God omnipotent! 


For example, if you are walking by a pickup truck with a dog in the back and it has it’s lips drawn back and brows furrowed, you know to give it a wide birth. Same thing if you came up to a counter where two men stood, one with lips drawn back and brow furrowed, the other with a smile—which one would you
choose to go to. The same thing can be said for cats, bears, horses and other animals.  

“Horses share some surprisingly similar facial expressions with humans, a new study finds. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that, like humans, horses use muscles underlying various facial features, including their
nostrils, lips and eyes. These alter their facial expressions in a variety of situations.”1

Even though animals can express emotions on their face, nothing compares to human facial expression. Dr. David Menton from Answers in Genesis states, “the skin on our face has over 40 voluntary muscles that, among other things, allow us to move our skin around to create an amazing variety of facial expressions. These facial muscles originate in the skull bones but attach
to the skin of the scalp, ears, neck and face. All facial muscles are controlled by the facial nerves that emerge from the skull behind our ears and split into five branches on each side of our head…No animals, including apes and monkeys, can communicate such a wide range and nuance of emotion. By moving different muscles, we can show about 20 expressions, from smiles to anger and surprise…These expressions convey specific meanings to other people much like a spoken l
anguage. But just as in verbal languages, we can lie or deceive with our facial expression. Consider an insincere smile—it’s a smile but something isn’t right. What is it that tips us off?


“Fake smiles use only certain muscles going to the corners of the mouth, while real smiles involve many facial muscles, including those around our eyes. One can even be
trained to discern if someone is hiding their real emotions by masking facial expression. Studies have shown that trained observers can recognize concealed emotions by detecting “micro expressions” lasting for about only a quarter second.

“Did the Lord’s confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel affect this ‘skin language’? Researcher Paul Ekman studied people from different cultures all over the world to learn if people of different cultures have the same facial expressions or if
they are learned behaviors unique to each culture. He found that all humans, even from the most isolated tribes and cultures, share at least seven primary facial expressions with identical meanings: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise, and contempt. (Something I portray in my novel Of One Tongue).
Quite simply a smile indicates pleasure and a frown indicates displeasure everywhere in the world.


“Facial expressions are not only the same everywhere, but they are contagious. We often notice people mimicking our own expressions. As they say, smile and the world smiles with you.”

I was recently asked during an evolution/creation debate (I was not the speaker) whether the animals in the Garden of Eden could speak. That is really an unknown. It certainly
would be exquisite if those animals did speak to Adam and Eve, Such an event is possibly as illustrated by the account in Numbers 22:30 where Balaam’s donkey speaks to him. I do think the Creator made provisions for Adam and Eve to interact with his other creations through facial expression and body language. We all know when a dog is happy. Not only does it
use its facial muscles to pull its lips upward and crease the muscles around the eyes but there is usually a mad wagging of the tail to go along with it. It is my belief that this form of communication was highly refined before the Fall.


So yes, there are similarities between humans and animals in
the way we all express ourselves. And yes, evolutionists claim this is proof of evolution. But as stated earlier, when you look a little closer, horses and dogs have more expressive facial muscles than chimps. Oops, how does that fit into evolution? There is a much more reasonable explanation. That is all of us—animals and humans alike—have a loving, kind and extremely intelligent Creator who
wants mankind to care for each other and the animals. And not just care for but to communicate, have dominion over, with them as well. But God doesn’t want us to communicate with only each other and the animals, He especially wants us to commune with Him, Creator of the universe. 


God bless and take care!
May you week be full ofJesus’ love!

Willow Dressel

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