If you believe that your body's design is based on some divine and holy blueprint, you might try to find excuses for these defects and malfunctions. Maybe God has a special plan. Maybe God is trying to teach us something. Maybe God is trying to show us suffering so we know what Hell is like, hoping that it will teach us to be better people.
Regardless of the excuses that you'll apply here, when everything is stripped down to its bare bones, the true nature of life becomes evident. To live is to suffer. Without exerting energy to feed ourselves and keep ourselves safe, we're left with only one thing: suffering. Suffering is the skeleton of existence. Happiness and comfort are byproducts of the stress and energy we exert to avoid suffering. Without the constant upkeep and expense of energy, we suffer.
With that being said, please enjoy these five godless facts that prove just how poorly designed your own body really is.
1. Cancer
Cancer happens when your DNA and cells malfunction and replicate themselves uncontrollably. This happens through exposure to free radicals like sunlight, air, hormones and naturally and unnaturally occurring chemicals. It also happens just as frequently through mutation, which happens daily and is the main reason for evolution.
Without mutation, there would be no evolution. Without mutation, there probably wouldn't be as much cancer, but we'd also just be amoebas floating around in a puddle somewhere. Among the Earth's living mammals, humans are the most susceptible to cancer. Elephants and whales are 95% less prone to cancer than humans. Even though factors like diet and industrialization contribute to human cancer rates, elephants are exposed to some of the same free radicals as most humans, particularly in Asia where air pollution breaks daily records.
According to statistics, cancer is also very racist. Eight of the world's top nine countries with the highest cancer rates are largely Caucasian. They include Denmark at the top and France, Belgium, Norway, Australia, Ireland and the United States following closely behind. In the United States, prostate cancer affects more African American males per capita than Caucasian males.
2. Immune Systems
Allergies happen when your immune system attacks harmless organic material that it mistakes for pathogens. Your brilliantly designed immune system can also attack your body's own nerve and bone cells which can lead to Rheumatoid Arthritis. When the body is infected with a real pathogen, most of the negative and deadly symptoms you experience are caused by your own body. Fevers and the over-production of mucus that causes pneumonia and death are caused by your own body.
It's estimated that up to 200 people die each year in the United States from the anaphylaxis caused by their own immune systems overreacting to certain foods. Some scientists believe that some forms of depression could also be a side affect of inflammation caused by allergies.
It turns out that immune systems are also sexist. Studies have concluded that women are more likely to die of allergy induced reactions because of estrogen, which worsens the body's symptoms.
3. Hormones
As we learned above, estrogen makes women more likely to bite the dust from allergic reactions. Unfortunately, it's not the only hormone that kills or does damage to the human body.
The human body and brain, being the clusterfucks they are, require a steady balance of hormones to function without exploding and dying. A lack of cortisol in your blood stream makes you more likely to commit suicide, while too much estrogen gives you cancer.
An imbalance of cortisol can also lead to violence and aggression. Testosterone, the male hormone, has been linked to higher levels of aggression in men, as well as higher levels of infidelity and promiscuity. Higher levels of testosterone have also been linked to a higher prevalence of prostate cancer, while estrogen causes a higher prevalence of breast cancer. An imbalance of various other types of hormones can lead to obesity, diabetes, sleeplessness, lethargy, heart disease, impotence, lowered cognitive ability, overgrowth, stunted growth, erratic mood swings, murder, suicide and death.
4. Age
Almost immediately after we finish puberty and stop growing, our bodies begin to die. Some bodies begin to deteriorate more rapidly than others. As we age, our bodies begin to break down and ordinary functions begin to cease.
As an example, our hair loses melanin and begins to turn gray and white. Our skin loses cells and elasticity, making us look wrinkled and haggard. Our limited number of brain cells begin to die throughout the course of our entire lives until we're reduced to drooling vegetables. Our DNA becomes less capable of repairing itself, making us more prone to cancer. Our brains and glands produce less hormones, making us infertile, impotent and tired. All of these normal bodily functions begin to slow down until they eventually stop, causing our organs to fail.
According to some scientists, aging is coded into our DNA. Some researchers have claimed to stop and delay aging in mice by deactivating certain genes. Other researchers have said that gene deactivation can only delay aging, not stop it, as aging is a natural and unstoppable reality among all living cells. The only way to actually stop aging might lie in medicine, technology and continuous organ transplants.
5. Stupidity
After 10,000 years of evolution, most of us can conclude that humans haven't really gotten any smarter. Sure we've flown to the Moon and cured diseases, but those achievements can only be attributed to a few handfuls of people out of billions. Over the course of human history, civilizations have never escaped collapse. Some scholars have predicted that our current civilization has too much stacked against it to break that tradition. From the rise of ISIS and nuclear armament to economic instability, some see our future coming to a crashing halt sooner than later.
Regardless of whether we break the curse of social decay and collapse that has plagued us throughout history, it's impossible to ignore the modern stupidity that results in thousands of daily deaths around the globe.
Whether it's a negligent mother who lets her child fall into a gorilla exhibit at the zoo, a crazed religious nut doing what God tells him, or a riot over a lost hockey game, our current and past headlines are filled with enough toxic stupidity to sink our cortisol levels to zero. A person could spend hours on Youtube searching for "epic fail" videos, or hours flipping through news stories about self induced injuries and violence, just to see how prevalent stupidity is among humans.
Stupidity is an inherent characteristic of the human brain. Human stupidity is an age old reality that has destroyed civilizations and killed millions. The causes of stupidity have been debated by scientists since the beginning, but none have ever questioned its existence. No one has ever denied the fundamental role stupidity has played in shaping the course of human history. Whether we like it or not, as the global population approaches 8 billion, there won't be any shortage of stupidity in the near future.
