What our creator planned for our eyes??

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   helenathegreatposted 16 years ago

   On a similar topic to Misha's thread... What was the great plan for our eyes versus our intellect?
   
   Here is what made me think of this:  Perfect eyesight in illiterate/developing parts of the world is traditionally 20/15, whereas in the more dominantly literate/developed parts of the world it is 20/20 (which is worse).
   
   Anthropologists think that humans who lived before all the close reading we do (say, 2000 years ago) had much better vision because they had to employ it at variable distances (both very close for tool work and very far away for hunting, etc).
   
   So are we not meant to be reading as much as we do?  Are we not meant to be this intelligent?  Or were we meant to ultimately develop written language with our intelligence, read it, and then create corrective lenses to correct our consequentially poorer eyesight?

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      Margaret Johnstonposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Ah, what is interesting about this is that, based upon eye performance, we were surely not "meant" to live as long as we do. All of us, including - I am fairly certain - those from 2000 years ago, lose the ability to switch focus for all those variable distances between the ages of forty and fifty.  This would mark the end of "tool work" for our predecessors as there were no bifocal lenses back then. 
      
      As for were we meant to do all this reading, I really can't answer that one.  But as a very nearsighted person who needs those corrective lenses, and as one who makes her living prescribing them, I am surely grateful to those who invented them.

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   Mishaposted 16 years ago

   That's a tough question Helena
   
   Probably tougher than mine. At least for me. I just accepted the fact that I have to wear glasses when time for that came.
   
   Thinking about that, probably you are right, we were not designed for reading. Or rather we read not in the way we were designed. Large letters are much easier on our eyes, but we prefer to have them small, so we can have more of them at the same time - especially on computer screen. If we get this fixed, I don't think our creator will be mad at us trying to learn something

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   helenathegreatposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for weighing in, Margaret!  I'm certainly very thankful for (and very dependent on) corrective contact lenses, as well.
   
   My friends and I were reminiscing about our first glasses several weeks ago.  I will never forget putting them on in 6th grade and being able to read the Boston Market sign across the street.  The eyeglass technician lady laughed and said, "You just read the Boston Market sign, didn't you?" when she saw my eyes light up.  Apparently that reaction was pretty much the exact one that everyone else has. Wait.. I'm supposed to be able to READ that sign?! 

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