As you have seen from this account so far, blood is a miraculous solution that could not have come into being by chance, and is one of the manifest proofs of creation. Here it will be useful to recall that though blood is a miracle, its existence by itself is of little significance, because in order for it to provide any benefits to a living organism, it also needs a transport system. That is provided by the circulatory network in the human body.
Blood also needs to be propelled through the veins and arteries to reach every cell of the body. The engine that provides that service is, of course, the heart.
The Most Perfect Pump
The world’s most perfect pump is at this very moment right in your chest. With its unbelievable creation and incessant beating, the heart sends all your blood around your body some 1,000 times during the course of a single day.
The human heart is approximatey the size of a fist, and is a pump made of muscle. Considered in terms of capacity, however, it is the most powerful, longest lived and most productive machine in the world. First off, its strength is quite magnificent: The heart can squirt blood to a distance of up to 3 meters (10 feet), and in the space of one hour, can expend enough force to raise a medium-sized car three feet off the ground.16
However, the heart’s most important feature is being able to work without stopping, contracting some 70 times a minute, and 37 million times a year. It beats some 2.5 billion times during the average human lifespan and pumps approximately 300 million liters (or 80 million gallons) of blood.17 That is the equivalent of the amount of liquid it would take to fill 10,000 oil tankers. Even while you sleep, your heart pumps some 340 liters (90 gallons) of blood. To put it another way, your heart could fill a car’s gas tank 9 times over every hour. During physical activity—while running, for example—its work rate increases and it pumps some 2,273 liters (0.6 gallons) of blood.18
Every time it beats, the heart sends blood into the depths of the body with great force. To get a better idea of this muscle’s strength, see how often you can fully clench your fist at a rate of once every a second. You will soon become tired and be unable to continue. After a few minutes, the muscles that move your fingers and hand will begin to ache. Yet your heart continues to expand and contract for your entire lifetime, and never rests for even a minute.
Another feature of the heart is how it pumps the required amount of blood according to prevailing conditions. Under normal circumstances—at rest—it beats some 70 times a minute. During exercise, however, the muscles need increased quantities of oxygen. The heart then increases the amount of blood it pumps, by beating up to 180 times a minute. It can increase the volume of blood it pumps by up to 5 times. A machine that works non-stop at that rate will soon break down, but the heart continues working this way for decades, never losing its rhythm.
Flawless Creation
To better understand the work performed by the heart, compare it to an artificial pump.
But the heart is not a simple pump that sends one liquid from one site to another. Its very special creation allows it to pump two different liquids in two different directions. Unlike most normal pumps, it has more than one speed and by itself, regulates the speed at which it needs to work in the light of prevailing conditions. Bearing these features in mind, we can compare the heart to a specially created pump controlled by a highly advanced compsuter.
A pump consists of an engine that provides power and the mechanical parts that the engine causes to function. The heart, on the other hand, is both a motor and a pump.
Man-made pumps last no longer than 10 to 15 years. During that span of time, the pump does work constantly, but only at specific intervals. Pumps that work all the time wear out after very short periods. In either case, the pumps sometimes develop faults and need maintenance or to have parts replaced. In contrast, the heart works 24 hours a day for as much as 70 or 80 years, or even longer. A healthy heart never requires any maintenance during that entire time. Unlike man-made pumps, it never needs to be repaired nor to have parts replaced.
The heart starts beating while a human is still a fetus in the womb, and continues beating for a whole lifetime. The heart pumps blood at every moment of your life, without our being constantly aware of it and quite beyond your control. This pump was working while you were still a baby, and while you were at school, and continues working while you sleep. It is even working now, pumping blood even as you read these words.When the general structure of the heart is examined in greater detail, you can immediately see its exceptional creation.
The Heart’s Original Pumps
The heart is actually a combination consisting of two separate pumps. The one on the left pumps oxygenated blood to the organs and tissues in the body, while the one on the right pumps CO2-laden blood to the lungs.
Each pump also consist of two separate upper and lower pumps. The smaller is known as the atrium, and the larger as the ventricle. When clean blood reaches the left part of the heart, for example, it flows into the upper small atrium. From there, it is expelled in to the larger ventricle below. The ventricle, or large pump, then sends the blood to the organs. The same process is also performed by the pumps on the right side of the heart, in sending blood to the lungs.
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