ANTS WHO LIVE WITH COMPANY
Job 37:14
"Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."
Cooperation between two different species who depend upon each other for survival is known as symbiosis. This is remarkable enough, but what about cooperation between two different species who don't depend upon each other for survival? This certainly defies that foundational pillar for the theory of evolution - the survival of the fittest.
Examples of these types of cooperation, found abundantly in nature, have caused a growing number of scientists to listen to arguments for intelligent design - and even abandon mindless evolution altogether. Our example today concerns two very different ant species that live in British Guiana. One species, a large brown ant, lives together with a small black ant. They actually breed and live separately, but in times of danger, they work together as a well trained army.
At first threat to the anthill, the smaller black ants begin the defense. However, if the black ants cannot hold the intruder, the larger, stronger brown ants join in the defense of the hill. Neither ant needs the other, but together each offers the other some benefit. This is called altruism.
One cannot picture ants sitting around a table to work out this arrangement - they must have been created for this kind of relationship by a good and wise Creator. His plan to help these ants, amazing as it is, is nothing compared to His plan of salvation for us through the forgiveness of sins that is in Christ Jesus!
Heavenly Father, I thank You that Your greatest work is Your plan of salvation, restoring us undeserving sinners to Yourself thorough the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ on the cross. I ask that Your plan of salvation would always be central in all my thoughts, despite the distractions of the world. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Plaster cast of an anthill. Courtesy of Shaners Becker. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Job 37:14
"Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."
Cooperation between two different species who depend upon each other for survival is known as symbiosis. This is remarkable enough, but what about cooperation between two different species who don't depend upon each other for survival? This certainly defies that foundational pillar for the theory of evolution - the survival of the fittest.
Examples of these types of cooperation, found abundantly in nature, have caused a growing number of scientists to listen to arguments for intelligent design - and even abandon mindless evolution altogether. Our example today concerns two very different ant species that live in British Guiana. One species, a large brown ant, lives together with a small black ant. They actually breed and live separately, but in times of danger, they work together as a well trained army.
At first threat to the anthill, the smaller black ants begin the defense. However, if the black ants cannot hold the intruder, the larger, stronger brown ants join in the defense of the hill. Neither ant needs the other, but together each offers the other some benefit. This is called altruism.
One cannot picture ants sitting around a table to work out this arrangement - they must have been created for this kind of relationship by a good and wise Creator. His plan to help these ants, amazing as it is, is nothing compared to His plan of salvation for us through the forgiveness of sins that is in Christ Jesus!
Heavenly Father, I thank You that Your greatest work is Your plan of salvation, restoring us undeserving sinners to Yourself thorough the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ on the cross. I ask that Your plan of salvation would always be central in all my thoughts, despite the distractions of the world. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Plaster cast of an anthill. Courtesy of Shaners Becker. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
ANTS WHO LIVE WITH COMPANY
Job 37:14
"Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."
Cooperation between two different species who depend upon each other for survival is known as symbiosis. This is remarkable enough, but what about cooperation between two different species who don't depend upon each other for survival? This certainly defies that foundational pillar for the theory of evolution - the survival of the fittest.
Examples of these types of cooperation, found abundantly in nature, have caused a growing number of scientists to listen to arguments for intelligent design - and even abandon mindless evolution altogether. Our example today concerns two very different ant species that live in British Guiana. One species, a large brown ant, lives together with a small black ant. They actually breed and live separately, but in times of danger, they work together as a well trained army.
At first threat to the anthill, the smaller black ants begin the defense. However, if the black ants cannot hold the intruder, the larger, stronger brown ants join in the defense of the hill. Neither ant needs the other, but together each offers the other some benefit. This is called altruism.
One cannot picture ants sitting around a table to work out this arrangement - they must have been created for this kind of relationship by a good and wise Creator. His plan to help these ants, amazing as it is, is nothing compared to His plan of salvation for us through the forgiveness of sins that is in Christ Jesus!
Heavenly Father, I thank You that Your greatest work is Your plan of salvation, restoring us undeserving sinners to Yourself thorough the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ on the cross. I ask that Your plan of salvation would always be central in all my thoughts, despite the distractions of the world. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Plaster cast of an anthill. Courtesy of Shaners Becker. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Job 37:14
"Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."
Cooperation between two different species who depend upon each other for survival is known as symbiosis. This is remarkable enough, but what about cooperation between two different species who don't depend upon each other for survival? This certainly defies that foundational pillar for the theory of evolution - the survival of the fittest.
Examples of these types of cooperation, found abundantly in nature, have caused a growing number of scientists to listen to arguments for intelligent design - and even abandon mindless evolution altogether. Our example today concerns two very different ant species that live in British Guiana. One species, a large brown ant, lives together with a small black ant. They actually breed and live separately, but in times of danger, they work together as a well trained army.
At first threat to the anthill, the smaller black ants begin the defense. However, if the black ants cannot hold the intruder, the larger, stronger brown ants join in the defense of the hill. Neither ant needs the other, but together each offers the other some benefit. This is called altruism.
One cannot picture ants sitting around a table to work out this arrangement - they must have been created for this kind of relationship by a good and wise Creator. His plan to help these ants, amazing as it is, is nothing compared to His plan of salvation for us through the forgiveness of sins that is in Christ Jesus!
Heavenly Father, I thank You that Your greatest work is Your plan of salvation, restoring us undeserving sinners to Yourself thorough the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ on the cross. I ask that Your plan of salvation would always be central in all my thoughts, despite the distractions of the world. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Plaster cast of an anthill. Courtesy of Shaners Becker. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
THE HUNTING WASP
Job 21:22
"Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high?"
What if your refrigerator stopped working . . . in August? It would be a real mess! Without refrigeration, we would have to get fresh food almost every day. While the hunting wasp doesn't build refrigerators, it has solved this problem.
It is during the hottest months of the year that the hunting wasp is most active. However, the hot summer months are not the best time to store food that could spoil, especially in the nursery! Hunting wasps eat a very specific species of caterpillar - and caterpillars spoil easily.
When it's ready to lay its eggs, the hunting wasp will capture a caterpillar and, instead of killing it with one sting, will carefully paralyze each of the caterpillar's 13 segments one at a time. It then carefully bites the base of the caterpillar's brain, not to kill it but just to keep it permanently disabled. Then it lays one egg on the caterpillar. As its young grow, the wasp continues to provide specially prepared caterpillars - just enough to keep the young fed and not so many that there will be any spoiled food in the nest.
The hunting wasp's system seems to be based on far more knowledge than a wasp would be expected to discover all by itself - especially since the cost of failure is the death of the next generation. This certainly looks more like the work of an intelligent, personal Creator than the work of mindless chance!
Dear Lord, while I stand amazed at the abilities You have given Your creatures, help me to realize at the same time that all my abilities are from You. I have not made them, nor do I own them - You do. Move me, by Your love for me, to use my abilities for Your purposes. Amen.
Photo: Hunting wasp transporting a paralyzed caterpillar to her nest. Courtesy of Benny Mazur. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Job 21:22
"Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high?"
What if your refrigerator stopped working . . . in August? It would be a real mess! Without refrigeration, we would have to get fresh food almost every day. While the hunting wasp doesn't build refrigerators, it has solved this problem.
It is during the hottest months of the year that the hunting wasp is most active. However, the hot summer months are not the best time to store food that could spoil, especially in the nursery! Hunting wasps eat a very specific species of caterpillar - and caterpillars spoil easily.
When it's ready to lay its eggs, the hunting wasp will capture a caterpillar and, instead of killing it with one sting, will carefully paralyze each of the caterpillar's 13 segments one at a time. It then carefully bites the base of the caterpillar's brain, not to kill it but just to keep it permanently disabled. Then it lays one egg on the caterpillar. As its young grow, the wasp continues to provide specially prepared caterpillars - just enough to keep the young fed and not so many that there will be any spoiled food in the nest.
The hunting wasp's system seems to be based on far more knowledge than a wasp would be expected to discover all by itself - especially since the cost of failure is the death of the next generation. This certainly looks more like the work of an intelligent, personal Creator than the work of mindless chance!
Dear Lord, while I stand amazed at the abilities You have given Your creatures, help me to realize at the same time that all my abilities are from You. I have not made them, nor do I own them - You do. Move me, by Your love for me, to use my abilities for Your purposes. Amen.
Photo: Hunting wasp transporting a paralyzed caterpillar to her nest. Courtesy of Benny Mazur. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
A MOST UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP
Isaiah 55:8
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
When we discover the unexpected in the creation, we are reminded that reality is much bigger than our small thoughts. That's a hint! God Himself says in the Bible, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8).
This means that when we study our world, we must keep in mind that nothing forced God to make things a certain way. He was completely free. While God made an orderly creation, His logic and His creativity are far above ours. Those who believe in a Creator learn to expect delightful surprises in God's world. For those who want to say that the world is a result of mindless natural forces, many of these surprises leave them with little idea of how to explain them according to their system.
One of these surprises is found in the strange relationship between the pagurid crab and the sea anemone. The pagurid crab lives in a shell that is really too small to hold it. So the anemone molds itself to cover the crab and attaches himself to the crab. This gives the crab plenty of freedom or movement because part of his living "shell" is pliable. However, the anemone takes advantage of his position by stealing much of the crab's food. But if the crab is removed from this species of anemone, the anemone will die.
This strange relationship is vital to both these creatures - so far apart on the evolutionary scale. This relationship makes no sense at all unless there is a Creator!
Dear Father; let me be comforted by Your love to me when I do not understand why You allow certain things to happen in my life. I know that Your ways and Your wisdom are far above mine. I trust You for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Photo: Red hermit crab, Pagurus sinuatus. Courtesy of Sylke Rohrlach. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Isaiah 55:8
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
When we discover the unexpected in the creation, we are reminded that reality is much bigger than our small thoughts. That's a hint! God Himself says in the Bible, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8).
This means that when we study our world, we must keep in mind that nothing forced God to make things a certain way. He was completely free. While God made an orderly creation, His logic and His creativity are far above ours. Those who believe in a Creator learn to expect delightful surprises in God's world. For those who want to say that the world is a result of mindless natural forces, many of these surprises leave them with little idea of how to explain them according to their system.
One of these surprises is found in the strange relationship between the pagurid crab and the sea anemone. The pagurid crab lives in a shell that is really too small to hold it. So the anemone molds itself to cover the crab and attaches himself to the crab. This gives the crab plenty of freedom or movement because part of his living "shell" is pliable. However, the anemone takes advantage of his position by stealing much of the crab's food. But if the crab is removed from this species of anemone, the anemone will die.
This strange relationship is vital to both these creatures - so far apart on the evolutionary scale. This relationship makes no sense at all unless there is a Creator!
Dear Father; let me be comforted by Your love to me when I do not understand why You allow certain things to happen in my life. I know that Your ways and Your wisdom are far above mine. I trust You for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Photo: Red hermit crab, Pagurus sinuatus. Courtesy of Sylke Rohrlach. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
WHO IS AGAINST EVOLUTION?
Job 21:7, 14
"Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? . . . Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."
Lots of folks would like you to believe that only ignorant, backward people reject evolution. But is that really the case? The fact is that the case for evolution is so weak that many scientists who cannot even be called friends of Christianity reject it on scientific grounds!
Back in 1981, Dr. Colin Patterson of the prestigious British Museum of Natural History shocked the scientific world. He told scientists at the famed American Museum of Natural History in New York that he'd been examining anti evolutionary ideas for about 18 months. It finally struck him that, although he had been working on evolution for 20 years, he could not find one fact about evolution that he really knew to be true.
Dr. Patterson said he had asked scientific colleagues at other institutions whether they knew anything about evolution to be actually true. After a lot of silence at several meetings, one fellow scientist finally spoke up at one meeting and said, "I do know one thing - it ought not to be taught in high school."
Dr. Patterson concluded his talk at the American Museum of Natural History by saying that he finally "woke up and realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth in some way." You see, those who reject evolution are in a lot of good, educated company!
Lord, I mourn for the many who try to avoid You by hiding in stories about evolution, especially since I know that they cannot avoid coming face to face with You at the judgment. Despite the fact that many of them have set themselves as enemies of Your people, I pray for them and ask that they may not avoid coming in repentance to You before it is too late. Amen.
Photo: The British Museum Great Court. Courtesy of David Iliff. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Job 21:7, 14
"Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? . . . Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."
Lots of folks would like you to believe that only ignorant, backward people reject evolution. But is that really the case? The fact is that the case for evolution is so weak that many scientists who cannot even be called friends of Christianity reject it on scientific grounds!
Back in 1981, Dr. Colin Patterson of the prestigious British Museum of Natural History shocked the scientific world. He told scientists at the famed American Museum of Natural History in New York that he'd been examining anti evolutionary ideas for about 18 months. It finally struck him that, although he had been working on evolution for 20 years, he could not find one fact about evolution that he really knew to be true.
Dr. Patterson said he had asked scientific colleagues at other institutions whether they knew anything about evolution to be actually true. After a lot of silence at several meetings, one fellow scientist finally spoke up at one meeting and said, "I do know one thing - it ought not to be taught in high school."
Dr. Patterson concluded his talk at the American Museum of Natural History by saying that he finally "woke up and realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth in some way." You see, those who reject evolution are in a lot of good, educated company!
Lord, I mourn for the many who try to avoid You by hiding in stories about evolution, especially since I know that they cannot avoid coming face to face with You at the judgment. Despite the fact that many of them have set themselves as enemies of Your people, I pray for them and ask that they may not avoid coming in repentance to You before it is too late. Amen.
Photo: The British Museum Great Court. Courtesy of David Iliff. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
IS EVOLUTION SIMPLY CHANGE?
1 Corinthians 1:20
"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"
Many people think that evolution is simply any change. Developing a new breed of dog is often referred to by many people as proof for evolution. But is it really? Those who claim that the domestic breeding of crop or animal species has anything to do with evolution take their cue from Darwin, who - although he had no degree in science - made the same claims.
Evolution is not simply change like what we see in domestic breeding programs. You might say that it's easy for a creationist to say this, but let's allow a scientist who is neither a creationist nor a Christian make the case for us. In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Dr. Michael Denton explains that evolution is in crisis for the simple reason that biology offers no evidence that evolution happens. Since science relies on evidence, he is really saying that evolution is not science at all.
Denton, who has spent much of his scientific career studying evolution, adds insult to injury by stating that "Despite more than a century of intensive effort on the part of evolutionary biologists, the major objections raised by Darwin's critics . . . have not been met."
In other words, evolutionary scientists have not been able to answer creationist challenges. Or, as we have been saying all along, the Bible does offer an intelligent alternative to evolution!
Dear Father, I thank You for those honest scientists who, even though they do not believe in Christ as their Lord and Savior, are still honest enough to identify a falsehood. Today I especially ask that You work in their hearts so that they may seek and find their Savior, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Photo: Cover of Michael Denton's book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Published by Burnett Books, 1985.
1 Corinthians 1:20
"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"
Many people think that evolution is simply any change. Developing a new breed of dog is often referred to by many people as proof for evolution. But is it really? Those who claim that the domestic breeding of crop or animal species has anything to do with evolution take their cue from Darwin, who - although he had no degree in science - made the same claims.
Evolution is not simply change like what we see in domestic breeding programs. You might say that it's easy for a creationist to say this, but let's allow a scientist who is neither a creationist nor a Christian make the case for us. In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Dr. Michael Denton explains that evolution is in crisis for the simple reason that biology offers no evidence that evolution happens. Since science relies on evidence, he is really saying that evolution is not science at all.
Denton, who has spent much of his scientific career studying evolution, adds insult to injury by stating that "Despite more than a century of intensive effort on the part of evolutionary biologists, the major objections raised by Darwin's critics . . . have not been met."
In other words, evolutionary scientists have not been able to answer creationist challenges. Or, as we have been saying all along, the Bible does offer an intelligent alternative to evolution!
Dear Father, I thank You for those honest scientists who, even though they do not believe in Christ as their Lord and Savior, are still honest enough to identify a falsehood. Today I especially ask that You work in their hearts so that they may seek and find their Savior, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Photo: Cover of Michael Denton's book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Published by Burnett Books, 1985.
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