Chapter 10

Evidence From a Unique Planet

1, 2. What do observers say about our planet Earth?

OUR planet Earth is truly a wonder​—a rare, beautiful jewel in space. Astronauts have reported that, viewed from space, the earth’s blue skies and white clouds “made it by far the most inviting object they could see.”⁠¹

² However, it is much more than just beautiful. “The greatest of all cosmological scientific puzzles, confounding all our efforts to comprehend it, is the earth,” wrote Lewis Thomas in Discover. He added: “We are only now beginning to appreciate how strange and splendid it is, how it catches the breath, the loveliest object afloat around the sun, enclosed in its own blue bubble of atmosphere, manufacturing and breathing its own oxygen, fixing its own nitrogen from the air into its own soil, generating its own weather.”⁠²

3. What does the book The Earth say about our planet, and why?

³ Also of interest is this fact: Of all the planets in our solar system, only on Earth have scientists found life. And what marvelous, abundant varieties of living things there are​—microscopic organisms, insects, plants, fish, birds, animals and humans. In addition, the earth is a vast storehouse of wealth that contains everything needed to sustain all that life. Truly, as the book The Earth expressed it, “The earth is the wonder of the universe, a unique sphere.”⁠³

4. What illustration can be used to show how unique the earth is, and what conclusion must we draw?

⁴ To illustrate how unique the earth is, imagine that you are in a barren desert, devoid of all life. Suddenly you come upon a beautiful house. The house has air conditioning, heating, plumbing and electricity. Its refrigerator and cupboards are filled with food. Its basement contains fuel and other supplies. Now, suppose you asked someone where all of this came from, in such a barren desert. What would you think if that person answered, “It just happened to appear there by chance”? Would you believe that? Or would you take for granted that it had a designer and builder?

5. What Biblical illustration is appropriate to our planet Earth?

⁵ All the other planets that scientists have probed are devoid of life. But Earth teems with life, sustained by very complex systems that provide light, air, heat, water and food, all in exquisite balance. It shows evidence of having been specially built to accommodate living things comfortably​—like a magnificent house. And logically, as one of the Bible’s penmen argues: “Every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.” Yes, the infinitely greater and more amazing “house”​—our planet Earth—​requires the existence of a remarkably intelligent designer and builder, God.​—Hebrews 3:4.

6. How have some acknowledged that the planet Earth does give evidence of intelligent design?

⁶ The more that scientists examine the planet Earth and its life, the more they realize that it is indeed superbly designed. Scientific American marvels: “As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.”⁠⁴ And Science News admitted: “It seems as if such particular and precise conditions could hardly have arisen at random.”⁠⁵

Right Distance From the Sun

7. How does the earth receive just the right amount of energy in the form of light and heat from the sun?

⁷ Among the many precise conditions vital to life on the earth is the amount of light and heat received from the sun. The earth gets only a small fraction of the sun’s energy. Yet, it is just the right amount required to sustain life. This is because the earth is just the right distance from the sun​—an average 93,000,000 miles. If the earth were much closer to the sun or farther away from it, temperatures would be too hot or too cold for life.

8. Why is the earth’s orbital speed around the sun so vital?

⁸ As it orbits the sun once a year the earth travels at a speed of about 66,600 miles an hour. That speed is just right to offset the gravitational pull of the sun and keep the earth at the proper distance. If that speed were decreased, the earth would be pulled toward the sun. In time, Earth could become a scorched wasteland like Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. Mercury’s daytime temperature is over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. However, if Earth’s orbital speed were increased, it would move farther away from the sun and could become an icy waste like Pluto, the planet whose orbit reaches farthest from the sun. Pluto’s temperature is about 300 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

9. Why is it important that the earth rotate on its axis with a certain frequency?

⁹ In addition, the earth consistently makes a complete rotation on its axis every 24 hours. This provides regular periods of light and darkness. But what if the earth rotated on its axis, say, only once a year? It would mean that the same side of the earth would be facing the sun all year long. That side would likely become a furnacelike desert, while the side away from the sun would likely become a sub-zero wasteland. Few, if any, living things could exist in those extreme circumstances.

10. How does the earth’s tilt affect climate and crops?

¹⁰ As Earth rotates on its axis, it is tilted 23.5 degrees in relation to the sun. If the earth were not tilted, there would be no change of seasons. Climate would be the same all the time. While this would not make life impossible, it would make it less interesting and would drastically change the present crop cycles in many places. If the earth were tilted much more, there would be extremely hot summers and extremely cold winters. But the tilt of 23.5 degrees allows for the delightful changing of seasons with their interesting variety. In many parts of the earth there are refreshing springtimes with plants and trees awakening and beautiful flowers coming into bloom, warm summers that allow for all kinds of outdoor activity, crisp autumn weather with gorgeous displays of leaves changing colors, and winters with beautiful scenes of snow-draped mountains, forests and fields.

Our Amazing Atmosphere

11. What makes the earth’s atmosphere so unique?

¹¹ Also unique​—indeed, amazing—​is the atmosphere that surrounds our earth. No other planet in our solar system has it. Nor does our moon. That is why astronauts needed space suits to survive there. But no space suits are needed on the earth, because our atmosphere contains the right proportions of gases that are absolutely essential for life. Some of those gases, by themselves, are deadly. But because air contains safe proportions of these gases, we can breathe them without harm.

12. (a) How is it evident that we have just the right amount of oxygen? (b) What vital function does nitrogen have?

¹² One of those gases is oxygen, making up 21 percent of the air we breathe. Without it, humans and animals would die within minutes. But too much oxygen would endanger our existence. Why? Pure oxygen becomes toxic if breathed too long. In addition, the more oxygen there is, the more easily things burn. If there were too much oxygen in the atmosphere, combustible materials would become highly flammable. Fires would easily burst forth and would be difficult to control. Wisely, oxygen is diluted with other gases, especially nitrogen, which makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere. But nitrogen is much more than just a dilutant. During thunderstorms, millions of lightning bolts occur earth wide every day. This lightning causes some nitrogen to combine with oxygen. The compounds produced are carried to the earth by rain, and plants make use of them as fertilizer.

13. What part does the right amount of carbon dioxide play in the life cycle?

¹³ Carbon dioxide makes up less than one percent of the atmosphere. What good is such a small amount? Without it, plant life would die. That small amount is what plants need to take in, giving off oxygen in return. Humans and animals breathe in the oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. An increasing percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would tend to be harmful to humans and animals. A decreasing percentage could not support plant life. What a marvelous, precise, self-sustaining cycle has been arranged for plant, animal and human life!

14, 15. How does the atmosphere serve as a protective shell?

¹⁴ The atmosphere does more than sustain life. It serves as a protective shell too. About 15 miles above the ground, a thin layer of ozone gas filters out harmful radiation from the sun. Without this ozone layer, such radiation could destroy life on earth. Also, the atmosphere shields the earth from bombardment by meteors. Most meteors never reach the ground because they burn up in their descent through the atmosphere, appearing to us as falling stars. Otherwise, millions of meteors would strike all parts of the earth, resulting in extensive damage to life and property.

¹⁵ In addition to being a protective shell, the atmosphere keeps the warmth of the earth from being lost to the coldness of space. And the atmosphere is itself kept from escaping by the earth’s gravitational pull. That gravity is just strong enough to accomplish this, but not so strong that our freedom of movement is hampered.

16. What can be said about the beauty of the sky?

¹⁶ Not only is the atmosphere vital for life, but one of the more beautiful sights is the changing sky. Its scope and grandeur simply stagger the imagination. The earth is enveloped with the sky’s endlessly majestic and colorful panoramas. In the east a golden glow announces the dawn, while the western sky bids the day farewell in glorious displays of pink, orange, red and purple. White billowy, cottonlike clouds proclaim a fine spring or summer day; an autumn mantle of clouds like lamb’s wool says that winter is approaching. At night the sky is magnificent in its starry splendor, and a moonlit night has a beauty all its own.

17. How did a writer comment on the sky, and to whom does the credit belong?

¹⁷ What an amazing provision our earth’s atmosphere is, in every way! As a writer in The New England Journal of Medicine commented: “Taken all in all, the sky is a miraculous achievement. It works, and for what it is designed to accomplish it is as infallible as anything in nature. I doubt whether any of us could think of a way to improve on it, beyond maybe shifting a local cloud from here to there on occasion.”⁠⁶ This comment calls to mind what a man millenniums ago recognized when confronted with such remarkable things​—that they are “the wonderful works of the One perfect in knowledge.” He meant, of course, “the Creator of the heavens and the Grand One stretching them out.”​—Job 37:16; Isaiah 42:5.

Water​—An Extraordinary Substance

18. What are some qualities of water that make it extraordinary?

¹⁸ The earth contains vast supplies of water with properties essential for life. It is more abundant than any other substance. Among its many advantageous qualities is that it occurs as a gas (water vapor), a liquid (water), and a solid (ice)​—all within earth’s temperature range. Too, the thousands of raw materials that humans, animals and plants need must be transported in a fluid, such as blood or sap. Water is most ideal for this because it will dissolve more substances than any other liquid. Without water, nutrition could not continue, since living organisms depend on water to dissolve the substances on which they feed.

19. What unusual quality does freezing water have, and why is that so important?

¹⁹ Water is also extraordinary in the way it freezes. As water in lakes and seas cools, it becomes heavier and sinks. This forces the lighter, warmer water to rise to the top. Yet, as water approaches the freezing point, the process reverses! The colder water now becomes lighter and rises. When it freezes into ice, it floats. The ice acts as an insulator and keeps the deeper waters underneath from freezing, thus protecting marine life. Without this unique quality, every winter more and more ice would sink to the bottom where the sun’s rays could not melt it the following summer. Soon, much of the water in rivers, lakes and even the oceans would become solid ice. The earth would turn into an icy planet that would be inhospitable to life.

20. How is rain formed, and why does the size of raindrops show thoughtful design?

²⁰ Extraordinary, too, is the way that regions far from rivers, lakes and seas get life-sustaining water. Every second, the sun’s heat changes thousands of millions of gallons of water into vapor. This vapor, lighter than air, floats upward and forms clouds in the sky. Wind and air currents move these clouds, and, under the right conditions, the moisture drops as rain. But raindrops tend to grow only to a certain size. What if this were not so, and raindrops became gigantic in size? That would be disastrous! Instead, rain usually comes down in the right size, and gently, seldom hurting even a blade of grass or the most delicate flower. What masterful, considerate design is evident in water!​—Psalm 104:1, 10-14; Ecclesiastes 1:7.

“The Productive Land”

21, 22. What wisdom is shown in the makeup of “the productive land”?

²¹ One of the Biblical penmen describes God as “the One firmly establishing the productive land by his wisdom.” (Jeremiah 10:12) And this “productive land”​—the soil of planet Earth—​is impressive. Wisdom is evident in its makeup. Soil has qualities essential for plant growth. Plants combine the nutrients and water in the soil with carbon dioxide from the air, in the presence of light, to produce food.​—Compare Ezekiel 34:26, 27.

²² The soil contains chemical elements that are needed to sustain human and animal life. But vegetation must first convert those elements into forms that can be assimilated by the body. Cooperating in this are tiny living organisms. And many millions of them can be found in just a spoonful of soil! They are of countless different designs, each working to convert dead leaves, grass and other waste matter back to usable form, or to loosen up the soil so that air and water can get in. Certain bacteria convert nitrogen into compounds that plants need for growth. Topsoil is improved as burrowing worms and insects continually bring up particles of subsoil to the surface.

23. What powers of restoration does the soil have?

²³ True, because of misuse and other factors some soil is damaged. But this damage need not be permanent. The earth has amazing built-in powers of restoration. This can be noted in places where fires or volcanic eruptions have devastated the land. In time, these areas once again flourish with vegetation. And when pollution is controlled, land is restored, even land that was turned into a barren waste. Most important of all, to deal with the basic problem behind misuse of the soil, earth’s Creator has purposed to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth” and to preserve it as the eternal home he originally prepared for mankind.​—Revelation 11:18; Isaiah 45:18.

Not Just Chance

24. What questions can we ask about undirected chance?

²⁴ In thinking over the foregoing, here are some things to consider: Was it undirected chance that placed the earth at just the right distance from the sun, its source of energy in the form of light and heat? Was it mere chance that caused the earth to move around the sun at just the right speed, to rotate on its axis every 24 hours, and to have just the correct angle of tilt? Was it chance that provided the earth with a protective, life-sustaining atmosphere having just the right mixture of gases? Was it chance that gave the earth the water and soil needed to grow food? Was it chance that provided so many delicious and colorful fruits, vegetables and other foods? Was it chance that caused so much beauty to exist in the sky, the mountains, the streams and lakes, the flowers, plants and trees, and in so many other delightful living things?

25. What conclusion about our unique planet have many people drawn?

²⁵ Many have concluded that all of this could hardly be due to undirected chance. Instead, they see the unmistakable stamp of thoughtful, intelligent, deliberate design everywhere. Recognizing that, they feel it is only right that the beneficiaries “fear God and give him glory” because he is “the One who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”​—Revelation 14:7.

Chapter 11

The Amazing Design of Living Things

1, 2. (a) What shows that scientists recognize the need for a designer? (b) Yet how do they then reverse themselves?

WHEN anthropologists dig in the earth and find a triangular piece of sharp flint, they conclude that it must have been designed by someone to be the tip of an arrow. Such things designed for a purpose, scientists agree, could not be products of chance.

² When it comes to living things, however, the same logic is often abandoned. A designer is not considered necessary. But the simplest single-celled organism, or just the DNA of its genetic code, is far more complex than a shaped piece of flint. Yet evolutionists insist that these had no designer but were shaped by a series of chance events.

3. What need did Darwin recognize, and how did he attempt to fill it?

³ However, Darwin recognized the need for some designing force and gave natural selection the job. “Natural selection,” he said, “is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good.”⁠¹ That view, however, is now losing favor.

4. How are views on natural selection changing?

⁴ Stephen Gould reports that many contemporary evolutionists now say that substantial change “may not be subject to natural selection and may spread through populations at random.”⁠² Gordon Taylor agrees: “Natural selection explains a small part of what occurs: the bulk remains unexplained.”⁠³ Geologist David Raup says: “A currently important alternative to natural selection has to do with the effects of pure chance.”⁠⁴ But is “pure chance” a designer? Is it capable of producing the complexities that are the fabric of life?

5. What recognition does an evolutionist give to design and to its originator?

⁵ Evolutionist Richard Lewontin admitted that organisms “appear to have been carefully and artfully designed,” so that some scientists viewed them as “the chief evidence of a Supreme Designer.”⁠⁵ It will be useful to consider some of this evidence.

Little Things

6. Are single-celled organisms really simple?

⁶ Let us start with the smallest of living things: single-celled organisms. A biologist said that single-celled animals can “catch food, digest it, get rid of wastes, move around, build houses, engage in sexual activity” and “with no tissues, no organs, no hearts and no minds​—really have everything we’ve got.”⁠⁶

7. How and for what purpose do diatoms make glass, and how important are they to life in the seas?

⁷ Diatoms, one-celled organisms, take silicon and oxygen from seawater and make glass, with which they construct tiny “pillboxes” to contain their green chlorophyll. They are extolled by one scientist for both their importance and their beauty: “These green leaves enclosed in jewel boxes are pastures for nine tenths of the food of everything that lives in the seas.” A large part of their food value is in the oil that diatoms make, which also helps them bob buoyantly near the surface where their chlorophyll can bask in sunlight.

8. With what complex shapes do diatoms cover themselves?

⁸ Their beautiful glass-box coverings, this same scientist tells us, come in a “bewildering variety of shapes​—circles, squares, shields, triangles, ovals, rectangles—​always exquisitely ornamented with geometric etchings. These are filigreed in pure glass with such fine skill that a human hair would have to be sliced lengthwise into four hundred slices to fit between the marks.”⁠⁷

9. How complex are some of the houses radiolarians build?

⁹ One group of ocean-dwelling animals, called radiolarians, make glass and with it build “glass sunbursts, with long thin transparent spikelets radiating from a central crystal sphere.” Or “glass struts are built into hexagons and used to make simple geodesic domes.” Of a certain microscopic builder it is said: “One geodesic dome will not do for this superarchitect; it has to be three lacelike fretted glass domes, one inside another.”⁠⁸ Words fail to describe these marvels of design​—it takes pictures to do so.

10, 11. (a) What are sponges, and what happens to the individual cells when a sponge is completely broken up? (b) What question about sponge skeletons do evolutionists find unanswerable, but what do we know?

¹⁰ Sponges are made up of millions of cells, but only a few different kinds. A college textbook explains: “The cells are not organized into tissues or organs, yet there is a form of recognition among the cells that holds them together and organizes them.”⁠⁹ If a sponge is mashed through a cloth and separated into its millions of cells, those cells will come together and rebuild the sponge. Sponges construct skeletons of glass that are very beautiful. One of the most amazing is Venus’s-flower-basket.

¹¹ Of it, one scientist says: “When you look at a complex sponge skeleton such as that made of silica spicules which is known as [Venus’s-flower-basket], the imagination is baffled. How could quasi-independent microscopic cells collaborate to secrete a million glassy splinters and construct such an intricate and beautiful lattice? We do not know.”⁠¹⁰ But one thing we do know: Chance is not the likely designer.

Partnerships

12. What is symbiosis, and what are some examples?

¹² Many cases exist where two organisms appear designed to live together. Such partnerships are examples of symbiosis (living together). Certain figs and wasps need each other in order to reproduce. Termites eat wood but need the protozoa in their bodies to digest it. Similarly, cattle, goats and camels could not digest the cellulose in grass without the help of bacteria and protozoa living inside them. A report says: “The part of a cow’s stomach where that digestion takes place has a volume of about 100 quarts​—and contains 10 billion microorganisms in each drop.”⁠¹¹ Algae and fungi team up and become lichens. Only then can they grow on bare rock to start turning rock into soil.

13. The partnership between stinging ants and acacia trees raises what questions?

¹³ Stinging ants live in the hollow thorns of acacia trees. They keep leaf-eating insects off the tree and they cut up and kill vines that try to climb on the tree. In return, the tree secretes a sugary fluid that the ants relish, and it also produces small false fruit, which serves as food for the ants. Did the ant first protect the tree and then the tree rewarded it with fruit? Or did the tree make fruit for the ant and the ant then thanked it with protection? Or did it all chance to happen at once?

14. What special provisions and mechanisms do flowers use to attract insects for pollination?

¹⁴ Many cases of such cooperation exist between insects and flowers. Insects pollinate flowers, and in return flowers feed insects pollen and nectar. Some flowers produce two kinds of pollen. One fertilizes seeds, the other is sterile but feeds insect visitors. Many flowers have special markings and smells to guide insects to the nectar. En route the insects pollinate the flower. Some flowers have trigger mechanisms. When insects touch the trigger they get swatted by the pollen-containing anthers.

15. How does the Dutchman’s-pipe ensure cross-pollination, and what questions does this raise?

¹⁵ For example, the Dutchman’s-pipe cannot pollinate itself but needs insects to bring in pollen from another flower. The plant has a tubular leaf that envelops its flower, and this leaf is coated with wax. Insects, attracted by the smell of the flower, land on the leaf and plunge down the slippery slide to a chamber at the bottom. There, ripe stigmas receive the pollen that the insects brought in, and pollination takes place. But for three more days the insects are trapped there by hairs and the waxed sides. After that, the flower’s own pollen ripens and dusts the insects. Only then do the hairs wilt, and the waxed slide bends over until it is level. The insects walk out and, with their new supply of pollen, fly to another Dutchman’s-pipe to pollinate it. The insects do not mind their three-day visit, since they feast on nectar stored there for them. Did all of this happen by chance? Or did it happen by intelligent design?

16. How do some Ophrys orchids and the bucket orchid get themselves pollinated?

¹⁶ Some types of Ophrys orchids have on their petals a picture of a female wasp, complete with eyes, antennae and wings. It even gives off the odor of a female in mating condition! The male comes to mate, but only pollinates the flower. Another orchid, the bucket orchid, has a fermented nectar that makes the bee wobbly on its feet; it slips into a bucket of liquid and the only way out is to wriggle under a rod that dusts the bee with pollen.

Nature’s “Factories”

17. How do leaves and roots work together in nourishing plants?

¹⁷ Green leaves of plants feed the world, directly or indirectly. But they cannot function without the help of tiny roots. Millions of rootlets​—each root tip fitted with a protective cap, each cap lubricated with oil—​push their way through the soil. Root hairs behind the oily cap absorb water and minerals, which travel up minute channels in the sapwood to the leaves. In the leaves sugars and amino acids are made, and these nutrients are sent throughout the tree and into the roots.

18. (a) How does water get from roots to leaves, and what shows that this system is more than adequate? (b) What is transpiration, and how does it contribute to the water cycle?

¹⁸ Certain features of the circulatory system of trees and plants are so amazing that many scientists regard them as almost miraculous. First, how is the water pumped two or three hundred feet above the ground? Root pressure starts it on its way, but in the trunk another mechanism takes over. Water molecules hold together by cohesion. Because of this cohesion, as water evaporates from the leaves the tiny columns of water are pulled up like ropes​—ropes reaching from the roots to the leaves, and traveling at up to 200 feet an hour. This system, it is said, could lift water in a tree about two miles high! As excess water evaporates from the leaves (called transpiration), billions of tons of water are recycled into the air, once again to fall as rain​—a perfectly designed system!

19. What vital service is performed by the partnership of some roots and certain bacteria?

¹⁹ There is more. The leaves need nitrates or nitrites from the ground to make vital amino acids. Some amounts are put into the soil by lightning and by certain free-living bacteria. Nitrogen compounds in adequate quantities are also formed by legumes​—plants such as peas, clover, beans and alfalfa. Certain bacteria enter their roots, the roots provide the bacteria with carbohydrates, and the bacteria change, or fix, nitrogen from the soil into usable nitrates and nitrites, producing some 200 pounds per acre each year.

20. (a) What does photosynthesis do, where does it happen, and who understands the process? (b) How does one biologist view it? (c) What may green plants be called, how do they excel, and what questions are appropriate?

²⁰ There is still more. Green leaves take energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the plant’s roots to make sugar and give off oxygen. The process is called photosynthesis, and it happens in cell bodies called chloroplasts​—so small that 400,000 can fit into the period at the end of this sentence. Scientists do not understand the process fully. “There are about seventy separate chemical reactions involved in photosynthesis,” one biologist said. “It is truly a miraculous event.”⁠¹² Green plants have been called nature’s “factories”​—beautiful, quiet, nonpolluting, producing oxygen, recycling water and feeding the world. Did they just happen by chance? Is that truly believable?

21, 22. (a) What did two famous scientists say in testifying to the intelligence in the natural world? (b) How does the Bible reason on this matter?

²¹ Some of the world’s most famous scientists have found it hard to believe. They see intelligence in the natural world. Nobel-prize-winning physicist Robert A. Millikan, although a believer in evolution, did say at a meeting of the American Physical Society: “There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends . . . A purely materialistic philosophy is to me the height of unintelligence. Wise men in all the ages have always seen enough to at least make them reverent.” In his speech he quoted Albert Einstein’s notable words, wherein Einstein said that he did “try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifest in nature.”⁠¹³

²² Evidence of design surrounds us, in endless variety and amazing intricacy, indicating a superior intelligence. This conclusion is also voiced in the Bible, where design is attributed to a Creator whose “invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.”​—Romans 1:20.

23. What reasonable conclusion does the psalmist express?

²³ With so much evidence of design in the life around us, it does seem “inexcusable” to say that undirected chance is behind it. Hence, for the psalmist to credit an intelligent Creator is certainly not unreasonable: “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions. As for this sea so great and wide, there there are moving things without number, living creatures, small as well as great.”​—Psalm 104:24, 25.

[Box/​Pictures on page 148, 149]

The Amazing Designs of Seeds

Seeds Ripe and Ready to Go!

A variety of ingenious designs send seeds on their way! Orchid seeds are so light that they float off like dust. Dandelion seeds come equipped with parachutes. Maple seeds have wings and flutter off like butterflies. Some water plants equip their seeds with air-filled floats and off they sail.

Some plants have pods that snap open and the seeds are catapulted out. The slippery seeds of witch hazel are first squeezed, then shot out from the fruit, like watermelon seeds that children squirt from thumb and forefinger. The squirting cucumber uses hydraulics. As it grows the skin thickens inwardly, the fluid center comes under increasing pressure, and by the time the seeds are ripe the pressure is so great that it blows the stem out like a cork from a bottle, and the seeds shoot out.

[Pictures]

Dandelion

Maple

Squirting cucumber

Seeds That Measure Rainfall

Some desert annuals have seeds that refuse to sprout until a half inch or more of rain has fallen. They also seem to know which direction the water comes from​—if it rains down from above they will sprout, but if it is being soaked up from below, they will not. In the soil there are salts that prevent the seeds from sprouting. It takes rain from above to leach out these salts. Water that is soaked up from below cannot do this.

If these desert annuals started growing after only a light shower, they would die. It takes a heavy rain to put enough moisture into the soil to save the plants from later dry spells. So they wait for it. Chance​—or design?

A Giant in a Tiny Package

One of the smallest seeds has packaged within it the biggest living thing on earth​—the giant sequoia tree. It grows over 300 feet high. Four feet above the ground its diameter may be 36 feet. One tree may contain enough wood to build 50 six-room houses. The two-foot-thick bark is flavored with tannin that repels insects, and its spongy, fibrous texture makes it almost as fireproof as asbestos. Its roots cover three or four acres. It lives over 3,000 years.

Yet the seeds that a sequoia tree rains down by the millions are not much bigger than a pinhead surrounded by tiny wings. A puny man standing at a sequoia’s base can only gaze upward in silent awe at its massive grandeur. Does it make sense to believe that the shaping of this majestic giant and of the tiny seed that packages it was not by design?

[Box/​Pictures on page 150]

Musical Virtuosos

The mockingbird is famous as a mimic. One imitated 55 other birds in an hour. But it is the mockingbird’s original compositions of melodious outpourings that keep listeners spellbound. Surely they go far beyond the few simple notes needed to declare territorial claims. Is it for their pleasure​—and ours?

The musician wrens of South America are no less amazing. Mated pairs sing duets, as do other tropical bird pairs. Their performances are unique, as one reference book notes: “The female and male sing either the same songs together, different songs, or different parts of the same song alternately; they may be so exactly timed that the total song sounds as though uttered by one bird.”⁠^a How beautiful are these soft musical dialogues as the mated wrens communicate with each other! A mere accidental occurrence?

Chapter 12

Who Did It First?

1. What did a biologist say about human inventors?

“I HAVE the suspicion,” one biologist said, “that we’re not the innovators we think we are; we’re merely the repeaters.”⁠¹ Many times, human inventors only repeat what plants and animals have been doing for thousands of years. This copying from living things is so prevalent that it has been given its own name​—bionics.

2. What comparison did another scientist make between human technology and that of nature?

² Another scientist says that practically all the fundamental areas of human technology “have been opened up and utilized to advantage by living things . . . before the human mind learned to understand and master their functions.” Interestingly, he adds: “In many areas, human technology is still lagging far behind nature.”⁠²

3. What questions should be kept in mind as examples of bionics are considered?

³ As you reflect on these complex abilities of living creatures that human inventors have attempted to copy, does it seem reasonable to believe that they happened by chance alone? And happened, not just once, but many times in unrelated creatures? Are these not the kind of intricate designs that experience teaches can only be the product of a brilliant designer? Do you really think that chance alone could create what it later took gifted men to copy? Bear in mind such questions as you consider the following examples:

4. (a) How do termites cool their homes? (b) What question are scientists unable to answer?

⁴ AIR CONDITIONING. Modern technology cools many homes. But long before, termites also cooled theirs, and they still do. Their nest is in the center of a large mound. From it, warm air rises into a network of air ducts near the surface. There stale air diffuses out the porous sides, and fresh cool air seeps in and descends into an air chamber at the bottom of the mound. From there it circulates into the nest. Some mounds have openings at the bottom where fresh air comes in, and in hot weather, water brought up from underground evaporates, thus cooling the air. How do millions of blind workers coordinate their efforts to build such ingeniously designed structures? Biologist Lewis Thomas answers: “The plain fact that they exhibit something like a collective intelligence is a mystery.”⁠³

5-8. What have airplane designers learned from wings of birds?

⁵ AIRPLANES. The design of airplane wings has benefited over the years from the study of the wings of birds. The curvature of the bird’s wing gives the lift needed to overcome the downward pull of gravity. But when the wing is tilted up too much, there is the danger of stalling. To avoid a stall, the bird has on the leading edges of its wings rows, or flaps, of feathers that pop up as wing tilt increases (1, 2). These flaps maintain lift by keeping the main airstream from separating from the wing surface.

⁶ Still another feature for controlling turbulence and preventing “stalling out” is the alula (3), a small bunch of feathers that the bird can raise up like a thumb.

⁷ At the tips of the wings of both birds and airplanes, eddies form and they produce drag. Birds minimize this in two ways. Some, like swifts and albatross, have long, slender wings with small tips, and this design eliminates most of the eddies. Others, like big hawks and vultures, have broad wings that would make big eddies, but this is avoided when the birds spread out, like fingers, the pinions at the ends of their wings. This changes these blunt ends into several narrow tips that reduce eddies and drag (4).

⁸ Airplane designers have adopted many of these features. The curvature of wings gives lift. Various flaps and projections serve to control airflow or to act as braking devices. Some small planes lessen wing-tip drag by the mounting of flat plates at right angles to the wing surface. Airplane wings, however, still fall short of the engineering marvels found in the wings of birds.

9. What animals and plants preceded man in the use of antifreeze, and how effective is it?

⁹ ANTIFREEZE. Humans use glycol in car radiators as antifreeze. But certain microscopic plants use chemically similar glycerol to keep from freezing in Antarctic lakes. It is also found in insects that survive in temperatures of 4 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. There are fish that produce their own antifreeze, enabling them to live in the frigid waters of Antarctica. Some trees survive temperatures of 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit because they contain “very pure water, without dust or dirt particles upon which ice crystals can form.”⁠⁴

10. How do certain water beetles make and use underwater breathing devices?

¹⁰ UNDERWATER BREATHING. People strap tanks of air to their backs and remain under water for up to an hour. Certain water beetles do it more simply and stay under longer. They grab a bubble of air and submerge. The bubble serves as a lung. It takes carbon dioxide from the beetle and diffuses it into the water, and takes oxygen dissolved in the water for the beetle to use.

11. How extensive are biological clocks in nature, and what are some examples?

¹¹ CLOCKS. Long before people used sundials, clocks in living organisms were keeping accurate time. When the tide is out microscopic plants called diatoms come to the surface of wet beach sand. When the tide comes in the diatoms go down into the sand again. Yet in sand in the laboratory, without any tidal ebb and flow, their clocks still make them come up and go down in time with the tides. Fiddler crabs turn a darker color and come out during low tide, turn pale and retreat to their burrows during high tide. In the laboratory away from the ocean, they still keep time with the changing tide, turning dark and light as the tide ebbs and flows. Birds can navigate by sun and stars, which change position as time passes. They must have internal clocks to compensate for these changes. (Jeremiah 8:7) From microscopic plants to people, millions of internal clocks are ticking away.

12. When did men start using crude compasses, but how were they in use long before this?

¹² COMPASSES. About the 13th century C.E. men began to use a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water​—a crude compass. But it was nothing new. Bacteria contain strings of magnetite particles just the right size to make a compass. These guide them to their preferred environments. Magnetite has been found in many other organisms ​—birds, bees, butterflies, dolphins, mollusks and others. Experiments indicate that homing pigeons can return home by sensing the earth’s magnetic field. It is now generally accepted that one of the ways migrating birds find their way is by the magnetic compasses in their heads.

13. (a) How are mangroves able to live in salt water? (b) What animals can drink seawater, and how so?

¹³ DESALINATION. Men build huge factories to remove salt from seawater. Mangrove trees have roots that suck up seawater, but filter it through membranes that remove the salt. One species of mangrove, Avicennia, using glands on the underside of its leaves, gets rid of the excess salt. Sea birds, such as gulls, pelicans, cormorants, albatross and petrels, drink seawater and by means of glands in their heads remove the excess salt that gets into their blood. Also penguins, sea turtles and sea iguanas drink salt water, removing the excess salt.

14. What are some examples of creatures that generate electricity?

¹⁴ ELECTRICITY. Some 500 varieties of electric fish have batteries. The African catfish can produce 350 volts. The giant electric ray of the North Atlantic puts out 50-ampere pulses of 60 volts. Shocks from the South American electric eel have been measured as high as 886 volts. “Eleven different families of fishes are known to include species with electrical organs,” a chemist says.⁠⁵

15. Animals conduct what various farming activities?

¹⁵ FARMING. For ages men have tilled the soil and tended livestock. But long before that, leaf-cutting ants were gardeners. For food they grew fungi in a compost they had made from leaves and their droppings. Some ants keep aphids as livestock, milk sugary honeydew from them and even build barns to shelter them. Harvester ants store seeds in underground granaries. (Proverbs 6:6-8) A beetle prunes mimosa trees. Pikas and marmots cut, cure and store hay.

16. (a) How do sea turtles, some birds and alligators incubate their eggs? (b) Why is the male mallee bird’s job a most challenging one, and how does he do it?

¹⁶ INCUBATORS. Man makes incubators to hatch eggs, but in this he is a latecomer. Sea turtles and some birds lay their eggs in the warm sand for incubation. Other birds will lay their eggs in the warm ashes of volcanoes for hatching. Sometimes alligators will cover their eggs with decaying vegetable matter to produce heat. But in this the male mallee bird is the expert. He digs a big hole, fills it with vegetable matter and covers it with sand. The fermenting vegetation heats the mound, the female mallee bird lays an egg in it weekly for up to six months, and all that time the male checks the temperature by sticking his beak into the mound. By adding or removing sand, even in weather from below freezing to very hot, he keeps his incubator at 92 degrees Fahrenheit.

17. How do the octopus and the squid use jet propulsion, and what unrelated animals also use it?

¹⁷ JET PROPULSION. Today when you fly in a plane you are probably being jet-propelled. Many animals are also jet-propelled and have been for millenniums. Both the octopus and the squid excel in this. They suck water into a special chamber and then, with powerful muscles, expel it, shooting themselves forward. Also using jet propulsion: the chambered nautilus, scallops, jellyfish, dragonfly larvae and even some oceanic plankton.

18. What are some of the many plants and animals that have lights, and in what way are their lights more efficient than man’s?

¹⁸ LIGHTING. Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the light bulb. But it is not too efficient, as it loses energy in the form of heat. Fireflies do better as they flash their lights on and off. They produce cold light that loses no energy. Many sponges, fungi, bacteria and worms glow brightly. One, called the railroad worm, is like a miniature train moving along with its red “headlight” and 11 white or pale green pairs of “windows.” Many fish have lights: flashlight fish, anglerfish, lantern fish, viperfish and constellation fish, to name a few. Microorganisms in the ocean surf light up and sparkle by the millions.

19. Who made paper long before man, and how does one papermaker insulate its home?

¹⁹ PAPER. Egyptians made it thousands of years ago. Even so, they were far behind wasps, yellow jackets and hornets. These winged workers chew up weathered wood, producing a gray paper to make their nests. Hornets hang their large round nests from a tree. The outer covering is many layers of tough paper, separated by dead-air spaces. This insulates the nest from heat and cold as effectively as would a brick wall 16 inches thick.

20. How does one type of bacterium move about, and how have scientists reacted to this?

²⁰ ROTARY ENGINE. Microscopic bacteria preceded man by thousands of years in making a rotary engine. One bacterium has hairlike extensions twisted together to form a stiff spiral, like a corkscrew. It spins this corkscrew around like the propeller of a ship and drives itself forward. It can even reverse its engine! But how it works is not completely understood. One report claims that the bacterium can attain speeds equivalent to 30 miles an hour, and it says that “nature had, in effect, invented the wheel.”⁠⁶ A researcher concludes: “One of the most fantastic concepts in biology has come true: Nature has indeed produced a rotary engine, complete with coupling, rotating axle, bearings, and rotating power transmission.”⁠⁷

21. How do several animals, completely unrelated, use sonar?

²¹ SONAR. The sonar of bats and dolphins surpasses man’s copy of it. In a darkened room with fine wires strung across it, bats fly about and never touch the wires. Their supersonic sound signals bounce off these objects and return to the bats, who then make use of echolocation to avoid them. Porpoises and whales do the same thing in water. Oilbirds use echolocation as they enter and leave the dark caves they roost in, making sharp clicking sounds to guide them.

22. How does the principle of ballast that is used in submarines work in several different, unrelated animals?

²² SUBMARINES. Many submarines existed before men invented them. Microscopic radiolarians have oil droplets in their protoplasm by which they regulate their weight and thereby move up or down in the ocean. Fish diffuse gas in to or out of their swim bladders, altering their buoyancy. Inside its shell, the chambered nautilus has chambers or flotation tanks. By altering the proportions of water and gas in these tanks, it regulates its depth. The cuttlebone (the calcified internal shell) of the cuttlefish is filled with cavities. To control buoyancy, this octopuslike creature pumps water out of its skeleton and allows gas to fill the emptied cavity. Thus the cavities of the cuttlebone function just like water tanks in a submarine.

23. What animals use heat-sensing organs, and how accurate are they?

²³ THERMOMETERS. From the 17th century onward men have developed thermometers, but they are crude compared to some found in nature. A mosquito’s antennae can sense a change of 1/300 degree Fahrenheit. A rattlesnake has pits on the sides of its head with which it can sense a change of 1/600 degree Fahrenheit. A boa constrictor responds in 35 milliseconds to a heat change of a fraction of a degree. The beaks of the mallee bird and the brush turkey can tell temperature to within one degree Fahrenheit.

24. What expression do these examples remind us of?

²⁴ All this copying from animals by humans is reminiscent of what the Bible suggests: “Ask the very beasts, and they will teach you; ask the wild birds​—they will tell you; crawling creatures will instruct you, fish in the sea will inform you.”​—Job 12:7, 8, Moffatt.

Chapter 13

Instinct​—Wisdom Programmed Before Birth

1. What were Darwin’s comments about instinct?

“MANY instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory,” Darwin wrote. He evidently felt that instinct was an unanswerable difficulty, for his next sentence was: “I may here premise that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.”⁠¹

2. How do some scientists today view instinct?

² Scientists today are no closer to explaining instinct than Darwin was. One evolutionist says: “The plain fact is that the genetic mechanism shows not the slightest sign of being able to convey specific behaviour patterns. . . . When we ask ourselves how any instinctive pattern of behaviour arose in the first place and became hereditarily fixed we are given no answer.”⁠²

3, 4. What does one book have to say about how the instinct to migrate got started, and how does its explanation fall short?

³ Yet one widely circulated book on birds, unlike Darwin and other evolutionists, sees no difficulty in accounting for one of the most mysterious instincts​—that involved in migration. It says: “There is no question that the process has been an evolutionary one: birds originating in warm climates probably spread outward in their search for food.”⁠³

⁴ Can such a simplistic answer explain the astounding feats of many migrators? Scientists know that any such experimental wanderings and learned behaviors are not incorporated into the genetic code and hence are not inherited by the offspring. Migration is admittedly instinctive and “independent of past experience.”⁠⁴ Consider a few examples.

Awesome Feats of Migrators

5. What migrations make the arctic terns the long-distance champions, and what question is raised by one scientist?

⁵ The long-distance champions are the arctic terns. Nesting north of the Arctic Circle, at summer’s end they fly south to spend the Antarctic summer on the pack ice near the South Pole. They may circle the entire continent of Antarctica before heading north to return to the Arctic. They thus complete an annual migration of about 22,000 miles. Rich food sources are available at both polar regions, so one scientist raises the question: “How did they ever discover that such sources existed so far apart?”⁠⁵ Evolution has no answer.

6, 7. What seems strange about the blackpoll warbler’s migration, and what questions make us realize the magnitude of its performance?

⁶ Just as unexplainable for evolution is the migration of the blackpoll warbler. It weighs only three quarters of an ounce. Yet in the fall it travels from Alaska to the eastern coast of Canada or New England, gorges on food, stores up fat and then waits for a cold front. When it comes, the bird takes off. Its final destination is South America, but it first heads toward Africa. Out over the Atlantic Ocean, flying at an altitude of up to some 20,000 feet, it picks up a prevailing wind that turns it toward South America.

⁷ How does the warbler know to wait for the cold front, and that it means good weather and a tail wind? How does it know to climb higher and higher, where air is thin and cold, and has 50 percent less oxygen? How does it know that only up that high does the crosswind blow that will carry it to South America? How does it know to fly toward Africa to allow for the southwestern drift from this wind? The blackpoll does not consciously know any of these things. On this trip of some 2,400 miles, over trackless seas, flying for three or four days and nights, it is governed by instinct alone.

8. What additional migratory feats are here mentioned?

⁸ White storks summer in Europe but fly 8,000 miles to winter in South Africa. The golden plover travels from the Arctic tundra to the pampas in Argentina. Certain sandpipers migrate a thousand miles beyond the pampas to the tip of South America. Bristle-thighed curlews fly from Alaska to Tahiti and other islands, up to 6,000 miles over open ocean. In a much shorter flight but just as remarkable, considering its size, the tenth-of-an-ounce ruby-throated hummingbird in its migration of 600 miles crosses the Gulf of Mexico, beating its tiny wings up to 75 times a second for 25 hours. Over six million wingbeats without stopping!

9. (a) What shows that abilities to migrate are not learned but must be programmed before birth? (b) What experiments with a Manx shearwater and with homing pigeons show that these birds are versatile navigators?

⁹ Many migrations are made for the first time by young birds without adults. Young long-tailed cuckoos of New Zealand travel 4,000 miles to Pacific islands to join their parents who had gone earlier. Manx shearwaters migrate from Wales to Brazil, leaving behind their chicks, which follow them as soon as they can fly. One made the trip in 16 days, averaging 460 miles per day. A Manx shearwater was taken from Wales to Boston, far off its normal migratory route. Yet it returned to its home burrow in Wales 3,200 miles away in 12 1/2 days. Homing pigeons, taken 625 miles away in any direction, have returned to their home lofts in one day.

10. What experiment showed the Adélie penguins’ powers of navigation?

¹⁰ One last example: birds that do not fly but walk and swim. Consider the Adélie penguins. When removed 1,200 miles from their rookeries and released, they quickly oriented themselves and set out in a straight line, not for the home rookery from which they were taken, but for the open sea and food. From the sea they eventually returned to the rookery. They spend the almost totally dark winters at sea. But how do the penguins stay oriented during the dark winter? No one knows.

11. What is required for birds to perform such amazing feats of navigation?

¹¹ How do birds perform these feats of navigation? Experiments indicate that they may use the sun and the stars. They appear to have internal clocks to compensate for the movement of these heavenly bodies. But what if the sky is overcast? At least some birds have built-in magnetic compasses for use then. But more than a compass direction is needed. They need a “map” in their heads, with both starting and destination points on it. And on the map the route must be marked, since it is seldom a straight line. But none of this helps unless they know where they are located on the map! The Manx shearwater had to know where it was when released in Boston to determine the direction to Wales. The homing pigeon had to know where it had been taken before it could ascertain the way to its loft.

12. (a) What did Jeremiah say about migration, when did he say it, and why is this remarkable? (b) Why may we never know all the details about migration?

¹² As late as the Middle Ages the fact of widespread bird migration was disputed by many, but the Bible spoke of it in the sixth century B.C.E.: “The stork in the sky knows the time to migrate, the dove and the swift and the wryneck know the season of return.” By now much has been learned, but much is still a mystery. Like it or not, what the Bible says is true: “He has given men a sense of time past and future, but no comprehension of God’s work from beginning to end.”​—Jeremiah 8:7; Ecclesiastes 3:11, The New English Bible.

Other Navigators

13. Besides birds, what are some other animals that migrate?

¹³ Caribou in Alaska migrate south 800 miles in winter. Many whales travel over 6,000 miles from the Arctic Ocean and back. Fur seals migrate between the Pribilof Islands and southern California, 3,000 miles apart. Green sea turtles navigate from the coast of Brazil to tiny Ascension Island, 1,400 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, and then back. Some crabs migrate up to 150 miles on the ocean floor. Salmon leave the streams where they hatched and spend a few years in the open ocean, then return hundreds of miles to the very same streams of their birth. Young eels born in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic spend most of their lives in freshwater streams in the United States and in Europe, but return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

14. What is amazing about the migration of monarch butterflies, and what mystery is unsolved?

¹⁴ Monarch butterflies leave Canada in the fall, many wintering in California or Mexico. Some flights exceed 2,000 miles; one butterfly covered 80 miles in a day. They settle on sheltered trees​—the same groves, even the same trees, year after year. But not the same butterflies! On the return trip in spring they deposit eggs on milkweed plants. The new butterflies thus produced continue the northward migration, and in the following fall they make the same 2,000-mile trip south that their parents did, blanketing the same groves of trees. The book The Story of Pollination comments: “The butterflies that come south in the fall are young individuals which have never before seen the hibernation sites. What enables them to find these is still one of those elusive mysteries of Nature.”⁠⁶

15. What one word answers several questions on the wisdom of animals?

¹⁵ Instinctive wisdom is not limited to migration. A quick sampling proves this point.

How can millions of blind termites synchronize their labors to build and air-condition their elaborate structures? Instinct.

How does the pronuba moth know the several steps to take to cross-pollinate the yucca flower, whereby both new yucca plants and new moths can be formed? Instinct.

How can the spider that lives in its “diving bell” under water know that when the oxygen is gone it must cut a hole in its underwater bell, release the stale air, mend the hole and bring down a new supply of fresh air? Instinct.

How does the mimosa girdler beetle know it must lay its eggs under the bark of a mimosa tree branch, come in a foot or so toward the trunk and cut the bark all the way around to kill the branch, because its eggs will not hatch in live wood? Instinct.

How does the bean-sized baby kangaroo, born blind and undeveloped, know that to survive it must struggle up unassisted through its mother’s fur to her abdomen and into her pouch and attach itself to one of her teats? Instinct.

How does one dancing honeybee tell other bees where nectar is, how much there is, how far it is, in what direction it is and the kind of flower it is on? Instinct.

16. What does all the wisdom behind animal behavior require?

¹⁶ Such questions could continue and fill a book, yet all the questions would have the same answer: “They are instinctively wise.” (Proverbs 30:24) “How was it possible,” one researcher wonders, “for such complicated instinctive knowledge to develop and be passed on to successive generations?”⁠⁷ Men cannot explain it. Evolution cannot account for it. But such intelligence still demands an intelligent source. Such wisdom still calls for a wise source. It calls for an intelligent, wise Creator.

17. What reasoning of many evolutionists is it wise to avoid?

¹⁷ Yet many who believe in evolution automatically reject as irrelevant all such evidence for creation, saying it is not a matter for scientific consideration. However, do not let this narrow approach keep you from weighing the evidence. There is more in the following chapter.

[Box/​Pictures on page 164, 165]

Nest Building and Instinct

“There is not the faintest indication,” says science writer G. R. Taylor concerning the genetic machinery, “that it can hand on a behavioural programme of a specific kind, such as the sequence of actions involved in nest building.”⁠^a Nevertheless, the instinctive wisdom of nest building is handed down, not taught. Consider a few examples.

Hornbills of Africa and Asia. The female brings clay and walls up the opening to a cavity in a hollow tree until she can just barely squeeze inside. The male brings her more mud and she closes the hole until only a slit remains open. Through it the male feeds her, and the babies that eventually hatch. When the male can no longer bring enough food, the female breaks out. This time the opening is repaired by the babies, and both parents bring food to them. Several weeks later, the babies break down the wall and leave the nest. Incidentally, is it not an evidence of purposeful design for the female, while confined and not flying, to molt completely and grow a new wardrobe of feathers?

Swifts. One species makes its nests out of saliva. Before the breeding season begins, the salivary glands swell and produce a viscous, mucous secretion. With its arrival comes the instinctive wisdom to know what to do with it. They smear it on a rock face; as it hardens more layers are added, and finally a cup-shaped nest is completed. Another species of swifts makes nests no bigger than a teaspoon, glues them on to palm leaves and then glues the eggs in the nest.

Emperor Penguins carry built-in nests. In the Antarctic winter the female lays an egg and goes off fishing for two or three months. The male puts the egg on his feet, which are richly supplied with blood vessels, and drapes over it a brood pouch that hangs down from his abdomen. Mother does not forget father and baby. Soon after the egg hatches, the mother returns with a stomach full of food that she regurgitates for them. Then the male goes off to fish while mother puts baby on her feet and drapes her brood pouch over it.

The Weaverbirds of Africa use grasses and other fibers to make their hanging nests. They instinctively use a variety of weave patterns and various kinds of knots. Sociable weavers build what may be likened to apartment houses, making a thatched roof some 15 feet in diameter in strong tree branches, and to the bottom of this, many pairs attach their nests. New nests are added until over a hundred nests may eventually be sheltered under the one roof.

The Tailorbird of southern Asia makes thread from cotton or bark fibers and spiderweb, splicing short pieces together to make longer lengths. With its beak it punches holes along the two edges of a large leaf. Then, using its beak as a needle, with the thread it pulls the two edges of the leaf together, as we lace up our shoes. When it comes to the end of the thread it either knots it to hold it fast or it splices on a new piece and continues sewing. In this way the tailorbird turns the big leaf into a cup in which it makes the nest.

The Penduline Tit’s hanging nest becomes almost like felt because it uses pieces of downy plant material as well as grasses. The basic structure of the nest is made by weaving longer grass fibers back and forth. The bird pushes the ends of the fibers through the mesh with its bill. Then it takes the shorter fibers of downy material and pushes these into the weaving. The process is somewhat like the technique of Oriental carpet weavers. These nests are so strong and soft that they have been used as purses or even as slippers for children.

The Horned Coot usually builds its nest on a small, flat island. However, where it lives this type of island is very rare. So, the horned coot makes its own island! It picks out an appropriate place on the water and then begins to carry stones there in its beak.The stones are piled up in water that is about two or three feet deep, until an island is formed. The base may be as much as 13 feet in diameter, and the pile of stones may weigh more than a ton. On this stone island the horned coot then brings vegetation to build its large nest.

Chapter 14

The Human Miracle

1. What fact about the brain would seem to present a major problem for it?

OF ALL the marvelous things on earth, none is more astounding than the human brain. For example, every second some 100 million bits of information pour into the brain from the various senses. But how can it avoid being hopelessly buried by this avalanche? If we can think about only one thing at a time, how does the mind cope with these millions of simultaneous messages? Obviously, the mind not only survives the barrage but handles it with ease.

2, 3. In what two ways does the brain cope with this problem?

² How it does so is only one of the many wonders of the human brain. Two factors are involved. First, in the brain stem there is a network of nerves the size of your little finger. This network is called the reticular formation. It acts as a kind of traffic control center, monitoring the millions of messages coming into the brain, sifting out the trivial and selecting the essential for attention by the cerebral cortex. Each second this little network of nerves permits only a few hundred, at most, to enter the conscious mind.

³ Second, a further pinpointing of our attention seems to come about by waves that sweep the brain 8 to 12 times per second. These waves cause periods of high sensitivity, during which the brain notes the stronger signals and acts upon them. It is believed that by means of these waves the brain scans itself, in this way focusing on the essentials. Thus an amazing flurry of activity is going on in our heads every second!

Something “to Wonder At”

4. In spite of intensive scientific research to understand the brain, what still remains true?

⁴ In recent years scientists have made tremendous strides in studies of the brain. Even so, what they have learned is nothing compared to what remains unknown. One researcher said that, after thousands of years of speculation and recent decades of intensive scientific research, our brains, along with the universe, remain “essentially mysterious.”⁠¹ Certainly the human brain is easily the most mysterious part of the human miracle​—“miracle” meaning something “to wonder at.”

5. What fact about the development of the human brain in a growing infant shows the gulf between it and the brains of animals?

⁵ The wonder begins in the womb. Three weeks after conception brain cells start forming. They grow in spurts, at times up to 250,000 cells a minute. After birth the brain continues growing and forming its network of connections. The gulf separating the human brain from that of any animal quickly manifests itself: “The brain of the human infant, unlike that of any other animal, triples in size during its first year,” states the book The Universe Within.⁠² In time, about 100 billion nerve cells, called neurons, as well as other types of cells, are packed into a human brain, although it makes up only 2 percent of the body’s weight.

6. How do nerve signals flow from neuron to neuron?

⁶ The key brain cells​—the neurons—​do not actually touch one another. They are separated by synapses, tiny spaces less than one millionth of an inch across. These gaps are bridged by chemicals called neurotransmitters, 30 of which are known, but the brain may possess many more. These chemical signals are received at one end of the neuron by a maze of tiny filaments called dendrites. The signals are then transmitted at the other end of the neuron by a nerve fiber called an axon. In the neurons the signals are electrical, but across the gaps they are chemical. Thus the transmission of nerve signals is electrochemical in nature. Each impulse is of the same strength, but the intensity of the signal depends upon the frequency of the impulses, which may be as high as one thousand a second.

7. What feature of the brain has the Bible commented on, and what have scientists learned that agrees with this?

⁷ It is not certain just what physiological changes take place in the brain when we learn. But experimental evidence suggests that as we learn, especially in early life, better connections are formed, and more of the chemicals bridging the gaps between neurons are released. Continued use strengthens the connections, and thus learning is reinforced. “Pathways that are often activated together are strengthened in some way,” reports Scientific American.⁠³ Interesting on this point is the Bible’s comment that deeper matters are more easily understood by mature people “who through use have their perceptive powers trained.” (Hebrews 5:14) Research has revealed that unused mental powers fade away. Thus the brain, like a muscle, is strengthened by use and weakened by disuse.

8. What is one of the great unresolved issues concerning the brain?

⁸ The vast numbers of microscopic nerve fibers making these connections within the brain are often referred to as its “wiring.” They are precisely placed within a maze of staggering complexity. But how they are placed in the exact spots called for by the “wiring diagrams” is a mystery. “Undoubtedly the most important unresolved issue in the development of the brain,” one scientist said, “is the question of how neurons make specific patterns of connections. . . . Most of the connections seem to be precisely established at an early stage of development.”⁠⁴ Another researcher adds that these specifically mapped-out areas of the brain “are common throughout the nervous system, and how this precise wiring is laid down remains one of the great unsolved problems.”⁠⁵

9. How many connections do scientists estimate exist within the brain, and what does one authority say as to its capacity?

⁹ The number of these connections is astronomical! Each neuron may have thousands of connections with other neurons. Not only are there connections between neurons, but there are also microcircuits that are set up directly between the dendrites themselves. “These ‘microcircuits,’” says one neurologist, “add a totally new dimension to our already mind-boggling conception of how the brain works.”⁠⁶ Some researchers believe that the “billions upon billions of nerve cells in the human brain make perhaps as many as a quadrillion connections.”⁠⁷ With what capacity? Carl Sagan states that the brain could hold information that “would fill some twenty million volumes, as many as in the world’s largest libraries.”⁠⁸

10. (a) In what ways does man’s cerebral cortex differ from that of animals, and with what advantages to man? (b) What did one researcher say about this?

¹⁰ It is the cerebral cortex of the brain that sets man far apart from any animal. It is less than a quarter of an inch thick, and it forms a fissured mold snug against the skull. If laid out, the cortex would measure about two and a half square feet, with some ten thousand miles of connecting fibers per cubic inch. The human cortex not only is far bigger than that of any animal, but it also has a much larger uncommitted area. That is to say, it is not committed to handling the physical functions of the body but is free for the higher mental processes that separate people from animals. “We are not just smarter apes,” one researcher said. Our minds “make us qualitatively different from all other forms of life.”⁠⁹

Our Far Greater Capability

11. How does the human brain give man a flexibility in learning that animals do not have?

¹¹ “What distinguishes the human brain,” a scientist said, “is the variety of more specialized activities it is capable of learning.”⁠¹⁰ Computer science uses the term “hardwired” to refer to built-in characteristics based on fixed circuitry, in contrast to functions put into a computer by a programmer. “Applied to human beings,” one authority writes, “hard wiring refers to innate abilities or, at least, predispositions.”⁠¹¹ In people there are many built-in capacities for learning, but not the learning itself. Animals, by contrast, have hardwired instinctive wisdom, but limited capacities to learn new things.

12. In contrast to animals, with what capability are human brains preprogrammed, and what freedom does this grant people?

¹² The Universe Within notes that the most intelligent animal “never develops a mind like that of a human being. For it lacks what we have: preprogramming of our neural equipment that enables us to form concepts out of what we see, language out of what we hear, and thoughts out of our experiences.” But we must, by input from our surroundings, program the brain, otherwise, as the book states, “nothing resembling the human mind would develop . . . Without that immense infusion of experience, scarcely a trace of intellect would appear.”⁠¹² So the capability that is built into the human brain enables us to construct the human intellect. And, unlike animals, we have the free will to program our intellects as we choose, based on our own knowledge, values, opportunities and goals.

Language Unique to Humans

13, 14. (a) What example of preprogramming leaves great flexibility for people to program into their intellect whatever they choose? (b) In view of this, what did one noted linguist say about animals and language?

¹³ An outstanding example of hardwired capabilities with great flexibility for programming by us is language. Specialists agree that “the human brain is genetically programmed for language development,”⁠¹³ and that speech “can be explained only on the basis of an innate language-processing capacity within our brain.”⁠¹⁴ Unlike the rigidity that is displayed in the instinctive behavior of animals, however, there is tremendous flexibility in a human’s use of this hardwired capacity for language.

¹⁴ A specific language is not hardwired into our brains, but we are preprogrammed with the capacity for learning languages. If two languages are spoken in the home, a child can learn both. If exposed to a third language, the child can learn it also. One girl was exposed to a number of languages from babyhood. By the time she was five she spoke eight fluently. In view of such innate abilities it is no surprise that a linguist said that chimpanzee experiments with sign language “actually prove that chimps are incapable of even the most rudimentary forms of human language.”⁠¹⁵

15. What does science show relative to the most ancient languages?

¹⁵ Could such an amazing ability have evolved from the grunts and growls of animals? Studies of the most ancient languages rule out any such evolution of language. One specialist said that “there are no primitive languages.”⁠¹⁶ Anthropologist Ashley Montagu agreed that so-called primitive languages “are often a great deal more complex and more efficient than the languages of the so-called higher civilizations.”⁠¹⁷

16. What do some researchers say about the origin of language, yet to whom is it no mystery?

¹⁶ One neurologist concludes: “The more we attempt to investigate the mechanism of language, the more mysterious the process becomes.”⁠¹⁸ Another researcher says: “At present the origin of syntactic speech remains a mystery.”⁠¹⁹ And a third states: “The power of speech, moving men and nations as no other force, uniquely sets humans apart from animals. Yet, the origins of language remain one of the brain’s most baffling mysteries.”⁠²⁰ It is no mystery, however, to those who see in it the hand of a Creator who “hardwired” areas in the brain for language capabilities.

Things Only Creation Can Explain

17. (a) What fact about the brain presents evolution with an inexplicable problem? (b) What would make it logical for man to have such a tremendous brain capacity?

¹⁷ The Encyclopædia Britannica states that man’s brain “is endowed with considerably more potential than is realizable in the course of one person’s lifetime.”⁠²¹ It also has been stated that the human brain could take any load of learning and memory put on it now, and a billion times that! But why would evolution produce such an excess? “This is, in fact, the only example in existence where a species was provided with an organ that it still has not learned how to use,” admitted one scientist. He then asked: “How can this be reconciled with evolution’s most fundamental thesis: Natural selection proceeds in small steps, each of which must confer on its bearer a minimal, but nonetheless measurable, advantage?” He added that the human brain’s development “remains the most inexplicable aspect of evolution.”⁠²² Since the evolutionary process would not produce and pass on such excessive never-to-be-used brain capacity, is it not more reasonable to conclude that man, with the capacity for endless learning, was designed to live forever?

18. What was one scientist’s summation of the human brain, and what shows its capabilities?

¹⁸ Carl Sagan, amazed that the human brain could hold information that “would fill some twenty million volumes,” stated: “The brain is a very big place in a very small space.”⁠²³ And what happens in this small space defies human understanding. For example, imagine what must be going on in the brain of a pianist playing a difficult musical composition, with all fingers flying over the keys. What an astonishing sense of movement his brain must have, to order the fingers to strike the right keys at the right time with the right force to match the notes in his head! And if he hits a wrong note, the brain immediately lets him know about it! All this incredibly complex operation has been programmed into his brain by years of practice. But it is made possible only because musical capability was preprogrammed into the human brain from birth.

19. What explains the intellectual qualities and other marvelous abilities possessed by the human brain?

¹⁹ No animal brain ever conceived such things, much less is able to do them. Nor does any evolutionary theory provide an explanation. Is it not evident that man’s intellectual qualities mirror those of a Supreme Intellect? This harmonizes with Genesis 1:27, which states: “God proceeded to create the man in his image.” The animals were not created in God’s image. That is why they do not have the capabilities man has. Though animals do amazing things by predetermined, rigid instincts, they are no match at all for humans with their flexibility in thinking and acting and their ability to continually build on previous knowledge.

20. In what way is man’s altruism inconsistent with evolution?

²⁰ The human capacity for altruism​—unselfish giving—​creates another problem for evolution. As one evolutionist noted: “Anything that has evolved by natural selection should be selfish.” And many humans are selfish, of course. But as he later acknowledged: “It is possible that yet another unique quality of man is a capacity for genuine, disinterested, true altruism.”⁠²⁴ Another scientist added: “Altruism is built into us.”⁠²⁵ Only in humans is it practiced with an awareness of the cost, or sacrifice, that may be involved.

Appreciating the Human Miracle

21. What abilities and qualities of man remove him far beyond any animal?

²¹ Just consider: Man originates abstract thinking, consciously sets goals, makes plans to reach them, initiates work to carry them out and finds satisfaction in their accomplishment. Created with an eye for beauty, an ear for music, a flair for art, an urge to learn, an insatiable curiosity, and an imagination that invents and creates​—man finds joy and fulfillment in exercising these gifts. He is challenged by problems, and delights in using his mental and physical powers to solve them. A moral sense to determine right and wrong and a conscience to prick him when he strays​—these too man has. He finds happiness in giving, and joy in loving and being loved. All such activities enhance his pleasure in living and give purpose and meaning to his life.

22. What contemplations make man feel his smallness and cause him to grope for understanding?

²² A human can contemplate the plants and animals, the grandeur of the mountains and oceans around him, the vastness of the starry heavens above him, and feel his smallness. He is aware of time and eternity, wonders how he got here and where he is going, and gropes to understand what is behind it all. No animal entertains such thoughts. But a human seeks the whys and wherefores of things. All of this results from his being endowed with an awesome brain and his bearing the “image” of the One who made him.

23. How did David give credit for his origin, and what did he say about his formation in the womb?

²³ With amazing insight, the ancient psalmist David gave credit to the One who designed the brain and whom he considered to be responsible for the miracle of human birth. He said: “I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, as my soul is very well aware. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was woven in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing.”​—Psalm 139:14-16.

24. What scientific discoveries make David’s words all the more amazing?

²⁴ Truly, it can be said that the fertilized egg in the mother’s womb contains all the parts of the emerging human body “down in writing.” The heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the eyes and ears, the arms and legs, and the awesome brain​—these and all the other parts of the body were ‘written down’ in the genetic code of the fertilized egg in the mother’s womb. Contained in this code are internal timetables for the appearance of these parts, each one in its proper order. This fact was recorded in the Bible nearly three thousand years before modern science ever discovered the genetic code!

25. To what conclusion does all of this lead?

²⁵ Is not the existence of man with his amazing brain truly a miracle, a cause for wonderment? Is it not also evident that such a miracle can be accounted for only by creation, not evolution?

[Box/​Picture on page 171]

THE HUMAN BRAIN​—An ‘Unsolved Mystery’?

“The human brain is the most marvelous and mysterious object in the whole universe.”​—Anthropologist Henry F. Osborn⁠^a

“How does the brain produce thoughts? That is the central question and we have still no answer to it.”​—Physiologist Charles Sherrington⁠^b

“In spite of the steady accumulation of detailed knowledge how the human brain works is still profoundly mysterious.”​—Biologist Francis Crick⁠^c

“Anyone who speaks of a computer as an ‘electronic brain’ has never seen a brain.”​—Science editor Dr. Irving S. Bengelsdorf⁠^d

“Our active memories hold several billion times more information than a large contemporary research computer.”​—Science writer Morton Hunt⁠^e

“Since the brain is different and immeasurably more complicated than anything else in the known universe, we may have to change some of our most ardently held ideas before we’re able to fathom the brain’s mysterious structure.”​—Neurologist Richard M. Restak⁠^f

Regarding the huge gulf between humans and animals, Alfred R. Wallace, the ‘co-discoverer of evolution,’ wrote to Darwin: “Natural selection could only have endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of the ape, whereas he possesses one very little inferior to that of an average member of our learned society.” Darwin, upset by this admission, replied: “I hope you have not murdered completely your own and my child”⁠^g

To say that the human brain evolved from that of any animal is to defy reason and the facts. Far more logical is this conclusion: “I am left with no choice but to acknowledge the existence of a Superior Intellect, responsible for the design and development of the incredible brain-mind relationship​—something far beyond man’s capacity to understand. . . . I have to believe all this had an intelligent beginning, that Someone made it happen.”​—Neurosurgeon Dr. Robert J. White⁠^h

[Diagram on page 170]

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The brain, like a muscle, is strengthened by use and weakened by disuse

Dendrites

Neuron

Axon

Synapse

Neuron

Axon