Archive for the ‘Insects’ category

Evidence From The Humming Bird

November 25th, 2009

picture-animal-Hummingbird-landing-creativity

One of the most fascinating and unique creatures of all creation is the common hummingbird. What is the probability that all of the unique characteristics of the ruby-throated hummingbird, each of which are needed for its survival, developed by some step-by-step evolutionary process? A few of the hummingbird’s incredible abilities are listed below:

1. The unique ability to fly forward, backward, upsidedown, and straight up like a helicopter as no other bird can.

2. The use of a special fringed tongue to sweep insects out from the inside of flowers. It cannot survive on nectar
alone, but also needs the protein from eating insects. Without its special tongue it could never catch the insects.

3. The ability to fly 500 miles nonstop over the gulf waters to Mexico. The hummingbird can conserve its strength for long flights by taking a prolonged rest just prior to the flight and making every motion count in flight.

4. The ability to go into a “torpid” condition at night by almost shutting down its metabolism. Because of its incredibly high energy activity, gram for gram the hummingbird has the greatest energy output of any warm-blooded animal. Yet at night it uses only about one-fifth of its normal energy.

The hummingbird is truly a marvel of God’s creativity.

The above document was taken from Character Sketches, Vol. II, p. 42-48 and quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss.

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.   (Psalm 105:4-5)

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The Amazing Leaf Miner

November 4th, 2009

Leaf Miner-2

If you live in a climate where fall brings colors to the leaves before they fall, you’ve probably noticed something strange. Once the leaves start to fall, the ground is littered with their color. But among all those fading leaves, you might find a perfectly healthy looking green leaf. That green leaf is probably the work of one of God’s more amazing tiny insects.
Leaf MinerSeveral species of beetles, flies and moths go through a larval stage in which the larvae burrow into leaves. These leaf miners gain their nutrition from the leaf. But when fall comes, and the leaves lose their green chlorophyll, they stop making food for the larvae. So the larvae secrete a hormone that prevents the leaf from losing its chlorophyll and shutting down to die. This hormone enables a leaf to stay green and produce food for the larvae even long after the leaf would normally have turned color and dried up on the ground.

Leaf miners present several problems for those who think that mindless evolution produced the variety of life that we see around us today. How did the larvae learn to make just the right hormone to preserve the leaf on which it depends? Are we to believe that these larvae kept evolving from something else until one of them figured out the chemistry of the leaf? And finally, are we to believe that this unlikely evolutionary event happened in several species?
Just as the sprouting of new leaves in the spring means that summer is near, so the cleverness of the leaf miner should tell us that the hand of God created this insect. And we can reliably conclude that God made the entire creation.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near. (Mark 13:28)

This article was originally written by  Joachim Scheven, “Green Islands,” Origins, June 1999 as quoted in Creation Moments, Nov 4, 2009