Evidence for God in Life Design Archives

June 3, 2025June 2, 2025

The Design of the Woodpecker’s Tongue

One of the great questions ornithologists must answer is how a woodpecker can pound its beak on wood day after day without suffering brain damage. In previous articles, we have talked about the shock-absorbing features of the woodpecker’s skull. Researchers have learned more as they study the design of the woodpecker’s tongue.

Woodpecker tongues are much longer than their beaks. The design of the woodpecker’s tongue extends back into the skull, wrapping around the brain and looping around the eye socket. Woodpeckers slam their beaks into wood 20 times per second, and the tongue’s unique path acts like a biological seatbelt, distributing impact forces and protecting the brain. The woodpecker’s specialized hyoid apparatus (tongue-supporting bone and soft tissue) is a design feature that helps protect its brain from concussions.

Oak trees line our home office by the St. Joseph River in Michigan. We have five kinds of woodpeckers, ranging from the large pileated woodpecker to the downy woodpecker, which is the size of a house sparrow. Watching wood chips fly as they hammer at the oak trees to reach insects reminds us of God’s design and the impossibility of it resulting from chance mutations.

The Bible calls us to look at the evidence. The more we see, the more we realize that atheists and biblical skeptics must deny more and more of what science learns. As we look at the creation, we see the Creator’s wisdom, even in the design of the woodpecker’s tongue.

Reference: nih.gov

May 29, 2025May 28, 2025

Nighttime Pollinators Are Essential

There is considerable media discussion about the plight of bees, attributed to the use of insecticides and to climate change. The media overlooks the fact that bees and butterflies are primarily daytime pollinators. Of the approximately 350,000 flowering plant species, some depend on nighttime pollinators.

The long list of nighttime pollinators includes moths, cockroaches, beetles, slugs, snails, and bats. Many people consider them to be pests, especially cockroaches and beetles. For this reason, they target pollinators by applying chemicals to control them. The result is that desirable plants fail to reproduce and die out.

The answer to this problem is helping people understand the importance of being cautious about what they apply to their plants and why. Christians believe that God has designed all ecosystems, and good stewardship requires protecting what He has given us. People who reject God’s design for life are engaged in chemical warfare, in this case, against nighttime pollinators.

Reference: BBC.com “Where bees won’t go: The unloved pollinators of the underworld.”

May 28, 2025May 27, 2025

Roadrunners Run in the Desert

In the Warner Bros. cartoons, the Road Runner was always outrunning and outsmarting Wile E. Coyote. In real life, roadrunners can run up to 20 miles (32 km) per hour. Although they can fly, when not escaping predators, roadrunners spend most of their time on the ground. There are two species. The greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) lives in the deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico. The lesser roadrunner (Geococcyx velox) lives in Mexico and Central America.

Roadrunners are members of the cuckoo family, and like other cuckoos, they have four toes, with two facing forward and two facing backward. When they run through the dust of the desert, they leave tracks that resemble the letter “X,” making it difficult to tell which way they are going. The greater roadrunner is almost 2 feet (60 cm) long from head to tail. The lesser roadrunner is smaller. They eat nearly anything they can find in the desert, even scorpions and snakes. Due to their speed in capturing prey, the greater roadrunner can eat poisonous snakes, including rattlesnakes.

In the cartoons, the Road Runner makes a sound like “beep beep.” Real roadrunners sound more like the cooing of a dove. Roadrunners don’t migrate, and they stay in their breeding area year-round. They are monogamous and mate for life, with the male and female taking turns incubating the eggs and caring for the young.

Regardless of what happens to Wyle E. Coyote, he always comes back to try to capture the elusive Road Runner. Desert life is a delicately balanced system. Life in the real desert may not be as funny as in the cartoons, but it’s worth learning about because God’s creations are always fascinating.

May 27, 2025May 26, 2025

Ice Crawlers and Ice-Worms

As humans enjoy spring’s warmer weather, we are reminded of extremophiles that can only survive in the cold. They include ice crawlers and ice worms.

Ice crawlers (Grylloblatidae), also known as icebugs, are about an inch (3 cm) long. They are nocturnal, spend the daytime under snow, and then emerge at night to forage for dead insects and plant material blown by the wind. They live under logs and deep in crevasses in warmer weather to stay cold. Ice crawlers have no wings and only diminished eyes. Their optimal living temperature is 34-39 degrees F (1-4 C). Lower or much higher temperatures can kill them. They survive on glaciers and ice sheets.

Ice-worms (Mesenchytraeus), also called glacier worms, survive in glacial ice and eat algae and bacteria that live there. They spend their entire life cycle at 32 degrees F (0 C) or lower and will die if the temperature goes above that. These tiny worms move between the ice crystals using small bristles called setae.

Birds that live in high-altitude snow and ice fields feed on ice worms and ice crawlers. Snow buntings stay in the ice fields year-round, and other birds stop there during migration in the spring and fall.

Many years ago, my daughters and I were on a snowmobile trip in Jasper Provincial Park, Canada. We gazed down into a crevasse and marveled at the beautiful blue color, free of any dirt lines. It was so pure that the ranger guiding us gave us a cup of melted glacial ice to drink. He said a biologist told the park service that the melted glacial ice was safer to drink than distilled water. I questioned that statement, but now we know that ice crawlers and worms do an incredible job of keeping the snow and ice pure. There were birds all around us during that visit, but it was years later before I learned that birds like snow buntings exist.

God’s design of every part of Earth’s biosphere has unique conditions, requiring living things to have special equipment to survive there. The more we see the Earth’s varied environments, the more we see God’s wisdom and creation around us.

References: Wikipedia “Grylloblattidae” and “Ice Worm”

May 26, 2025May 25, 2025

Microplastics and Dementia

You may have noticed that dementia is much worse today than it was in the past. Part of that is probably due to people living longer, but life expectancy has not increased enough to fully explain the growth rate of dementia. Perhaps there is a connection between microplastics and dementia.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico have found an amazing correlation between dementia and the concentration of microplastics in human brains. A study of specimens from autopsies found that the brains of people with dementia had as much as five times more microplastics than normal brains. Comparisons of brain tissues from 2016 and 2024 show 50% higher concentrations in the 2024 samples.

Global plastic production doubles every 10 to 15 years, so the problem is only going to get worse. The human brain is designed with a barrier between blood vessels and brain tissue, but some people have weak blood-brain barriers. Skeptics suggest there is a design failure in the human brain because it evolved by chance over time. A better explanation involves human failure to protect our health.

The fact is that pollution is apparently a significant cause of dementia. Like cancer, brain problems are linked to human greed and a failure to use what God has given us as a tool for successful living. Reducing the flow of microplastics into the environment is going to be an uphill battle because cheap alternatives to plastics are not available. Meanwhile, more studies are needed on the connection between microplastics and dementia.

Reference: Nature Medicine at nature.com

May 23, 2025May 23, 2025

Male and Female Bodies are Different

“Failure to protect the female category in sports is one of the most egregious forms of violence against women and girls.” Those are the words of Reem Alsalem, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who reported that female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to males competing in the female category. The scientific fact is that the male and female bodies are different by design.

This website deals with evidence and promotes the concept that science and faith are friends, not enemies. Stating that since Genesis 1 says God made Eve from Adam’s rib, men and women are the same is a misunderstanding of the biblical message. We are all one spiritually, not physically. In Galatians 3:28, we read, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Obviously, that is not true physically, but it is true spiritually, so those who quote this passage to say that there should be unity in all sports are not understanding the Bible.

The fact is that male and female bodies are different by design. Males and females have different-sized muscles, pelvises, and skeletal structures. You will never see a female fullback in the NFL or a female center in the NBA. You will never see a male giving birth to a child, even if an embryo was in some way placed in a male.

This issue has become a political manipulation. The tragic end of medical techniques used to control hormones and surgically alter genitalia will become clear. Those who have had transgender medical procedures as children will realize that their life expectancies have been drastically reduced and their relationships terminated by a decision made when they were too young to understand the consequences.

Genesis 2:24 says, “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” In Genesis 2:18, we read, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” God created woman to do what man could not do on his own. Trying to change what God created will not work because male and female bodies are different by design. God intended the sexes to work together, fulfilling the roles He gave them.

Data from: “Faith and Justice” newsletter of Alliance Defending Freedom, February 2025, page 3.

May 20, 2025May 19, 2025

Our Pets Don’t Have Souls

Domestic animals make our lives full and sometimes are our best friends. Some people ask whether animals go to heaven, or say they won’t be happy in heaven if their pet isn’t there. Saying that our pets don’t have souls is very emotionally loaded.

I am an animal lover and have had eight dogs and three cats, all of which I loved dearly. I know what wonderful companions animals can be and how much they can enrich our lives. I also know that for some people, animals have been their primary link to sanity. People have called dogs “man’s best friend” because they don’t have the limitations of many humans. Animals trust, obey, remain faithful, are always truthful, always positive, always loving, and are always there. Our human relationships are likely to fail all these tests. Animals frequently serve as the needed equilibrium for people who have been hurt in their human relationships.

Please think carefully about the previous paragraph. It is a severe indictment of the Church. When I hear someone say that their dog is the only friend they have in the world, I know the Church has failed them. God intended for the Church to be the one force in our lives that would never let us down, but that has rarely been the case due to human weakness.

With those things in mind, the fact is that animals are not humans. The Bible makes it clear that humans are uniquely created in the image of God, giving us characteristics that animals don’t have. Our pets don’t have souls and are not the final answer to the isolation some of us feel.

When we are in heaven and no longer bound by time, will we be able to go back and revisit the animals that blessed our lives? I have no idea, but I believe our priorities and relationships will be different then. The Church often fails to support people who are hurt, isolated, lonely, and unfulfilled. I hope we will begin to do a better job of healing them with our love, compassion, and fellowship.

May 19, 2025May 18, 2025

Upside-Down Trees – the Baobabs

Our fourth quarter 2024 printed publication contained an article about the very unusual baobab trees that grow in Madagascar, Africa, and northwest Australia. These “upside-down trees” can live 2,000 years or more and grow to huge sizes. They have a pyramid shape with a large trunk that stores vast amounts of water, but they have no limbs or leaves except at the very top. Baobabs are essential to the lives of bats and birds.

Baobab trees are unusual because they have no genetic connection with gymnosperms like pine trees and modern seed trees like oaks or maples. They are also not related to palm trees, which are not true trees.

One of our followers sent me a letter about the article. She said it brought back memories of her childhood in Rhodesia and the story of the upside-down trees. She wrote:

“My family often camped out in the ‘bush,’ and no matter where we went, there were always baobabs. I must have seen a hundred or more over the years, but I never saw one with leaves and flowers … The Matabele, an African tribe in the Bulawayo area, had a great tale about why the trees look upside down and dead. When the baobabs were created, they were very proud of their size and beauty. They bragged to the other trees and became arrogant and annoying. The gods heard about their boasting, so they turned the baobabs upside down, and what we see are the roots.”

That is an interesting tradition with a great message about pride and boasting. We appreciate that our friend shared it with us. Despite the pagan story explaining the upside-down trees, we know they are not punishment, or an accident created by chance and without purpose. They are part of God’s amazing design for life on this planet.

If you are not on our mailing list and would like to read the article in the Does God Exist? 4th quarter publication, you will find it on our website doesgodexist.org. We also featured these trees in an earlier post on this website.

May 16, 2025May 13, 2025

Take It Easy and Live Longer

It’s an animal that can live for 500 years. The ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) is a clam native to the North Atlantic. They exemplify the slogan “Take it easy and live longer.”

The ocean quahogs living in deep, cold waters farther north live the longest. Those in the southern areas tend to have much shorter lives. Since these mollusks add one growth line to their shells each year, it’s possible to determine the age by counting the lines. The oldest reported specimen found in 2006 was 507 years old. That means this clam began its life shortly after Columbus discovered the Americas. Who knows how much longer it might have lived if it had escaped capture.

Ocean quahogs and a few other animals, such as tortoises, have a quality that scientists call “negligible senescence.” What that means is they don’t show signs of aging. Scientists are still trying to discover the factors that allow some animals to live long lives without apparent aging.

We suggest that one factor is obvious. “Take it easy and live longer” is demonstrated by the long-lived creatures with an unhurried and unstressed lifestyle. Perhaps we can learn something from that. The Creator had a reason for setting aside a time of rest.

May 15, 2025May 13, 2025

Dancing Frogs in India

If you can imagine a male frog sticking his leg up and waving his foot to attract the attention of a female frog, then you have a mental picture of “dancing frogs” (Micrixalus). Several species of these frogs live in the Western Ghats Mountain Range of India. Although these dancing frogs can’t dance like the cartoon version, with top hat and cane, they are gifted at sticking a leg out.

During the mating season, the male dancing frogs will find a prominent rock along the stream and puff out their white vocal sacs. Then they tap their hind foot on the rock and wave it in the air when they see a good-looking female frog approaching. They sometimes wave their foot when another male comes along to tell him, “This is my territory, and you better move along, buddy!” The frog may use alternate hind legs to perform this “foot flagging” while at the same time expanding its vocal sac to call out to the females. It’s a frog-style song and dance routine.

After mating, the female uses her hind legs to dig a hole in the streambed to bury the eggs. Dancing frogs are vulnerable because of habitat loss, but India has created some protected areas in the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot. We are continually amazed at the diversity and creativity in the beautiful system of life God created. We even find it entertaining.