Evidence for God in Life Design Archives

January 6, 2026December 29, 2025

Orphan Genes Challenge Darwinism

The DNA in every cell in your body is made up of shorter strands called genes, which contain the instructions to produce various proteins. Neo-Darwinian evolutionary scientists look for genes with very similar sequences to others to show that one gene evolved from another through random genetic mutations. However, researchers are discovering genes that don’t resemble any other known gene. The technical term for these is taxonomically restricted genes (TRGs). These so-called orphan genes challenge Darwinism.

If all of life evolved from a common ancestor through small genetic mutations, orphan genes don’t fit this model. They either shouldn’t exist or should be extremely rare. A few years ago, evolutionists argued that only a small percentage of species’ DNA had been sequenced, and that with more research, the mystery of orphan genes would be resolved. However, the number of orphan genes continues to grow. The trend indicates that orphan genes challenge Darwinism.

Even closely related species that share a common trait can have their own unique orphan genes. In other words, the evidence does not support gradual changes caused by small mutations but instead points to entirely new, unique genes that have not been seen before. Evolutionists respond by saying natural selection can explain this, but they are unable to specify how. The research continues, but for now, it seems to me like an “evolution-of-the-gaps” argument.

As Jonathan Witt wrote in Salvo magazine, “Our uniform and repeated experience tells us that generating significant amounts of novel, functional information doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a mind. Our uniform experience tells us this, and probability calculations applied to everything from English text and software code to DNA confirm it.”

It’s safe to say that orphan genes challenge Darwinism and will likely continue to do so.

Reference: “Darwin’s Orphan Nemesis” by Jonathan Witt, in Salvo magazine, Spring 2025.

December 29, 2025December 23, 2025

Life Design Posts in 2025

As we end 2025, we look back on some of our Life Design posts in 2025. We have selected 10 that you may have missed.

A report on how pregnancy can affect a woman’s brain. https://doesgodexist.today/a-pregnant-womans-brain/

Is there really a difference between males and females? https://doesgodexist.today/male-and-female-bodies-are-different/

Comparing the DNA of fruit flies and humans. https://doesgodexist.today/fruit-flies-and-humans/

How about comparing humans and chimpanzees? https://doesgodexist.today/genetic-difference-between-humans-and-chimpanzees/

2025 was the 100^th anniversary of the famous, so-called Scopes Monkey Trial. https://doesgodexist.today/bryans-arguments-against-darwin/

Psychologists say that Darwin made a mistake. https://doesgodexist.today/darwins-mistake-according-to-psychologists/

Left- or right-handedness is crucial to the building blocks of life. https://doesgodexist.today/darwins-mistake-according-to-psychologists/

The amazing story of the orchid and the wasp. https://doesgodexist.today/hammer-orchid-and-thynnid-wasp/

What is Biosphere 2, and what is Primary Succession? https://doesgodexist.today/biosphere-2-and-primary-succession/

How did life get started? https://doesgodexist.today/to-explain-the-existence-of-life/

December 22, 2025December 19, 2025

The Shrimp and the Urchin

The oceans host many symbiotic relationships. In symbiosis, plants and animals live together in ways that benefit them and often others nearby. This is the story of the shrimp and the urchin.

Coleman shrimp (Perclimenes colemani) eat parasites they take from fish that come close to them in the western Pacific Ocean. These shrimp were not discovered until 1975, perhaps because they blend in very well with the sea urchins with which they have a symbiotic relationship. The picture shows the spotted body and striped legs of the Coleman shrimp surrounded by the striped tube feet of the fire sea urchin (Asthenosoma varium).

Coleman shrimp are known as cleaner shrimp because they remove parasites from fish. Most cleaner shrimp live in sea anemones, but Coleman shrimp prefer to live in fire sea urchins. The venom-tipped spines of the fire urchin do not harm the Coleman shrimp, and they protect them from potential predators. Meanwhile, fish infected with parasites approach the Coleman shrimp to have the parasites removed. The parasites are food for the shrimp, and the fish don’t eat the shrimp or the fire sea urchin because of its poisonous spines.

We see a balanced symbiotic relationship among various species of ocean creatures. The shrimp and the urchin, along with many fish that benefit, are just some examples of symbiosis—where different plant and animal species depend directly on each other. In many cases, a species could not survive without this mutual relationship. This is another sign of design in living creatures, and design points to a Designer.

December 18, 2025December 15, 2025

Origin-of-Life Theories and Archaea

Scientists aim to answer several very difficult questions about origins. Two of these questions relate to the origins of life and complex life. Some scientists believe they are getting closer to discovering how complex life developed from simple life, and the media often sensationalizes any origin-of-life theories.

Living things are classified into three domains. We are very familiar with multicellular life, which includes plants, animals, and people. That is the domain of eukarya, or complex life. There are two domains of single-celled life—bacteria and archaea. Most people are more familiar with bacteria than archaea. Scientists did not recognize how distinct archaea are from bacteria until the 1970s, when DNA analysis began.

The cells of bacteria and archaea are relatively simple and small compared to eukaryotic cells, which have a nucleus, mitochondria to supply energy, and other internal structures. In the 1960s, one group of microbiologists described the gap between eukaryotes and the single-celled bacteria and archaea as “the greatest single evolutionary discontinuity to be found in the present-day world.” Evolutionists seeking origin-of-life theories had to find a way to bridge this very wide gap.

In 2008, researchers discovered a new type of archaea living in hydrothermal vents on the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge. They said these archaea “seemed to be somehow closer to eukaryotes than what we knew before.” In 2015, a paper published in the journal Nature described them as “the closest known living relatives of eukaryotes,” creating a scientific sensation. Their genomes were said to contain genes that are “hallmarks of eukaryotes.”

Scientists theorized that the Asgard archaea, as they came to be called, absorbed bacteria that became mitochondria, but there was still no evidence of a nucleus. Research and debate on this are expected to continue for years, but it has sparked new speculation about extraterrestrial life. Some have suggested that unicellular life on other planets could evolve into eukaryotic, advanced life. But that assumes there is unicellular life on other planets.

Scientists proposing origin-of-life theories still have no idea how non-living matter could turn into living, reproducing cells. Be cautious when you see media stories about scientists being close to discovering the origin of life or the origin of complex life. Even simple cells are far too complex to have arisen by chance without a Designer.

Reference: sciencenews.org

December 17, 2025December 15, 2025

Beautiful Colors in Butterfly Wings

We previously discussed the dynamics of butterfly flight and how human engineers marvel at their design. (See Here and Here.) One of our readers sent us a scientific discussion about the beautiful colors in butterfly wings. These colors have nothing to do with camouflage. We often see butterflies because their colors stand out so vividly against the leaves and flowers where they rest.

The iridescent colors in butterfly wings are produced by scales that are part of the wings. Each square centimeter of wing has tens of thousands of these scales attached with tiny stems that overlap each other. These scales were living cells until a day or two before the butterfly emerged from its pupa. Each tiny scale consists of a vertical and horizontal frame, within which various pigment sacs hang.

Butterfly wings that shimmer with iridescent blues and greens have scales with tiny lattices and ribbed walls designed to create interference patterns in the high-energy part of the visible spectrum (300-700 nanometers). Our eyes are designed to see those wavelengths, but some of the butterfly’s potential predators cannot. That part of the spectrum is invisible to them.

The physics of the light spectrum and the design of our eyes seem specifically built to enable us to see the beautiful colors in butterfly wings that we often take for granted. The more we learn about physics and design, the more we see evidence that the Creator has made beautiful things just for us to enjoy.

December 16, 2025December 15, 2025

Tiny and Incredible Shrews

You may not have seen them, but thousands of shrews scurry across the ground, helping keep your garden free of destructive insects, snails, and slugs. Tiny and incredible, shrews are North America’s smallest mammals. They are smaller than a human thumb and have hearts that beat 1,200 times per minute.

There are 39 shrew species in North America, and many more worldwide. There is even one that can walk on water thanks to stiff hairs on its feet. That species feeds underwater using bubble sniffing—a technique of blowing small air bubbles through their noses to detect odor particles in the water.

Shrews are not rodents but insectivores, similar to hedgehogs. Their coat helps them camouflage amid leaf litter and debris. They have scent glands on their sides that emit a foul odor to deter predators such as cats, raccoons, and foxes. Like bats, they can use echolocation to find food.

A shrew’s metabolism is so high that it must eat roughly once an hour, and it only sleeps for a few minutes at a time. Though they don’t hibernate, they make tunnels beneath snow or ice layers. One remarkable trait of the tiny and incredible shrews is that they can actually shrink their head size, including their brains, by 20% during cold weather. Since food becomes scarcer in winter, shrinking their heads and brains helps them require less food. Their head size returns with warm weather.

Shrews are among God’s most useful creations because they help control snails, slugs, insects, and ticks, protecting plants and people. Only in recent years has technology enabled us to study the tiny and incredible shrews.

Reference : Linda Weiford in The Spokesman–Review, December 1-8, 2025.

December 4, 2025November 30, 2025

Horns and Antlers – What Are They Good For?

Ronald Johnson asked us a question we’ve heard from animal rights advocates before. Are horns on animals only useful for fighting, showing God to be war-like, angry, and sadistic? The God of the Bible is a loving, caring, merciful, and patient God. When there is violence, killing, and war, the cause is always human power struggles and selfish motives, not the will of God. So, what other purposes do animal horns serve? Here are four non-violent uses for horns and antlers:

1) Horns act as shovels that help animals access food sources they otherwise could not reach. Vegetation is often either too high or too far underground for many animals to reach. Horns allow animals to break off hard-to-reach vegetation or move logs or rocks to reach food sources.

2) Antlers store nutrients that other animals recycle. Many animals, birds, and insects eat discarded antlers to get the extra nutrients they contain.

3) Horns and antlers are used as communication tools with other animals of their kind. Those of us who spend a lot of time in the woods have seen “deer rubs.” This is when a deer uses its antlers to scrape a mark on a tree, signaling its presence, size, and how long ago it was there to other deer.

4) Horns serve as shields against predators like hawks, eagles, falcons, wolves, bears, lions, hyenas, tigers, cheetahs, dogs, and other carnivores. The animal with horns can protect itself and others nearby. I have seen musk oxen defend their young by forming a ring around them with all the horned animals facing outward. A pack of wolves circled the group but never tried to attack.

Animals certainly have other uses for horns and antlers, but the main point is that in most animals, they are rarely used for fighting. God has provided all living things with what they need to live on our planet, and we can see His wisdom and design in the things He has made (Romans 1:20).

December 3, 2025November 30, 2025

Kelp Forests Enrich the Earth

In our era of environmental threats, it’s reassuring to know there are solutions to some of the problems we face. God has created a form of life that purifies water and the atmosphere from pollutants, including human-made toxins and carbon emissions. At the same time, it supplies nutrients for marine life. We find this solution in the ocean’s kelp forests.

Kelp forests are 20 times more effective at absorbing carbon dioxide than similarly sized land-based forests. Kelp is plentiful along the west coast of the United States and grows on the coasts of Maine, Long Island, the United Kingdom, Norway, Tasmania, southern Africa, Argentina, and Japan. Kelp supports over 1000 species of marine plants and animals and provides roughly half of the oxygen we breathe. Kelp can also be used to make alternatives to plastics and chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. It can grow almost anywhere, including on abandoned oil rigs along various coastlines.

The Genesis account does not mention ocean life forms because the Fertile Crescent was far from an ocean coastline. Just as God knew humans would need coal, iron, copper, and other minerals, He provided kelp forests to shape the Earth for human survival. Science helps us understand how dinosaurs, diatoms, and many other animal forms not described in Genesis were God’s tools to prepare Earth for humans. We are in awe of God’s wisdom and creative power.

Reference: Smithsonian Magazine for December 2025, pages 76-86, and smithsonianmag.com.

December 1, 2025November 30, 2025

Helicopters and Dragonflies

Igor Sikorsky is recognized as the father of the modern helicopter, but what may not be as widely known is how he gathered the information that led to its development. This is the story of helicopters and dragonflies.

Sikorsky dedicated years to observing birds and insects to understand how to achieve stable, controlled flight. Dragonflies stood out because their wings operate independently, each capable of rotating, tilting, and shifting angles to produce quick changes in lift.

As helicopter technology has advanced, engineers continue to draw inspiration from the dragonfly. Its sideways dashes, backward flight, sudden stops, and precise hovering are still studied by engineers. Even the dragonfly’s timing patterns, rotational wing strokes, and quick lift adjustments have been emulated to improve the stability of helicopter rotor systems.

Dragonflies offer a blueprint for aerial agility, and their design is an engineering marvel. The big question is how the dragonfly’s design came about. It seems impossible to explain this complexity as the result of random chance. It appears to be a design from a Master Engineer.

Helicopters and dragonflies serve as another example of biomimicry and provide evidence that all life is a product of intelligence, demonstrating the truth of Romans 1:20 that we can know there is a God through the things He has made. as made.

November 18, 2025November 18, 2025

Camels Are Amazing Animals

You might think a camel is a funny and awkward-looking creature. The fact is, camels are amazing animals. Consider the properties of a camel:

1) A camel can drink freshwater or saltwater. Camels can even drink water from the Dead Sea without harm because their kidneys filter it, removing the salt and turning it into fresh water.

2) A camel can eat thorns with no damage to its stomach or intestines because its saliva dissolves the thorns.

3) A camel has two sets of eyelids: one is thin and transparent, and the other is thick and fleshy. When a sandstorm blows in the desert, it closes the transparent eyelid to prevent sand from entering its eyes.

4) A camel can regulate its body temperature. If it’s cold, its temperature rises, and if it’s hot, its temperature drops. In the desert, temperatures can range from 120 degrees during the day to below freezing at night.

Camels are amazing animals, specially designed to live in the desert. There is no way that all of these abilities can come into existence by a “long series of beneficial accidents.” The camel’s amazing design provides thoughtful people with strong evidence for the existence of a creator God.

Reference: Our thanks to Gary W. Stephenson for sending us this information, taken from Quora.com.