Evidence for God in Life Design Archives

September 10, 2022September 7, 2022

Foods Derived from Flowers Need Auxin

What seems like a simple question may have a very complex and essential answer. The question is this: How does a flowering plant develop fruits and seeds? This is a crucial question to answer for the production of common food crops such as peanuts, corn, rice, strawberries, and all other foods derived from flowers.

The time when flowers turn some of their parts into seeds or fruit determines when the fruit will be ready to harvest, how big it will be, and what nutrients and water must be applied at what time.

Zhongchi Liu at the University of Maryland has identified a gene called AGL62 that stimulates plant production of a growth hormone called “auxin.” Once the gene activates, the plant synthesizes auxin, causing the creation of a seedcoat. The seedcoat is the outer layer protecting the endosperm, the part of a seed that provides food for a developing plant embryo and fruit. More auxin can boost grain size and stimulate fruit enlargement. If there is insufficient auxin, the crop produced will be smaller, and the fruit will not be commercially viable.

Liu has been working with strawberries because they are easier to study, but it applies to virtually all foods derived from flowers. This is another example of the design God built into the creation of life. When humans finally understand the design, it opens up a way to produce more food for a hungry world.

Reference: Research News from the National Science Foundation

September 9, 2022September 7, 2022

Invasive Species and Environmental Problems

It is interesting to hear skeptics blaming God for the existence of invasive plants and animals. There is no question that non-native species thrive in the United States. However, some species brought to this country have no natural predators to keep them in check. As a result, they cause crop damage, human health problems, and environmental damage. There are nearly 6,500 invasive species in America, and they cause more damage every year than all natural disasters combined. The stories of how they got here are interesting. Here are some examples:

NUTRIA – Also known as coypu or “swamp rats,” these South American rodents were brought to America by fur farmers in the 20th century.
BROWN GARDEN SNAIL – These mollusks were brought to California as food by French immigrants in the 1850s.
KUDZU – This Asian vine was brought to the U.S. as an ornamental plant in 1876, and farmers used it to feed livestock and reduce soil erosion. To make kudzu widely available to farmers, government agencies provided 85 million seedlings.
WILD BOAR – These animals were native to Eurasia and brought to the U.S. in the early 1900s for hunting. Early settlers in the 1500s introduced domestic pigs as a food source. Unfortunately, some escaped pigs mated with the boars resulting in the invasive species we have today.
LIONFISH – These beautiful fish with venomous spines are natives of the South Pacific and Indian oceans. Aquarium enthusiasts brought them to the U.S. between 1985 and 1992, but when released, they wipe out native fish populations.
DANDELION – Early European settlers brought these “weeds” to the U.S. for food and medicinal purposes.

These invasive species and others cause billions of dollars in economic damage annually. However, we should understand that not all non-native species are considered invasive. For example, corn and wheat are not native to the United States but were brought here as successful food crops.

In Genesis 9:3, God told Noah, “Everything that moves shall be food for you, just as I have given you green plants.” God has given us a wide variety of food sources designed to thrive in various ecological environments, but we must be good stewards of how we use and spread them.

Problems arise when people purposely or accidentally transport plants or animals to new locations where they become out of control. Without predators to control populations, they can throw an entire environment out of balance. Most of our environmental problems are human-caused, and invasive species of plants and animals are good examples.

Reference: Discover magazine for September/October 2022 (pages 34 – 41)

September 8, 2022September 7, 2022

Structural Color in Plants

When you see a peacock with brilliant green in its feathers, realize that it has no green feathers. Its feathers are actually brown, but God has used a clever optical trick to make them look green to us. We call it structural color. Likewise, many butterflies have bright blue spots on their wings, but there are no blue pigments in a butterfly’s wings.

Some plants produce fruits that look blue to us without having any blue pigment in the fruits. The only plants known to produce blue fruits in this way are Viburnum tinus and Lantana strigocamara. You will not get a blue stain if you crush their berries in your fingers. On the other hand, if you crush a common blueberry, its blue pigments will stain your fingers.

When you see a blue pigment, it is blue because it absorbs all other colors while reflecting blue. Structural color uses microscopic pyramid-like structures that manipulate the light. Since blue light has higher energy than other colors, it escapes the structure. Structural color requires no pigments, and you might call it an optical illusion.

Color is essential in the natural world. For example, animals with color vision use colors to camouflage, attract others, or discern whether something is good to eat. The problem with using pigments to produce color is that the chemistry to get a particular color is quite complex, but structural color does not involve any chemistry.

People have used chemicals to produce the colors we see in our fabrics, but some colors can be costly and time-consuming to produce. God has created a chemical-free method to produce much of the beauty we see in the world around us. Beauty in structural color gives evidence of a wise Creator.

Reference: National Science Foundation Research News

September 7, 2022September 6, 2022

Chemical and Medical Side Effects

We live in a time of incredible advances in chemistry and medicine. However, we face the problem of chemical and medical side effects from modern drugs and food additives. Therefore, a medication designed to address one problem will often create other unexpected issues. I can give personal testimony to that.

I have blood pressure issues that are hereditary and a product of my age. For two years, doctors tried various medications to lower my blood pressure, but nothing worked. Finally, a doctor found a new drug that does work. My hypertension is under control, and I am thankful for that. This new drug, in conjunction with some previous medications, together with my new regime of exercise and eating habits, has greatly reduced my risk for a stroke.

The problem with this new medication is that it has side effects that were unknown when I started taking it. It affects my vision, balance, breathing, and sleep. When I complained to my doctor, who likes to be a comedian, he said, “Well do you want to die of a stroke or the side effects?”

We also have chemical and medical side effects from food additives and drinks. People in Christ’s day used fermented grape juice because the water was unsafe to drink. The “wine” available then had a very low percentage of alcohol, around 4%. Today, distillation processes allow the alcohol percentage to be vastly higher, and alcohol poisoning is a significant issue. Recently in Missouri, 19-year-old Daniel Santulli suffered severe brain damage after being forced to drink alcohol as part of hazing during a pledge reveal party for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. When I was a fraternity pledge at Indiana University, my fellow pledges were forced to drink alcohol until they could no longer walk. Then they were then driven to a remote country road and dropped off.

Now the college drug of choice is marijuana. Modern marijuana has levels of THC (the drug responsible for psychoactive effects) 15% higher than in the 1970s. British studies show that these high THC levels increase the probability of addiction. We are now seeing fatal accidents caused by marijuana, as Newsweek reports that car accident rates have risen in states after legalizing marijuana sales. Science has not adequately studied the long-term side effects of marijuana.

In addition to drugs, people use food additives and supplements without scientific studies exploring their long-term side effects. God has given us plants and substances such as alcohol that we can use to alleviate human suffering. However, chemical and medical side effects are likely to increase suffering when we use them as untested recreational drugs or food additives.

References: KOMO Mid-Missouri News, Newsweek, The Week August 12, 2022, page 22, and AP in the South Bend Tribune 6/2/22 page 6A.

September 6, 2022September 6, 2022

Nadir Asteroid Impact Crater

One of the challenges to evolutionary theory is the principle of uniformitarianism–the assumption that no process has ever functioned on Earth that is not going on today. We are not talking about common disasters but events in Earth’s history that would have altered the course of evolution or stopped it entirely. For many years, scientists have known about the Chicxulub asteroid that struck the area that is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, probably causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. Such an event would have changed life’s future direction. Now, there is news of a Nadir asteroid impact crater.

BBC news reported that geologists discovered a possible asteroid crater off the coast of Guinea in west Africa. They call it the Nadir crater because it is at the Nadir (opposite lowest point) of the Chicxulub crater. This new crater is 8,500 meters wide and over 300 meters lower than the seabed. It is about the same age as Chicxulub but much smaller. The Chicxulub crater, caused by a larger asteroid, is 12,000 meters wide.

Both of these asteroid collisions would have violated uniformitarianism, dramatically affecting life on Earth. The Chicxulub asteroid impact would have caused major earthquakes, tsunamis, and a global firestorm. The result would have thrown enough dust into the atmosphere to plunge Earth into a deep freeze that dinosaurs could not have survived.

Since the Nadir asteroid impact crater is in an ocean environment, it would have caused a tsunami with a wall of water over 1000 meters high. The Nadir collision would have produced about 1,000 times more energy than Tonga’s recent (January 2022) volcano eruption. However, the energy from the Chicxulub impact would have been about 10 million times greater.

The textbook model of evolution is greatly simplified. We don’t fully understand how an asteroid collision would have affected life on Earth. It seems unlikely that most life forms could have survived the one-two punch of Chicxulub and Nadir asteroid impacts.

Genesis 1:1-3 indicates that there was a change in the Earth. An accurate translation of verse 2 is that Earth “became empty and wasted.” That is precisely what the asteroid collisions would have caused. This may have been God’s methodology of a final step to make Earth fit for human life. This new evidence supports the biblical account in ways we are only beginning to understand.

References: BBC news August 19, 2022, and Science Advances

September 5, 2022August 31, 2022

Labor Day in the United States

Today is Labor Day in the United States. Looking back, we can learn from the COVID infestation and the consequences of the isolation it brought to most of us. Those who keep records of such things tell us that in two years of the pandemic, there was a massive increase in divorce, pornography use, drug use and overdoses, and a 39% increase in alcoholism. In my experience, people who retire from their job to the idleness of a rocking chair don’t live very long. When my wife died, I was able to survive the loss by spending 90% of my time in work connected with this ministry.

To students of the Bible, all of this is no surprise. In Genesis 3:19, God told Adam, “By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food.” The law of Moses was centered around labor – “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Exodus 20:9). The inspired Bible writers talked about the fact that work is good for humans physically, mentally, and spiritually. Consider these verses:

Ecclesiastes 5:12 “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man will not allow him to sleep.”
Proverbs 6:6 “Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.”
Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”
Proverbs 21:25 “The lazy man’s craving will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work.”
2 Thessalonians 3:10 “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

Jesus set the example for His followers. He was active and involved in all that was around Him, right up to the time of His death. That was even though His disciples fell asleep because they could not keep up with Him. In the parable of the talents, the man who buried his talent instead of investing it was condemned (Matthew 25:14 – 30).

In that same chapter, Jesus talks about rewards and condemnations for how people use their time and their talents (verses 31-40). Feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting prisoners, taking in the homeless, and ministering to the sick are all activities that involve work.

The pandemic has shown what happens when humans don’t do what God has called them to do. Labor Day in the United States reminds us of the relationship between humans and labor. For Christians, it’s a reminder of what we must do with our time and talent.

August 29, 2022August 28, 2022

Soil Derived from Barren Rock

I have had the privilege of walking along a still hot lava flow in Hawaii and watching it cool and crack, exposing a red hot glowing interior. As a student of geology, I have seen the bedrock that tells of the composition of the early Earth in places throughout North and South America and England. There can be very little doubt that the creation of planet Earth left a ball of sterile, barren rock orbiting the Sun. Having lived for 85 years on this planet, I have had the joy of seeing soil derived from barren rock supporting vast plant and animal life.

The story of how soil is produced is a story of wisdom and design unique to our planet. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the importance of the soil God gave us and how to take care of it in our age of expanding populations.

National Geographic published an excellent article by Ferris Jabr titled “Out of Sight,” containing pictures by Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottawa. The pictures show the agents God created to convert the barren rock of our planet into soil that can grow a forest. A single gram of forest soil (1/454th of a pound) can contain as many as a billion bacteria, a million fungi, hundreds of thousands of protozoa, and nearly a thousand roundworms. The pictures of those microscopic organisms are incredible.

Soil derived from barren rock began with fundamental processes caused by rain, wind, and ice. Once the elements broke down the rocks to small sizes, the microscopic living organisms went to work. Microbes, fungi, lichen, and tiny plants broke down the sand-size rocks and enriched them with minerals life could use. In Hawaii, you can see the black sand beaches produced in modern times and the places where those agents have processed soil in which plants can live. Over time, the elements in early soils, such as carbon, phosphorus, and potassium, were processed to produce advanced soil structure.

The Genesis creation account does not explain God’s methods of preparing the planet for human life. Proverbs 8:22-36 finds Wisdom narrating the processes of creation. But even Wisdom can’t describe the process of soil derived from barren rocks to people with no microscopes or technical language. Today, we are uniquely privileged to see God’s handiwork and to marvel at the incredible complexity involved in the creation of dirt.

Reference: “Out of Sight” by Ferris Jabr in the September 2022 issue of National Geographic, pages 82 -99, with pictures by Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottawa.

August 26, 2022August 25, 2022

Synthetic Embryo and Synthetic Organs

Synthetic Embryo - Real Mouse Embryo — Real Mouse Embryo at 11 Days

Can a baby be produced in a laboratory without sperm and an egg? The answer for mice, at least, is a partial “yes.” Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel produced a “lab-created womb” in which they placed mouse stem cells producing a mouse embryo. The synthetic embryo “lived” for eight days.

Researchers could coax stem cells into a placenta or yolk sac by treating stem cells with chemicals. Then other stem cells developed into organs and tissues without intervention by the researchers. Some turned into beating heart tissue or a rudimentary nervous system. However, 99.5% of the stem cells failed.

This kind of research has a practical purpose beyond producing a synthetic embryo. For example, scientists hope to eventually grow human organs in a synthetic womb to replace diseased organs for which no donor is available. Scientists have already used this system to produce rudimentary artificial kidneys and hearts, but they are not yet suitable for medical use. Researchers are also hoping to find a way to nurture premature babies outside of the mother’s womb.

It is not true that all human stem cells come from aborted babies. Stem cells can be derived from various cells in the human body and can even be secured, under the right conditions, from a person who has just died. These stem cells are called “induced pluripotent stem cells.”

Like many efforts to produce life, researchers are copying natural processes to create a synthetic embryo of a mouse. Scientists and engineers have copied God’s creation for many practical uses. We have frequently shown how engineers have copied what they see in nature to produce everything from Velcro to jet engines. The debate among philosophers and ethics professionals concerns philosophical and ethical problems with this type of medical research.

Over and over, the biblical writers challenge us to learn from the natural world. In Job chapters 38 to 41, we see God challenging Job to deal with the creation in which he was living. Proverbs 6:6 says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise.” In Proverbs 8:22-31, Wisdom challenges us to think about the design and planning of God’s creation.

The struggle to duplicate the design of reproduction that God built into living things shows us how impossible it is to believe that the original creation was the product of blind chance. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “We can know there is a God through the things He has made (Romans 1:20).

Reference: Global Research

August 25, 2022August 24, 2022

Wildfire Aftermath and Recovery

If you are like me, you have watched with pain the terrible wildfires in the western United States. We tend to focus on the folks who have lost homes or barely got out with the clothing on their backs. However, the long-term effects of wildfires are not as bad as the human tragedy often caused by human mismanagement. Several research studies funded by the National Science Foundation have dealt with wildfire aftermath and recovery.

One study of charcoal from Wales and Poland tells the story of plants consumed by fire millions of years ago. Botanists say that instead of the grasses, trees, and flowers we see today, previous ancient land plants were under an inch tall. Some waist-high or knee-high plants existed, but much of the landscape was covered with tiny plants. At that time, the big plants were fungi that towered over all other plants. A well-preserved prototaxite fossil fungus shows that they stood 30 feet tall.

Earth’s atmosphere at that time had very little oxygen, unlike the 21% figure we see today. Fires would not occur because of the lack of oxygen. Modern studies show that a fire of any size isn’t likely below 16% atmospheric oxygen. Once the level exceeded 16%, fires occurred, and wildfire aftermath and recovery paved the way for the large plants we know today. Modern plants can generate large amounts of oxygen to sustain animal life.

In today’s wildfire aftermath and recovery, there are always “green islands” where a tree cluster avoids being burned because of the topography or nearness to water. A high percentage of seeds from these patches of unburned trees remain to germinate and grow. The creatures that would ordinarily eat the small trees are no longer there, so the plants survive to rapidly reforest the area. That means areas with “green islands” do not need human tree planting. Most human effort and resources can go to places with no “green islands.”

These studies help us understand God’s methods of preparing Earth for humans and the animals we need. Genesis 1:11-12 gives the same picture that the scientists are finding. It says that the first form of plant life was the grasses – “deshe” in Hebrew means tender grass. The second group of plants is “eseb,” meaning “naked seed,” – gymnosperms. That is followed by the tree bearing fruit containing its seed – angiosperms. The Bible tells us the order of progression from early forms of plants to the ones we depend on today. The Bible does not tell us how God did it or how long it took, but scientific research today gives us that information.

Reference: National Science Foundation “Research News”

August 23, 2022August 22, 2022

Placebo Treatment for Medical Problems

My wife is participating in a study of a new medical treatment. She is getting regular blood tests and various other medical tests to see if the treatment is effective. At the start of the study, the doctor told her that only half of the participants would get the actual treatment. The other half will receive a placebo, which is a pill with nothing but an inert filler. Placebo treatment is an accepted scientific way to measure a new medicine’s effectiveness.

One complicating factor of placebo treatment is that the human body is designed to cure itself, even with a placebo or nothing at all. In addition, a person’s mental outlook can affect the results of a drug or procedure. For example, reader’s Digest recently published an article by Lia Grainger titled “The Placebo Cure.” That article tells about a man diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He became part of a study to see if a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes could also help treat Parkinson’s.

When the study began, the patient immediately started feeling better. His joints ached less, he could move more easily, and he was able to start taking walks around the neighborhood. He said his memory was more robust, and he was convinced he was daily receiving the new drug. It turned out that he had been given a placebo.

The article defines the “placebo effect” as when the brain convinces the body that the fake treatment is authentic. Doctors have been using placebos for a very long time. One study showed that 89% of physicians used placebo treatment at least once a month. The scientific community only poorly understands this effect, but it is genuine and not questioned by medical researchers.

The design of the human body is one of God’s finest creations. Our minds have incredible power over the physical needs of our bodies, and it seems to be unique to humans and not a product of evolution or a chance process. This is true of our sexual relationships as well as our physical wellness. Our drug-saturated culture tends to throw a chemical at every problem. God has built into us an incredible number of ways in which our bodies fight disease and physical impairments.

We need to quickly emphasize that we are not saying there is no need for antibiotics, vaccines, or medical treatments. But, at the same time, we need to understand that we “are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14). One part of that is how our brains help our bodies maintain a high level of physical well-being.

Reference: “The Placebo Cure” by Lia Grainger in Reader’s Digest September 2022, pages 79 – 84.