creation Archives - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

June 4, 2025June 2, 2025

Genetic Difference Between Humans and Chimpanzees

The media has popularized the myth that the genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees is only 1%. Recent research shows that the variance is 15% or more. What we have here is the old graduate student mentality: “Make sure your data conforms to your conclusions.” If you are trying to prove that humans came from apes and that genetics supports that faith, you cannot accept the 15% data. The result is the popular 1% myth.

The Bible is silent on how God made the human body, stating only that He formed it “of the dust of the earth” (Genesis 2:7 and 3:19). These verses use the Hebrew word “yatsar,” meaning to form as a potter would shape a vase from clay. The Bible does not tell us how God formed the first human or how long He took to do it.

One thing is clear: both men and women are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This refers to the human soul, not the physical body. God is a spiritual being, not a physical one. Humans are uniquely endowed with a soul, a spiritual component that distinguishes humanity from all other life on Earth. The human soul enables us to create music and art, to worship, and to develop the capacity for critical thinking. We are not driven by instinct as animals are.

Some physical components of the human body are similar to those of chimpanzees. Stereoscopic vision, an opposable thumb, and body hair are some genetic similarities. The fact that the genetic similarity between humans and chimpanzees is 85% should not be surprising, given that fruit flies share 60% of their genes with humans. God has used the best design in many features of all animal bodies.

What separates humans from animals is our spiritual makeup, not our genes. However, the 1% genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees is a myth.

References: Evolution News, the journal Nature, and wikipedia

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

June 2, 2025June 1, 2025

Why We Care About Entropy

As a high school physics teacher, I frequently found myself challenged to keep my students interested. Some subjects were easy, but others were challenging, and the kids became bored very quickly. An example of the latter was a unit on the laws of thermodynamics. The second law, also known as the entropy law, states that a closed system tends to become increasingly disordered over time. Entropy is a statistical measure of disorder. During that unit of study, I once had a student who said, “Who cares?” There are good reasons why we care about entropy.

My response is that entropy is a design feature of the cosmos that produces black holes, but it also allows us to breathe and have engines in our cars. As a public-school teacher, I could not bring my religious views into the classroom, but it also disproves one of the atheist arguments against the existence of God.

When we say that God has always existed and He created the cosmos, atheists ask, “Then who created God?” They suggest it is easier to believe that matter has always existed. Why we care about entropy is that it shows that matter and the cosmos have not always existed.

Every reaction in the physical world reduces the amount of energy available to do work. The total energy in the cosmos available to do work is constantly decreasing, eventually becoming zero, and entropy will be maximum. That means the cosmos could not be eternal, and it must have had a beginning. There must be a cause for that beginning, and that cause is God.

May 30, 2025May 30, 2025

Only Humans Can Sing

The claim that animals sing just like humans is based on misinformation. Only humans can produce music, a fact supported by both definition and experience. A dictionary definition of music is: “The art of arranging sounds in time that expresses ideas and emotions to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.” The dictionary also gives the following definition of singing: “The use of the human voice to provide a succession of notes to produce a desired effect.” Only humans can sing.

Music has a proven effect on humans. My son Timothy was born with multiple handicaps. He was blind, severely mentally challenged, and had cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. What Tim did not have was a problem with his hearing. If we put on a record of one of his favorite artists, he would smile and sit quietly through the entire record.

The Bible records the effect of music on humans. King Saul was mentally disturbed. The one thing that gave him peace was David and his harp (1 Samuel 16:14-16). The Old Testament includes many references to the role of music. In Daniel 3:5-15, we read that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, used music to call people to worship his gold image. In Ecclesiastes 2:8, we read that Solomon had singers serving him. In Nehemiah 12:27-28, we see that singers and players celebrated the dedication of the restored Jerusalem wall. The Psalms are songs, and many of them refer to making music.

Music has played a significant role in Christianity. Ephesians 5:19 tells Christians to “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” A psalm is a current expression of needs. A hymn is a song of praise to God. Spiritual songs are songs that instruct or motivate. In recent years, Bill Gaither and others have popularized gospel music.

Can animals do these things? The answer is no. Only humans can sing. Animals make sounds and “songs” for survival purposes. Dogs bark, cats meow, and birds “sing” for survival reasons. Whales in the broad expanse of the ocean contact one another by emitting low frequencies that travel long distances. A cardinal sits outside our window and “sings.” But what is he actually doing? He is saying to all other cardinals, “Stay out of my territory and away from my mate or else.” He is not creating music.

Animal communication is a demonstration of God’s design and wisdom, but only humans can sing as a product of our spiritual nature in God’s image. Humans need to sing and make music. See Colossians 3:16 and Hebrews 2:12. God created us to enjoy the gift of music and use it to honor Him.

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 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.

May 13, 2025May 12, 2025

Questions About Life in Three Categories

Everyone is curious about the things we see in nature. Our posts here and on Facebook often concern animals, plants, and ecosystems. Most people looking at living creatures believe they see design and have questions about life in three categories.

The first category of questions, asked primarily by scientists or the scientifically minded, is, “How does it work?” We want to know how DNA determines the various traits of living things. We are curious about how green plants convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy to power their cells. How does a bat find its prey in the dark? How can an octopus control eight arms independently? The questions are numerous.

The second category is, “What is the purpose?” Atheist scientist Richard Dawkins stops after the “how” question to say, “Biology is the study of things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” But then he makes it very clear that he believes they are not designed and have no purpose. On the other hand, theologians look for a purpose. Since God created the world, He must have a purpose in mind.

Both scientists and theologians ask questions in the third category. They want to know, “How and when did this originate? How did the universe come into being? How did life come from non-living chemicals? When did the first human life originate, and how?” For believers, the Bible gives us basic answers to those questions. However, since the Bible is not a science textbook, it leaves many questions unanswered. That is where science can find answers.

Looking at questions about life in three categories, the third category is very contentious because scientists and believers disagree. I mean that unbelieving scientists disagree with believers and vice versa. But also, scientists disagree with other scientists, and believers disagree with other believers. The curious thing is that in recent years, scientists have resolved some of their disagreements. Those who once insisted that the universe was eternal have been forced to accept the evidence of a cosmic beginning about 13.8 billion years ago.

Believers, however, continue to argue about young-earth and old-earth theology. All believers need to accept the fact that the Bible does not tell us when the universe began or when Adam and Eve lived. As Christians, we must let the Bible speak where it speaks and allow science to speak where it speaks. Of the questions about life in three categories, the most important for believers to examine falls into the second category. “What is the purpose of life?” That is a question the Bible clearly answers. For example, read Romans 12:1-2, Romans 6:22, and Ephesians 3:10-12.