creation Archives

November 6, 2025November 4, 2025

Hardwired for Moral Behavior

A question that evolutionists and naturalists cannot answer is why even atheists follow a moral code. I have seen this personally in my family. My father was an atheist, a philosophy professor, and a disciple of the philosopher John Dewey. He wrestled with the question of morality throughout his career. The truth is that my father was a very moral man. He never cheated anyone, taught his kids to be honest, never plagiarized or misrepresented a colleague’s or student’s work, never cheated on his taxes, and, as far as I know, was completely faithful to my mother. When I became a Christian, I asked him why he was so moral and honest, and he simply said, “I don’t know.” Is it possible that humans are hardwired for moral behavior?

An article in Scientific American by Elizabeth Svoboda titled “The Neuroscience of Morality” provides substantial evidence that morality is not learned or a product of evolution. Svoboda noted that physical disgust and moral disgust are “uniquely connected.” A key statement in the article is, “When we first become aware of an ethical violation, we’re hardwired to react much as we might to a steaming cow pie” (A cow pie is a pile of manure left by a cow). However, the article suggests there is a slippery slope: once you start acting immorally, such as by lying or cheating, it becomes easier to continue. Conversely, when people act morally in tempting situations, it becomes easier to have moral courage next time.

Titus 1:2 states that God cannot lie. Since we are created in the image of God, we are hardwired for moral behavior, including telling the truth. A child can learn to lie, but as a parent, I could look into my young child’s eyes and tell whether they were being honest. By the time kids become teenagers, they have learned to lie so convincingly that only a polygraph can reveal the truth. When adults are conditioned to lie, they often become unstable and may need psychological help.

The scientific evidence is clear. Humans are unique in many ways, but one key feature is that we are hardwired for moral behavior, which stems from being created in the image of God. Animals, however, do not have a moral code because they are not created in God’s image.

Reference: “The Neuroscience of Morality” by Elizabeth Svoboda in the November issue of Scientific American (pages 32-39

November 5, 2025November 4, 2025

Clarifying the Neanderthal Description

The first Neanderthal fossil was found in 1856. Later discoveries in Germany revealed complete skulls and specimens with a long, flat skull, a rounded brow ridge (supraorbital torus), large eye sockets (orbits), and brain sizes of 1640 cc in males, which is larger than most males today. The most influential specimen was La Chapelle–aux–Saints (the old man), discovered by French paleontologist Marcellin Boule, who described it as a hairy, slouching, ape-like creature. That description of Neanderthals endured for many years, but newer discoveries are clarifying the Neanderthal description.

Today, we know that Neanderthals were a distinct race of humans. An archaeologist named Lutz Kindler, from the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center in Germany, reports that Neanderthals operated a “Fat Factory.” In what is now eastern Germany, Neanderthals broke and crushed the bones of large mammals to extract valuable bone marrow and fat, which they used as a food source.

Evidence indicates that Neanderthals planned hunts, transported carcasses, and rendered fat, understanding its nutritional value. On the site, researchers found more than 100,000 bone fragments from at least 172 large mammals, including deer and horses. Many of the bones show cut marks and signs of intentional breakage, indicating deliberate butchering rather than just leftovers from a hunt. Researchers also found evidence of tool use and fires in the area.

In the past, Neanderthals were thought to be a missing link in human evolution from monkeys. However, as new discoveries are clarifying the Neanderthal description, we see that they were a race of humans, not related to monkeys or apes. Fossil specimens with “pithicus” in their names form part of the evolutionary tree for monkeys and apes, but humans are separate and distinct.

The Bible describes humans as created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26- 27), referring to our spiritual nature—our soul. Acts 17: 26 tells us we are all of one blood, and Galatians 3: 28 states that when we are in Christ, we are all one. The evidence contradicts attempts to portray humans as “naked apes.”

References: Science Alert for July 6, 2025 and Wikipedia.

November 3, 2025November 2, 2025

The Unique Design of Hammerhead Sharks

Many forms of life are so unique that no other living or fossil species could have evolved into them. A prime example is the hammerhead shark. Most sharks have a similar body shape with a pointed or bullet-shaped head, but the unique design of hammerhead sharks is a radical departure from this norm.

All sharks share a common feature: the ampullae of Lorenzini. These are jelly-filled sensory pores that detect electric fields generated by ocean creatures. In most sharks, these organs are located in the snout. However, in hammerhead sharks, they are spread across both ends of the head. This gives them greater resolution and helps locate prey more accurately.

The unique design of hammerhead sharks enables them to make quick, sharp turns to ambush prey effectively. The shape also provides a binocular field of vision of 48 degrees, compared to about 15 degrees in normal sharks.

Attempting to find an evolutionary explanation for the hammerhead’s distinctive design is nearly impossible. There is no fossil evidence showing gradual changes in the heads of ancient sharks. This remarkable design is the work of an exceptionally skilled engineer. We believe that engineer is God.

Reference: The 2025 BBC series on unique life forms and the BBC Learning Hub

October 31, 2025October 28, 2025

Earth Needs Jupiter

Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system. Its mass is 2.5 times greater than the combined mass of all other planets in the solar system. It divides the planets of the inner solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) from the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). We have previously mentioned that the gravity created by Jupiter’s mass acts as a shield to protect our planet from comets coming from outside the solar system. Additionally, Jupiter influences Earth’s climate cycle. More than that, Earth needs Jupiter for its very existence.

As the solar system was formed, Jupiter’s massive gravity prevented gas and dust in the inner solar system from being pulled into the Sun. These materials coalesced into the inner planets, including Earth. As the planets formed, Jupiter’s gravity helped stabilize the orbits. A recent study co-led by Andre Izidoro of Rice University in Houston demonstrated that Jupiter shaped the structure of the solar system. Earth needs Jupiter today, just as it needed it at the beginning.

According to Izidoro, “Jupiter didn’t just become the biggest planet—it set the architecture for the whole inner solar system. Without it, we might not have Earth as we know it.” As gas and dust swirled around the newly formed Sun, Jupiter’s massive gravity created ripples that formed rings of material which clumped together by gravity to form the inner planets. Earth needs Jupiter because, without it, the material that formed the planet would have spiraled into the Sun.

Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth,” but it doesn’t specify the process God used or how long it took. If the Bible included every detail, it would be an enormous book. But the Bible is not a science book, and scientists are still exploring the processes God used in creation. It is fascinating to consider how complex the creation process must have been, yet the first verse of the Bible contains the essential facts. There was a beginning. God did it. The creation of a functioning universe, a solar system, and a planet for human habitation is summarized in five Hebrew words—“reshith elohim bara shamayim erets.”

References: space.com and science.org

October 29, 2025October 28, 2025

Female Moths Listen to Plants

For years, scientists have known that plants vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies when their internal water pressure changes. Recently, they learned that drought-stressed plants or plants that have been cut produce ultrasonic sounds loud enough to be detected by a moth’s ultrasonic hearing. Dr. Yossi Yovel and a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University took this a step further to see whether female moths listen to plants and avoid laying their eggs on those that are distressed.

The researchers found that female Egyptian cotton leafworm moths avoided laying eggs on tomato plants that made distress-related sounds. Unhealthy plants do not allow the moth larvae to thrive. The sounds plants make when they are distressed or unhealthy are outside of the range of human hearing, but insects, bats, and even some small mammals can hear them.

Learning that female moths listen to plants, Professor Yovel speculates on whether “all sorts of animals will make decisions based on the sounds they hear from plants, such as whether to pollinate or hide inside them, or eat the plant.” Taking this even further, Dr. Lilach Hadany, also of Tel Aviv University, speculates on whether plants can pass information to each other through sounds and act on those sounds. “This is an exciting question,” she told BBC News. Previously, researchers learned that plants can communicate with each other through their roots.

The researchers, however, emphasize that plants are not sentient and that this interaction cannot be considered “communication” in the “conservative definition of the term.” Nonetheless, we can look at our own bodies and recall the statement of David in Psalms 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Likewise, we see that other forms of life are “fearfully and wonderfully made” as well. Everywhere we look in the natural world, we see evidence of a wonder-working hand that has gone before.

References: bbc.com and elifesciences.org

October 28, 2025October 27, 2025

Desertas Petrels Flying Into Hurricanes

Most sea birds stay ashore when they sense a storm is approaching. Frigate birds ascend to very high altitudes to avoid the strong winds of hurricanes. Albatrosses find calm in the eye of a hurricane. But not all birds see hurricanes as threats. For Desertas petrels, flying into hurricanes is a feast.

These small, agile seabirds with long, slender wings dive straight into the spinning air bands, reaching areas 124 miles (200 km) from the hurricane’s eye. In one study, a Desertas petrel was seen flying into winds over 60 mph and ocean waves taller than 26 feet. As a hurricane moves, these birds travel with it. Researchers have tracked Desertas petrels flying from Africa to the New England coast, over 7,000 miles.

This unusual behavior creates a feast for the Desertas petrels, key predators in the ocean. Hurricanes stir up life forms from depths as great as 3,280 feet. They also bring zooplankton and larger swimming prey up from the deep, allowing the Desertas petrels to feed and help maintain balance among different ocean life forms.

It’s easy for humans to misunderstand the careful design of ocean food chains. Without balance, a species could become overly numerous, consume all available food, and face extinction. Desertas petrels help maintain the balance of squid, octopus, cuttlefish, hatchetfish, and lanternfish. Francesco Ventura, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has studied these birds in detail and has shown how they not only survive hurricanes but thrive in them.

We can learn many lessons from studying God’s creatures. We see how crucial it is for humans to care for ocean life without disrupting the balance, which ultimately affects our own food supply. Understanding how all life forms survive provides powerful evidence of God’s wisdom and design of our planet. We are not here by chance.

Reference: sciencedirect.com

October 27, 2025October 26, 2025

Alaskan Dinosaurs

We usually think of dinosaurs as reptiles that lived in tropical jungles, and were part of the ecosystem that produced fossil fuels like coal and peat. We even see articles about places like the Galápagos Islands referring to iguanas, lizards, and other reptiles, such as the Komodo dragon, as modern-day dinosaurs. The truth is that dinosaurs were unlike any modern creatures on Earth today, and there were Alaskan dinosaurs.

Alaska magazine reported on extensive fossil evidence of the northernmost dinosaurs that ever lived. During the time these dinosaurs existed, Alaska did not have a tropical climate, because many of the fossils were found in permafrost. The first fossil fragments of Alaskan dinosaurs were discovered in 1994 in the Talkeetna Mountains. In the Colville River watershed, researchers found fossils of a tyrannosaur called Nanuqsaurus, meaning “polar bear lizard.” In 2016, a hadrosaur fossil was announced, and in 2020, a velociraptor was displayed for the public. In 2021, Dr. Patrick Druckenmiller, the only vertebrate paleontologist in Alaska, published a paper in the journal Current Biology describing a dinosaur nest containing eggs with embryonic dinosaurs. Along with dinosaur fossils, large numbers of bird fossils and an early salmon ancestor have been found.

Discoveries of Alaskan dinosaurs reveal that they were adapted to thrive in a wide range of environments where modern animals, including humans, could not survive. Jurassic Park movies do not give a complete picture of the dinosaur world. God prepared the Earth for humans with purpose, intelligence, and design. Our planet was created with life in all environments, providing everything humans would need to survive, while also allowing humans to find and even synthesize these resources.

The discovery of dinosaurs, especially Alaskan dinosaurs, suggests that the human race is not a chance accident. The Creator had us in mind. God prepared Earth for human habitation so that we could fulfill His purpose. We were created for a purpose, and our world shows that we can know there is a God “through the things He has made” (Romans 1:20).

Reference: Alaska magazine for November 2025 (pages 38-40)

October 23, 2025October 22, 2025

Adam’s Origin Update

Genesis 2:10-14 indicates that the “Garden of Eden” was located where four rivers flowed—the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. This region is called the “Fertile Crescent” by modern mapmakers and gets its name because of the rich soil that once supported abundant plant life, as the Bible states. In recent years, some anthropologists have claimed that humans originated in Africa, and detailed “trees” of human evolution are included in anthropology textbooks. By asserting that humans were created in Africa rather than Asia, this theory conflicts with the biblical account, leading many people to doubt the Bible’s accuracy. So, what is the truth about Adam’s origin?

As technology advances, two ancient skulls discovered in China have been reclassified, once again altering the anthropological understanding of human history. The Yunxian skulls initially labeled as Homo erectus are now identified as Homo longi because modern technology reveals they lack the traits of Homo erectus. In addition to Homo sapiens, there are two racial groups for human-like fossils—Neanderthals and Denisovans. The Denisovans are the older race, and the skulls found in China exhibit their features.

The biblical account of Adam’s origin is not at odds with this new information since the Bible does not specify a date for Adam and Eve. We do know that DNA evidence shows we are all related. “God has made of one blood all the nations that they should inhabit the whole Earth” (Acts 17:26).

Reference: science.org and scienceandculture.com

October 22, 2025October 22, 2025

Solar Reflectors in Space

Joshua chapter 10 records an incident in which the Sun stood still to provide light for “about a full day” so that Joshua could lead the Israelites to defeat the Amorites in battle. I don’t pretend to know the details of how that happened, but I have heard a suggestion that God provided a miraculous way to reflect the Sun’s light into the Valley of Aijalon until the victory was complete. From the perspective of someone in that location, it would appear that the Sun stood still. Now, a California-based company called Reflect Orbital wants to do something like that with a constellation of solar reflectors in space.

Reflect Orbital hopes to launch a 60-by-60-foot (18-by-18-meter) mirror into orbit in April of 2026 to test the idea. If the plan succeeds, they want to place 4,000 solar reflectors in space to orbit in a sun-synchronous orbit between the poles. They would follow the boundary between day and night, providing reflected light to areas in the twilight zone. Reflect Orbital says it could enable solar power generation during peak morning and evening hours, improve crop growth, allow people to work into the night, and provide emergency lighting for disaster zones. Reflect Orbital has applied to the FCC for a license, claiming they have the funding and have already received 250,000 requests for service.

Astronomers and those interested in wildlife are very concerned. For example, Robert Massey, Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society in the UK, said, “The central goal of this project is to light up the sky and extend daylight, and obviously, from an astronomical perspective, that’s pretty catastrophic.” With 4,000 solar reflectors in space, each reflection could cover a 5-kilometer area where some agency has requested and paid for service. However, atmospheric scattering would reach an undefined surrounding area. For up to 100 kilometers, the mirrors would appear like very bright stars.

Light pollution is already a problem, increasing by 10 percent per year since the introduction of LED lights, causing fewer stars to be visible in the night sky. Light pollution is also linked to the decline of beneficial insect populations, as well as increased sleep disorders and depression in humans. In addition to affecting astronomical observations, the solar reflectors in space could disrupt migratory birds that depend on the stars for guidance.

Instead of dreaming about what humans can do, maybe we should carefully consider what we should or should not do. Anyone who has experienced the night sky in one of the rare dark sky areas remaining can appreciate the words of the psalmist David: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3,4 ESV)

Reference: space.com

October 21, 2025October 21, 2025

Hammer Orchid and Thynnid Wasp

Ten species of hammer orchids (genus Drakaea) are found only in Western Australia, and each is pollinated by a specific wasp species in the Thynnid family. Each orchid has a fake model of the pollinating wasp carefully placed to attract the real wasps. It sounds like a clever practical joke, but the hammer orchid has a “dummy” labellum on a stem attached to a hinge that only bends toward the orchid’s flower.

Of course, the dummy on the stem resembles a female thynnid wasp in size, shape, and color. At the right time for fertilization, the hammer orchid releases a pheromone that mimics the female wasp’s scent. Thynnid wasps are unusual because the female is flightless and waits on a stem or grass blade for a male wasp to carry her away to a food source for mating. When a male thynnid wasp falls for the trick and tries to carry away the dummy, a hinge throws him backward into the orchid, dusting him with pollen.

The humiliated male wasp then leaves and might be fooled by another hammer orchid, where he deposits the pollen he collected from the first flower. The male wasp might repeat this process several times (assuming he’s a slow learner), which is the only way the orchid gets pollinated. If the trick didn’t work, the hammer orchid would become extinct.

Consider all the things that must go right for this trick to succeed:

1. The orchid must produce a labellum that resembles the female wasp in size, color, and shape.

2. The male wasp must be programmed to grab a flightless female and carry her away as part of the mating ritual.

3. The orchid must produce the right complex chemical pheromone to mimic the female wasp at just the right time to attract the male.

4. The hinge must move in the right direction and not be too weak or too stiff.

5. The stem from the hinge to the dummy wasp must be exactly the right length to coat the male wasp with pollen.

6. The male wasp must not be clever enough to learn from his mistakes.

Could the unique design of the hammer orchid have happened by chance, or is design a better explanation? Could it also be that the Designer has a sense of humor?

Reference: wikipedia.org