God Archives

April 18, 2022April 15, 2022

Learning About Lepidopterans

One of the joys of life is the ability we all have to learn beyond school or college. Learning often happens when we contact someone who knows a lot about a subject we have never studied. For example, we recently visited the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where we met specialists in butterflies and moths. So naturally, we were interested in learning about lepidopterans.

The order Lepidoptera includes butterflies and moths, and we learned that there are 2932 species of these insects in Florida. Studies have revealed incredible details about these creatures’ surprising complexity and design. The word “lepidoptera” means “scale wings,” and these creatures have microscopic scales on their wings. They have four wings – a pair in front and a pair in the back. Their bodies have three parts, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen with three pairs of jointed legs attached to the thorax.

Butterflies and moths taste with their feet, which means when they land on something, they immediately know whether it is food or not. These creatures breathe through tiny valves on the sides of their abdomen called spiracles, and they eat through a long tube called a proboscis. Butterflies are active during the day, and moths are active at night, with very few exceptions. Coming out of their heads between their eyes are antennae. In butterflies, the antennae are club-shaped, and in moths, they taper to a point. When a moth attaches to a surface, sensitive cells detect moisture, temperature, and exposure to the wind and rain.

Butterfly antennae have cells sensitive to the pollen of whatever plant its caterpillars need to survive. Each butterfly has a particular sensitivity to a specific plant or group of plants. For example, monarch butterflies are sensitive to milkweed. Farmers know which butterflies produce caterpillars that eat certain crops. In the natural world, the caterpillars of moths and butterflies are food for many larger creatures. When humans eradicate those predators, we upset the balance, causing problems for humans. Learning about lepidopterans and the environment is essential for understanding how to maintain balance. God did not design butterflies and moths to be destructive, but when we mismanage the environment, the result is a problem for humans raising crops.

The complexity of butterflies and moths is impressive. They have their larval ability to eat plants and produce silk to make a cocoon and morph into adults with the beautiful colors and designs of wing scales. Learning to control the destructive nature of caterpillars requires an understanding of the complexity of these remarkable creatures. Without the help of mature insects as pollinators, many other plants would suffer. Learning about lepidopterans shows us God’s excellent design of life.

April 17, 2022April 15, 2022

The Event to Remember

Today, we think once more of the event to remember which we described in this post from five years ago.

Early on the first day of the week, some women came to the tomb where the lifeless body of Jesus had been placed. It was empty. It had been opened–not by any human hands but by an angel. It wasn’t opened to let Jesus out. The tomb was opened so that people might see that it was empty. The followers of Jesus were not expecting him to be alive again. At first, they couldn’t believe it. Powerful people tried to find the body or to convince the public that it had been stolen. But they could not.

Now, over 2000 years later, there are still those who try to deny the resurrection. The evidence is there. The friends of Jesus were not expecting the resurrection, but after they had seen him alive, they spent the rest of their lives telling others about it. Even when they were tortured and killed for preaching the resurrection, not one of them ever recanted. Without a body, the powerful enemies of Jesus could not disprove the resurrection.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, written only a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle Paul recorded what scholars believe was an oral tradition of the resurrection appearances dating back to the very time of the resurrection. If it had not been true, this tradition and Paul’s record of it would have been debunked by the eyewitnesses who were still around. It was true, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most solidly attested event of ancient history. The world will never be the same because of the day when Jesus Christ conquered death.
–Roland Earnst © 2017

April 16, 2022April 15, 2022

Waiting for the New Day

As we are waiting for the new day, we want to share this post from five years ago.

Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man who had a new tomb carved into a stone hillside. This was not a pauper’s grave. Only the rich and powerful could afford such a burial place, and it was soon to become a temporarily borrowed tomb.

The first man to use it was not a wealthy man. He grew up as the son of a carpenter and had no home to call His own. He had a small group of friends who deserted Him at the last minute. His thousands of admirers quickly sought to get rid of Him when He didn’t overthrow the Romans as they expected.

A few days after they greeted Him with shouts of praise and honor, they were begging the Romans to put him to death. His lifeless body was placed in a rich man’s tomb because the rich man named Joseph stepped out of the shadows and loaned his tomb to Jesus. “Loaned” is the appropriate word, because Jesus would not need it for very long. This was a temporarily borrowed tomb. A miracle was about to happen!
–Roland Earnst © 2017

April 15, 2022April 13, 2022

In the Shadow of NASA

The John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida gets a lot of attention from the media. However, most people probably are not aware that attached to the Space Center in the shadow of NASA is the Canaveral National Seashore/Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It has 69,000 acres of marsh left undeveloped and managed by the National Park Service. Researchers have identified 1045 plant species and 310 bird species in the shadow of NASA.

A dozen species of wildlife that are federally listed as endangered live there, including sea turtles, West Indian manatees, wood storks, eastern indigo snakes, and Florida scrub jays. In addition, there are the usual animals found in Florida, including land tortoises, otters, armadillos, and a wild assortment of crabs, insects, oysters, clams, and shrimp.

We had the pleasure of visiting this refuge the second week of April in 2022. It was interesting to watch hundreds of birds wading through the marsh, eating crabs and shrimp. We also saw mullet jumping as they were chased by larger fish and alligators basking in the Sun and then looking up to see a rocket being prepared to lift astronauts to the space station.

The refuge is a barrier island with sand dunes covered with various plants, including numerous palm trees and ancient oaks covered with Spanish moss and palmetto and sea oats. The National Park Service has built wooden walkways to control human traffic, allowing a natural environment to function within sight of the Kennedy Space Center in the shadow of NASA.

Just north of this area is New Smyrna Beach with its towering resorts, massive numbers of tourist attractions, and where people can drive vehicles on the beach. That area is essentially a biological desert with some gulls and pelicans and various sparrows, vultures, and blackbirds, but nothing like what we see in the wildlife refuge. The primary vegetation is a variety of human-introduced plants decorating the resorts. As you drive through the area, you see the trunks of dead palm trees everywhere but very little wildlife. Meanwhile, construction continues on more resorts and tourist complexes.

What happens when a hurricane hits this area? In the wildlife refuge, the answer is almost nothing. The vegetation holds the dunes and prevents the destruction of the plants and wildlife that depends on them. We all know about the collapse of the resort tower in this area, which tragically killed several people. No human structure is free from the elements. The human-introduced plants are generally wiped out in a hurricane and have to be replanted. Human attempts to control the area are at the mercy of natural processes. As the climate warms and water levels rise, more human-made structures will be destroyed, but what God constructed will survive. The refuge will change, and the wildlife and plant life will adapt, but it will do quite well left alone.

It was interesting to see the challenges facing the park service in the refuge. Roads don’t do well, and wooden structures have to be replaced. Meanwhile, the natural world functions smoothly and efficiently with an abundance of residential and migratory life. As humans try to control parts of nature, we constantly need to rebuild and replace. “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit … and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:11-12). You can see how good it is when you visit an area not corrupted by human ignorance, greed, and selfishness.

Data from National Park Foundation publication Canaveral/Merritt Island 2021.

April 14, 2022April 13, 2022

Sand and Life Design

Sand is one of many things vital to life on Earth, but we generally ignore the connection between sand and life. Sand comes in many different colors and chemical compositions. Silicon and oxygen make up the sand in the Great Lakes area where we live, while Florida’s sand consists of calcium and oxygen. Sand has multiple uses in construction, and it can hold large amounts of water, making it useful in water resources. Because water flows very slowly through sand, we use it in bags to stop the rapid flow of water. Sand mixed with organic material makes soil. Sand and life are closely tied together.

In the northern parts of the world, most of the sand results from the breakdown of granite and other volcanic rocks. Granite contains orthoclase, a pinkish mineral that dissolves into clay. The orthoclase is mixed with other dark-colored minerals that break down, and water carries them away. The toughest material in granite is the last to remain, and it weathers into sand.

I had a college professor who took us to a cemetery to look at the headstones. Dates were carved into the headstones, so we knew how long they had been exposed to the elements of wind, rain, and ice. In the oldest section of the cemetery, the headstones had been reduced to sand because they were made of granite which breaks down. Limestone headstones get tougher with time and generally survive longer.

The world’s oceans have a different connection between sand and life. For example, parrotfish produce 70% of the sand in the Pacific Ocean. These fish eat coral, biting off small chunks and digesting the organic material in the coral polyps. The fish discharge what is left, and it falls to the ocean floor as sand. In areas of the world rich in clams, oysters, snails, and other sea animals with shells, much of the sand is produced by waves grinding up the shells of these creatures.

Lake Michigan’s beaches look very different from those in Florida. Sand in Lake Michigan comes from granite that has been broken down by plant roots and the freezing and thawing of water. The beach sand contains granules of magnetite (an iron mineral) and other dark-colored minerals. In Florida, the sand is ground up of seashells with no dark minerals, making it very white. Some sand near volcanic activity will be green or black as the dark soluble minerals have not had time to weather out.

The processes that produce sand and other materials critical to life on this planet show design. Interactions between the elements and living things enable life forms to adapt to their environments in various climates and conditions. The more we study and understand the processes and how they interact, the more we see that a wonder-working hand has gone before to prepare a place for humans to dwell.

Reference: Planet Earth airing on PBS April 8, 2022.

April 13, 2022April 12, 2022

Meek or Weak – What’s the Difference?

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). A regular challenge to Christianity is that it’s a group of weak people. Those who make this challenge don’t understand the difference between being meek or weak. These words are not synonyms but very different concepts.

The word translated as “meek” is “praus” in Greek. According to a Greek dictionary, it means “power under control as in a soothing medicine, a gentle breeze, a broken colt horse.” Nelson’s Bible Dictionary explains, “Meekness is an attitude of humility toward God and gentleness toward men, springing from a recognition that God is in control. It is strength and courage under control, coupled with kindness.”

The current crisis in Ukraine is because a very weak man (Putin) has control of the Russian military. He follows other weak men, such as Hitler, in bringing pain and suffering to innocent humans while he sits in comfort far away from where his weakness is being displayed. He is an example of power that is not under control.

We see the classic example of meekness in Jesus Christ. Christ shows His meekness in a plea to all of humanity, “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The yoke Jesus calls us to take on is being kind, gentle, fair, forgiving, and peaceful. It is not giving up power but putting it under God’s control. Those who are weak don’t know how to live except by violence and abuse. When Jesus was on Earth, no one accused Him of being weak. Instead, people said, “What is this, for with authority and power He commands … and the fame of Him went out into every place in the country around” (Luke 4:36-7).

Considering meek or weak persons, the Bible contains stories about meek heroes and weak people. For example, Abraham meekly gives his nephew Lot the first choice in dividing the land given to him. Lot takes advantage of Abraham’s strength to support his own weakness (Genesis 13:7-9). Joseph shows meekness in dealing with his treacherous brothers (Genesis 45:3-5). Saul, in his weakness, could not handle David’s success (1 Samuel 18:7-9). Simon wanted Paul’s power and tried to buy it (Acts 8:9-24). Governor Felix was too weak to handle the truth (Acts 24:24-27). King Agrippa was too weak to become a Christian (Acts 26:27-29).

Jesus showed meekness in the extreme by how He faced death. John 10:17-18 quotes Jesus saying that no one could take His life from Him, but He had the power to lay it down. When Peter demonstrated weakness by taking out a sword and slashing away at his enemies, Jesus told him to put the sword away. He said, “Don’t you think I could pray to my Father and He would give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:50-54). As a Christian, I am weak only when I don’t have the strength to measure up to the meekness that being a Christian requires.

I will never reach the meekness of great Christians of the past. I marvel at Paul, who changed from being an opponent of Christ to one of the meekest men who ever lived. I have not always shown meekness and have sometimes been very weak. Even Paul struggled with the challenge of being a Christian. Read Romans 7:14-8:2. The yoke Jesus offers is easy because God helps us. He is looking to save and not condemn us.

April 12, 2022April 11, 2022

The Mighty Seahorse Threatened

“The mighty seahorse” suggests a massive stallion galloping across the ocean’s waves. The reality is that these amazing fish range from 5⁄8 inch to 14 inches (1.5 to 35.5 cm), and they are threatened.

There are 46 identified species of seahorses, and the scientific classification is Hippocampus from the ancient Greek for ‘horse” and “sea monster.” This fish has a head like a horse and eyes that function independently and can rotate like a chameleon’s. They have a pouch like a kangaroo and a prehensile tail like a monkey. Instead of scales, their skin is covered with boney plates, spikes, and lacy skin extensions. They swim in a vertical posture using their dorsal fin for power while steering with their pectoral fins. They anchor themselves using the prehensile tail to grab onto a fixed object.

The reproductive system of the seahorse family is unlike any other group of animals. The male and female connect face to face with their tails entwining, and the female impregnates the male by depositing massive numbers of eggs in his pouch. Then, several weeks later, the males eject up to a thousand baby seahorses who will drift with the current, eventually settling down on seagrass or coral or any fixed object on the seafloor.

Seahorses eat smaller forms of sea life, including copepods, shrimp, and fish larvae. They are themselves part of the food chain eaten by larger fish. Commercial fishing operations catch 76 million seahorses a year, and human exploitation has endangered these animals.

Human understanding of all the agents of change and balance in the oceans is very limited. The role of the seahorse in the functioning of a healthy ocean has only recently become understood. The ocean system has a complex influence on life on the land. As we learn more, the complexity speaks of a design that makes chance an unlikely cause. God’s design of life on Earth is clearly seen through what has been made (Romans 1:20). The mighty seahorse is an excellent demonstration of that design.

Reference: National Geographic, April 2022, page 72-85.

April 9, 2022April 9, 2022

Jonah’s Icefish and Animals of the Cold

Animals of the Cold include Jonah's Icefish and Ooligans

Deep-sea biologists from Germany accidentally discovered a massive colony of icefish nests under the ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. The fish known as Jonah’s icefish have formed a colony the researchers estimate to contain 60 million nests 500 meters below the sea ice. The animals of the cold always amaze us.

Jonah’s icefish are nesting fish that carve out circular nests with rocky centers on the seafloor, where they lay over 1,000 eggs. Other ocean and freshwater fish species form nests, including bluegills that nest in the lakes of the midwestern United States. However, bluegill breeding colonies are limited to a few hundred individuals, not millions. Like bluegills that feed on small aquatic life and are food for larger fish, Jonah’s icefish play an essential role as food for the Weddell seals, and they feed on the abundant plankton in the Antarctic waters.

When it comes to animals of the cold, Jonah’s icefish are like the ooligan (eulachon) fish of Alaskan waters in that their blood is full of antifreeze compounds. Ooligans have so much oil in their bodies that if you dry the fish and put a wick in its mouth, it will burn like a candle. In Alaska, a nickname for the ooligan is the “candlefish.”

Many animals are specially designed to live in very cold conditions. For example, one of the books in our children’s book collection is titled Animals of the Cold, written by Charlsey Ford. As well as the ooligan, that book discusses the musk ox, ice worms, and the Kermode bear. All of these animals are specially designed to live in the extreme cold.

We see God’s design in every ecological system on our planet. Each time we find a new example, we are amazed at God’s creative design of life. Romans 1:19-22 reminds us that “We can know there is a God through the things He has made.” Jonah’s icefish is another excellent example of that truth.

— John N. Clayton 2022

References: Science News February 12, 2022, pages 12-13, and Current Biology volume 32, issue 4.

The complete set of our children’s books is available HERE.

April 8, 2022April 4, 2022

The Purpose of Beauty

Humans are obsessed with beauty. We try to make ourselves more beautiful with clothing and cosmetics. We seek to create beauty in music and art, and we continually long for something even more beautiful. But, what is the purpose of beauty, and how can we explain excessive beauty in nature? That is what we have called “the problem of beauty,” which we have discussed all this week.

Beauty is not to provide protection or to solve problems. The purpose of beauty is to bring joy, peace, and meaning to life. However, as we seek beauty, we long for something even more beautiful. We strive to create it, and we desire to find it in people and in nature.

The prophet Isaiah in a vision, saw God’s throne room where one seraph cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). God’s glory is displayed in the beauty we see on this planet. The curse of sin has marred that beauty, but it still peaks through. It reminds us of the Creator of “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:17). Theologian N.T. Wright asked the question that we all face at some time, “If the earth is full of God’s glory, why is it also so full of pain and anguish and screaming and despair?” That is what we call “the problem of pain.” I think we can see a glimpse of the answer in the purpose of beauty.

I suggest that humans appreciate and desire beauty because God created us in His image.
God creates beauty in the world around us to give us a sample of what is possible. When we see beauty, we long for more because we always find imperfections in the beauty we see here. Beautiful peacocks die. Colorful fall leaves turn brown and fall to the ground. The beauty of a sunset is fleeting. We long for more. We want to know what more God has in store for us.

The apostle John saw a vision of what God has waiting for those who accept His gift of eternal life. In Revelation chapters 21 and 22, he struggled to describe it in terms of the familiar, such as gold, pearls, and jewels, but he knew those words were inadequate. Perhaps the purpose of beauty in the world around us is to show us a glimpse of the glory of God’s beauty. We long for the revelation of the pure beauty of God’s kingdom. As we struggle to answer the problem of pain, perhaps the answer is before our eyes. The problem of beauty is only a hint, a clue, a sample of the ultimate beauty. I can’t wait to see the real thing.

April 7, 2022April 4, 2022

Designed with Purpose and Beauty

Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species in 1859, and Ernst Haeckel published drawings of embryos in his book The Natural History of Creation in 1868. Haeckel intended his somewhat inaccurate drawings to support Darwin’s theory by showing that embryo development reflects evolutionary development. As we said in yesterday’s post, those who reject the idea of a creator God try to explain what appears to be designed with purpose and beauty by saying it has no purpose and no designer. Beauty in living things can be a problem, or it can be a blessing, depending on whether you accept or reject the Designer of life.

Physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg is an atheist who rejects belief in God because of the problem of pain, which we can summarize as: “Why would an all-powerful and loving God allow pain and suffering?” Weinberg explains his view in his book Dreams of a Final Theory. However, he can’t explain the problem of why living things appear to be designed with purpose and beauty. He made the understatement of the century when he wrote, “I have to admit that sometimes nature seems more beautiful than strictly necessary.”

Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins, writing in his book Climbing Mount Improbable, told about a time when he was driving through the countryside with his six-year-old daughter. The girl was excited about seeing “pretty” wildflowers. Dawkins asked his daughter what she thought was the purpose of wildflowers. She replied, “To make the world pretty, and to help the bees make honey for us.” Dawkins said he was sorry that he “had to tell her that it wasn’t true.” According to Dawkins, biology is the study of things that appear to be designed for a purpose, but his atheism forces him to argue that there is no purpose.

The living world around us shows many examples of the problem of beauty. Various species sing songs and perform dances that go beyond what survival would require. Gibbons sing duets, and birds of paradise display their beauty with song and dance. Bower birds go to excess extremes to create works of art. The peacock’s beautiful tail is extravagant from a survival perspective. These animal attributes seem inefficient and not a method to adapt to the environment. They certainly go beyond survival of the fittest to what David Rothenberg, a philosopher at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, calls “survival of the beautiful.”

Is it possible that the excessive beauty of living things is merely an accident, or is life designed with purpose and beauty? What is beauty, and why do we care? We will conclude this discussion tomorrow.