Isn't evolution wonderful? Sticky-footed insects

Sticky Feet - From Cambridge Ideas from Cambridge University on Vimeo.

Money-line: "Clever cockroaches!"

Isn't evolution wonderful? Freezing North American Wood Frog

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.

Isn't evolution wonderful? Camouflage

It's been awhile, eh? Ponder how mindless processes over vast eons produced this:

Hymn: "...Evolution Made Them All"

H-T a tweet from Phil:

Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.

Intelligence seen on the smallest scale, but not on the grandest?

Is this fascinating article on the intelligence exhibited by cells an example of a man missing the forest for the trees?

David exclaims,

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
(Psalm 139:14)

Interesting to reflect in this connection:

1. The middle assertions ("fearfully and wonderfully made"; "Wonderful are your works") are equally true of humans and cells.
2. Refusal to affirm those truths are classic manifestations of our rebellion against God (Romans 1:21)
3. The ability to utter the bracketing statements ("I praise you"; "my soul knows it very well") are marks of regeneration

(Thanks to reader Yurie Hwang for the link to the article.)

Isn't evolution wonderful? Tricksy plants

Ever see a plant with eyes or noses? I'm no horticulturist, but I never have.

Yet here are a number of plants that (we are given to believe) somehow figured out how to make themselves look or smell like other things, to serve their purposes.

Amazing!

O LORD, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

(Psalm 104:24)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 14 (mind-controlling plants)

In the past, we have often marveled at little beasties who, with (literally) incredibly foresight and ingenuity, designed chemical and physical changes to themselves that defy belief.

Today, it's a plant.

The tropical acacia plant exudes a drug that controls the minds of the ants that live on it. The drug both motivates the ants aggressively to attack anything — from spider to giraffe — hapless enough to try to feed on it. Then, when it serves the plant's purposes (?), it also drives the ants away from its flowers.

If we believe that all is nothing but matter in motion, purposeless and blind... what a lucky plant.

Otherwise, just imagine the countless generations of veggi-scientists, luring species after species of ant, running chemical and behavioral diagnoses, then hitting the lab for innumerable chemical combinations and experiments, looking for that perfect mixture of elements. And of course, the vast generatiosn of acacia plants dying without the ants' protection.

Clever herb, eh?

Not really.

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 13 (Sucker-footed bats)

Amazing.

Sucker-footed bat from Carl Zimmer on Vimeo.

Except it turns out they're not "sucker-footed" at all. They actually secrete a sticky fluid, and that creates the suction-effect.

Leading us inevitably to marvel at the cleverness and willpower of that first genius-bat, who first conceived the very notion of doing this, then strained to start the fluids... well, to create them in his body in the first place, by willpower; and then to start them flowing.

Then think of the thousands of generations over millions of years as insufficiently-but-slightly-sticky fluid seeped out uselessly, tripping the bats up but not really sticking. "Hey guys! Look! I think... I think I...." Bonk! "Ow."

Amazing! In fact... incredible!

(Psalm 104:24)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 12 (Venus Fly Trap)

The video cannot be embedded, but can be viewed here.

Who knew that plants were so clever? Imagine the decades spent in leafy laboratories, slaving over steaming test-tubes to invent the right alluring substance. Think of the creativity, devising the "hairs" that trip the trap, coming up with the time-gap between stimuli... the mind reels.

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 11 (Alsomitra vine seeds)

This is very cool (video at link) Clever plants, eh, to work that out for themselves?

My paper airplanes don't fly that well!

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

(Psalm 104:24)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 10 (leaf lizard)

So materialistic evolutionary faith requires that we envision this dialogue between two lizards, forty-eight kajillion years ago:

Larry: Len, help out a pal?
Lenny: Sure, Lar, anything.
Larry: You know I can't see myself.
Lenny: Right, of course. None of us can.
Larry: So, I was thinking what a bummer it is, all of us looking like beefsteaks. All the predators keep snapping us up.
Lenny: Too true, too true. Leo, the other day.
Larry: Good guy, Leo.
Lenny: The best.
Larry: So, I was thinking, "Who eats dead leafs?"
Lenny: Go on.
Larry: Well, just sayin'. Wouldn't it be cool if we could just look like dead leafs?
Lenny: Cool is what that would be, Lar. But where's this going?
Larry: I says to myself, "Self - why not? Why not be your best dead leaf now?"
Lenny: Hunh.
Larry: So this is where you come in.
Lenny: Yeah?
Larry: Yeah. Watch me turn into a leaf, tell me when I get it right.
Lenny: Hunh.
Larry: I need to get the shape just right, the color just right, and I want to have veiny things like on a leaf.
Lenny: Hunh.
Larry: Then, after that, you have to help me find a fertile lady lizard who can do the same thing, and who knows how to pass on an acquired trait to our kids.
Lenny: Hunh.
Larry: Okay, so... ready? Here we go. On "three." One, two...

Three!

Plus, at no extra charge, this irony: the lizard's name  is the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Perhaps so named because of how ridiculous it makes materialistic naturalism look?

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 9 (water-holding frog)

After a brief commercial, check this:

The usual questions. How did those the very first water-holding frogs figure out how to do that, so fast, before the first summer? How did they get it right the first time, or how many thousands of generations died while doing the lab-work? How did they mate with likeminded frogs? How did they train their children so fast and without language, while we have trouble showing ours how to use a fork and knife?

There is an alternate explanation I find more satisfying.

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures
(Psalm 104:24)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 8 (makeovers)

The Guardian's pictorial is titled Masters of Disguise. But, lest anyone imagine any intelligence behind all this (— what? no! no, of course not!), the text helpfully explains that "natural selection has crafted some remarkable lookalikes."

Now, turn that over in your mind. "Natural selection," a mindless, impersonal, purposeless process.

"Crafted," a purposeful, intelligent, personally-guided procedure.

But it's only scientistic... er, scientific... to believe that these things Just Happened.

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 7 (anti-sonar moths)

It's fascinating to think of the generations of moth-researchers dedicated to figuring out how to thwart a bat's sonar. Then of the production of bodily tools to do just that — all the millions of brave experimenters who died, yet someone passed along their findings to successors.

And then, finally, they "learned" (the word is used) to thwart the bats. Smart little bugs.

Or... brilliant Designer.

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 6

It's been a while. Now... how did the first lot work this out? And pass it along to the next generation?

I think this:

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
(Psalm 104:24)

Hither and thither — 2/6/09

[Note: updates below]

Another helping — not as large as last week! — of odds and ends I found interesting:

• If you want to see where societal apostasy is taking us, often you just have to look to Europe and Canada. (Our current leadership can't wait to take us there.) From Great Britain we find out more about what happens when the "rights" of sexual perverts outweigh the well being of children or the wishes of their parents. (Thanks to Pastor Benfold for the heads-up.) It's all about "rights," not what's right. "I want" trumps "I should" every time in the world's thinking.
• We warned about it many times, and it continues to loom: those who empowered Obama, empowered more dismantling of our Constitutional rights and freedoms. It's coming. God help us. (Thanks, Curtis, for the heads-up.)
• Victor Davis Hanson sees an inept start and a dim future for the Obama administration.

• "The gentler sex"? Not when a demonic murder-cult twists your mind. (Here is a bit more insight.)
• Usually my Isn't Evolution Wonderful{tm} updates are video's, and this isn't, so I put it here. The language in this article is simply amazing. I am not making this up: a type of butterfly "learned" to mimic the scent of ants, and to imitate the sound a queen makes, to get ants to raise — and give preferential treatment to! — its young. The mind boggles. How many billions of generations of butterflies died working on their impressions? How did they "learn" to exude a fragrance? Can you? How did they get in there and survive to hear the imperceptible sound a queen makes, much less work on their Rich Little groove? And, having "learned" all that, how did they communicate this acquired characteristic and learning to their offspring? All that's just for starters. Amazing. (I do think we have a better explanation [Psalm 104:24].)
  
• As we wrap up, let's have a chuckle. My new son-in-law's mother actually did the wedding cake herself, and it was absolutely a marvel — and delicious, to boot. But this photo essay reminds us that not all professional jobs are so delightful. (Warning: the photos are very funny, but be warned that one does feature a terribly unfortunate misspelling of the word "luck.") After you wipe away the tears, you can see even more at the Cake Wrecks blog.
• Gosh, I hate it when this happens. (Warning: disturbing image!)
  
• And finally... the more Star Wars fans thought about Episodes 1-3, the madder they got. I mean — Jar-Jar Binks; expressionless kids; "Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo"; "Don't do this, Anakin! You're a good person!" Ultimately it was too much to take, and so....

In other news....

UPDATES

• Oh dear. The story of Jesus' mother Mary told as "a female empowerment movie." Oh my. I suppose that is because the actual story is not all that interesting?
• Hire this kid.
• Snopes should do one on the urban legend that Democrats are, in any sense, protectors of Constitutional rights. Wrong!
  

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 5

Those clever animals, figuring out kajillions of years ago... how to do this:

Listen for the announcer to say, "It's an ingenious defense."

Oopsie!

Who's the Genius?

What a bind: mustn't even ask that question, yet can't evade the truth (Romans 1:19-22).

(See installment 1 for series explanation.)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 4

We learn that this newly-discovered species of orchid "has evolved to resemble the body of a female wasp." Darned clever of it, eh? Particularly never having seen the body of a female wasp... or anything else?

But it isn't the only smart plant. "Other orchid species have evolved to use similar cunning to attract male wasps, such as emitting an airborne chemical that mimics a female's pheromone."

Isn't evolution wonderful?

< /s >

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures
(Psalm 104:24)

(For explanation of the series title, see here.)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 3

(I posted this vid earlier. Then I oopsed it into oblivion. What you have here is a recreation.)

What's remarkable is to listen to the narrative, and hear about the obvious design and intent and mind behind the layout of the tunnels and chambers. But no acknowledgment is made of the Designer of the designers.

My pastor is supposed to send me the citation for this, but John Owen's contemporary John Howe remarked that men will look at a painting of a man and acknowledge an artist, yet refuse to make the same connection regarding the man himself.

If you're just too darned happy today and need some serious depression, read some of the YouTube comments on this video. Experts at missing the point. Anyone who dares to say anything about God's design is shouted down, and his post hidden from immediate view. It certainly calls to mind —

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:19-23)

(For explanation of the series title, see here.)

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 2

(See Isn't evolution wonderful? — 1, for explanation.)