Evidence of a Creator

Text: Romans 1:18-22

 

I.         There are so many hints present in this world that it is surprising that they are often overlooked.

            A.        But people have this tendency to only see what they expect to see

            B.        And we have a school system that pushes agendas instead of teaching students to analyze and think on their own

            C.        Once, I was shown the arguments by a teenager who stated there was no evidence of creation. He then began making arguments that I know were fed to him from his teachers.

            D.        Let’s take a look at just a few clues that there is a Creator

II.        Interdependencies

            A.        The Brazil Nut Tree grows up to 160 feet tall in the Amazon rainforest and lives 500 to 1,000 years. The trunk grows straight with no branches for over half the tree’s height.

            B.        The flowers are coiled and have a heavy hood. Only one genus of the orchid bees has the strength to open the hood and has a long enough tongue to reach the nectar.

                        1.         These bees only live in undisturbed forests that contain orchids.

                        2.         The male orchid bee must pollinate a particular orchid flower to get its perfume that attracts a female orchid bee. Females will ignore males who don’t have this particular scent.

                        3.         It is the female orchid bees that pollinate the Brazil Nut flower.

            C.        It takes about 14 months for a seed pod to mature after the flowers are pollinated. The seeds pods then fall to the ground. They can reach speeds of 50 mph during their fall. The thick pod protects the seeds during their fall.

            D.        Few animals can crack the seed pod. One, the agouti, is a large rodent whose chisel-like teeth can break open the pod.

                        1.         It eats some of the nuts but buries the remainder for later.

                        2.         But the ones that are forgotten lie dormant for years and eventually grow into new trees.

            E.        Without the male bees, the orchids cannot reproduce. Without the orchids, the bees cannot reproduce. Without the female bees, the Brazil Nut cannot reproduce. Without the Agouti, the Brazil Nut tree can’t grow new trees.

            F.        So which came first? This is worse than the chicken and egg problem.

            G.        The system works because the interdependencies were designed to fit together to produce a greater whole.

III.       Natural Machines

            A.        We use gears in many machines, dating all the way back to about 300 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt.

            B.        Turns out there is a hopping insect, only 3mm long, that has gears. It is called a planthopper (Issus coleoptratus).

                        1.         Most hopping insects have long legs that extend beyond their bodies. This makes it easier adjust its trajectory.

                        2.         Planthoppers have short legs that are under their bodies. To make an accurate jump, the legs have to give the same power at the same time.

                        3.         Planthoppers can jump at speeds of 8.7 miles per hour.

            C.        The gears allow the legs to move within 30 microseconds of each other. It handles a complex problem that the brain and nervous system can’t handle.

                        1.         The teeth of the gears even have filleted curves at the base, which is used in man-made gears because it reduces wear over time.

            D.        But the gears are only in the nymphs. Adult planthoppers don’t have the gears, but use a series of pins.

                        1.         The hypothesis is that gears are more fragile. It isn’t a problem for juvenile planthoppers because the frequent molts replace the gears.

                        2.         Adult planthoppers can’t replace the gears, but they are big enough for another system.

            E.        The articles I’ve read emphasize that these parts evolved and were not designed ... right after talking about how similar they are to human-designed machinery!

                        1.         Sarcasm: Isn’t amazing how random events solved complex problems?

                        2.         So why don’t random answers on a test get you past a course?

IV.      Complex Imitation

            A.        The Goniurellia Tridens or G. Tridens is a species of fruit flies. Each wing of a G. Tridens is transparent and bears a precisely detailed image of an ant. When threatened, it fans it wings to make it appear that there is a swarm of ants around it.

            B.        The Lampsilis, uses mimicry to spread their young. The edge of their mantle looks and moves its "fins" just like a real fish.

                        1.         A bass or other predatory fish will take a bite and the mussel immediately ejects a large number of baby mussels into the fish's mouth. The miniature mussels clamp their shell onto the gills of the fish and begin sucking their blood. After maturing some, the mussels drop off of the fish to begin the cycle again.

                        2.         So the mussel just happened to "evolve" a perfect fish lure that looks exactly like a small fish, and figured out that this predator would make a good home for it's babies? [Biblical Creation]

            C.        In its larval form, the Sphinx Hawk Moth is capable of expanding its anterior body segments to give it the appearance of a snake, complete with eye patches. This snake mimicry extends even to the point where it will harmlessly strike at potential predators.

            D.        Mimicry doesn’t happen by accident. It is designed for a purpose.

V.        Nested Coding in DNA

            A.        Programmers come up with numerous schemes to improve the efficiency of the programs they create.

                        1.         One is to divide code into modules that can be used repeatedly in different situations

                        2.         This nesting or overlapping code reduces the size of code drastically

            B.        Not long ago, it was discovered that there are overlapping codes in DNA. A sequence of DNA can produce different enzymes that look completely different just depending on where the coding starts.

                        1.         Sometimes the second protein is created by shifting

                        2.         Sometimes it is produced on the complementary side of the DNA

                        3.         Sometimes it is produced by reading complementary strand backwards

            C.        But this means that mutations are very unlikely to work.

                        1.         A change will affect multiple things at once and all are unlikely to be beneficial.

                        2.         This makes the odds of evolution by random mutations mathematically impossible.

            D.        It gets more complex than this. Each plant and creature has one set of DNA for the entire organism, but we have cells that make skin, blood, bones, liver, kidneys, heart, muscles, etc. all coming from the same single set of DNA. How?

                        1.         It was recently discovered that the DNA folds so that different parts are exposed.

                        2.         How it folds controls what kind of cell develops.

                        3.         Think of it as all the shapes you can make in origami from a single piece of paper folded in different ways

            E.        Decades ago the fad was to say that we had vestigial organs. Leftover organs from evolution that we still carry but no longer serve a purpose.

                        1.         There once was a long list for humans, but over time we kept finding that the vestigial organs had a purpose. Every one of the organs has been crossed off the list.

                        2.         Thus, evolutionists started talking about junk DNA – sequencing strands in DNA that serve no purpose.

                                    a.         But as before, we are discovering that those supposedly junk sections actually have critical functions

                        3.         The argument was based on our lack of knowledge! And time shows the argument is false

            F.        The density of information encoded in DNA is mind-boggling!

                        1.         This isn’t something created by random throwing things together.

                        2.         Imagine writing a letter to a family.

                                    a.         The overall letter is a love letter from the husband to the wife

                                    b.         But the daughter is told to read at the fourth paragraph going backward, and there is a personal letter just for her

                                    c.         The son to start at the second paragraph and skip every other word and he finds a personal letter.

                                    d.         Hard to write? Perhaps impossible.

                        3.         It requires a LOT of thought to package information densely

VI.      Everywhere we look, we find indications of a genius designer that we have yet to discover all that He has created - Job 26:14; Romans 11:33

            A.        Why would any think they can escape the notice of One who notices more detail than we can comprehend? - Isaiah 40:26-28

            B.        Instead of pretending God doesn’t exist, we need to bow before our Maker

            C.        Isn’t it time for you to give your life to the One who gave you life?