Today's Creation Moment

There are many methods of communication, some of which we human beings don't often think about. One of these is chemical communication. Photo: Silkworm moth by CSIRO – CCA 3.0 Unported

Humans were not the inventors of the hook-and-loop fastener. The plants which God made were the first to use this principle.

It occurred to scientists only about 30 years ago that insect pests might be controlled through hormones.

Every day, all over the Earth, plants engage in chemical warfare against insects and animals that would eat them.

Did you ever wonder where frogs go in the winter?

We have often pointed out the many plants and animals that are interrelated. Their lives depend upon one another. Very often they are interrelated in such a way that creation offers the only reasonable explanation for their special features. Evolution can call on "lucky coincidence" just so many times to explain these relationships. It makes far more sense to say that all living things were carefully planned and designed by an all-wise Master Designer. Photo: Pyralis farinalis moth – courtesy of Entromart_Wikimedia.

In showing how the Creator is intimately involved with His creation, Jesus Christ said that the very hairs of our heads are numbered by Him.

Fruit bats are the collection and transport system for the raw materials that make possible the tropical rain forest.

According to evolutionists, coral is one of the earlier creatures on the evolutionary time line. If evolutionary theory were fact, one would expect the corals to be very simple. One would also expect them to have changed a lot in over half a billion years of life. However, corals are not at all simple creatures. REF.: What’s in a name. Science Digest, Feb., 1985. p. 87. Photo: Pillar coral. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Honeydew is one of the favorite foods of ants. There are a number of insects, including thorn bugs and aphids, who consume so much honeydew that they cannot digest it all. These insects are designed so that ants can milk them for the excess honeydew, just the way a farmer obtains milk from a cow. REF.: Thorn bug. Science Digest, Jan., 1985. p. 81. Photo: Ants and Aphids by Agrinberg - CC 2.0 © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

If the Bible’s account of a worldwide flood is true, it was witnessed by every person on earth, but only Noah and his family, who survived in the ark, were able to pass down the story of this event to their descendants, who spread across the whole face of the earth. Researchers have catalogued some 270 stories of an ancient destructive flood in various cultures around the world. A large majority of these stories have been shown to predate any Christian influence. REF.: Roth, Ariel A. 1990. Flood stories—can they be ignored? Origins, v. 17, n. 2. p. 51. Photo: Waterfall by Simon Berger – Pixabay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Like bees, ants have a sophisticated society, which includes workers, nurses, soldiers, hunters, farmers, and even builders. Each of these different classes have specialized organs for their work. REF.: Wilson, Edward O. 1990. Stalking the mighty ant. Discover, March. Photo: Ant by Josch – Pixabay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

If your measuring stick is inaccurate, you could end up with too much wallpaper or too little. If your map tells you that your destination is 200 miles away when it’s really only 50 miles away, you might drive right past it. If your map of the universe is inaccurate and stars are a lot closer than you expect, you will arrive at the wrong age for the universe. REF.: Virgo images suggest smaller universe. Science News, v. 139, June 15, 1991. p. 381. Photo: Milky Way – Pexel – Pixaby.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Some people have the green thumb in their family. Others may complain that they fail with plants because plants don’t tell them when they need care. Of course, most people can do well with family pets, who are enthusiastic about letting their needs be known. Now scientists have learned that plants do indeed cry out when they need attention. We just haven’t heard them because the sounds made by a thirsty plant are about five times higher-pitched than we can hear. But scientists with tiny, specialized microphones have heard corn plants calling for water. REF: Scientists say plants may tell of watering needs in future. Wichita Eagle-Beacon, Jan. 12, 1986. Photo: Corn by couleur -Pixabay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Most of us are familiar with the body’s response to foreign tissue. Transplant patients must be carefully matched and then patients still must be given powerful drugs to prevent destruction of the transplanted tissue. Our bodies’ immune system identifies tissue that’s not its own and then tries to destroy that tissue. REF.: Wechsler, Rob. 1988. Hostile womb. Discover, Mar. p. 83. Photo: Baby and Mom Hands – Pixabay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

In a clever scheme of self-protection, the more poisonous the male rattlebox moth is, the more prized he is by the female rattlebox moth. REF.: Different strokes for six-legged folks. Discover, June 1988. p. 12. Photo: Rattlebox moth by Judy Gallaghe CC 2.0 © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Fireflies may help light the way to new medical break-throughs. The gentle glow of a firefly on a summer evening is produced by the chemical luciferase. The firefly has a gene with the code that makes this chemical. When that gene is added to the genetic information of other plants or animals, the cells begin to glow harmlessly. Researchers have been using the firefly gene to test their ability to add genetic information to a cell. REF.: Glowing evidence of gene-altered arteries. Science News, v. 139, June 22, 1991. p. 391. Photo: Eastern Firefly by Art Farmer CC By SA 2.0 © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Knowing the elegance with which God designed everything in creation, creationists suspected that God probably designed the earth with built-in thermostats that help keep it from warming up too much. When the Pacific Ocean warms more than normal, it sends increasing amounts of water vapor into the air. If heating continues, the water vapor will actually cause the heating to increase until vapor is forced higher into the atmosphere, creating icy cirrus clouds. These clouds reflect enough incoming sunlight to shut down the temperature increase and return things to normal. REF.: Clouds keep ocean temperatures down. Science News, v. 139, May 11, 1991. p. 303. Photo: Desert – Pixabay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Many textbooks tell young people today that birds are modified reptiles. Suppose, they say, that millions of years ago the scales on some reptiles began to fray along the edges. In time, they say, the frayed scales turned into feathers and birds were born. REF.: Vandeman, George. 1991. The miracle of flight. Signs of the Times, May. p. 25. Photo: Dove – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Excavations north of Baghdad, in Iraq, are helping us to understand one of the most famous Old Testament characters. The more than 4,000 ancient documents that have been found there shed detailed light on the life and times of Abraham. Abraham was from Haran, which was an important city in the Hurrian empire. REF.: West, Stuart A. 1981. The Nuzi tablets. Bible and Spade, v. 10, n. 3-4. p. 65. Photo: Departure of Abraham by Jozsef Molar - oil on canvas - PD © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Spider silk begins as a liquid protein made by silk glands on the spider’s abdomen. Spiders make many kinds of silk for different uses. As the liquid silk is forced through the spider’s spinnerets, it begins to dry. The spinnerets pull and stretch the silk, creating just the right kind of silk for the spider’s use. Though the result seems thin and weak to us, ounce for ounce, spider silk is stronger than steel. REF.: Pinkston, William S., Jr. 1980. BIOLOGY for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press. p. 413. Image by ClaudiaWollesen_pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The founders of modern science, on the whole, believed in the Creator. The methods they developed were based upon the truth that the creation is voluntary. This means that God was not confined to what we have later defined as “scientific laws.” God could make anything He wanted in any way He wanted. Science cannot be done from the philosopher’s easy chair. Scientists must go out into the field and study how nature works. When science follows this path, it is open to astonishing discoveries. REF.: Thomas, Lewis. 1983. On life in a hell of a place. Discover, Oct. p. 42. Image: Champagne_vent_white_smokers _ PD © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

It’s a challenge, even for the Christian, to get along with lazy, selfish people. This is because they also tend to be quarrelsome, especially when their desires are not met. Now scientists have discovered that the phrase “industrious as an ant” does not apply to all ants. They report that they have found an entire ant society that is lazy, selfish and quarrelsome. REF.: Antagonistic ants. Discover, Nov. 1983. p. 14. Photo: Slaves and slave maker ant by Adrian A. Smith-CCA 2.5 © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” We’ve all heard this familiar saying. In the case of the sun’s fire, scientists expect to find not smoke but tiny particles called neutrinos. The problem is, most of those neutrinos are missing. REF.: Peterson, Ivars. 1989. Making sunshine. Science News, v. 136, Oct. p. 280. Image: Sun – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Scientists have, for the first time, successfully communicated with honeybees in their own language! Scientists have for some time known how to interpret many of the elements of the bees’ so-called “waggle dance.” This dance is used by scouts to communicate the location of food sources to the food gatherers in the hive. REF.: Weiss, Rick. 1989. New dancer in the hive. Science News, v. 136, Oct. p. 282. Photo: Bees – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

We have long known that the community within a honeybee hive divides the labor among specialized workers. There are scouts who search for food. Nurses tend the young. Some bees specialized in cleaning. There are even undertaker bees who remove and dispose of dead members of the hive. Scientists have now discovered that honeybee colonies also have brigades of specialized “soldiers.” These bees often seem to be sitting around, not doing much. In fact, they have only one duty—attack large intruders. It appears that these bees are fed and cared for by the hive members while they wait for the alarm. Should a raccoon, bear or human threaten the hive, thousands of soldier bees swarm around the enemy and sting. REF: Soldiers swarm to rescue. The Argus (Fremont, CA), Mar. 17, 1991. Photo: Honey bees by Polly Dot - Pixabay © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

How many different scents do you think your nose is able to smell? The answer is about 10,000. How does your nose tell the difference between a rose and a skunk? Until only recently, scientists really weren’t sure. REF.: Scientists find genes that let nose make scents of what it smells. Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Apr. 5, 1991. p. 7A. Photo: Baby skunk by Vicky Roberts – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Mastodons were distant relatives of the elephant. Modern science says that one of the main parts of their diet was conifer needles. Supposedly they died out at the end of the Ice Age because conifers became scarce as the world warmed. Now the discovery of the last meal of one mastodon calls this theory into question. Living bacteria have been found in a mastodon that died during the Ice Age. The bugs were found in the remains of a mastodon’s last meal, preserved with a skeleton that was discovered while preparing a golf course in Ohio. Scientists think the bacteria normally lived inside the mastodon, working as part of the mastodon’s digestive process. Image: Mastodon herd by Charles Knight (PD) © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Could the giant flying fox be a primate? In the 18th century, scientists weren’t quite sure what to do with bats. Some wanted to classify them as primates, while others thought they should have their own category. Since 1780, all 950 known species of bats have been classified in their own category. The bat order is divided into microbats and megabats. Microbats have an average wingspan of less than a foot. Megabats are larger. The giant flying fox has a wingspan of six feet! REF.: The eyes have it: megabats are primates. Discover, June 1986. p. 7. Photo: Lyle flying Fox - PD © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The Bible itself tells us that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses. Jesus Himself calls Moses the author of the first five books of the Bible over a dozen times. Unfortunately, liberal biblical scholarship has rejected these claims. These scholars have tried to teach Christians that the first five books of the Bible were written over many generations and finally finished only five centuries before Christ’s birth. Now an amazing new discovery is forcing these scholars to change their teaching and has helped to scientifically confirm what Jesus said. Archaeologists have discovered two tiny silver scrolls on which are carved important passages from Moses. The scrolls, once used as amulets, were found in the ruins of early sixth or seventh century B.C. Jerusalem. REF.: A startling revelation about the Good Book. Discover, Aug. 1986. p. 10. Photo: Ketef Hinnom scrolls (PD) © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

A family of fish that live in the depths of the sea actually go fishing—pole, dangling bait, and all. This is only natural, since they, like people who go fishing, like to eat fish. This group of fish is collectively called the angler fish. The front dorsal spine in the female angler is located on her head. It is much longer than any of the other dorsal fins and has a fleshy bait on the end. When hungry, she sits very still and dangles the bait in front of her mouth. It doesn’t take long before something swims up to investigate this bait as its possible lunch. But before it can think about taking a sample, the angler has turned the tables and eaten her own lunch. Image: Humpback Angler Fish (pd) © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

A revolutionary design in metal-cutting blades is changing the metal-working industry. These blades don’t cut like a knife. Instead, the blade is fixed in one position while the metal to be shaped spins on a lathe. This new-style blade stays sharp six times longer than the old blade design. And where titanium used to make the old-style cutting blades dull almost the second they were used, the new blades last up to 30 minutes. REF.: Self-sharpening blade has edge. Science Digest, Mar. 1984. p. 86. Photo: Rat by Karsten Paulick_Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Consider the mystery of flight, for example. Some evolutionists suggest that perhaps birds are descended from lizards that fell out of trees a lot. Other evolutionists say that birds came from lizards who grew wings—not for flight, but to chase down and catch insects. Yet, they have little to say about the fact that we humans have come by most of our sophisticated knowledge about flight from studying the birds. REF.: Dragonfly model for future wings Science Digest, Mar. 1984. p. 87. Image: Dragonfly by Marc Pascual from Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

It seems like science fiction to suggest that if someone typed your name into a computer, misspelling your name, the computer would find it and correct it. Yet the genetic code within each of your cells is an even more sophisticated information storage and transmission system. REF: Fersht, A.R. 1980. Trends in Biochemical Science, v. 5. p. 282. Lambert, G.R. 1984. Journal of Theoretical Biology, v. 107. p. 387. Photo: Chart showing the relationship between codons and amino acids. Courtesy of Seth Miller. © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Late at night, in hundreds of thousands of homes around the country, people are watching a bewildering array of monster movies. In these films, shadowy and not-so-shadowy monsters attack, possess or inhabit their victims. These stories are make-believe. However, in our real world, there is a fungus that does all these things. REF.: Perry, Donald R. 1984. The creeping killers. Science Digest, Feb. p. 82. Photo: Cordyceps By Andreas Kunze CC BY-SA 3.0 © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Roman Vishniac is a renowned photographer of microscopic scenes. One of his favorite subjects is one of the so-called simplest forms of life. This “simple” life, the protozoan, is supposedly the ancestor of all living things. However, Vishniac has noted that the protozoan is neither simple nor archaic in character. This creature carries out all the functions of life that we require millions of cells to sustain—all within a single cell. REF.: Science Digest, Feb. 1984. p. 80. Photo: Roman Vishniac (PD) © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Have you ever watched ducks out on an icy lake paddling around in the near-freezing water. They will spend much of the day in that one spot with the temperature well below freezing, and yet the cold doesn’t seem to bother them. Perhaps on shore there are some sparrows hopping around in the snow. One wonders: why don’t birds need shoes and socks? REF.: Why don’t duck’s feet freeze? Science Digest, Feb. 1984. p. 76. Photo: Penguin - Courtesy of Roux. (CC-BY-SA 3.0) © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The exotic Venus flytrap is an insect-catching plant and a wonder of God’s engineering. Notes: Ref: David Dreier, “Venus’s-Flytrap Case Closed,” OMNI. Vol.5-10, July1983, p.42.. Photo: Courtesy of Picasa 2.0. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The bombardier beetle has a powerful and complex system for protecting himself from enemies. If this system is missing any of its parts, it is more than worthless to the beetle; the chemicals alone are very dangerous. Ref: Science Digest, Aug., 1983. p. 74. Photo by Patrick Coin (cc-by-sa-2.5). © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Perhaps to get evolutionists to rethink their beliefs, the Creator has provided many inventive and unique structures. There are so many of these that even the longest evolutionary timescale could not account for their evolution. Ref: Wilder, Rachel. 1983. "Flying frogs." Science Digest, Nov. p. 120. Photo: female marsupial frog by Mauricio Rivera Correa -CC By SA 2.5.jpg © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Beavers are widely known for their huge constructions. However, beavers build more than just dams. The beaver is quite an engineer. Ref: Science Digest, Aug. 1983. p. 73. © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Imagine a beetle that can move across the surface of water without any body movement. Some creatures have been given such ability and skill that it should be clear to even the most skeptical person that their Maker and Teacher is greater than any human being. Ref: Science Digest, Aug., 1983. p. 74. Photo courtesy of © Entomart. © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Intelligence – as much as is needed and no more – is generously found throughout the creation. So we cannot say that intelligence alone makes humans special. Ref: Science Digest, Aug. 1983. p. 73. Photo: Weaverbird and its nest in northern India. Courtesy of Ashish Aitian. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

What is the most complex structure in the universe? I'll give you a hint: it weighs only a few pounds, and you own one. Ref: Finn, Robert. 1983. "Amnesia: case of a fragmented past." Science Digest, Nov. p. 72. Photo: A pyramidal neuron from the hippocampus, stained for green fluorescent protein. PLoS Biology Vol. 4, No. 2, e29. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Those of us who accept our creation as the work of the Creator find many examples of what seems to be His wonderful creativity – creativity just for the sake of creativity! These add to our appreciation of the creation and stir us to learn more of the wonders of His creative thought. Ref: Sitwell, Nigel. 1983. "The ruffed-rabbit mystery." Science Digest, Aug. p. 20. Photo: Rabbit – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

When we compare ourselves with many of the other living things on this Earth, our abilities are not very impressive. Ref: "Animal athletes." Science Digest, Dec., 1983. p. 20. Photo: Camel caravan by Simon - Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Evolution devalues humanity. It tries to find the most unflattering way to describe human beings to try to counter the Bible's claim that they were created in God's image. Ref: "Tool-wielding beasts." Science Digest, Aug. 1983. p. 107. Photo: Bonobo fishing for termites with stick – Mike Richey -CC By SA 3.0 © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

We are told by evolutionists that the whale evolved from a cow-like creature that originally lived on land. Let's look at that claim. First, the whale can hear what direction a sound is coming from under water. Neither cows nor humans can do this. Nor is the whale's ear damaged by the pressures deep in the sea. The whale also has other, very complex differences from land-living mammals that allow him to cope with the great pressures in the depths of the sea. Ref: Bartz, Paul A. 1984. "It takes more than this to make a whale transition." Bible-Science Newsletter, Feb. p. 1. . Photo: Breaching whale – Pexel -Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Scientists are learning that even the lowly bacteria have mind and memory. New research is showing that mind, memory, brain, and personality did not evolve. These can be found in the lowliest of creatures, including the bacteria. Ref: Pietsch, Paul. 1983. "The mind of a microbe." Science Digest, Oct. p. 103. Photo: Bacteria – Pixabay.com © 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.