Nature and the Universe – design not coincidence
Part 2

Close to six thousand years ago a new world was created. Where there had been nothing, there was all of a sudden over a matter of six days a world full of life.
There was a world full of living breathing life-forms many of which were capable of thinking for themselves. When one considered each life-form it would be found that each one had been created according to a set of perfect plans. And each design was so intricate that it could not be duplicated by anyone but the creator Himself. Indeed this entire creation was so magnificent that it would make those who consider it feel small and insignificant in comparison with the one who had created this. One couldn’t help but feel awestruck at the magnificence and glory of He who created such a intricately designed system of life.

In the previous part we looked at God’s creation on days one to three. Let’s now look at days four and five.

Day 4

This is how the Bible describes the fourth day of creation:

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth’. And it was so. God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the fourth day”. Genesis 1: 14-19

The glory of the stars and the planets speaks for it’s self when you look at the sheer magnificence of these bodies.

The power of the Sun

The sun sits in the middle of our solar system and uses its gravitational pull to keep eight planets revolving around it. Consider some of the statistics involving the sun – they are mind boggling. Even more so when one thinks of the power that God must have, to be able to create something like it, not just once, but billions and billions of times over throughout the universe.

The sun has a diameter of a little under one million four hundred thousand kilometres. This compares with the Earth’s 14,000 kilometres. So the sun is nearly one hundred times larger than the Earth.

The surface temperature is believed to be about 6000 degrees centigrade and it is thought that at its core it is about 20 million degrees centigrade.

Just think about the might of a creator that can produce something like this. And the sun is by no means the biggest star known to man. There are some stars that are many times bigger than the sun. It is quite amazing to think of objects the size of these stars when we live in our little world in our city.

To give a comparison of the sun with the Earth, there was giant flare of heat and microwaves from the sun during world war two that managed to temporarily knock out Britain’s entire radar system. How small and trivial are man’s creations in comparison with the creations of God.

The eclipse – had to be planned for it to work

There are many things that point toward a great creator when we think about the heavens.

Perhaps one of the most amazing facts is what we know as the eclipse. This is where the moon comes between the Earth and the Sun and covers the sun for a few moments so that there is no light. Whilst this is amazing in itself it is even more amazing to find out how it happens:

The moon fits snugly over the sun, thus causing the eclipse. The moon is just large enough to cover the sun completely as seen from the earth. The reason it fits snugly over the sun is that the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon and the amazing thing is that the sun is also 400 times as far from the Earth as the moon is from the earth. Because these two factors tie in with each other, the moon will fit exactly over the sun so as to give us a total eclipse. For these two factors to tie in, it can not be a coincidence, it can only be the work of a great creator.

Day 5

The fifth day of creation is described in these words:

“And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ And there was evening, and there was morning – the fifth day.” Genesis 1: 20-23

The perfect design of the bird

On day five we see God creating the first birds of the sky and fish of the sea. God gave birds a suitable wing surface and warm-bloodedness, for it was with these two factors only that birds would be able to fly. An efficient digestion system provides the energy required for flight and for keeping the body warm, and the high body temperature increases the action of nerves and muscles. The huge breast muscles, anchored to the breastbone provide the power of flight, but the rest of the body was created to be light as possible. This has been done by making birds bones hollow and some of the bones have been fused together to give strength with lightness.

Birds range in size from the tiny bee hummingbird of Cuba, which comes in at 2 ½ inches in length. To the eight foot long Ostrich.

God designed birds with many different types of beaks and other body features. He did this according to the type of food that the bird was going to eat. Because of this, there are the slender wings of swifts that chase flying insects, there are the broad wings of the soaring eagle, the webbed feet of a duck or penguin or the acute hearing of an owl which has to hunt in the dark.

There are many factors that tell us of the existence of a great creator when we look at birds – consider the following examples.

Examples of the amazing design of birds:

Geese

Migrating geese fly in V formation to save energy. A goose’s wings churn the air and leave an air current behind. In the flying wedge, each bird is in position to get a lift from the current by the bird ahead. it is easier going for all, except the leader. During a migration, geese are apt to take turns in the lead position.

The Hummingbird

The ruby-throated hummingbird beats it’s wings at the incredibly rapid speed of fifty to seventy times a second. If a 170-pound man expended energy at the rate of the hummingbird, he would have to eat 280 pounds of hamburger or twice his weight in potatoes each day in order to maintain his weight.

The Red-headed Woodpecker of Canada

The Red-headed Woodpecker of Canada is always a good bird to look at to show the wonder of God’s design and it is also good for pecking holes into the theory of evolution!

The red-headed woodpecker will eat ants, wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, moths and many other insects. Most of these insects it finds either on trees or inside trees.

To get at the insect it pecks into the bark of the tree. In order to do this it needs to have a specially designed body :

1. It needs a thick skull.
   How long could the woodpecker peck without scrambling it’s brains if it’s head wasn’t protected from then continual jarring? So, appropriately, the brain is housed in a specially ribbed skull, reinforced with tiny cross-braces to protect the brain.
2. It has a specialised tongue – so as to snake out insects.
   The tongue goes out under the jaw, over the head and into the right nostril (leaving the left nostril for breathing). It needs a long tongue so that it can search out the insects in the wood.
3. It has a powerful beak.
   The woodpecker is able to hit trees without wearing out at 100 shots a minute.
4. It has special connective tissues. It uses these to serve as a shock absorber to cushion the blows between the beak and skull. It is not found in other birds.
5. It has tough neck muscles.
   All that banging it does all day requires a super support system. The red-headed woodpecker has just the right muscle placement and strength to deliver furious jack-hammer blows.
6. It possesses short powerful legs. It needs these so that maximum leverage can be utilised tom hit the tree hard enough to chip out wood.
7. it has vice-like toes – two in front and two in back so that it can grasp the rough bark in trees.
8. It possesses specialised tail feathers which terminate in sharp barbs which serve as a tripod or prop against trees.

God has given this bird all these special features so that it can carry out the way it needs to feed itself. At the same time it is also ridding the trees of insects that could potentially destroy them.

Fish

Fish were also created on the same day as birds.

Fish were created as cold blooded animals which breathed by means of gills and which propelled themselves by fins supported on a bony skeleton. Of the fish, there are around 22,000 different kinds of fish living today. There are many factors that tell us of the existence of a great creator when we look at fish – consider the following examples.

Examples of the amazing designs of Marine animals:

The sea urchin

One may think of the sea urchin when it comes to ingenuity. Some sea urchins are so shy of light that they know to pick up pebbles and hold them up so that it cast a shadow if they should be caught in a beam of light.

The Sponge

A species of sponge, called the red sponge, can be pushed through a piece of fabric so that it is broken into thousands of tiny pieces. The animal however does not die: rather, all the pieces reassemble until the sponge is back to its original, whole self and continues with its life.

The Giant Squid

The giant squid continues to grow as long as it lives. Some specimens reach 50 feet from the tip of the tentacles to the end of the tail.

The Electric Eel

The electric eel is one of the most dangerous electric fish, with an average discharge of 400 volts. More than half of it’s body is given over to electrical production.

The globefish

The globefish staves off predators by gulping a large quantity of water, till it becomes simply too large to be swallowed by it’s enemies.

Sharks

Sharks can be dangerous even before they are born. One scientist was bitten by a sand tiger shark embryo while he was examining its pregnant mother.

Part 3

Please continue to consider the wonders of creation by reading part 3 of “Nature and the Universe – design not coincidence”.
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