Katydids with Personal Guards

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Katydids with Personal Guards

April 8, 2024 • Ian Taylor

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Job 10:12

"You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit."

Relationships among creatures who are often very different from one another are so numerous—and so intelligent—that they witness to an overall design for living things. Even evolutionists recognize this when they talk about the "grand design" of the living world. And if design is that evident, there must be a designer. But there's even more to the matter than seeing a designer.

Some of the most ferocious wasps in the world live in the tropical forests of Costa Rica. These wasps are social, building a huge nest that can be two feet long and one foot across. They are shorttempered and highly protective of the tree in which they build their nest. Most other creatures give these wasps and their tree plenty of room.

But one other creature also calls the tree home—the katydid. These longhorned grasshoppers spend much of their day sitting in the wasps' tree. The wasps don't bother the katydids, because they offer no threat to the wasps. At the same time, none of the katydids' many predators dare come close to the tree because of the wasps. In one research project, scientists removed the wasp nest from a tree that was home to many katydids. A few days later the katydids were gone from the tree as well.

The relationship between these wasps and the katydids is called symbiosis and shows more than intelligence and design in the creation. It shows that the Creator cares about everything He has made—reminding us that He desires a loving relationship with each of us!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father; how often I forget that You care for me and invite me to be even closer to You than I am now. Forgive me and draw me closer to You through Your inviting Word in the Bible. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

REF.: Science 84, April 1984, p. 65. Image: Kayedid (Pixabay.com)

Does the Lion's Tooth Bite Your Lawn?

May 2, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." As spring comes to the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere, one of the first signs of spring is the blossom of the Lion's Tooth. This bright yellow flower is also called the Irish daisy, priest's crown, peasant's cloak and yellow gowan. Its other name appears on the sides of bags of lawn care chemicals – the dandelion. The millions of homeowners who wage unrelenting war on the dandelion will probably not be pleased to hear anything good said about the plant. But the dandelion actually has a very interesting history. It was first brought to North America from Europe because of its beautiful flower. As late as the early 20th century, seed companies were still selling packets of dandelion seeds for home flower gardens. Up to 1957, more than 100,000 pounds of dandelion roots were imported annually to the United States for pharmaceutical use. In spring, the dandelion contains mannitol, which is used as a base for pills, a treatment for hypertension and coronary insufficiency, as well as in manufacturing radio condensers and percussion caps. And many people enjoy a salad that includes young dandelion leaves freshly picked in the spring. While you may not like dandelions in your lawn, the dandelion illustrates that God has not made anything that is without use. It is up to us to put what He has given each of us to use for His purposes. Prayer: Dear Lord, forgive me for the times that I have not appreciated the good purpose for which You have brought some experience or event into my life. Through Jesus Christ fill me with the conviction that my life can fulfill Your purpose if I follow You. In His Name. Amen. Notes: "A weed by any other name." Science 83, Apr. 1983. p. 82. Image: Dandelion (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

A 4,000 Year Old Computer Language

May 1, 2024 • Ian Taylor

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The language is so logical and precisely structured that it is being used to create a programming language that a computer can understand. Unlike most languages of the world, this language has few irregular verbs, no prepositions and almost no exceptions to strict grammatical rules. What would take a long sentence to say in most languages can be said in only a few words in this language. One would think that we are talking about a new language, carefully designed and crafted by modern scientists. But this language, called Aymara, has been spoken by peasants in the Andes for 4,000 years! Because of its highly logical structure, Aymara is being used as a bridge language that enables computers to translate one language to another. Since 1986, a computer has been using Aymara to translate Spanish technical and legal documents into English in the office of the Panama Canal Commission. This amazing computer can translate a 60,000word document with 80 percent accuracy in only an hour. The final product must then be reviewed by a translator. Generally speaking, modern languages are less logically structured and more irregular and often cannot express as many shades of meaning as can ancient languages. In other words, as we go back in time, languages are not less structured and less expressive; they are more highly structured and more expressive than today's languages. This is powerful evidence that language has not come from grunting cavemen, but from the Creator Himself! Prayer: Lord, I thank You for the gift of language. Help me to be faithful to You in my use of language, not only in speaking the truth in love and avoiding falsehoods, but also in telling others what You have done for them in Your death and resurrection. Amen. Ref: "Computer application helps save an ancient language." Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb. 24, 1990. p. 9A. Photo: Literacy class in El Alto, Bolivia.(PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Population and the Age of the Earth

April 30, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Genesis 6:8 "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." How long have people been living on Earth? The evolutionist says millions of years. Biblebelieving Christians generally say only about 6,000 years. But the answer to this question is amazingly simple. If we start with only two people, and they have four children who live to have their own children, the second generation now has twice as many people – four. Now, allowing for infant mortality and other human problems that keep population down, we still find that on the average it only takes about 130 years to double the Earth's population. This figure fits into known historical records. And if anything, it's a conservative number. If human history is 2 million years, as the evolutionists say, the Earth ought to have a lot more people than it does now. Alternatively, if we accept the 2 million years, then it must have taken 125,000 years to double the population in order to finish with today's world population. But that doesn't make any sense at all, especially since human historical records show that the doubling time is about 1,000 times less! But if we start with eight people and reckon that the population doubles every 130 years, we find that it takes only about 4,000 to 4,500 years to get a population of 1 billion. And that was the Earth's population in the year 1800 – just about 4,200 years after the Flood, through which only eight people were saved to repopulate the Earth! Prayer: Lord, even the growth of human population testifies to the truth of Your Word! Help me to remember that to You humanity is not a mass of people. Even though it numbers in the billions, each is an individual whom You are seeking with Your Word. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Ref: Weigand, Cleone H. 1985. "Morality remains the best way to stem population growth." Milwaukee Journal, Apr. 14. Map: World map (http://pixabay.com) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.