Copyright © The Master's Table

Note: You can find this study in a audio sermon on the Master's Table.
Click on... Audio Sermons.

Note:
After you complete this study be sure to check out "God's beauty in the sky"

There are many religions in the world and they all claim to be the one that the true God is working with. Of course our bible (Christian - Hebrew) teaches that the true God is also our creator and states that all others that claim to be gods are false. Our bible states that many of these gods are just idols of men and are made of wood or stone and can not speak or move so we should never have them in our places of worship. We can certainly admit that man has made many figures of Bulls, as well as figures of men, and women and set them up as gods, but what is the truth and how can one prove which is God... if any?

The big question is if we are going to worship someone or something as God, shouldn't we be very sure they are in fact God? Why would anyone want to continue worshipping and praying to those that are not God? Are we just going to accept what we think is God because some man told us it was so, or because our beliefs go back for many generations? Some people have worshipped volcanoes and have even thrown their children into it thinking that it would not erupt if they did so. Although you and I may think this would be an obvious and serious mistake those people believed the volcano was a God with all their hearts. Why? Because that is what they had been taught from birth! But that belief did not make it a god none the less.

If you don't believe there is a God, or if you believe that God is unknowable or unprovable why not take the challenge to check it out instead of just going along with what you have been taught? Let's take an honest look at some facts in the creation that is irrefutable and some facts that point directly to intelligent design. Let's consider if there is in fact a creator God that is alive and thinks, designs, creates, and yes, can even be loved and appreciated by His creation.

First let's ask some important questions just to get the flavor of what we will look into on in this study. I'm asking this first question just to make a point. Can we exist without our heart? The fact that we need much of what is in our body to live such as a heart or lungs, and the system that process the food and breaks it down to feed the very blood that gives life should tell us quite a bit about intelligent design. Even the blood pressure is important and if not at the correct pressure one way or the other we would either die or be very sick. The human body has many glands that produce chemicals that are in the exact portion necessary to react with other chemicals in a process to cause thousands of functions in our mind and body. What about the fact we see things in color and can smell that which is foul to that which is pleasant.

Without intelligent design our eyes could have been placed on the top of our feet, or our nose could have been under our arm pits. We could even survive if evolution or some such thing caused our existence in such a way. We could survive without teeth at all as we know many have and do for years. Why would evolution think to give us teeth? When we truly think about our own bodies and how we can taste food and smell a rose, or feel temperatures of hot and cold to each degree should in its self convince us that someone not only with intelligence but love and concern for how we get along designed us. Why would evolution care if we enjoyed the different taste of fruit? All that would be required is for those foods that are poison to be bitter and those foods that are not to be sweet. What about the fact that humans would not even exist without the man being designed and created with the reproductive tools needed and also being near the woman as she is designed to receive the sperm into her egg? How does the egg know to shut the door after one sperm has entered? How does the egg even know there are more coming?

Now let's check out some things in nature:
Did you know that there are things in nature that are completely separate, but can not survive without the other? Many pairs of species are mutually and completely dependent upon each other even if one is an insect and the other is a plant. For example, fig trees require fig gall wasps to pollinate them, and the wasps require the figs to live. The Wasp cannot survive on any other diet except the figs! If these two were not created at the same time and close to each other, neither one would exist today. This type of relationship is called mutualism. It is when two completely separate organisms depend on each other for survival and both benefit.

Yucca and the Moth:
Another such example, among many, is the yucca and yucca moth. If one species were created first without the other being close by, it could not have survived on its own; these two separate and even different species must have come into existence at essentially the very same time. Yucca is a desert plant that grows in arid regions. It blooms at night and the fragrant white flowers attract the Yucca Moth, which is the only insect that is capable of penetrating the shape of the yucca bloom. Each different type or species of yucca has its own species of moth that pollinates it. The pronuba moth is the only insect that pollinates the soap tree yucca and it doesn't pollinate any other kind of plant. Scientists have found up to 67 different kinds of insects on or using the soap tree yucca, but this moth is the only one that pollinates it. Every May the soap tree yucca blooms. It has lots of creamy off-white colored flowers on its stalk and the flowers are only seen for about 6 weeks, so the moths don't have very long to do their job of pollinating.

This Is What Happens:
The female moth crawls from flower to flower and flies from plant to plant. She stops at each flower and gathers some pollen and rolls it into a ball. The moth has special mouth parts designed just to carry the pollen ball. After gathering some pollen she goes to another flower and gathers some more. She does this many times. Finally, the pollen ball gets so big that if she adds any more she won't he able to fly to the next plant so this flower will be the one that she will pollinate. She places the pollen ball in the opening at the top of a fleshy tube in the center of the flower (called the style) and pushes it slightly down. Then microscopic tubes grow down from the pollen grains until they reach the ovules waiting in the ovary at the bottom of the pistil. Thus pollination and these pollinated ovules will become seeds. Notice that the seeds can't even exist unless this Moth does her work.

After she has pollinated the flower, she crawls down into the middle of the flower to the bottom of the pistil. She has an attachment at the end of her body. It is a thin tube that she uses to lay her eggs. It is called an ovipositor. Wow someone even gave her the right tools, how about that! Continuing on, the end of this ovipositor is very sharp and she uses it to poke through the wall of the ovary. Then she lays her eggs inside the ovary where the pollinated ovules are. While the pollinated ovules are becoming seeds, the moth's eggs will hatch into a worm-like form called larvae. Another interesting part also is that the yucca plant makes enough seeds not only to make more yucca plants but also to feed the hatching larvae. Without the Yucca Moth, there would be no Yucca plant because its pollen is too heavy to be wind-blown to fertilize other plants, and as stated above the Yucca Moth is the only living thing on Earth that has the tools to open the Yucca's pod. The Moths are only active when the Yuccas are in bloom. The rest of the time they are burrowed in the sand -- waiting. The two species (Yucca and Moth) are designed by our creator to need each other. (From the Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 edition under title "Yucca Moth")

Bullhorn Acacia Mutualism:
"In this next relationship found most commonly in Central America, another insect and plant work together to survive. The ant and the Acacia tree. The ant hollows out the large thorns of the plant for nests and feeds on the sweet secretions from the four nectaries at the base of each petiole and on the protein rich bodies found on the tips of the leaves, which together provide an almost complete diet for the ant. The ants live in the acacia's special large swollen thorns and protects the tree by attacking leaf-eating insects. With any movement of the branch, the ants emerge releasing a nasty odor as well as physically attacking the invader and they are very effective. But another very interesting fact is that the ants steer clear of bees and other insects that pollinate the acacia's flowers, allowing the tree to reproduce, which in turn keeps alive the symbiotic relationship. I find it very interesting that the ant knows and even cares that the bees will not harm the plant's leaves. So again the findings in Nature show how a plant was created by some thinking being to thwart an attack from all other insects and even animals, but one insect is benefited by the relationship. (From the Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 edition under title "Acacia" and then under "Index which discusses "Mutualism.")

Studying acacia trees in Tanzania, ecologists Pat Willmer of the University of St. Andrews in Fife, the United Kingdom, and Graham Stone of the University of Oxford observed that Crematogaster ants seem to avoid crawling over young, fresh flowers but not older ones that had already been pollinated. They were puzzled until they realized that on rainy days, "the effect seemed to disappear," Willmer recalls, and the ants would patrol new flowers as well. Thinking the young flowers might be making a water-soluble repellent, Willmer rubbed a young flower on an old one. The ants avoided that older flower. The researchers are still trying to identify the warning compound, although they speculate that pollen from the acacia blossom might be it. The bottom line, says Willmer, is that "the plants can manipulate the insects to do what they want." The temporary repellent is particularly ingenious because it ends up maximizing the number of seeds the acacia can produce. After pollination, when the repellent wears off, the renewed presence of the ants protects the developing seeds from being eaten, says Ted Schultz, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The sword billed Hummingbird

The sword billed Hummingbird is a species ofhummingbird from South America. It is noted as the only species of bird to have a bill longer than the rest of its body. With this design the bird can feed on flowers with long corollas such as the Angels Trumpet as shown in the picture below.The tongue is also unusually long so it can reach the nectar. This is another very good example of Mutualism as other humming birds cannot feed at this flower therefore the pollen would never be caught on the bird thus the Angels Trumpet would not exist.

..

Termites:
Now the termite is another interesting need for nature and the termites eat a lot of wood. But this dietary preference for cellulose is very unusual because cellulose, (The macromolecules forming the cell walls of green plants.) are a tough, insoluble carbohydrate, which is indigestible by only a few animals. When termites eat dead plant material and animal dung they are removing this litter from the surface of the land allowing sunlight and moisture to reach new growth. Left on its own the dung and other organic plant material decomposes slowly in a dry environment so without termites to break it down, the dry litter would cover the land and plant growth would die and the land could become sandy. When dead plant material is broken down inside a termite carbon and minerals are released. These nutrients used by the insect and its gut flora are returned to the soil where they can again be recycled.

As subterranean termites build their nests they greatly improve the fertility and productivity of the soil. In plots of soil from which researchers had chemically excluded termites, they found that water infiltrated much more slowly and that the soil was denser and stored less water than in plots which contained termites. Foraging galleries around dead grass stems and other food items are made with material brought up from deep in the soil. These galleries eventually erode and are added to the surface soil - at a rate of about 40 pounds per acre per day, according to one study. Over time, the turnover of soil significantly affects the content and even the creation of soil. This would not happen without the Termites, so what would the Earth be like without them?
(From the Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 edition under title "Termit" and sub-title "Importance)

Snake eating Eagles:
Another very interesting circumstance in nature is that the harrier eagles, or so called serpent eagles of Europe, Asia, and Africa which have short unfeathered legs can snatch a poisonous snake and be bitten many times, and survive. I would think that a very upset snake would be doing its best to attack and kill the bird that has snatched it off the ground. Those that want us to believe in evolution say the serpent eagles became immune to the snakes venom over time. I believe that is a fairy tale because the first eagle would die and there would always be the first eagle to die from the snake's venom. Some argue that the eagles could become immune because humans have done so by first injecting themselves with the venom over time. What these people are not understanding, or are not admitting is that the people that have succeeded in doing this had to inject the venom in very small doses and build up the amount of venom over time. I submit that the serpent eagles of Europe did not have that option! (From the Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 edition under title "Harrier" and sub-title "Eagle.")

What is the speed of the Earth?
The Earth revolves on its axis and for these calculations we will use the equator with a circumference of approx. 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour. The Earth is doing a lot more than rotating, although that is certainly the motion we notice most, because day follows night as a result. We also orbit the Sun once a year. The temperature stays comfortable because the earth remains in orbit at the correct distance from the sun and God designed it with the most favorable point of tilt at 23.5 degrees. If the earth had been tilted as much as 45 degrees instead 23.5 (Notes Fred Meldau.) "Temperate zones would have torrid zone heat in the summer and frigid zone cold in the winter. On the other hand he stated, if the axis of the earth were vertical to the plain of it's orbit, January and July would have the same climate and ice would accumulate until much of the continents would be covered in ice for six months and flooded the other six months. (This information is from "Why we believe in creation.)

The circumference of the Earth's orbit is approx. 607.6 million miles. One year is approx. 365 days 365 days X 24 = 8760 hours 607,600,000/8760 = 69,360.73 MPH. So far we have basically 3 Directions of Motion (Wobble, Spin and Orbit) and a combined speed of 1041.70 + 69,360.73 = 70,402.43 MPH for a person sitting at a fixed point at the Equator. When you take into account the three-dimensional picture of the Sun's movement through our Milky Way Galaxy, things get very complicated. The sun (and the solar system) is moving towards the constellation Hercules, namely to the star Lambda Herculis at 12 miles per second which is 43,200 MPH. The Solar system is also moving upwards, at 90 degrees to the plane of the Milky Way, at 4.34 miles per second or 15,624 MPH. But we are actually leaving the Galaxy, out about 50 light years now and will be moving out to 250 light years before it reverses. We also crossed the Galactic plane 2 million years ago. The Solar system is orbiting around the Galaxy at an "estimated" speed of 124 miles per second which is 446,400 MPH. Information from: NASA.

So what can we say about this very small study of our bodies and nature?
The statement in the Christian - Hebrew bible that the true God is also our creator can be the real proof because as any thinking person studies into what we see around us we can't deny that some intelligent being had to design and create (Or build) what we see. A creator God would have to have tested all the many thousands of aspects of all the creation in order to balance it in all the ways it is balanced. The relationship called mutualism is only one great example and it is evident to me that if the universe and Earth did not function exactly as it does, or if the Earth was a fraction off in or, out of its orbit, or if the Earth did not spin around its axes the speed and way it does it is very questionable that humans could even exist or our weather patterns and seasons would be so affected that some things might survive but many others would not! We did not get into the design and delicate balance between the thousands of seeds and the seasons. Also I would like to propose a point that should make us all reflect on these truths.

Question is why did mankind live for thousands of years virtually in the same state of existence such as the way we build homes, plowed and reaped our fields, hunted for food, traveled, obtained and stored water, made clothes, foot wear, and even kept time, but in just around 200 years mankind has excelled in ways never thought possible? Could it be that a creator God has opened the door for our time? Do you still believe that all this just happened or, did a thinking, as well as a caring creator design it all? All other gods such as the cow, eggs, trees, the sun, moon, volcanoes and statues of humans can be placed in the false god category and should not be a part of worshipping the true creator God. We can test and prove that these false gods cannot create, heal or cause life to exist because they never have and we have only seen them sit silent unmoving and useless as far as being a god is concerned. Jesus stated in John 4:23-24 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." We must also remember the very true statement that life has to come from life.

I'm sure the reader could come up with many more examples of intelligent design if they thought about it.

Also check out "God's beauty in the sky"

If you received this page independent of the home page click here for