Silver Bridge-Mules and God in Grand Canyon

Posted on April 3, 2017 Leave a Comment

“This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.” Charles Darwin

Fifteen Biodesign Classes were blessed with the privilege of walking across the “Silver Bridge,” which connects Grand Canyon’s South Rim to Phantom Ranch. They enjoyed watching the Colorado River flow beneath the grated deck they were walking on. The same cannot be said about mules. Mules refuse to cross the bridge because the flowing river below spooks them. People may scoff at their behavior until they realize that they are just as prone to be spooked by spiritual wisdom or events that eclipse their limited mental capacity.

“They distrust, it would seem, all shapes and thoughts but their own.” Loren Eiseley.

Grand Canyon is a wonderfully real and symbolic enigma for man. In addition to its mind-boggling immensity, breathtaking beauty and infinite array of kaleidoscopic colors, it is the greatest page of biological history on planet Earth. There is nothing on Earth that it can be compared to. Simply put, it is too big for people to wrap their minds around.

While watching the water flow beneath their feet, students often struggled in vain to comprehend the fact that the water has been flowing for 1.8 bil’li-yon years (Carl Sagan intonation). Walking along the bottom of Grand Canyon was typically an intensely humbling experience, which often left students with a wonderful hodgepodge of feelings of awe, trepidation and delight. But mostly they expressed an overarching feeling of gratitude for the privilege of being alive at that moment in time. Loren Eiseley expressed a similar emotional awakening on one of his trips into canyon country: “It was a great day to be alive!”

They looked and pondered, looked some more and pondered, but there was no resolution. Little wonder Carl Sandberg wrote; “There goes God with an army of banners” and follows with “who is God and why? Who am I and why?”

As for the mules; their behavior is heavily influenced by instinct, which does not allow for coping with moving water 50 feet below their hooves. Humans however, have been endowed with the gift of “free will,” which includes freedom of thought. However, this freedom also allows for egoism, arrogance and the foolish misassumption that man is smarter that the Creator that fashioned him.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Astronomy—Theology—Evolution

Posted on April 25, 2016 Leave a Comment

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

This is a wonderfully interconnected triad that gifted naturalist Annie Dillard would regard as a “bright snarl.” Without a Creator there would be no “astronomy” or evolution. Without evolution the universe would be oxymoronically stuck in the first nanosecond, before time began, with no cosmos. And with no cosmos, humans would not have evolved with the ability to contemplate the works of the Creator.

Two gifted writers have properly suggested that “Mystery” reigns supreme and only egoism and arrogance motivate scientists and theologians to assume that they have all relevant answers. Robert Jastro, former director of the National Aeronautics And Space Administration (“Until The Sun Dies,” and “God and the Astronomers”) acknowledged the limitations of “The Big Bang Theory:”

“At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Jastro was a self-described agnostic, yet he used candor and levity to describe the inadequacy of his own thought process.

In an equally terse self-analysis, Fr. Robert Capon, “Hunting The Divine Fox stated:”

“Theology therefore is fun. The inveterate temptation to make something earnest out of it must be steadfastly resisted. We were told quite plainly that unless we became as little children, we could not enter the kingdom of heaven, and nowhere more than in theology do we need to take this message to heart.”

The “Big Bang,” the origin of life and the eventual evolution of human beings remain three of the great, unsolved mysteries of planet Earth. Anthropologist Loren Eiseley concluded his work, The Immense Journey with:

“Rather, I would say that if “dead” matter has reared up this curious landscape of fiddling crickets, song sparrows and wondering men, it must be plain even to the most devoted materialist that the matter of which he speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful powers, and may not impossibly be, as Hardy has suggested, ‘but one mask of many worn by the Great Face behind.’”

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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An Abominable Mystery

Posted on March 16, 2016 Leave a Comment

“Everything You Need To Know Is Contained In a Flower.” Buddha

Excerpt: “The Immense Journey” [How Flowers Changed The World] by Loren Eiseley.

“A little while ago—about one hundred million years, as the geologist estimates time in the history of our four-billion-year-old planet—flowers were not to be found anywhere on the five continents. Wherever one might have looked, from the poles to the equator, one would have only seen only the cold dark monotonous green of a world whose plant life possessed no other color.
Somewhere, just a short time before the close of the Age of Reptiles, there occurred a soundless, violent explosion. It lasted millions of years, but it was an explosion nevertheless. It marked the emergence of the angiosperms—the flowering plants. Even the great evolutionist, Charles Darwin, called them “an abominable mystery,” because they appeared so suddenly and spread so fast… The weight of a petal has changed the face of the world and made it ours.”

Living 600 years before Christ, Buddha lacked modern geological and botanical knowledge. However, his wisdom about flowers rings just as true today as when he proposed it.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Frog Eyes—Human Eyes—Did We Come From Outer Space?

Posted on February 9, 2016 Leave a Comment

South American tree frog By Milky Way Scientists Fb — South American tree frog
By Milky Way Scientists Fb

In, The Great Evolution Mystery, Gordon Taylor explains why Darwin’s Theory of evolution does not account for “organs of extreme perfection.” This includes the human eye. Human eyes contain over 100 million cells that all must function in perfect synchrony in order for people to see properly. Although ophthalmologists know much about eyes, it remains a total mystery as to how the light image, focused on the retina, can be converted into biochemical data and transmitted via optic nerves to the brain. How the brain decodes the data and displays it as a visual image is yet another mystery.

Anthropologist Loren Eiseley agrees, however, he expanded the mystery to include the origin of life, which he pointed out Darwin also failed to explain. Eiseley contended that it doesn’t matter what we call the mystery, only that we are aware that it exists. Furthermore, he opined that those who fail to acknowledge “The Mystery” are in danger of ceasing to be fully human.

Albert Einstein agreed, but expressed a more forceful position: “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

Contemplating frog eyes, and lacking a time or place for the origin of life on Earth, Eiseley alluded to the possibility that life may have come from somewhere across the “pond of space.”

“Yet whenever I see a frog’s eye low in the water warily ogling the shoreward landscape, I always think inconsequentially of those twiddling mechanical eyes that mankind manipulates nightly from a thousand observatories. Someday, with a telescopic lens an acre in extent, we are going to see something not to our liking, some looming shape outside there across the great pond of space. Whenever I catch a frog’s eye I am aware of this, but I do not find it depressing. I stand quite still and try hard not to move or lift a hand since it would only frighten him. And standing thus it finally comes to me that this is the most enormous extension of vision of which life is capable: the projection of itself into other lives. This is the lonely, magnificent power of humanity. It is far more than any spatial adventure, the supreme epitome of reaching out.”

The fossil record of frogs indicates that they began to evolve from fish about 400 million years ago. However, “modern” frogs emerged about 200 million years ago. Ergo: The eye you are looking at has undergone 0ver 400 million years of evolutionary change.

With a mystery like that, is it not a fool’s errand to bicker over Creation or Evolution?

Like the classic concept of “yin-yang,” both words may reflect a cybernetic mutualism in which one word cannot exist without the other.

This is precisely what Eiseley was suggesting in his classic book, “The Immense Journey.”

If you are feeling a little spiritually deflated, enlarge the frog image and concentrate on it for one full minute and see if you can connect with 400 million years of time and change.

Perhaps it will encourage you to Celebrate the Mystery!

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Turkey Brains and Other Miracles

Posted on November 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

There is a rural legend that domesticated turkeys are so dumb that they will drown themselves while looking up at the rain with their mouths open.

The term “birdbrain” emerged from the fact that, compared to humans, bird brains are extremely small. Most birds have pea-sized brains with the largest belonging to parrots. Ostrich brains weigh 41 grams, while human brains typically weigh 1,500 grams (3.3 lbs.). Bird brains lack the massive cerebral hemispheres, which enable human consciousness, memory, emotion, logic/mathematical skills, linguistics, music, creative arts, self-awareness and spiritual awareness.

It has long been thought that all (or nearly all) of avian behavioral and survival skills were controlled by the poorly understood, catchall term, “instinct.” In its extreme application, birds would be senseless living automatons controlled by instinctive behavior. It remains a mystery as to how much they are aware of who they are or what they are doing.

However, some recent studies with parrots ravens and crows have shown that, even lacking the neocortex, they are capable of cognitive skills and deductive reasoning that was never deemed possible. This will not come as a surprise to Native Americans who held birds in much higher esteem than Whites.

In Noah Strycker’s, The Thing With Feathers, he divides stories about birds into three categories; body, mind and spirit.

In the “mind” category, he writes about the amazing memory skills of the Clark’s Nutcracker. The birds depend on pine nuts to survive long, frozen winter climate. He noted that a single bird can stash as many as 5,000 mini-caches, which can contain tens of thousands of pine nuts. The caches are not marked and are typically covered with snow.

“It’s a radical mental feat: Nutcrackers somehow remember exactly where thousands of different clumps of seeds are buried without a single yellow sticky note, global-positioning waypoint, or silly mnemonic.”

In the “spirit” category, Strycker describes the courtship behavior of Bowerbirds. The males go through a process of creating elaborate “bowers” trying to seduce interested females. The bowers are made of attractive natural materials as well as man-made items that may be bright or artistic. They are not averse to stealing coveted items from neighbors in hopes of increasing their chances of attracting a suitable mate or mates!

Also in the “spirit” category, Strycker describes the amazing behavior of the Wandering Albatross. Although the birds live in solitude, they mate for life and mysteriously get together every two years to mate and raise their chicks. How they navigate or locate each other is pure mystery.

Arctic terns hatch in the Arctic region, mature enough in one season to be able to fly 12,000 miles south to summer in the Antarctic region. They obviously have a mysterious, internal biological GPS mechanism that allows them to navigate unknown territory.

John Muir’s story about his little dog “Stickeen” ranks among the greatest dog stories. Loren Eiseley’s story about a mated pair of sparrow hawks deserves a similar ranking.

Eiseley was on an academic assignment to collect animal specimens deep in “canyon country.” He successfully trapped the male partner and caged it in order to send it to zoo or ornithology research org. However, the next morning he had a change of heart and carefully released the bird.

“IN THE NEXT second, after that long minute, he was gone. Like a flicker of light, he had vanished with my eyes full on him, but without actually seeing even a premonitory wing beat. He was gone straight into that towering emptiness and crystal that my eyes could scarcely bear to penetrate. For another long moment, there was silence. I could not see him. The light was too intense. Then from far up somewhere a cry came ringing down.

I was young then and had seen little of the world, but when I heard that cry my heart turned over. It was not the cry of the hawk I had captured; for, by shifting my position against the sun, I was now seeing further up. Straight out of the sun’s eye, where she must have been soaring restlessly above us for untold hours, hurtled his mate. And from far up, ringing from peak to peak of the summits over us, came a cry of such unutterable and ecstatic joy that it tingles among the cups on my quiet breakfast table.

I saw them both now. He was rising to meet her. They met in a great soaring gyre that turned to a whirling circle and dance of wings. Once more, just once, their two voices, joined in a harsh wild medley of question and response, struck and echoed against the pinnacles of the valley. Then they were gone forever somewhere into the upper regions beyond the eyes of men.”

St. Francis of Assisi has been affectionately dubbed the, “Patron Saint of animals.” Perhaps this is justified because he regarded every bird egg, feather, wing-beat and heartbeat as indescribably perfect creations of the Creator of the universe.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Foxes and the Art of Playing

Posted on July 27, 2015 Leave a Comment

“Surely all God’s people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes – all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.” John Muir- The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, (1913)

Native Americans hold a deep respect for animal life, especially birds and mammals. They are often celebrated in their art, legends, totems and folklore. Many shamans believe that animals provide a window into the spirit world. They also provide a source of allegorical humor as in the case of the fox that chased his tail so fast that he ran right up his own rectum. The story reveals the “Redman’s” awareness of the foolishness of circular logic and the danger of avoiding opportunities for spiritual growth.

Paradoxically, one of the most important and least understood spiritual gifts is the art of playing. Stoic old Charles Darwin had no clue where, why and how playfulness originated. The only explanation he and other scientists have offered is that it helps prepare youngsters for the task of hunting. Collectively they ignore the fact that many adult birds and mammals seem to play, simply for the joy of playing and it has nothing to do with survival skills.

Unlike cats who bury their scat and dogs who squat and poop at the nearest convenient spot, foxes seem to be more playful and creative where they leave their calling card. Favorite places on our property are on our redwood deck, at our back door and under our clothesline. However, they often choose large rocks that they have to climb to do their business. Some of these require a good deal of athletic ability to place the poop in just the right spot. Many of the pooping spots seem to be whimsical if not hilarious.

Whenever we have leftover chicken, pork or beef bones, my wife puts them on a familiar rock in our back yard and, without exception one of the resident foxes will retrieve them. We often see them making their rounds, which include stopping at the“bone rock.”

Recently, an adult fox chased one of our cats across our back yard and up on our back porch. The cat scampered up a corner post and rested on a crossbeam. The fox stood on the porch and helplessly looked up. Our back door was open and the fox looked into our kitchen as if he were thinking about inviting himself in.

My wife suspected that we had a den in our area because she kept seeing adults passing by with rodents or rabbits in their mouths. Her suspicion was recently confirmed when, while returning with the morning newspaper, she met the mother, father and two pups trotting down our driveway.

Great naturalists are often great storytellers. John Muir’s story of “Stickeen” ranks among the best “people/dog” stories ever told. However, anthropologist Loren Eiseley wrote a story about a fox pup that rivals the great naturalist raconteurs of the world.

‘The creature was very young. He was alone in a dread universe. I crept on my knees around the prow and crouched beside him. It was a small fox pup from under the timbers who looked up at me. God knows what happened to his brothers and sisters.His parent must not have been home from hunting.He innocently selected what I think was a chicken bone from an untidy pile of splintered rubbish and shook it at me invitingly. There was a vast and playful humor in his face…Here was the thing in the midst of the bones, the wide-eyed, innocent fox inviting me to play, with the innate courtesy of his two forepaws placed appealingly together, along with a mock shake of the head. The universe was swinging in some fantastic fashion around to present its face, and the face was so small that the universe itself was laughing. It was not a time for human dignity. It was a time only for the careful observance of amenities written behind the stars. Gravely I arranged my forepaws while the puppy whimpered with ill-concealed excitement. I drew the breath of a fox’s den into my nostrils. On impulse, I picked clumsily a whiter bone and shook it in teeth that had not entirely forgotten their original purpose. Round and round we tumbled for one ecstatic moment. For just a moment I held the universe at bay by the simple expedient of sitting on my haunches before a fox den and tumbling about with a chicken bone. It is the gravest, most meaningful act I shall ever accomplish but, as Thoreau once remarked of some peculiar errand of his own, there is no use reporting it to the Royal Society.”

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Henry David Thoreau: Who Are We? Where Are We?

Posted on May 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

“Down how many roads among he stars must propel himself in search of the final secret? The journey is difficult, immense, at times impossible, yet that will not deter some of us from attempting it.” – Loren Eiseley

At 5,270 ft. elevation, Mt Katahdin (Maine) is not usually considered a challenging hike. Even so, Henry Thoreau had a terrifying encounter with himself.

“I stand in awe of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one, — that my body might, — but I fear bodies, I tremble to meet them. What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”

So, we don’t know where we came from, where we are in the universe, or where we are headed, which sounds like a perfect definition of “wilderness.”

Scientists have decided that the Earth belongs to the spiraling Milky Way Galaxy, which contains an estimated 100 billion stars. The galaxy is drifting through mostly “nothing.” The Earth also belongs to a solar system that is drifting through the Milky Way Galaxy. The Earth orbits around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour; it has a rotational velocity at the equator of 1,040 miles per hour and the rotational velocity at the poles is 1 per day. The size and mass of the Earth determines our atmosphere and the size and distance of the Moon between Earth and Sun affects tides and seasons. All of this means that life on Earth is nothing less than the result of a myriad of miracles against unfathomable odds.

It also means that the entire universe, outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, appears to be incompatible with life as we understand it. This does not mean, however, that there are not “beings,” powers or energy manifestations that could be millions of years ahead of our knowledge and technology. In fact, it is ludicrous for us to think that we are anything more than “Stone Age” creatures in the universal community. Two tragic examples of this are how we treat our environment and how we treat our fellow man.

When our first-born was two years old, we had a nightly ritual. After dinner, her mother bathed, dried, powdered her and put into her “sleeper.” Then she would run to the living room, launch her little body into my arms and with great enthusiasm say, “Show me the stars, Daddy.” We lived in a semi-rural area where urban lights did not reduce the stars’ brilliance. We would stand for a few seconds rapt in awe and adoration. Without exception, her little face would radiate joy as she intuitively absorbed the beauty and mystery of the universe. And then she would giggle and say; “Let’s sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”I was very young then, and would later experience many wonders, even natural miracles, however, those nightly encounters with my daughter and the unfathomable cosmos, eventually came to rank among the most sacred events in my life.

Thoreau spoke of “contact” and, if only for a few precious moments, we were in contact with both Creator and creation.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Forty Year Circle Of Love

Posted on May 11, 2015 Leave a Comment

Contrary to what “modern” scientists claim, miracles can and do still happen.

Although it was marvelous, it was not a surprise to see Wayne post, “Love that musing,” about Sharka’s last post. In fact, I would also not be surprised if he found her words and photo spine tingling, soul-touching and heartwarming. After all, 40 years ago this spring, Wayne was a sophomore at St. Helena High School and he had just devoured Richard Bach’s powerful little book, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.” Ironically, Bach’s “New-Age Spirituality” resonated mysteriously with the ancient wisdom of Wayne’s Native American, Choctaw heritage. What became a monumental turning point in his life evolved from the simple acceptance of Bach’s challenge:

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.” ― Richard Bach

The hybridization of beliefs led Wayne to enroll in a fledgling, experimental advanced biology class called Biodesign. This eventually led him to a beach in Mendocino Ca. where he underwent a spiritual awakening that can only be described as a modern miracle. The event not only radically changed his life, but mine as well and the evolution of the Biodesign Class.

Understandably, he wanted to share his miracle with others and so he went on to become an ordained priest and dedicated his life to serving the spiritual needs of others. It is not hyperbole to say that his life and work have touched the minds, hearts and souls of many thousands of people around the world, and include planting seeds of love and laughter in India. His latest calling is ministering to people whose lives have been spiritually ravaged by alcohol and substance abuse.

As a biology teacher, trained in “traditional methods and materials of biology,” the word “miracle” was not in my lexicon. Wayne’s spiritual encounter was a “wake-up-call” that perhaps I was missing some of the most important lessons of biology.

“ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark: 8:36, KJV

Neither one of us knew it at the time, but Wayne’s epiphany was a catalyst for me to add the unprecedented “spiritual dimension” to the Biodesign Class. Actually, this was nothing more than illuminating and emulating the works of John Muir, R.W. Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and countless other inspired Naturalists. Their collective message that man must go into the wilderness and seek being “born again” is the same message that Richard Bach, Black Elk, Rumi, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Moses and Jesus Christ all described as an essential aspect of becoming a harmoniously balanced physical, mental and spiritual human being.

A few years later, I discovered the amazing book, “The Immense Journey,” by Loren Eiseley who wrote:

“The reader who would pursue such a journey with me is warned that the essays in this book have not been brought together as a guide but are offered rather as a somewhat unconventional record of the prowlings of one mind which has sought to explore, to understand, and to enjoy the miracles of this world, both in and out of science.”

Wayne’s story, briefly recorded in “Biodesign Out For A Walk,” is potentially a very scary story. Every reader will draw his/her own conclusions, but some will likely be forced to view Wayne, as one British scientist described C.S. Lewis, as either a liar, lunatic or “Bozo the Clown,” or an honest young man who went through a transcending experience that cannot be described in Earthly terms. Those who are courageous enough to read it may intuitively understand that for such an event to occur, their egos will likely have to be diminished. For many, the bright lights of “civilization” have spiritually blinded them and they will not be capable of:

“overcoming the limitation of believing what their eyes are telling them and discovering how to spiritually fly.”

As far as the evolution of the Biodesign Class, it is impossible to discern the overlapping boundaries between Wayne and Me. Truly, without him, and countless other spiritually curious and courageous students, I would have spent my teaching career thinking that dissecting pigs was the ultimate experience for high school advanced biology students.

Little wonder Wayne commented, “Love the Musing.” (that Sharka posted)

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

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Mandarin Dragonets—Heike Crabs—Loren Eiseley

Posted on November 29, 2014 Leave a Comment

If I were still teaching Biodesign, I would have students quietly concentrate on this image for one full minute and have them “write out of their stream of consciousness.” I can assure you, their descriptions would be astounding! Why not try it?

The “Big Bang Theory” and evolution have something in common, both are events with no known cause. According to Galileo, the story of “Adam and Eve” was written as an allegory to “accommodate the mental capacity of the unlearned.” Perhaps it is really a story about the evolution of God and, 3,500 years later, it is becoming more complex and enigmatic. In a devilishly ironic twist, evolution has embarrassingly exposed the limited mental capacity of the so-called biological intelligentsia; experts who lack a spiritual perspective of what Joseph Campbell called, “The soul’s high adventure.”

Whether people know it or not, college journalism 101 and biology 101 classes have very similar goals. Their collective objectives are to answer: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how?

In his book, Cosmos, Carl Sagan, claimed that Heike crabs evolved when Japanese fishermen selected out crabs that resembled samurai warriors and returned them to the sea. I don’t know if this is true or not, however, many of his assumptions regarding evolution were pure “science fiction.” Crabs are crustaceans that appeared on earth about 145 million years ago. Many of the smaller species, including the Heike crabs, have little food value and are routinely returned to the sea by fishermen. The samurai warriors appeared in Japan about 800 years ago. Fossil evidence of such a recent event is not likely, however, if the Heike crabs evolved before then, Sagan’s theory would be invalid.

MORE importantly, this leads us to the obvious question: What was the controlling force that resulted in the flamboyant Mandarin Dragonets? Lacking any plausible explanation, scientists are forced to claim that the fish are the result of “random” or “chance” mutations or reshuffling of genes in the reproductive process. Most scientists would not bet a penny on the odds of this producing a Dragonet, instead they sheepishly grin and parrot, “given enough time it could happen.” Yes, and given enough time, a sow’s ear may magically morph into a silk purse.

In the introduction to Loren Eiseley’s, “The Star Thrower,” W.H. Auden wrote: “I must now openly state my own bias and say that I do not believe in Chance; I believe in Providence and Miracles. If photosynthesis was invented by chance, I can only say it was a damned lucky chance for us. If, biologically speaking, it is a “statistical impossibility” that I should be walking the earth instead of a million other possible people, I can only think of it as a miracle which I must do my best to deserve…I can not swallow the assertion that “chance” mutations can explain the fact that whenever an ecological niche is free, some species evolves to fit it…”

Auden surely had read Eiseley’s, “The Immense Journey,” where he discussed the evolutionary importance of Periophythalmus ( mudskipper fish). Instead of fish, using super-pectoral fins, making a triumphant march up an ocean beach, Eiseley describes the mudskippers climbing up mangrove trees. In what is truly one of the most profound scientific/theological observations Eiseley wrote:

“Perhaps there also, among rotting fish heads and blue night-burning bog lights, moved the eternal mystery, the careful finger of God. The increase was not much. It was two bubbles, two thin-walled little balloons at the end of the Snout’s brain. The cerebral hemispheres had appeared.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KurTiX4FDuQ

The human cerebral hemispheres are the primary structures that separate them from other animals. They are three times larger than those of the higher apes and include the following functions: logic, reasoning, numerical, language, creative, spatial, perception, executive-motor skills, memory, visual, auditory, and sensory skills.

Nobel laureate/physiology scholar Roger Sperry, was well aware of this when he wrote: “One of the great unresolved paradoxes of science involves consciousness, free will and values, three long-standing thorns in the hide of science. Materialist science couldn’t cope with any of them, even in principle. It’s not just that they’re difficult. They’re in direct conflict with basic models. Science has had to renounce them—to deny their existence or to say that they are beyond the domain of science. For most of us, of course, they are among the most important things in life.”

Indeed: Without our cerebral hemispheres we simply would not be sharing this moment in time and space. Boggling!

Lowell H.Young, Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

Bees – Flowers – Human Beings

Posted on October 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,

One clover, and a bee.

And revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

– Emily Dickinson

Charles Darwin called the emergence of the angiosperms (flowering plants) an abominable mystery. He also had no clue how or why the human brain evolved. It took naturalist Loren Eiseley (The Immense Journey) to complete the triad by pointing out that the evolution of both the flowering plants and humans would not likely have happened without bees and other insect pollinators. Ergo: Flowering plants, humans and bees have become a macro-symtriotic relationship. Without flowering plants and bees, human life, as we know it, would definitely not be the same.

We have only begun to understand the mystery and wonder of bees. We don’t k now how they fly (200 wing-beats per sec) create complex hexagonal combs, convert nectar into honey, pollen into bee bread and use propolis as a building material. We don’t know what they know, but we do know that they communicate and are socially interactive. Generally, their behavior is considered entirely “instinctive” however, more and more scientists are admitting that, “Instinct is just another word for something we don’t understand.” The Tao of Pooh (Benjamin Hoff)

Every cell in their body needs over 2,000 enzymes, co-enzymes, vitamins and minerals to function. The billions of cells are grouped into tissues, organs and systems that carry out highly complex functions. Although we can partially understand how DNA can create body structures, we have no idea how bees can be pre-programmed to handle the millions of sensory and motor instructions necessary for their survival.

As with all life, the quintessential question is; how did bees, flowering plants and humans evolve? Believers in “scientism” proclaim that all of evolution has been the result of “chance” and “random” activity. Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and Loren Eiseley, disagree and suggest that the process must be the product of “intelligent design.” None of them attempted to define a Creator, but all agreed that all of nature is evidence of a mysterious super-human being.

In the introduction to Loren Eiseley’s, The Star Thrower, W.H. Auden wrote:

I do not personally believe there is such a thing as a “random” event. “Unpredictable” is a factual description; “random” contains, without having the honesty to admit it, a philosophical bias typical of persons who have forgotten how to pray.

Lowell H. Young, Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk