There’s a common inconsistency in science articles which feature “nature-inspired” technologies. Such nature-inspired technologies are usually developed from a scientific study of design-features found in living organisms. These design features are then “reverse-engineered” into a new man-made invention. Such nature-inspired technologies include advances in human flight, aerodynamic design, information storage, body armor, drone technology, robotics, cooling systems, architectural designs, sonar, medicine, Velcro, night vision devices, etc.
Yet, after scientists openly admit to getting their technology ideas from nature – which they dismiss as the result of mere random and unguided processes, they then tout their reverse engineered product as a “creation.” They describe their invention (based on ideas stolen from God), as the product of deliberate and intelligent effort. Yet they dismiss the intelligence behind them.
Now, wait a minute. Scientists borrow technologies which reside in nature, use them to make their own inventions, and then call their invention a “creation.” But they dismiss the source – the original technology they discovered in nature – as the product of mere unguided, mindless, and haphazard processes (i.e. evolution and natural selection). In other words, they credit themselves with expertise, intelligence, and hard work, but refuse to credit God.
There’s a similar inconsistency whenever scientists take the genetic material from living organisms and use it to “create” their own life in the lab. All they’re doing is taking the pre-formed complex components of life and rearranging them into a modified organism. It’s like taking the designed components of an erector set (e.g. girders, plates, wheels, gears, motors, screws, and bolts) from an already assembled machine and making something slightly different from them. Yet, their machine is a “creation” but the machine they took them from is an accident of random processes.
An example of such inconsistency recently appeared in a science article, “Harvesting light like nature does.” The article described the work of a team of researchers (from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory). After studying photosynthesis in plants and bacteria, this team “created” a “hierarchically structured material” which harvests light as similar structures in nature do. They hope to apply their creation to photovoltaics (converting light to electricity) and bioimaging (a non-invasive method of visualizing biological processes in real time).
Of course, according to the scientists, what they produced was a creation. But what nature (i.e. God) produced was an accident. The article claims that the researchers “combined their expert knowledge” to create a copy of a technology in nature which, supposedly, required no knowledge at all.
Shouldn’t these scientists be consistent and honest in their thinking? If the technology they found in nature is the result of a mindless process, then so is their “creation.” They can take no credit for it, because their thoughts and efforts are nothing but part of that mindless process.
Or, they should go ahead and take credit for their own labors, but also give credit to God for His. And don’t try to evade the matter by saying, “Well, we credit nature for its amazing adaptations.” This is all a smoke screen. By attributing miraculous powers to “nature” (e.g. its ability to generate thinking human beings from a sea slime), nature is clearly a substitute for God. And when they speak of “adaptations” they are clearly referring to design-features. That’s what they’d call them when speaking of their own inventions – design features, not adaptations. The invention of the outboard motor is not an “adaptation.” It’s the design feature of a motor boat.
In the same way, the spiral flagellum of a bacterium – the propulsion equivalent to an outboard motor – is a design feature. Otherwise, are we to assume that something as small as a bacterium has the power and intelligence modify its own genetic code to create its own outboard motor? This, of course, is absolute nonsense. Self-directed genetic modification has only been accomplished through the intelligent labors of many scientific minds.
Therefore, let’s have consistency and honesty in scientific thought. If we look to nature for inspiration in developing our own technologies, then admit that advanced technology already exists in nature. And if it takes us centuries of deliberate and intelligent effort to develop our technology, then have the honesty to acknowledge that the same is behind nature’s technology. Admit the obvious. The evidence for an infinitely intelligent Creator is inescapable.
And for honesty’s sake – no, for sanity’s sake, discard that hopelessly outdate, mid-Victorian notion of evolution by natural selection. Natural selection is nothing but a “weeding-out” process which creates nothing. It can only eliminate less-efficient specimens of already existing organisms. According to evolutionary doctrine, the mechanism for evolution is genetic mutations. But genetic mutations almost never make an organism more equipped for survival. Genetic mutations create birth defects which almost always impair an organism and make it less fit for survival.
Therefore, there is no way for evolution to move in an upward direction. It can only descend from complex life forms to dead ones. For the process of natural selection will destroy anything which genetic mutations produce.
So, if you want to find out how life originated, read the Bible, especially chapter one of Genesis. Just think of how much scientific endeavor is wasted in the pursuit of knowledge which God has already revealed in His word. All this wasted effort could have been devoted to improving our quality of life and health. But, no, we’ve wasted countless hours, efforts, and dollars trying to figure out how disordered molecules and mindless processes would have generated supremely complex life forms. We’re just too rebellious, proud, and stupid to acknowledge that God created all the complexity we find in Earth’s biosphere. We’ve fulfilled Paul’s warning, “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
PRAYER: Father in heaven, please open my blind eyes to see the truth I keep stumbling over. There is a God and there is purpose and meaning in everything He’s created. He loves me supremely and demonstrated this by sending His Son to suffer and die in my place on the cross. This Son of God rose from the dead to secure eternal life for me – and I will never find my true purpose and meaning until I embrace Him as my Savior and supreme Master. Please open my eyes, my mind, and my heart to Jesus. In His name and for His sake I ask this, Amen.
(Information from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210515091116.htm)
