| Bombardier Beetle | | | | arrange a series of compound eyes from |
| | | | different creatures which they claim show the |
| One of life's little riddles is the | | | | evolutionary steps leading up to the human |
| bombardier beetle. As far as evolution is | | | | eye. |
| concerned, it's a tough nut to crack. This | | | | |
| small insect has a very imposing chemical | | | | What's wrong with the evolutionist's story? |
| defense system. When threatened, it aims it's | | | | Quite a bit. The speculation about a gradual |
| two abdomen tubes at its adversary, often an | | | | mutation-led construction of the eye is just |
| ant or spider. Then the bombardier fires off | | | | that - speculation. There are no partially |
| a series of miniature explosions peppering | | | | formed eyes in the fossil record. Different |
| its victim with boiling acid. It is quite | | | | types of eyes? Yes,. But they are all |
| effective at keeping predators at bay. | | | | complete, fully functional systems with every |
| | | | component in place and accounted for. |
| What makes it work? The defense weapon is | | | | |
| made of two storage glands, a combustion | | | | Furthermore, the eye by itself does not give |
| chamber, a couple of machine-gun type of | | | | us vision. The optic nerve, the thalamus, and |
| swivel tubes, and of course the bombardier's | | | | a series of nerves linking the eye to the |
| expertise and instinct for using it. The | | | | brain are all required. And there's more. The |
| chemicals are stored separately and are | | | | brain has a primary visual cortex and a |
| combined when used. | | | | visual association cortex set up to decode |
| | | | and interpret the incoming information. |
| When combined, the toxic mixture is 25 | | | | |
| percent hydrogen peroxide, 10 percent | | | | See how complex it is? The eye, the optic |
| hydroquinone, water, and free oxygen plus | | | | nerve, the thalamus, the nerve network, and |
| enzymes which detonate the explosion. Of | | | | the brain's visual processing centers all had |
| course, all of these chemicals must be | | | | to be in place and fully operational before |
| stored, combined, and used in the right | | | | sight was possible. |
| places, amounts, and concentrations. | | | | |
| Otherwise, this little bug could easily blow | | | | How do evolutionists account for these extra |
| itself into extinction or boil itself alive. | | | | components in our visual system? They don't. |
| The fact that it doesn't do either shows how | | | | They ignore them. Evolutionists can only say, |
| well this insect is put together. | | | | "Mistake after mistake in the DNA must have |
| | | | produced these essential ingredients." |
| The bombardier controls, aims, and fires its | | | | Incremental evolutionary steps is not a |
| chemical weapon through a series of | | | | reasonable explanation for sight. |
| specialized nerves and muscles. Each rapid | | | | Furthermore, observation and dissection of |
| explosion is heard as a "pop." Oxygen spews | | | | plants and animals have not revealed any |
| out a hot jet of steam and quinone solution | | | | developing incomplete organ of any type |
| under high pressure. It is a well-coordinated | | | | presently in nature. And the fossil record |
| delivery system for firing droplets of | | | | has yet to show any developing, incomplete |
| boiling, burning acid at anyone who dares | | | | organ of any type in the past. |
| bother the bombardier beetle. | | | | |
| | | | Color Vision |
| How did such an elaborate defense system come | | | | |
| about? Every minute detail of it had to be | | | | Color vision, says biologist Michael Pitman |
| programmed in the DNA. | | | | in his book Adam and Evolution, presents yet |
| | | | another problem for the evolutionists. Most |
| Consider what is involved here: Storage | | | | creatures don't have it. Only several bony |
| compartments, combination chamber, separate | | | | fishes, reptiles, birds, bees plus other |
| chemicals and enzymes, the intake of exact | | | | assorted insects, and primates see in color. |
| amounts of water and oxygen, plus hundreds of | | | | Yes, that does leave out other mammals such |
| nerves, muscles, and fibers intricately woven | | | | as cats, dogs, horses, and bulls, all of |
| into a working system. All of these items are | | | | which see in black, white, and shades of |
| coded and integrated into the bombardier's | | | | gray. |
| DNA. | | | | |
| | | | That's just an interesting quirk of nature |
| To say that this extraordinary defense system | | | | unless, of course, you are a protozoa-to-man |
| resulted from a series of errors is not a | | | | evolutionist. Then you have a problem. You |
| reasonable conclusion. It's on the same level | | | | find yourself defending the following |
| as saying a jig-saw puzzle of a thousand | | | | proposition: Fish evolved retinal cones |
| pieces happened, by sheer accident, to fit | | | | allowing color vision. |
| together perfectly forming a complete mosaic. | | | | |
| | | | Evolving into amphibians, color vision was |
| That's asking too much of an accident or any | | | | somehow lost, only to resurface (maybe we |
| series of accidents. Someone with | | | | should call it re-evolve) in certain birds |
| intelligence put the puzzle together; | | | | and related reptiles. But when it came to |
| likewise, Someone with intelligence put | | | | mammals color vision was lost again. However, |
| together the bombardier beetle. | | | | color vision did another about-face and |
| | | | reemerged in primates. How's that for a |
| There is another reason for doubting the | | | | twisted story? |
| evolution of such a complex defense system. | | | | |
| Predators would not have allowed it. Can you | | | | Two Eyes Standard |
| imagine ants, spiders, and praying mantis | | | | |
| idly standing by for millions of years | | | | If you were to line up every amphibian, |
| patiently waiting for mutations to gradually | | | | reptile, bird, and mammal, and look each one |
| perfect the bombardier's defense? No? | | | | squarely in the face, what would you see? |
| | | | About the same as you see when you look at |
| Given the opportunity, you can be sure, | | | | your own reflection in the mirror. You find a |
| predators would have devoured this otherwise | | | | balanced symmetrical face: two ears - one on |
| helpless little bug into extinction. Thus we | | | | each side, two eyes overlooking a single nose |
| are compelled to say, the bombardier's | | | | in the center with a mouth directly below. |
| chemical defense system in all of its | | | | Species after species fit that general |
| complexity had to come onboard, intact as a | | | | description including the vast majority of |
| single unit. It was designed. | | | | fish too. |
| | | | |
| Millipede Apheloria Corrugata | | | | But why two eyes? Evolutionists have an |
| | | | answer: "Three dimensional vision was |
| What's true of the bombardier is also true of | | | | essential for our ancestors swinging through |
| the millipede Apheloria corrugata who shoots | | | | the trees." Using our imagination, we can see |
| hydrogen cyanide at its enemies. Again | | | | luckless one-eyed primates banging into trees |
| incremental steps are not practical. The only | | | | due to their lack of depth perception. |
| reasonable explanation for these complex, | | | | |
| integrated chemical defenses is design - | | | | With their extinction only the two-eyed types |
| design by Someone with an in-depth knowledge | | | | were left to carry on. Even if we accept |
| of physics, chemistry, biology, and | | | | natural selection's bias against one-eyed |
| microbiology. | | | | tree swingers, that still does not explain |
| | | | all of those other two-eyed amphibians, |
| Darwin Quote on Eye and Natural Selection | | | | reptiles, birds, mammals, and fish who never |
| | | | had to contend with tree swinging. |
| Next let's consider the eye. Here is where | | | | |
| the rubber meets the road. This is the acid | | | | For all practical purposes, one eye should |
| test for evolution. Darwin recognized the | | | | suffice. Think of all it takes to make one |
| problem and mentioned it in the Origin of the | | | | eye work. Well over a hundred million |
| Species: "To suppose that the eye with all | | | | individual parts must work in unison - with |
| its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the | | | | each other and with a nerve network and a |
| focus to different distances, for admitting | | | | specialized optic nerve section of the brain. |
| different amounts of light, and for | | | | When the whole system is in gear and |
| correction of spherical and chromatic | | | | producing - you have vision. |
| aberration, could have formed by natural | | | | |
| selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in | | | | It's next to impossible to see how |
| the highest degree." | | | | evolution's haphazard errors could ever |
| | | | accidentally conjure up one eye. Even so, |
| Who can argue with that? | | | | that's far more feasible than two eyes |
| | | | emerging from such a questionable source. |
| Vision | | | | One-eyed creatures, however, are nowhere to |
| | | | be found - in or out of the fossil record. |
| This is what we know about human vision: | | | | |
| Light enters the eye through the transparent | | | | Of course two eyes are better than one. They |
| window called the cornea which covers the | | | | cover a wider territory, and you have a |
| pupil. The pupil is an opening in the iris, | | | | built-in spare should one go bad. Depth |
| the colored part of the eye. Light continues | | | | perception does assist predators in |
| through the aqueous humor, a watery | | | | pinpointing their prey, and it helps the prey |
| substance, until it lands upon the lens. The | | | | to avoid the predators. But if we start |
| lens in turn focuses the light on the retina. | | | | considering evolutionary advantages, why not |
| | | | three eyes instead of two? Wouldn't that be |
| On the way to the retina, light must travel | | | | even better? Sure, why not four or five eyes |
| through the vitreous humor, a transparent | | | | while we are at it? |
| jelly which fills out the center of the eye, | | | | |
| helping it to keep its shape. When light hits | | | | And how many times has a predator slipped up |
| the retina, it stimulates up to 137 million | | | | on the back of as unsuspecting prey? If the |
| specialized cells know as rods and cones. | | | | prey had an eye or two in the back of its |
| (Cones are the color detectors; rods are the | | | | head, wouldn't it be a leg up in the |
| black and white detectors.) | | | | evolutionary sweepstakes? |
| | | | |
| Both rods and cones are chemical switch | | | | Yet no amphibian, reptile, bird or mammal has |
| receptors. Light triggers these miniature | | | | opted for either the evolutionary shortcut of |
| on-off buttons generating as estimated one | | | | a single eye or the evolutionary advantage of |
| billion nerve impulses per second. The mass | | | | more than two eyes. |
| of electrical impulses is forwarded to the | | | | |
| cerebral cortex via the optic nerve and a | | | | If the only thing at work here is random, |
| complex nerve network. | | | | haphazard, off-the-wall mutations, those |
| | | | persistent two-eyed creatures extending back |
| The cerebral cortex is equipped with a visual | | | | millions of years make no sense at all. On |
| processing center which integrates data from | | | | the other hand, if those amphibians, |
| both eyes and inverts the upside down image. | | | | reptiles, birds, and mammals were designed, |
| That provides us with our three-dimensional | | | | there is a logical explanation for the |
| right-side-up picture. Exactly how the brain | | | | consistent pattern. The designer liked the |
| interprets those electrical impulses and | | | | two ears, two eyes, single nose and mouth |
| turns them into a picture is still a mystery. | | | | look. And that's the way he made them. |
| | | | |
| Eye Components and Functions | | | | Ear Components and Functions |
| | | | |
| Just how complicated is the eye? Each human | | | | Turning our attention to the ear, we find a |
| eye contains over 137 million essential | | | | repeat of the eye story. The characters are |
| working parts. Can you imagine a machine that | | | | different, but the theme is the same. The |
| complex? Let's take a look at some of these | | | | outer ear, ear canal, eardrum, eustachian |
| components and their functions. | | | | tube, hammer, anvil, stirrup, cochlea, |
| | | | cochlear nerve, and the auditory center of |
| The outside layer is called the sclerotic | | | | the temporal lobe - all work in harmony for a |
| layer. It's white, semi-rigid, and gives the | | | | common purpose. Actually, ears serve two |
| eyeball its basic shape and provides a | | | | purposes: hearing and balance. |
| measure of protection as well. | | | | |
| | | | Here is how the ear works: The outer ear |
| The middle layer is called the choroid layer. | | | | collects sound and funnels it into a one-inch |
| It's a dark pigment containing numerous blood | | | | irregularly shaped ear canal. The canal acts |
| vessels. Its job is to prevent light from | | | | as a filter. Numerous hairs plus four |
| reflecting within the eye. | | | | thousand wax-producing glands keep out |
| | | | foreign particles and provides a constant |
| The inner layer is called the retina. It | | | | moist temperature for the delicate middle and |
| contains 130 million rods which see in black | | | | inner ear. |
| and shades of gray, and 7 million cones which | | | | |
| provide sharp, clear color vision. Each cone | | | | The eardrum is located at the end of the ear |
| is sensitive to only color: red, green, or | | | | canal. Sound vibrations are passed from the |
| blue light. Rods and cones are actually | | | | eardrum to a trio of linked bones in the |
| photoreceptor cells connected to sensory | | | | middle ear. They are named for their shapes: |
| neurons. The retina changes light into | | | | the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. These three |
| electrical nerve impulses. | | | | tiny bones amplify the sound into the inner |
| | | | ear. Air pressure is equalized on either side |
| Conjunctiva - A mucous membrane which lines | | | | of the eardrum by a vent leading from the |
| the inner surface of the eyelid and the | | | | middle ear to the throat. It's called the |
| exposed surface of the eye and lubricates | | | | eustachian tube. |
| both. | | | | |
| | | | In the inner ear, we find what appears to be |
| Cornea - A uniformly thick, transparent | | | | a small snail shell. This little device is |
| nearly circular disc covering the lens. It | | | | the cochlea. The cochlea is only about the |
| serves as a window letting light into the | | | | size of a hazelnut, but it has a big job. It |
| eye, and it also protects the lens. | | | | is usually compared to one of two things. |
| | | | Some say it is similar to a telephone system |
| Aqueous humor - A clear, lymph-like fluid | | | | with enough circuits to service a good-sized |
| between the cornea and lens. | | | | city. |
| | | | |
| Iris- The color-pigmented membrane separating | | | | Others liken the cochlea to a piano keyboard |
| the cornea from the lens. It adjusts the size | | | | with twenty thousand or so different keys. |
| of the pupil regulating the amount of light | | | | Either way, you get the idea; it is a very |
| admitted to the eye. | | | | small but extraordinarily complex structure. |
| | | | |
| Pupil - The black circular hole through which | | | | Incoming sound frequencies which have been |
| light enters the eye. | | | | amplified by the hammer-anvil-stirrup |
| | | | combination, vibrate hair-like sensory cells |
| Ciliary muscles - Controls the shape of the | | | | in the cochlea. The cochlea's job is to |
| iris which in turn adjusts the size of the | | | | translate sound waves into nerve impulses. |
| pupil. | | | | Varying sound frequencies strike different |
| | | | sections of the sensory cells in numerous |
| Lens - A transparent part of the eye that | | | | combinations. Nerve impulses travel from the |
| focuses light to form an image of the retina. | | | | cochlea on to the auditory nerve and on into |
| | | | the brain. And that is what we hear. |
| Vitreous humor - The transparent substance | | | | |
| which fills the eye. | | | | Once again we see an organ which has all the |
| | | | appearances of design. It takes a great leap |
| Eye muscles - Six muscles attached to the eye | | | | of faith to claim it is an accumulation of |
| which provide movement. | | | | DNA errors. There is no evidence for such a |
| | | | claim nor facts to support it. The only |
| Tear ducts and glands - A system for | | | | reasonable conclusion is that Someone with a |
| lubricating and protecting the eye. | | | | good solid knowledge of physics, biology, and |
| | | | micro-technology designed and made this |
| The eye also has a few accessories: | | | | complex, intricate, and delicate organ. |
| | | | |
| Eyelashes and eyebrows - Both assist in | | | | Analogies and Conclusion |
| keeping out debris. Each serves as a defense | | | | |
| mechanism for the eye. | | | | Have you ever seen a cornfield? A cornfield |
| | | | is nothing but acre after acre of cornstalks |
| That is a remarkable number of parts working | | | | all about the same height, all in neat rows |
| together for a common purpose. Don't forget | | | | with little on no grass between. After seeing |
| that each of these items must be coded into | | | | a cornfield, it would never occur to you that |
| the DNA at its appropriate location to | | | | the whole thing could be an accident. Nature |
| integrate and coordinate with all the other | | | | just doesn't do that sort of thing. Someone |
| eye features. It has all the appearances of | | | | cleared the ground and planted the seeds. |
| design. It's difficult to see how it could be | | | | |
| anything else. The same thought occurred to | | | | Let's try another example. On either side of |
| Charles Darwin. The eye "with all of its | | | | the road you notice a row of evenly spaced |
| inimitable contrivances" gave him second | | | | dogwood trees. And each tree is circled by a |
| thoughts about his natural selection theory. | | | | single row of flowers. No one needs to tell |
| | | | you that somebody purposely planted those |
| Television Analogy | | | | trees and flowers. |
| | | | |
| Have you ever looked inside of a television | | | | We know that Mount Rushmore bears the |
| set? Inside you find a number of panels with | | | | likenesses of four U.S. presidents. If your |
| numerous miniature parts seemingly all mixed | | | | geography teacher were to tell you that those |
| together in a hodge-podge collection. But | | | | heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and |
| that is not really the case. Those panels | | | | Roosevelt were accidentally formed by natural |
| are circuit boards. And on those circuit | | | | erosion, would you believe it? If your |
| boards are carefully positioned transistors, | | | | English teacher were to tell you the first |
| capacitors, resistors, conductors, | | | | unabridged English dictionary resulted from |
| transformers, and other electronic parts all | | | | an accidental explosion in a print shop, |
| creating an image on the picture tube. | | | | would you laugh? |
| | | | |
| Each tiny part is exactly the correct type, | | | | Nature is not neat. It's not symmetrical; nor |
| size, and strength needed for that particular | | | | is it artistic or creative. No, it is just |
| spot on the circuit board. If anything is out | | | | the opposite -- disorganized, erratic, and |
| of line, chances are you will not get a | | | | chaotic. You and I know if nature is left to |
| picture. Just as in the eye, all parts are | | | | its own devices, it will grow an irregular |
| essential. | | | | assortment of weeds, but not a neat row of |
| | | | crops. It will grow an odd collection of |
| We know that television didn't just happen. | | | | various trees scattered hither, thither, and |
| It took some intelligent people a good number | | | | yon, but not evenly spaced dogwoods with a |
| of years to figure out the technology and put | | | | single row of flowers circling each. |
| it into place. The eye is considerably more | | | | |
| complicated than any TV. It has far more | | | | Erosion will create ugly gashes in hillsides, |
| parts to harmonize than even the most | | | | but it won't carve statues of presidents out |
| expensive television set. All indications are | | | | of rock. An explosion can blow a print shop |
| that the human eye was put together by | | | | to smithereens, but it is not going to create |
| Someone whose intelligence and technology are | | | | a dictionary. Nature doesn't build things up; |
| vastly superior to our own. In Origin of the | | | | it doesn't create patterns; and it doesn't |
| Species, Charles Darwin seems to agree. | | | | produce complex designs. |
| | | | |
| Evolutionists' Explanation for Vision | | | | Nature did not create the bombardier's |
| | | | chemical defense system, nor the millipede's |
| How do evolutionists account for eyesight? | | | | hydrogen cyanide system, nor the human eye or |
| They believe that the eye began as a | | | | ear. Nor did nature create the extraordinary |
| light-sensitive spot on a cell. Step-by-step, | | | | computer called the brain, whose operation is |
| random mutation after mutation, | | | | still beyond our full understanding. The only |
| light-sensitive cells folded inward to form a | | | | logical explanation is that each was |
| retina. Somehow mutations made the skin on | | | | designed. And where we find such clear |
| the surface transparent, part of which turned | | | | evidence of design, it's reasonable to assume |
| into a lens focusing light on the newly | | | | a Designer. |
| formed retina. | | | | |
| | | | Speaking in vague generalities, evolution |
| Again, random mistake after mistake after | | | | often seems plausible. But getting down to |
| mistake added parts to the eye which in time | | | | the nitty-gritty of specific organs such as |
| became the fully functional, complex, | | | | eyes and ears, we find evolution an |
| detailed organ we have today. Evolutionists | | | | inadequate and impractical answer. |