Something to Think About...
In recent years the entertainment industry has catered to, or perhaps more accurately, created an infatuation with super characters possessing amazing “powers.” With the advent of CGI (computer generated images) these characters on the movie screen can be very realistic and compelling, if not, addictive. Famous actors have been engaged (na) to portray these super characters to a very impressive effect. But, of course, one very important fact must be kept in mind—none of these characters or their powers are real. To believe Spidey and his “powers” are real requires a break from reality—insanity. Spider Man is a figment of Marvel Comic books founder, Stan Lee’s, vivid imagination and nothing more.
How would you like to meet a very real but unimaginable “spidey?” Its textbook name is Argyroneta [ar-gee-ro-nay-ta] Aquatica. Its common name is “Diving Bell Spider” or “Water Spider. Let’s nickname it “Aqua Spidey.”
What are some of the characteristics or “powers” of Aqua Spidey?
Its first amazing characteristic has to do with its habitat. It is the only one of its kind (Arachnida) that spends nearly all of its life under water. This is bizarre enough, but add the fact that it is an air-breathing animal. This begs the question, “How does it breathe?”
So a second “power” is that Aqua Spidey provides for its oxygen dependency by capturing a large air bubble on the surface with hair on its hind legs suited to this function, and then diving with it and many smaller bubbles attached to hair on its waterproof body to its home.
This leads us to a third Aqua Spidey “power.” It will have previously formed under the surface a waterproof flexible bell (home) made of its excreted silk of “an unknown protein-based hydrogel.” It anchors its home to a submerged object such as a rock or plant stem. Aqua Spidey will have constructed the chamber with a hole at the bottom through which the bubbles are released, displacing a corresponding amount of water and leaving an air pocket at the top. Picture a cup turned upside and submerged into water. Such a design was described by Arisotle, and legend has it that Alexander the Great used such devices for diving exploration.
Studies have indicated a net exchange in Spidey’s bell of the oxygen deposited into the bell and diffusion of carbon dioxide out—much like the function of a lung. However there is also a net diffusion of nitrogen out of the bell causing the trapped oxygen bubble to shrink which Aqua Spidey regularly replenishes. If the dome were a lung the spider’s deposit of air bubbles would be the inhale and the diffusion process would be the exhale.
Aqua Spidey’s reproductive process is an amazing power within itself. It is observed that next to the female’s diving bell the male builds his own bell (home) and then constructs a tunnel to the female’s domain for conjugal visitation. Resulting eggs are attached in a cocoon at the top of the bell and hatch within several weeks. The released spiderlings make use of empty snail shells and similar objects until they restart the cycle with a dome of their own.
Let’s take a look at this amazing little “super-arachnid” through the pseudo-philosophical lens of evolution. I say, “peudo-philosophical” because when it comes to the theory of evolution, unbiased investigation can never rise above an arbitrary collection of opinions regarding the origin and development of life on earth. Sometimes these opinions encompass the entire universe and are proffered without sufficient “scientific” proof.
Consider “the true scientific method.” One of the steps is experimentation which tests the validity of a theory. The experiment should be repeated several times to see if the results are consistent. It is impossible to do such experimental repetition (much less repeatedly) on Argyroneta Aquatica (Aqua Spidey) because the millions of years required by the hypothesizers cannot be repeated several times in a “scientific” laboratory. Let it be noted that this problem applies to most evolutionary claims (guesses). Add to this the humanistic (atheistic) bias of many of those in white coats, and the path to true scientific conclusions is sadly and irrevocably blocked.
Regarding the tenet of evolution which says that it typically requires millions to billions of years for the progressive development of its subject there is an undeniable problem. It is called the principle of “irreducible complexity” (see The Truth Project with Del Tackett). This principle says that in order for a given organism or mechanical device to thrive or function all of its parts must be present simultaneously. So, which of its parts could Argyroneta Aquatica do without and still thrive while waiting millions to billions of years for the next part to randomly form? There are several things that it needs it to be a thriving successful Aqua Spidey:
1) A waterproof exoskeleton to keep from water-logging and drowning
2) A “brain” or instinctive behavioral pattern (wonder where that came from) to dive and live under water and construct its unique dome-home 3) The ability to produce a hydrogel silk that allows for gas exchange
4) The “instinctive drive” to form its silk into a flexible dome with a hole at the bottom
5) Unique hair on its body such as to attach to and carry air bubbles beneath the water’s surface
6) The ability to swim with precision
7) An “innate impulse” to swim to the surface, capture an air bubble, drag it to the dome, and deposit it through the hole at the bottom to create an air pocket at the top
8) Male Aqua Spidey’s capacity to construct his own dome complete with a tunnel connecting to female Aqua Spidey’s dome (“dome sweet dome”)
9) The cocooning and attaching of this cocoon with her eggs inside to the dome at the top of the air pocket
10) The ability to breathe under water. While Aqua Spidey’s dome functions like a lung the creature itself has its own respiratory system. It is called "Book Lungs" and is characteristic of some other arachnids. Its name comes from the fact that it consists of several membranous vascular plates arranged next to each other resembling pages in a book. It is the counterpart to a gill in a fish.
Evolutionary statements often refer to millions if not billions of years of slow random development via random mutations for an organ to form and gain function. How would Aqua Spidey survive while waiting millennia for these plates or any other part of its anatomy to randomly form and function?
Del Tackett (see the Truth Project) illustrate the principle of irreducible complexity with a mouse trap. A mouse trap requires 1) a foundation platform 2) an anchor staple for the holding bar 3) a holding bar 4) a trip-plate 5) a spring 6) and a hammer. Each of these parts is particularly shaped and positioned to function in sync with the other parts. Which of these parts could be missing and there still be a mouse trap? In the same sense How many "pages" or trachea can be missing from a book lung over a period of millions of years and Aqua Spidey still breathe. None. Not to mention the rest of Spidey’s parts. Again, which of them can it do without and still exist as Argyroneta Aquatica?
God (Yaweh Elohim), among other vastly important characteristics, has endowed human beings with free will—that awesome human capacity to choose and which coexists with God’s awesome divine capacities of sovereignty and foreknowledge (perhaps a future article).
Therefore, a person can choose to believe in God as their Creator (along with the rest of creation) or they can choose to be an agnostic or atheist. I love my fellow human beings who choose either of the latter. But with all due respect, they need a better alternative to God and creation than organic evolution. It falls short of the scientific method, is lacking in transitional evidence, and hopelessly tries to balance on the high wire of millions to billions of years in the face of “irreducible complexity.”
Their, perhaps sincere, but misplaced, faith would be more rationally applied to the “Eight Let-there-be" decrees of Genesis 1.
Something to Think About
Pastor David
Sources:
The Bible
Britannica/Water Spider
Wikipedia/Water Spider/Diving Bell Spider
God And The Cosmos, Graebner/Water Spider
