Amazing Monarch Butterfly

[Tomm]

The level of technology in the circuits that guided men to the moon is phenomenal.

However, the navigation equipment packed into the brain of the monarch butterfly shows, through the incredible feats of migration performed by that creature, that there is a far greater level of technology involved. And it is all packed into a brain no bigger than a pinhead!

This tiny, yet beautiful, insect can perform a migration flight of thousands of kilometres, navigating unerringly to reach a place it has never seen. Not just to the very same place to which their forefathers migrated, but each one often to the very SAME tree!
Monarchs can be taken hundreds of kilometres off course and still find their way to their destination...


Not only does the monarch have to have a built-in clock, almanac, and navigational computer, it has to have the programmed capacity to make and remake its own internal maps. In addition, somehow that learned information (for example which tree it came from) has to be passed to the next generation, who have never flown over that route before. In the light of all that is known today about the processes of inheritance, how that could possibly be is a major mystery.

Designing navigation equipment to take men beyond the confines of this planet and safely back again took an enormous amount of intelligent effort. The fact that the monarch can do these unbelievable feats with such an amazingly miniaturized ‘control centre’ reveals a level of design engineering which demands an overwhelmingly great intelligence.


(Abridged from The Magnificent Migrating Monarch, by Jules Poirier)

 

[Ariellamb]

WOW

Thx for sharing that .
I will copy this down to share in our Bible studies if that is ok

How Gr8 is our God

 

[Ariellamb]

You should perhaps think about starting a Thread with Gr8 glories such as this!

Let me know if you do as i would love to read them.

It just draws me closer to the One who made all these creatures reading about it all.

 

[Tomm]

WOW

Thx for sharing that .
I will copy this down to share in our Bible studies if that is ok

How Gr8 is our God

Glad to hear you like it.
Actually I didn't write it. To find out the source, please refer to my message.

 

[ArnautDaniel]

Their wonderful control center still hasn't mastered the notion of the grill of a car at 60mph.

 

[Split Rock]

WOW

Thx for sharing that .
I will copy this down to share in our Bible studies if that is ok

How Gr8 is our God

Whatever does this have to do with Bible Study class??? You guys really need to stop mixing science with theology...

 

[Chesterton]

Whatever does this have to do with Bible Study class??? You guys really need to stop mixing science with theology...

You quote Sagan in your sig line, and you're telling theists not to mix science and theology? You've got it backwards; it's the atheists like Sagan who need to stop mixing.

 

[fossilman]

You quote Sagan in your sig line, and you're telling theists not to mix science and theology? You've got it backwards; it's the atheists like Sagan who need to stop mixing.

Mmm. Carl's pretty much stopped doing that. He's been dead for years.

 

[jayem]

Keep in mind that Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed. This provides their nutrition and gives them the toxic glycosides that protect them from predators. But they don't eat anything else. Now milkweed is plentiful virtually everywhere, but just suppose some type of blight or fungus appeared that threatened the plant. This would also be disastrous for Monarchs.

Many animals (and plants) have remarkable features which allow them to thrive in their ecologic niches. But is it really good design to be so dependent on one particular food species? What happens if your only food source goes away? Being so exclusively adapted to one environment risks extinction if anything in that environment changes. Seems to me that truly intelligent design would incorporate some flexibility to allow survival under changing circumstances.

 

[yasic]

WOW

Thx for sharing that .
I will copy this down to share in our Bible studies if that is ok

How Gr8 is our God

Will you share the other side of the story? The one about horrendous creatures like worms that regularly travel across human eyes and require human flesh to reproduce? About the complex cycle of having its eggs be found in food that specifically humans eat? About how it knows, is pre-programmed so to say, exactly where to travel within the human body to find the best meat?

Will you share how this horrendous creature requires a truly malicious intelligent designer, and God alone fits the shoes?

 

[Chesterton]

Mmm. Carl's pretty much stopped doing that. He's been dead for years.

I didn't say Sagan, I said "atheists like Sagan". Although I suppose Sagan could still be doing it somewhere. Maybe at some little astronomy department in southeast hell, using science to dispute the existence of God for all eternity...

 

[Split Rock]

I didn't say Sagan, I said "atheists like Sagan". Although I suppose Sagan could still be doing it somewhere. Maybe at some little astronomy department in southeast hell, using science to dispute the existence of God for all eternity...

How very nice. It's a good thing you "True" (ha,ha) Christians don't go around judging others... isn't it?

Answer me this.... if there was no Monarch Butterfly, would that disprove the existance of your god?

 

[Chesterton]

How very nice. It's a good thing you "True" (ha,ha) Christians don't go around judging others... isn't it?

I didn't judge anyone, I said "maybe". Has astronomy disproven the existence of Hell?

Answer me this.... if there was no Monarch Butterfly, would that disprove the existance of your god?

It would neither disprove nor prove God.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

Yes, the evolutionary forces of natural selection are indeed amazing when you consider the Monarch butterfly (every species of butterfly for that matter).

But what is more fascinating to me is the evolutionary forces that have made the Ichneumon wasps reproduce the way that they do.

 

[Ariellamb]

Yep i share everything in our Bible studies.
Take a look at Samson in Judges chapter 13 -16 What an enigma if ever there was one.
A Judge (Deliverer) A womanizer,went with a prostitute even,played with fire & got burnt with Delila,had his eyes taken out and all along the Spirit of God came upon him.

He was not just a good Monarch,but had all sorts of plays in him,yet God was in it all working to His glory. Just as He is in our world today in all the creatures He has designed & made.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

Here is a wonderful video showing how a Ichneumon wasp will paralyze a butterfly larva with it's own, ultimately killing the butterfly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkhrPoZAgJs

(Warning: Not a creationist video. It actually has sciency stuff in it)

 

[Split Rock]

I didn't judge anyone, I said "maybe". Has astronomy disproven the existence of Hell?

You argue like a Pharisee. Of course you judged Sagan... you suggested he was in Hell now. All because you said "maybe" doesn't mean you didn't.

It would neither disprove nor prove God.

Agreed. Then why is it a good example for Bible Study??

 

[Split Rock]

Will you share the other side of the story? The one about horrendous creatures like worms that regularly travel across human eyes and require human flesh to reproduce? About the complex cycle of having its eggs be found in food that specifically humans eat? About how it knows, is pre-programmed so to say, exactly where to travel within the human body to find the best meat?

Will you share how this horrendous creature requires a truly malicious intelligent designer, and God alone fits the shoes?

Yes, the evolutionary forces of natural selection are indeed amazing when you consider the Monarch butterfly (every species of butterfly for that matter).

But what is more fascinating to me is the evolutionary forces that have made the Ichneumon wasps reproduce the way that they do.

If its something pretty like a butterfly, then God Did It. If its something ugky like a parasitic worm or wasp, then The Fall Did It. Simple... no?

 

[Ariellamb]

Split Rock

You are not listening
God made them ALL for His glory. Samson needs to be read to understand the point i make,have you read about him yet?

 

[Chesterton]

You argue like a Pharisee. Of course you judged Sagan... you suggested he was in Hell now. All because you said "maybe" doesn't mean you didn't.

I accused Sagan of mixing science and theology, which is an impossible idea because an atheist doesn't believe in theology. And I leave open the possibility that he's in Hell, because I leave open the possibility that any of us could wind up in Hell.

Agreed. Then why is it a good example for Bible Study??

I don't really think it is, but my point was that if you believe in God, you can mix science and theology, because both would be real to you. So you could study a butterfly as an example of God's work. But if you don't believe there's any God, then you can't believe theology (the study of God) is anything but fantasy, so you can't really mix it with science, can you? Yet that's what many scientists do - their study of science somehow leads them to believe there is no God.

For example, in Sagan's case, I recall him expressing the idea that the universe is so big, and Earth is so small, therefore there's no God. Similarly, Dawkins says man evolved, therefore there's no God. These kinds of ideas are non-sequiturs. But there's no non-sequitur involved in saying "I believe in God, and I believe the Monarch butterfly is a wonderful example of God's creation".