I mentioned in an earlier response that I'd painted my sleeping porch. Back before air conditioning multi-story buildings often had a tiny porch off of at least one of the bedrooms. In the summer, this was a cool place to sleep. The deck of the one outside my bedroom is…
Why use a pre-made Obama sign when you can make your own? This question became obvious this weekend. My neighborhood was sponsoring an art fair along a long boulevard, "The Shaw Art Fair." (here's some of the art). Almost 150 artists showed up. One of the neighbors set up a…
I learned about this sculpture in Nature (June 26, 2008 Edition, available online only to subscribers). Scroll down after clicking the link. You won't miss it. The creator is Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. What does the sculpture mean? In the Nature article, Martin Kemp indicates that Cattelan leaves some…
When we think of skies, we often think of blue sky with white clouds. As adults we often forget to appreciate the natural beauty available to us simply by looking up. There are many other types of skies, of course. For the past ten days, we've had lots of turbulent…
“There is no evidence whatsoever that flowering plants evolved.”
I can understand this resistance to believing that orchids evolved without the help of God-the-Artist. I understood this resistance while strolling through an extraordinary display of orchids today at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
It was like looking at fireworks. Just when you thought you had seen it all, you would see yet another dazzling package of color and shape. Why would “Nature” waste such time on crafting such masterpieces? For those primed by a religious upbringning, the emotions would compel the thought that flowers of this type must be no less than “God’s” aesthetic gift to Humankind.
Such thinking, of course, is prevalent among creationists. Prevalent and wrong. Not that orchids sculpted by natural selection are any less stunning in appearance that those that might have been crafted by an omniscent deity. They are what they are. They are compelling beings, those orchids. They are beautiful and they are alive. And they can be appreciated by anyone, of any world view, who comes to view them. I imagine that, today, many creationists lined up with those who are convinced by evolutionary theory, all of them appreciating the orchids.
Viewing this orchid display reminded me of Darwin’s writings regarding the many versions of finches Darwin observed on his trip to the Galapagos. Regarding those finches, Darwin concluded that, in geographical isolation, the various species of finches evolved from a small number of common ancestors so that each species …
