I watched part of a documentary on PBS about hummingbirds the other day. Those tiny birds have always fascinated me and I wanted to learn more about them. Before seeing this film, I hadn't realized that there were so many different types of hummingbirds, some exclusive to certain regions of the planet, with subtle variations in color, body, and beak shape. The narrator explained these differences in each bird as the result of evolutionary processes by which the flowers, in an effort to survive, had enticed the birds to dine. The birds, in return had adapted the shape of their beaks to feed off of specific flowers. Michael Pollan presented the same argument in his documentary The Botany of Desire which aired several months ago. He blushingly admitted that, while he didn't believe that tulips had cognitive abilities, they had somehow communicated their desirability to the human race and we in turn, fell for them, and continue to cultivate them since our initial infatuation. Wow!
Is it really easier to believe that tulips and fuchsias, though lacking the abilities to either think or reason, can somehow hatch a scheme to gain advocacy with humans and the animal kingdom, than it is to see the evidence of a master plan repeated over and again throughout the known universe? Is there more comfort in supposing that we exist as the result of some happy accident that produced the perfect environmental requirements for our existence and can just as easily, and randomly, alter the physical environment to adversarial conditions that result in our demise? For me, the answer is a resounding, no.
"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Luke 12:27
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