MOMENTUM

In “How Deceptive Can an Orchid Be?” - an op-ed piece posted today at the ABC News website - Lee Dye reported that scientists have found an orchid on the Chinese island of Hainan that’s even trickier than most orchids in deceiving pollinators.

Unlike many other orchids, the Dendrobium sinense doesn’t produce an aroma that will attract bees. That’s because this white orchid depends on hornets rather than bees for pollination.

“The orchid releases a chemical that produces an aroma that is identical to the smell made by bees that are under attack,” writes Dye. “The hornet normally captures bees to feed to its larvae, so when it smells the alarm pheromone it figures bees are inside the orchid, and they are in distress and thus would be easy victims. So the hornet plunges into the orchid like a cruise missile. But there are no bees there. Only pollen, which clings to the body of the hornet. The hornet moves on, getting nothing for its efforts, and it spreads the pollen to other orchids in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan.”

So why do we say that the orchid deceived the scientists studying it? The article begins with this sentence: “Charles Darwin would have loved it.” To the writer of the piece - as well as the evolutionary scientists studying it - the orchid gives clear evidence of natural selection. They seem to have overlooked another and more plausible explanation - that an Intelligent Designer created the orchid this way. Why more plausible? Because the orchid would have died out long before it developed its unique ability to mimic the scent of bees in distress.

It isn’t very often that we give our readers the address of a website that supports evolution. But we’re doing so now because this website lists hundreds of churches and synagogues throughout the nation that were scheduled to participate in this past weekend’s 2009 Evolution Weekend: http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evolution_weekend_2009.htm

Why are we doing this? First of all, so you’ll know which congregations prefer the teachings of Darwin over the plain teachings of Scripture. If these congregations have rejected the Genesis account of creation, we wonder what other Bible doctrines they will abandon next. The virgin birth? The substitutionary death of Christ on the cross? The resurrection? The deity of Christ? Sadly, some of the congregations on the list have rejected these Bible doctrines already.

There’s another reason why we’re providing this list. We’re asking you to pray for these congregations and those who attend them. And pray especially that the leaders of these congregations awaken to the truth found in the very first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Have you ever heard evolutionists brashly claim that all legitimate scientists believe in evolution? Actually, this is one of their favorite things to say, thinking that this will instantly silence creationists. The fact is - some of the greatest scientists who ever lived believed in biblical creation.

For instance, James Clerk Maxwell was a Bible-believer who developed complex theoretical and mathematical explanations for all the forces in the universe except gravity and nuclear forces. Albert Einstein said that Maxwell made greater contributions to physics than anyone except Isaac Newton. (more…)

For evolutionists, 2009 is a special year of celebration. Not only does 2009 mark the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, it represents the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. It’s important to remember, though, that this is not just about science. As the science establishment celebrates the life and achievements of Darwin, they are also rejoicing because they believe that evolution delivered the death-blow to God.

Though most evolutionists fully understand this, many Christians still don’t realize that Darwinism and atheism are inextricably intertwined. One of our website visitors summed up the issue quite well in the following e-mail:

“I was struck by your desperate efforts to involve the bible in the debate as if it had some kind of relevance to historical fact and theory. The bible was written by men partly to explain his own origins - now that we’re smarter, we don’t need to refer back to a less knowledgeable time. Please, think for yourselves by looking at and understanding the world around you - we don’t need a god.”

That’s why the battle between creation and evolution is so important and why a ministry like Creation Moments is so vital at a time like this. As the Year of Darwin gets underway, get ready to be bombarded with new TV specials and magazine articles praising the name of Darwin. Help your kids learn how to resist the evolutionary indoctrination they’ll receive at school. And bookmark our website, so you and your family can see where the scientific and historical evidence really points.