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The
food chain.
Otherwise
known as the Food Web, this expression covers the sequence of organisms through
which energy and nutrients are transferred. Since some animals eat both meat and
fruit, the relationships are not always simple.
The
sequence of the Food Chain comprises 1. autotrophs (producers) which are
principally plants and photosynthetic microorganisms to 2. heterotrophs
(consumers) which comprise herbivores, to 3. carnivores which feed on the
herbivores, to 4. decomposers which break down all four groups (including
themselves) and make things ready for recycling.
Put
simply, all living things depend on plants for survival.
Plants
produce the materials (nutrients) which all living things need to sustain life
and health. Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals, Water and
Alcohol. Also fibre.
Approximately
6000 years ago (according to Bible chronology) this was recorded by Moses:
"And
God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on
the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it
shall be for food.
"Also,
to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that
creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for
food" and it was so." Genesis 1:29,30.
Long
before scientists discovered how the Food Chain worked, the Bible had already
recorded how all life depends primarily on plants for survival.
Incidentally,
this is just one of many incidents where the Bible has shown itself to be
absolutely accurate whenever it makes what we might call ‘scientific’
statements. Although the Bible is obviously not a science text book,
nevertheless, whenever it makes a statement about the real world, it is always
correct.
Also,
it is interesting to notice that the Genesis account gives the origin of
all plants. God needed but one 24 hour day to create every photosynthetic
organism. This is backed up by the fossil record, which reveals all plants
buried therein as fully developed, with no transitional forms. In other words
the fossil record shows an abrupt appearance of all plants, which supports the
Bible record that they were created, rather than that they gradually evolved.
Further
examples follow :
Example
1.
Doctor
Ignaz Semmelweis, (pronounced Semmel-vise) lived in Austria In the 1940s. Like
all doctors he was concerned about the way infections spread, often with
impunity.
In
the hospital where he worked, he had to care for lots of women who came to his
hospital to have babies. The women came to the hospital healthy, but soon
after they arrived they became sick and died.
This
problem was terribly troublesome, as women tended to think that the normal
consequences of giving birth was to die soon afterwards.
Doctor
Semmelweis noticed that the women got sick after they were examined by
doctors who had come from another part of the hospital.
He
noticed that these doctors didn't wash their hands between patients.
"Ahah!"
thought Doctor Semmelweis, "These doctors must be bringing something with
them on their hands!"
In
the 1940s almost nothing was known about germs, because they were too
small to see!
Doctor
Semmelweis asked the doctors to wash their hands between every patient,
and immediately the number of women who got sick decreased.
A
few years later germs were discovered, and people realised that germs
could be carried about, and passed on.
Thousands
of years before Doctor Semmelweis, the Bible already warned people to wash
their hands after touching dead things. The Bible gives no explanation as to
why people should was themselves in this way, as the command was given with the
intention of encouraging obedience.
Numbers
chapter 19 and Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 give most of the hygiene rules given
by God in order to control infection.
Example
2.
For
a long, long, long time, the people of India thought that the world sat
on the backs of some huge elephants, and that the elephants stood on the back of
a enormous turtle . . . and the turtle stood on a big snake, which was swimming
through a sea of milk!!!
This
was just one of the many fanciful beliefs of the past.
Another
idea was that the world was being piggy-backed by a catfish.
Another
idea, from Greece, (supposedly the most educated nation of the time), had the
earth balanced on the shoulders of a very big man, called Atlas!
Well
of course, when telescopes were invented, no-one could see any elephants, or
turtles, or snakes, or catfish, or big men with bulging muscles . . . In fact,
when scientists looked around, they could see that the earth sat on . . .
NOTHING!
Scientists
(astronomers) saw that the earth floated, like a bubble, through space. No
strings, or ropes, or pulleys. Just nothing all round it.
But
despite this discovery, many people persisted in their belief that the world was
flat. Many sailors were scared to sail too far, in case they went over the edge!
Does
the Bible say anything about the earth?
Yes,
the Bible says that the earth is round, like a ball, and that it
hangs on nothing.
The
Bible was saying this for thousands of years - long before telescopes or rockets
- the Bible was right long before the Indians were thinking about
elephants and turtles.
Just
read Job 26:7, or Isaiah 40:22, or the story in Luke 17. In the last passage
there is an illustration about people - some are awake in the daytime, while
some are sleeping at night. Jesus knew that day and night happened at the same
time, because he knew that the true shape of the world was spherical.
As
usual, the Bible was right. It has never needed to be corrected or updated!
Example
3.
Modern
geology is based largely on what is called Uniformitarianism, which means that
the processes we see going on around us today are the same as have been going on
for millions, even billions of years. A Uniformitarian does not accept that in
the past there have been global catastrophes - only minor, local
catastrophes, such as the odd volcanic eruption, tidal wave and so forth - but
nothing global.
The
Bible, on the other hand, uses three chapters to describe a flood which covered
the entire globe for a little less than a year.
Evidence
of this global disaster is everywhere, but Uniformitarians selectively either
ignore or distort their interpretations of this evidence.
If
there was a flood, in the proportions described in the Bible (Genesis 6, 7 and
8) what sort of things would we expect to find today?
The
Biblical flood
describes several things happening :
1.
Water bursting up from under the ground,
2.
Water thundering down from the sky,
3.
Sea-levels rising until all land is covered,
4.
Tremendous surges of water, containing silt, and the remains of forests and
plant and animal life,
5.
Volcanic eruptions
6.
Raising of land and buckling, tilting and draining of continents
The
Bible also says that before the global flood there were no mountains such as we
have today. The global flood was terminated by rapid upthrusting of land, and
mountains appeared. (This is why we find fossils in mountain peaks).
Today
we find the remains of vast forests buried as coal. We also find huge deposits
of oil. Both of these ‘fossil fuels’ are the remains of a tremendous amount
of plants and animals swept together and buried quickly.
We
also find that 80% of all surface rocks are sedimentary. Sedimentary rock is
formed by water. As water carries the sediments about, sorting takes place, in
which heavier objects drop faster than lighter, and organisms with less ability
to resist the water are also buried before those which can swim against the
flow.
Fossils
are the remains of plants and animals which were buried in sediment. This is why
the billions of fossils available today are always found in sedimentary rock.
Fossils depict sudden death, death by violent drowning. Fossils are often
mutilated, shredded, torn apart.
Fossils
also depict the normal sorting process. Some layers of fossils depict simple
forms of life, shells and so forth, which were less able to escape the current.
Other layers depict more complex forms of life. Evolutionists like to point to
these layers as proof of evolution, but the fossils which comprise these layers
contain no transitional forms, and provide therefore far better evidence of
creation than evolution.
Strangely
enough, despite the fact that fossil-bearing sedimentary rock is just about
everywhere we look, it is not usually related to the three chapters in Genesis
which describe a global catastrophe.
Nevertheless,
the Bible’s explanation is the most satisfying, because it fits the evidence
perfectly.
Uniformitarianism
cannot account for such things as the Grand Canyon - 100,000 square miles
of horizontal sediment. The present-day Colorado river cannot have made these
sediments since rivers of this size meander, laying down sediment of a highly
uneven nature.
Uniformitarianism
cannot account for the enormous fossil beds in which millions of fish are
found. Under normal conditions, fish, when they die, float to the surface.
Fossilised fish depict creatures which were buried quickly, in vast numbers,
before decomposition could take place.
Uniformitarians
cannot explain the presence of approximately 5,000,000 mammoths and mastadons trapped
on frozen soil, dead with sub-tropical food still in their mouths.
Uniformitarians
cannot explain the fact that there are undersea river canyons which run
down from the river mouths off continents, sometimes to a depth of 2 miles from
the surface of the ocean.
Uniformitarians
cannot explain how it is, in coal mines, that carbonised trees are found
standing vertically through the seams. Incidentally, no coal has been found
forming anywhere in the world today.
Uniformitarians
cannot explain how it is that, in all the sedimentary rocks examined, not a
single meteorite has been found. If these rocks are as old as they say,
there should be millions of meteorites. There are two possible explanations :
1.
No meteorites fell on earth for millions of years, or
2.
The Bible is right when it says the sedimentary rocks were laid down (as a
result of the global flood) very quickly.
Dinosaurs
are put together from their bones. Dinosaur bones are usually found in
sedimentary deposits. Quite often, dinosaur bones are found in the same deposit
as the bones of many other animals, such as bears, birds, mammals and plants.
Human footprints have also been found in the same layers in which dinosaur
tracks have been found. The mystery of why the dinosaurs died out suddenly is
found in the Bible, Genesis chapters 6, 7 and 8.
Job
40:15 - 24 and 41:1-34 gives an eyewitness account of two dinosaurs. Either
that, or Job is describing some creature identical to them. Evolutionists would
like us to believe that Man evolved some 65 million years after dinosaurs died
out. The testimony of Job, who lived about the time of Abraham, some 3000 years
ago, totally contradicts this.
Who are we going to believe - the people with theories, or the Bible?