When we look at nature, what do we see? Is nature a simple display of a few basic components that are all alike? Or is nature found to be far more complex than we ever dreamed possible? When God created the universe, He made a construction that we can only begin to comprehend with our limited knowledge. So perhaps we can focus on the Earth to try to understand one small speck of creation. When previous generations tried to comprehend our world, they found such intricacies that they often resorted to superstition to explain the mysteries. Modern science has delved deeply into the lives of plants and animals and the ways they interact. But instead of reaching the end of the mysteries, science has only uncovered new questions that lead to even more mysteries. In fact science is as far from solving the intricacies of nature now as it was centuries ago.
God made life more interlocked than seems possible. Plants and animals and the world that supports them are meshed together in a web of interactions. We have found that every form of life is dependent on another form. If we pluck one thread of life, we find it attached to the rest of creation. Plants require both animals and other plants. Animals require both plants and other animals. Both plants and animals require the minerals, gases, and weather that the planet provides.
And we have found the same is true of us. Humans are more dependent than we realize on the complex interactions of all life around us. Often we assume that we are so advanced in technology and civilization that we are now immune to what happens in nature. But with each new discovery and each new interaction found, we find that we actually depend on a great many other forms of life for our own existence. Rather than being impregnably secure, humans are actually on a knife-edge of survival, relying on a host of other organisms for our very existence. This is no surprise, as God has created all life to be dependent on other life.
So what are the interactions that we need to survive? Is it really true that without a particular animal, we would die? And if so, which ones? We would be well advised to discover and protect the animals we need to keep us alive. In this program, we will examine those processes God established on Earth that maintain human life, and the individual animals that make those processes work. We might be surprised which are the most important animals to our survival.
Of course, everything we see today on Earth is God's backup plan. The perfect world of Eden was a very different place than what we see now. No death, disease, danger, or competition existed. When sin began, almost every aspect of life had to change. God had to totally remake His original creation. Without drastic intervention, life on earth would likely have ceased to exist. So we should remember that the nature we study today is not God's original plan, but rather, His temporary way of dealing with the curse of sin. Also, it should be noted that everything I say here is a simplified version of the complexities existing in nature. To go into excessive detail would needlessly confuse the issue. There are exceptions and subtleties to every area we will examine.
POLLINATION
We will first look at the plant world. Without plants, the survival of most animal life is impossible. Plants produce the oxygen animals must breathe. No plants, no more breathing. But there is a second major service plants provide. Food! Without plants most life will starve. Even predators depend on plants to feed their vegetarian prey. So whatever keeps plants alive is obviously crucial.
Plants grow from a seed, reach maturity, and then reproduce the next generation. Plants usually reproduce by cross-pollination. This gives plants diverse genes that keep them healthy. Some plants, especially conifer trees, let wind blow their pollen randomly. But most plants use animals to spread their pollen to others of their species, including most food plants we eat. 70% of flowering plants need insects to pollinate them, including two thirds of our crops. Plants attract specific animals to their flowers, place pollen on animals, and gather pollen brought to them by animals. So now we will examine animal pollinators, as they must do the job of pollination or we will die.
Bats pollinate many desert and tropical plants. They drink nectar from night flowers and carry pollen on their fur. Birds that drink nectar do the same thing with day-blooming flowers. But relatively few birds or mammals pollinate. Of the other vertebrates, only some gecko species regularly visit flowers and carry pollen, especially in jungles. The vast majority of pollination is done by insects.
The insect pollinators are legion. Butterflies by day, moths by night. Bees and wasps either visit many varieties or are specialized for a single species. We all know that honeybees industriously drink from flowers, but native bees, usually small, are actually much more important in keeping plants thriving. Localized bee species are the backbone of healthy habitats. Some bees, such as bumblebees, vibrate their bodies at a specific frequency to loosen pollen grains for collection. Certain plants require this buzz-pollination for existence. Beetles come in so many forms that it's no surprise that a large group are pollinators. Tiny beetles are often abundant, all working hard feeding themselves and keeping their food source successful. We think of flies as biters and spreaders of disease, but only a few do so. Most drink nectar from all types of flowers. Flies have scent detectors on their head and large eyes with color vision to help them find flowers. Taste receptors on their legs and feet let flies taste the flowers. We know of over 1100 plant species pollinated by flies.
So when it comes to our food, clothing made from plants, and the very air we breathe, we depend on the great insect world in all its many forms. This is why pesticides have been so dangerous. For every harmful insect species killed, many more harmless and beneficial species are also destroyed. Every insect form lost will mean the plants that rely on them will be lost too. Areas in China that have lost insect pollinators now require humans to hand pollinate each individual flower. Do we really want to take on the arduous job of pollinating our food ourselves? Insects pollinate plants for free and are happy to do it! Temporarily reducing mosquitoes is not worth losing our food supply. In one case alone, 50,000 bumblebees were killed after insecticides were sprayed in trees to kill aphids. This was in a shopping center parking lot near Portland, OR. 50,000 bumblebees from one application of insecticides. Is killing a few aphids the easy way really worth it?
DECOMPOSITION AND WASTE REMOVAL
If pollination is the science of the continuation of life, then decomposition is the science of the end of life. Death is always a tragedy, never part of God's original plan, and will be eradicated when all is made new. But for now, death is an element of existence that we cannot ignore. At the time of the fall, God recreated a huge segment of the life He made to deal with the new reality of death. If He hadn't, nothing would have lasted for long, as we will see.
When a body dies, animal or plant, the cells cease to function, but they don't disappear by themselves. Other organisms are needed to physically break them down and recycle the nutrients for use again. Whole new kinds of life, unneeded in perfect Eden, became indispensable. Bacteria, which is neither animal nor plant, was tasked to do this on the microscopic scale. Fungi, another unique form of life, also became a force for decomposition, attacking both dead plants and animals. Fungi is incredibly diverse and has many beautiful forms. But the real work of fungi happens invisibly in the dead wood and soil and grass all around us.
Aiding these microscopic workers are the slightly more visible animals digesting dead plant and animal cells. Beetles are fantastic in this area, both as adults and larva. Munching away on dead wood, larva break wood down to even smaller parts that can be tackled by bacteria. Carpenter Ants grind up dead wood in bulk, turning it into sawdust. Dust mites live in our homes and devour the skin we shed constantly. Without them we would be wading through our own lost skin cells like snow.
Beetle larva also tackle animal corpses. Carrion beetles arrive from far and wide as soon as an animal dies. Dermestid or skin beetles are so efficient at stripping flesh from bone that museum curators use them to clean skeletons before mounting. Many flies lay their eggs on dead bodies, and their larva quickly eat it. Many adult wasps feed their young with flesh they have scavenged. Yellow jackets and other hornets are like small vultures, cleaning up tiny bodies before they rot. Normal vultures do the same on a much larger scale. They are among the many birds that scavenge, like Caracaras and Ravens and Marabou Storks. Many mammals do the same. Jackals, hyenas, and foxes all specialize in following other predators and cleaning up leftovers. Lobsters clean up the seafloor, removing decaying carcasses. Conch and whelk snails eat dead fish as well, using a long tube mouth to reach into small spaces. Water snakes eat dead and dying fish before bacteria can pollute our fresh water. Wolverines are as happy to scavenge as they are to hunt for live prey.
Why is all this important? Without plant decomposers, all dead plants would lock up the nutrients they had absorbed during life. With no nutrient recycling, the soil would become impoverished to the point of uselessness. Plus the heaps of dead plants would soon pile so high as to bury everything around them. Nothing new could grow and eventually all life on Earth, including us, would cease. But thanks to the decomposers, decaying plant cells release nutrients for reuse by the next generation of growth, and so life continues. Animal corpses have an additional complication. As they putrefy, corpses foster disease, and so need to be removed as quickly as possible. So all the varieties of scavengers are vital in maintaining a clean habitat, and preventing disease. Again, without scavengers, dead bodies would soon cover the landscape and make life unbearable.
There is one more related area that needs addressing. Waste removal. When vertebrate animals leave waste behind, it is a health hazard. Even when some animals, like cats, carefully bury their waste, that still doesn't solve the problem. Someone has to clean it up and prevent contamination from spreading. Many specialized insects are tasked with this important cleanup, but the most famous are the dung beetles. Found throughout the world in desert and grassland ecosystems, 6000 dung beetle species are vital in cleaning up the dung of many herbivores. By burying waste, they achieve soil aeration and fertilization, reduce fly and parasitic worm numbers, and plant seeds in safe growing spots. A beetle finds a fresh manure pile and goes to work, carving out a ball to lay her eggs on. Usually, she will need to move it to a proper place to bury it, and so the great backwards rolling expedition begins. She will push her treasure over every obstacle until she finds the perfect spot. She can roll a ball fifty times her own weight. They are the only insect proven to navigate by starlight, using the Milky Way as a guide. Star gazing beetles! How about that?
SOIL AND WATER PROCESSING
In order for plants to grow properly, soil needs to be well aerated and well fertilized with various nutrients. Enter the many species of humble earthworm. Feeding underground on soil, they break up compacted soil into much healthier loam, ready for plant germination. Also, soil goes in one end of the worm and fertilizer comes out the other end. A healthy earthworm population processes forty tons of dirt per acre every year. Other insect burrowers including ants, beetles, and millipedes process soil as well. Ants may even be the most essential in bringing minerals to the surface to replenish our topsoil. So we can thank these tiny hidden creatures for productive soil.
Clean water is mandatory to human existence. As water gets dirty, a cleanup system engages to purify it. Marshes and swamps clean the water that passes through them by filtering out toxins. God gave us wetlands to be a giant filtration system catching impurities in the water. As these habitats have been drained and filled with soil, the water flowing through does not get cleaned, resulting in polluted drinking water and poisoned animals. One of the key animals for cleaning water is the mussel. Found in flowing fresh water, mussels burrow into the mud and pump water through their bodies using powerful siphons. They filter out their microscopic food and in the process remove pollution from the water. One mussel can filter over 18 gallons of water every day. Amazingly, some mussels have been found to live over a century, never moving from their chosen spot. God certainly gave the mussel a supply of patience when He handed out gifts to His animals!
In salt water, oysters and clams and scallops do the same job cleaning out toxins from the water, storing them in their bodies in ever increasing amounts. In recent years, these animals have registered some of the most polluted bodies in the sea. Without them taking the brunt of our contamination, sea water would have deteriorated much faster and reduced our own survival.
PLANT HEALTH
Since we know how important plants are to our survival, any animals that care for plants are crucial as well. Many animals are gardeners, planting seeds for their own purposes. Ants are especially adept at this, tending both flowers and whole trees around the world. The Acacia Ant lives inside hollow thorns of acacia trees, driving away any animal or plant that threatens or competes with the tree. The acacia provides sweet ant nectar from wells as a reward for the ants to drink. With all their food and shelter needs provided for, the ants can focus on attacking any plant and animal that comes near their acacia home. Banana Slugs aid the sprouts of giant Redwood trees, by eliminating the competition. So slugs in their natural habitat can be helpful gardeners. Bats transport rainforest fruit seeds to new locations. Birds do the same in every warm habitat on Earth. They eat the seeds, the seeds pass unharmed through the birds system, and get dropped with a bit of fertilizer to get them started. In some cases, seeds can only grow after they have passed through the intestines of a specific mammal, such as African acacia seeds eaten by elephants.
Grass is an enormously crucial plant, relied on for food by many animals. It grows very fast from underground runners. Grasslands have been described as upside down forests, as most of each grass plant grows underground. When grazers eat the aboveground leaves, the underground stem allows instant regrowth. Fresh grass is more easily digested than old tough grass, so the faster grass is eaten, the more nutritious the grassland will be. Cows, antelopes, rhinos, sheep, horses and rabbits are all built to eat grass, keeping the grass renewed. But the most important grazers are not what we might expect.
Termites abound in every tropical grassland. There are a half-ton of termites for every human being on Earth! Each mound contains several million individuals, all working to maintain the colony. Grassland termite species feed on grass, clipping them down to the ground, letting new growth spring up. Grasshoppers do the same thing in temperate grasslands. Even before Bison were destroyed from the Great Plains, grasshoppers were as important as Bison in eating grass. Rather than being pests out to eat our crops, God designed grasshoppers to cycle nutrients to keep the habitat healthy.
Trees have mutual interactions with funguses that keep them healthy. Funguses attach to underground roots and enable them to absorb water and nutrients more efficiently. As new seedlings sprout, they bond with the funguses around them, giving them the best chance of survival. When clear-cutting removes the entire forest from a landscape, there are negative results. The sun dries and heats the exposed ground and kills the local funguses. If there are uncut forests nearby, the funguses can recolonize the newly planted seedlings. But when clear-cuts devastate too large an area, the fungus partners are lost and the regrown forests are crippled.
We now know that 80% of plant species have symbiotic relationships with funguses. So animals that maintain the fungus populations are very important. Principal among these in temperate forests are rodents such as voles, pocket gophers, and deer mice. They dig up truffles and other species and spread spores throughout the forest. The health of giant trees hundreds of years old, and the entire ecosystems they support, can ultimately be traced to the tiny mammals scurrying through the branches or undergrowth. God uses these humble creatures to maintain His special gardens.
When it comes to soil health and the grass and trees we depend on, there is an exceptionally complicated network of microbes, plants, animals, and funguses maintaining the whole. Most of these are still barely understood, and more interactions are being discovered constantly. As we cut down forests, spray pesticides and herbicides irresponsibly, and kill animals, we break connections and destroy vital processes God established long ago. Destroying the network we depend on is an unintelligent plan.
There is one more benefit that plants provide humans besides air or food. Modern studies have found that experiencing nature results in physical and mental healing. People heal better and faster in a country setting than a city one. Patients looking at visual scenes of flowers and flowing water and forests have a reduction of pain levels, even during surgery. Exercise experienced in a natural setting increases its effectiveness when compared to exercise experienced indoors or on city streets. God revealed this to His messenger over a century ago. "Nature is God's physician. The pure air, the glad sunshine, the beautiful flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these surroundings, are health-giving—the elixir of life.... There are life- giving properties in the balsam of the pine, in the fragrance of the cedar and the fir. And there are other trees that are health-promoting. Let no such trees be ruthlessly cut down. Cherish them where they are abundant, and plant more where there are but few." Testimonies Vol. 7, p. 76-77.
Satan knows this and has tricked people into fearing nature as dangerous. Biophobia is a real mental disease that the devil inflicts upon many people. The same people that happily drive around cities in the death traps we call cars are scared to take a walk in the woods where they think animals are waiting to attack them around every corner. In the United States, an average of 40,000 people are killed every year in auto accidents. Around 88,000 die from drinking alcohol. And a staggering 500,000 die from tobacco use, including 50,000 non- smokers who are killed from secondhand smoke. Less than 100 Americans are killed by wild animals each year. And most of these deaths are allergic reactions to honey bee stings, not the extremely rare predator attacks overhyped by the media. Spiders only account for about 7 deaths, and snakes only cause about 5 deaths a year. No animal you can think of kills even a fraction as many people as car accidents, smoking, or poor diets. Satan fools people into fearing the activities in nature that will actually heal their mind and body. You should be far more terrified of the smoker you pass on the street than the snake in your backyard. The real danger to our health comes not from the wild but from civilization.
PREDATION
Animals feeding upon other animals is a complicated topic for a creationist. I examined this in depth in my presentation Red in Tooth and Claw, so will only summarize here. Without predators in our world, animals would overpopulate and soon starve. The animals that feed on other animals, the predators, are indispensable in maintaining other animal populations at healthy levels. When predators are eliminated by humans, their prey soon overpopulates, spread disease, and die in large crashes. So all predators are crucial to maintaining healthy ecosystems and all the life that depends on them, including us.
Predators come in all sizes and forms. Every type of animal has predators among its ranks. From the largest animal on Earth, the Blue Whale, to tiny insects such as assassin bugs, we find predators. They form an indispensable part of every ecosystem, land or sea, on Earth. Remove predators from any habitat and the system immediately begins to break down. Restore them and life begins to stabilize. For example, Gray Wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park have changed the entire ecosystem for the better. Thanks to wolves reducing the overpopulation of Elk, many overgrazed areas are recovering. Surprisingly, wolves have aided species such as the Quaking Aspen, goldeneye ducks, and Grizzly Bears. Once the Elk numbers reached a healthier level, the damage caused by them was eliminated and the habitats revived, especially streamside areas.
Despite these proven benefits, wolves and all other predators are hated and destroyed savagely. Around the world, snakes and otters and seals have been senselessly slaughtered because of their diet. Hawks, owls, and eagles get the shoot on sight treatment as well. We poison predatory fish so that we can have more game fish for our exploitation. Around the Great Lakes, cormorants are being pointlessly destroyed at the whims of fishermen. All of this is a visceral reaction to systems we don't understand, as we eliminate the animals that keep these systems healthy.
Some of the most crucial predators are the insect eaters. For every human being on Earth, an estimated 200 million insects exist. Due to insects' enormous reproductive abilities, we need all the help we can get in keeping even the beneficial ones from taking over. Chief among our allies are the spiders. They are actually insect catching specialists. Some actively chase their prey, pursuing small insects and using their venom to subdue them. Wolf spiders are named for the large canines to illustrate their hunting prowess. Lynx spiders make up another group of often brightly colored ambush spiders. Night crawling spiders emerge after dark to hunt. Spitting spiders spit glue onto prey, gumming them down until they can be eaten. Jumping spiders have extremely diverse colors and forms, some very flamboyant. They leap upon prey like leopards, using the best vision that God gave to any spiders. They are the only spiders that will relate to us, turning curiously to watch us as we watch them. Many spiders use silk to make insect traps. Orb weavers lay out a large web that catches insects with sticky threads. Sheet webs are non-sticky webs that entangle prey long enough for the spider to seize it. Dozens of other web styles snare insects in different ways. Without spiders catching their food, we would be overrun with insects, and nobody wants that. Every time we crush a spider, we are allowing hundreds of insects to live and reproduce. Rather than an enemy, spiders are our allies that God has tasked in keeping insects controlled. The mosquito carrying the disease that will kill you can be caught and eaten by a spider first, but only if you don't kill the spider!
Spiders are classed as arachnids, but there are several other insect-eating arachnid groups besides spiders. They are some of the strangest looking life forms God ever created. Solifuges race after insect prey at up to ten miles per hour in deserts around the world. The hairs that cover them detect odors, vibrations and chemicals. When they catch a meal, they chew it up with their venormous jaws. Pseudoscorpions are micro predators that can live in many strange places, such as pinecones, caves, or even under the wings of beetles. Most carry their babies in a pouch and feed them a form of milk! Vinegarones subdue food by spraying vinegar-scented acid from their tail. They use their heavy front pincers to hold prey, and their delicate second pair of legs as feelers. Harvestmen tiptoe around trees and on the ground, sometimes gathering into dense clusters. Note that they are not spiders, as spiders have a body divided into two distinct parts. In humid tropics, tailless whipscorpions grab their quarry with long bent front legs that they can fold out of the way. They are so flat that they can live safely under loose tree bark. Scorpions use their venomous stinger to subdue their insect prey. Of all of these weird arachnids, only some of the scorpions pose any danger to man. The rest are all totally harmless, despite their fearsome appearances. Humans have invented artificial ideas of beauty and ugliness and condemn those animals which don't fit our prejudices. But as the writer Montaigne wrote, "Those which we call monsters are not so with God."
But we've only looked at the arachnids that feast on insects. There are many others that do this important job. Insect feeding bats are especially well designed for this, as one bat can catch 2000-3000 insects every night. A single colony eats hundreds of tons per night. Insectivore mammals like shrews eat their weight in insects every day. They scurry through the ground cover, pouncing on any small prey they can find. Some ant species raid in swarms, devouring all insect life in their path. Praying Mantis seize food with their strong, fast forearms. Chameleons snag insects with a long sticky tongue. A single bird captures thousands of insects to feed themselves and their chicks. 90% of birds feed on insects at some stage of their life. Anteaters slurp up tens of thousands of ants or termites with their enormously long tongue. Frogs sit by the water and eat mosquitoes as they emerge, before they can do any harm. Flycatchers dash out from a high tree perch and snag flying insects. Dragonflies and damselflies spend all day grabbing insects, while their young do the same underwater to aquatic insect larva. Fence and rock lizards pick off flies wherever they land. Swallows rake the air for the gnats and flies they need. Armadillos shuffle through soil and leaf litter as they smell their way to lunch. Even fish get in on the insect action by leaping above the surface to grab low flyers. This is only a tiny list of insect feeders. Every species contributes to the effort of maintaining insects below explosion populations. When predators are killed, deliberately or accidentally, the insects are able to increase, and this has often happened. When exploding insect levels eat our food supply, spread disease, or invade our homes, we often find that the controlling predators have been lost through our own carelessness or cruelty.
The entire system of predation is part of the intricate system called the food web. Many people think humans are at the center of the food chain. But in reality every animal and plant on Earth is part of this interconnected web, since life cannot exist apart from it. Plants are fed upon by herbivores, and predators catch both herbivores and other predators. Every animal is built to eat specific types of food, and cannot just change to another food source on a whim. In grasslands, birds are dependent on grasshoppers to raise their chicks. If the grasshoppers are destroyed, so are the birds. Prairie birds have starved many times after insecticides have destroyed their food.
Some animals eat many types of food. If they lose a critical food source at a key time of year, it won't matter if the rest of the year's food is abundant. For example, Grizzly Bears feed on grass, berries, meat, fish, and grubs, depending on the time of year. For the bears in Yellowstone National Park, for a few weeks each year bears climb the mountains and start overturning rocks where cutworm moths gather. A single bear eats 10,000-40,000 moths every day. In one month a bear will eat a fourth of his caloric intake for the entire year! If they miss their moth feast, they enter hibernation undernourished and may starve.
When any part of the food chain is lost, a ripple takes place that affects everything in the web. Lose enough pieces and the effect is magnified. Eventually a crash will devastate the local ecosystem, leaving very few working parts left. We depend on these systems as well, so when we lose them, we end up hurting ourselves.
Examples of this can be found around the world, but are especially obvious in the oceans. When the Newfoundland fishermen of Canada overfished the Cod, a collapse occurred that destroyed their industry. Over twenty years later, the Cod are still gone and are not coming back. To deflect criticism for their incompetence, the Canadian government and the fishing industry created a false scapegoat of the Harp Seal. They claim that seals are destroying the Cod, when in reality seals eat other fish that eat Cod. So now savage men slaughter hundreds of thousands of baby seals every year, hoping to exterminate them completely. Killing is done in the most barbaric, cruel conditions imaginable, and the ocean system continues to disintegrate. We are destroying our own life- support system by our stubborn foolishness.
Many pieces of many habitats have already been lost. Some have been lost for so long that we don't even realize what we are missing or how impoverished nature has become. When John Muir walked across the Central Valley of California a century ago, he described endless flower fields in pristine grasslands. None of that complex habitat has survived, and all the resident animals have disappeared. Too many species and habitats are following that route to oblivion as land is lost to development. We need the diversity of life far more than we need another Sprawlmart.
LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
We have looked at a few facets of life to see how they work together. We have only examined those areas that include living organisms. We haven't even touched non-living processes such as fire, weather, or the seasons. They are also extremely complex and have massive effects on our planet's life. But I have focused our study on the plants, animals, and other organisms to illustrate the God-given importance of life maintaining other life.
What are the lessons that can be learned from this examination of the natural world? And what are the effects on our daily lives? The first issue of critical importance is that Earth's system of life is so complex and interdependent that there is no way it could function except as a working whole. Remove part of the system and the rest will stop functioning. This means the evolutionary theory does not explain how the primordial Earth could have grown from a primitive ecosystem to the complex one we see now. There are so many working pieces in the system that the slowly increasing complexity that evolution demands is impossible to realize. No system we study becomes more complex as it develops. This is both logical and demonstrable, unlike the fanciful and scientifically unprovable claims of evolution. Without God's intervention, everything breaks down rather than improving. The evolution-killing concept of irreducible complexity applies just as well to our ecological system as it does to microscopic structures. Life could never have lasted long enough to diversify into a self- sustaining bionetwork. So the study of ecology is a study refuting evolution.
If we try to understand our world only using naturalistic scientific principles, we will fail. Unless we include God's overall role in shaping and reshaping the system, we will lose our way in endless philosophical quagmires. Ellen White described this perfectly. "Young men talk about science and are wise above that which is written; they seek to explain the ways and works of God to meet their finite comprehension; but it is all a miserable failure. True science and Inspiration are in perfect harmony. False science is something independent of God. It is pretentious ignorance." Testimonies Vol. 4, p. 584.
The second lesson of importance concerns the animals themselves. When we look at the animal life God has made, we find it to be overwhelmingly composed of invertebrates. Vertebrate mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds compose only 3-4% of the total discovered species. And over half of those vertebrates are found in the fish world! One family of insects, the beetles, have over 350,000 named species, with many more waiting to be discovered. But there are only around 4000 mammal species, with relatively few left to be identified. And it is not only species diversity in which invertebrates dominate. The total number of individual invertebrates are millions of times greater than individual vertebrates, including us. If we add up the total weight of all the animals on land, we find insects by themselves reach 85-93% of the total weight. This is astonishing and completely turns our perceptions upside down.
If all vertebrates went extinct tomorrow, invertebrate animals would be disrupted and some would themselves go extinct, but many would settle out and continue to function normally. But if all invertebrates went extinct tomorrow, the vertebrates would quickly follow them into extinction. This includes humans, since we could not exist for even a few months without the ecosystem services maintained by invertebrates. This really shows how complex God has made our world. Life is not made of individual parts that can be casually destroyed with no consequences. Humans have been busily destroying many species of plants and animals for centuries. Some of the species lost have been of limited impact. Some lost species have had ripple effects that have resulted in other species also going extinct. And some lost species have had major impacts on the ecosystem. How many species can we lose in any local area without beginning a chain reaction of destruction? We never know...but many local ecosystems have already been destroyed in this way. On a worldwide scale, we are playing a global game of Russian roulette, where every lost plant or animal takes us another step toward disaster.
An unexpected side effect of this is that our value judgment of an animal's importance is usually way off. When we look at Giant Pandas or Whooping Cranes or White Rhinos, we are concerned about their rarity and are often willing to work to prevent their extinction. This is good, since they are wonderful animals that should be protected. But if any of them went extinct, the results to the ecosystem would be limited. But if a worm or beetle or shrimp or mussel is rare, we are indifferent and make no effort to protect them. When they go extinct, the damage to us is much worse than if a more charismatic bird or mammal is lost.
People wonder why I spend so much of my creation presentations talking about invertebrates, when there are so many pretty birds and cute mammals available for study. Not only does the Bible tell us to go to the ant in Proverbs, but Ellen White gives us a wonderful glimpse of God's view of life. "The perfection of God's work is as clearly seen in the tiniest insect as in the king of birds." Testimonies Vol. 4, p. 591. We must stop categorizing animals into good or bad, important or irrelevant, useful or disagreeable. We know too little most of the time to make value judgments of any species' worth. The most ignorant question asked by humans is, "What good is that animal?" ALL species matter to God, or He would not have created them as part of His plan.
This does not mean that there are not pests to be dealt with. Due to sin, some animals have been changed by Satan to directly cause humans problems. Parasites are clearly part of Satan's attack upon our wellbeing. Parasites serve no useful function to any other life, they only cause harm. Other animals compete with us indirectly as they eat our food or damage our homes. We must protect ourselves from injury from animals that harm us. But we must be careful to only control these animals that are actually problems. Too often we destroy every insect and spider for the high crime of being an insect or spider. We casually crush every small life form as if it is our duty to eliminate the creatures God has made.
Is it a sin to kill insects? No. Ellen White has made this clear. "Letters have come to me, asking in regard to the teaching...that nothing that has life should be killed, not even insects, however annoying or distressing they may be.... The Lord has never given any human being such a message. God has told no one that it is a sin to kill the insects which destroy our peace and rest." Selected Messages Vol. 1, p. 170. So we are not talking here about a moral issue. By contrast, it is a sin to kill animals for sport, for their fur, or for blood-filled meat, as we examined in my presentation Animals, Ethics & Christianity. Obviously, killing insect pests do not fit these categories. But do we really want to kill the invertebrates which aid us? Should we kill the insects that pollinate our food, that recycle our soil and forest nutrients, and that clean up pollution? If we look at the financial benefit of insects in the U.S. economy alone, insects save us fifty-seven billion dollars per year! And this amount is a conservative estimate.
We need a much better understanding of nature to know which species are harmful and which species are helpful. Then we can target more intelligently those species that really are a threat. We fear spiders, but of the Earth's 38,000 described species of spiders, less than 100 have a strong enough venom and bite to be dangerous. Of these, only two kinds are native to North America; the Brown Recluse and the Black Widow. The vast majority of spiders should be left alone to do the job God directed them to do. If we wanted to roughly estimate, maybe 80-90% of invertebrates are useful to us directly or to the ecosystem that we depend on. Only a tiny fraction actually cause us harm, so we should be educated as to which those are and leave the useful majority alone. This is not sentimental new age mysticism; this is self-interest and preservation of ourselves and the system God has established.
Our final important lesson is how careful we need to be with the life we depend on. As we have seen, human life depends on animal life to exist. So we need to protect all the pieces that keep the system functioning well. This seems obvious, but humans have a terrible record when it comes to protecting important creatures. If a moth or crayfish, mussel or frog becomes rare enough to need protecting, the usual reaction by people is anger and resistance. Anything that interferes with business or recreation or blood sports is fought viciously, especially if it is to protect some "worthless bug." So we let tiny and valuable creatures die and mourn them not, even though priceless and unique creations of God are lost.
The variety of life, called biodiversity, is one of the most valuable commodities in the world. It is the fiber that holds our life support system together. The greater the diversity, the stronger the system. Island ecosystems are more easily destroyed because they lack this diversity. When the inhabitants of Easter Island cut their forests and destroyed the native animals, they destroyed their own ability to survive. Their entire society imploded as resources disappeared. With no trees left to build boats, they had no way to escape and most of them died, some even turning to cannibalism. Our modern world is following the same path of self-destruction by degrading the network of life we rely on. Every day in the U.S., 6000 acres of natural habitat are destroyed, either paved or farmed for cow feed or strip mined. All the resident animals and plants in those acres are killed, since they have nowhere else to go. Does anyone think this is a good idea? Every day, another 6000 acres lost? Appalachian mountain tops destroyed for coal or farmland wasted on high fructose corn syrup or deserts paved for the next identical shopping center two miles closer to our house. Since 1970, the world has lost half its land and freshwater animals. Not species lost by extinction, but actual individuals of all animals both common and rare, destroyed for food, sport, greed or lost habitat.
Consumerism is the curse of our age, putting greed and fashion before health and sanity. Now don't misunderstand me. I did not say capitalism, which I totally support. I said consumerism, which is the endless buying of things we already have or don't need. We measure success by how much money we spend, how well we keep up with the Jones, and how many toys we die with. By buying the latest device, the hippest outfit, and eating the trendiest diet, we are funding the continued destruction of the natural world.
Inspiration condemned consumerism long before we even coined the term. "We see men eagerly striving to accumulate property. They put forth all their energies, tact, wisdom, and inventive powers to gain their object, in securing earthly treasures that they will not need, and cannot use for their own profit or for their children's benefit. These persons have not time to devote to prayer, or to seek God, or to place themselves on the side of Christ....It is most sad, indeed, when those who profess godliness exhibit to the world such a perversion of their powers....All their powers are employed in securing earthly possessions, and time and talents, consequently, are spiritually dwarfed." The Review and Herald, March 1, 1887.
Environmentalists talk about taking shorter showers, driving electric cars, and recycling. But they usually ignore the single greatest way of preventing destruction to nature, and that is our diet. Huge areas of forest and grassland are destroyed to raise farmed animals. 75% of all the grain grown and 50% of all the water used in America are wasted by the meat industry. A meat eater is responsible for this massive waste of natural resources. Farmed cattle alone consume enough grain to feed 8.7 billion humans. If meat eating ended, there would be enough vegetarian food available to feed the world's humans many times over. A meat eater is responsible for human starvation around the world. U.S. ranchers and farmers destroy competitors and predators by the millions, then slaughter 10 billion helpless livestock every year. A meat eater is responsible for this cruelty to both wild and domestic animals.
And someone who avoids eating dairy products and eggs saves even more lives and resources, since those industries are just as cruel and wasteful. 33% of America's raw materials and fossil fuels are wasted by the meat industry. In a vegan economy, only 2% of those resources would be used for food. A vegan driving a Hummer wastes less energy than a meat eater driving a Prius. It takes 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, but 2500 gallons to produce a pound of meat. A vegan can take a shower all day and use less water than a meat eater who never showers. A vegan can never recycle and save more resources than a meat eater who recycles everything they have ever used. Meat is the driving force behind virtually every area where we are destroying ourselves: deforestation, topsoil erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, social injustice, and the spread of human disease. To be a meat eating environmentalist is an oxymoron.
We need to make decisions about our priorities and how our actions affect the life around us. Killing animals because it is convenient or fashionable or profitable leads to the loss of those animals that keep us alive. Without animals we will die. Some of us will die sooner, and some of us later, but there are real and fatal consequences to losing species. The Endangered Species Act is the most important law ever passed to protect the diversity of life. It tries to restore rare animals and plants before they go extinct. It is hated beyond measure by industry and developers and has been attacked relentlessly for decades. The Endangered Species Act is actually a rescue net for humanity, by saving the animals and plants we depend upon. Until we learn to protect life rather than destroy it, we will continue to hurt ourselves by our shortsightedness.
We should always remember that we do not own the Earth or its creatures, as shown in Psalm 50:10-12. "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine...for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." Thanks to sin, nature and animals suffer under the curse of sin. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Romans 8:22. But rather than blaming just Adam and Eve, God holds sinful humans of all ages responsible for the curse affecting the land and the animals. "How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they [the people] said, He shall not see our last end." Jeremiah 12:4. The same thought is expressed in Isaiah 24:5 and Hosea 4:1-3. So humans, as caretakers of creation, can reduce the burden of sin by faithfully following all of God's directions as revealed by inspiration.
Often Christians feel that what we do to this world's creatures doesn't matter because Jesus is coming soon and will start over with a perfect world. Unfortunately, God has not allowed us the luxury of such selfishness. God gave all of us a duty of stewardship for His creation. At the second coming, God brings reward and judgment to the living and the dead. Those who ignore God's commands will have a reward not to their liking. "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou [God] shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." Revelation 11:18. This is very serious and shows that God does not respect a "trash the world and get a new one free" attitude. Will the earth continue to be ruined by human greed and be eventually remade by Christ? Absolutely. Nothing we do will prevent that end result. But if we contribute to the continued death of life by our carelessness and selfishness, we will be held responsible for our choices. We are always accountable for our own actions, even when evil continues without our participation. Child abuse, pornography, and even slavery will all exist until the second coming, but our loyalty to Christ will always shun and oppose these vices in all their forms. Our stewardship of animals, plants, and the land itself is a vital aspect of faithful Christianity, one that we ignore at our own peril.
So when we look at the science of ecology, we find a wonderfully complex and important area of study. God has revealed Himself in Earth's living systems by their infinite complexity that evolution could never have produced. Chaos cannot produce complexity. It never has and it never will. Ecology is also a window into the wealth of species large and small that share our home. From the largest whale to the tiniest living speck, we find most creatures working together to bring praises to their Creator by doing the job God assigned them. As we fulfill our own role as God's representatives and stewards, we will stand as faithful witnesses to the wonder and glory of our infinite Creator.
Predators. What are they? Why are they here? And most importantly, who put them here? Did God create them or are they products of Satan's foul designs? Wouldn't we be better off without them, by getting rid of them whenever possible? In this presentation, we will examine the evidence to try to make sense of this difficult topic. To start, we must be clear that there is very little inspiration that sheds light in this area. There are hints and ideas, but few unmistakable statements. That doesn't mean that we should ignore these questions, because everyone automatically makes up their mind about them anyway. The trouble with most people's opinions is that they are made on the basis of cultural biases, personal prejudices, or usually contradictory divisions of nature into "good animals" and "bad animals". I am going to address this from my experience as a naturalist. Being a general naturalist has many advantages, in that it provides a look at the big picture that other specialists may miss.
We'll start with some foundations that underlie all else. I hold the following basic and critical premises. In the beginning, God made all life on Earth, in six days, resting on the seventh day. Everything was perfect. There was no death or decay, disease or corruption. All animals were vegetarian, as no animal killed another animal for food. "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." Genesis 1:30. When we see the word "meat" in the King James version, the Hebrew word actually means the non-specific "food". The context determines what kind of food is referred to, plants for vegetarians, and after the Fall it could refer to flesh for meat-eaters. In the perfect Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were at peace with all life around them. They neither harmed any animals nor were harmed by them. Then sin came and everything became ruined and broken. Everyone who trusts the Biblical account in Genesis will agree with these premises.
Now is where our problem begins. Death is evil, ugly and cruel. Even when death brings an end to suffering and pain, it is still not part of God's perfect plan and is totally opposed to His nature. So where did the predators come from? First of all, we need a clear definition of terms. Animals can be divided into three major groups based on their lifestyle and diet.
First, the Herbivores. This is a huge group that contains all vegetarian animals. This includes many subgroups that I won't list by their technical names, but this covers eaters of grass, nuts, wood, nectar, fungus, pollen, roots, leaves, algae, fruits, and vegetables. Each subgroup has its own design of teeth, stomach, and intestines that will clearly tell you what that animal eats even if you never watch that species feeding.
Second, the Predators. This group is much larger than most people realize, since the popular idea of this group is limited to raw-meat eaters like leopards, sharks, and eagles. But that is just a subgroup called the carnivores. Other subgroups include fish- eaters like seals, cormorants, and water snakes. A massive subgroup includes eaters of insects and spiders. Many birds that we admire and love are in fact voracious predators, devouring insects by the thousands. Many small mammals, virtually all spiders, a high percentage of insects, most frogs and toads, and salamanders all feed in this way. A final subgroup includes the scavengers, those who feed on animals already dead. Many animals who kill their own food will eat carrion on occasion, but some species specialize on this diet. Many insects, like flies and wasps, eat carrion when they are young. Others do so their whole life, such as crabs, vultures, hagfish, and sea snails. So we need to realize that there are far more predators in this world than are generally thought. This includes many species we categorize as the "good" animals, like ladybird beetles, whales, frogs, and cranes, as well as what we call the "bad" animals, like wolves and alligators.
Third, the Parasites. This is by far the smallest group, specialists that live either outside or inside other animals. They feed on blood or skin or muscle or drain nutrients from their host internally. Their actions weaken their hosts, but the parasite's goal usually is not to kill. Death may result if too many parasites weaken a host too much. Or a disease carried by the parasite may kill the host. But that is not intentional or even beneficial to most parasites, as they often die when their host dies.
So these three categories cover virtually all food choices by animals. Many fit into two of these categories, as a huge number of predators also eat plants. We call bears predators, but only the Polar Bear is totally a meat eater. Most bears eat both plants and animals. The Spectacled Bear eats mostly plants. The Panda Bear eats only bamboo. As a side note, can anyone guess which group humans belong to? Most people assume we are carnivores or possibly omnivores (eaters of both plants and flesh). But if we examine our teeth, stomach, and intestines, and then compare these with the various designs in nature, we find that humans belong to the subcategory of herbivores called frugivores. When we eat meat it doesn't digest properly and creates physical ailments. That's why even perfectly healthy meat will still make humans sick, as our bodies are only marginally able to process flesh in our diet.
So now we can explore the origins of the three groups. Herbivores obviously came from the very beginning, as created in the Garden of Eden. But what about the predators, and by extension, the parasites? Can we discover who created them? There are three options. One: The predators somehow developed on their own, gradually changing from plant eaters to flesh eaters. Two: Satan made the predators, either directly or indirectly. Three: God re-created certain animals so that they could kill other animals and eat them. Let us examine each option to see what is possible and reasonable.
If we accept the first option, we are accepting a form of mechanistic evolution. The change from a plant eater to meat eater is immense. Teeth must transform from grinding and mashing to tearing and slicing. Stomach and intestines must shrink from long and convoluted to short and straight, as longer is better for digesting plants and shorter is better for digesting flesh. Paws must now be armed for catching and holding struggling prey. And perhaps most importantly, the brain must change; the very thoughts must be altered. Because from looking at a leaf and thinking that tastes good, an animal must now find the leaf inedible and instead hunger for another living animal. All of these are major changes that have to take place. If we accept a gradual change for this process, then how can we attack Darwinists, who claim the same process for all life on Earth? I reject this option for the same reason that I reject macro-evolution, because a gradual change from a reptile to a mammal or a bird is as scientifically unlikely as a gradual change from a vegetarian cat to a meat-eating one. We do not see this taking place in today's world any more than we see a bear turning into a seal. Or what about insect eating bats? Night flying bats have echolocation systems that stagger the mind with their complexity. There is no need for a day-active, fruit- eating bat like a flying fox to have echolocation, so how could this system develop gradually as bats evolve into night-flying, insect-hunting specialists? If a bat can evolve a system that makes our own sonar look primitive, than the Darwinists must be right and we are wasting our time attacking them. So I reject option number one as not possible under the biological processes I see in nature.
The second choice, that Satan created predators in some angry effort to increase the pain and suffering of our world, has serious problems. Ellen White has stated unequivocally that Satan does not have the power to create life. "The prince of evil, though possessing all the wisdom and might of an angel fallen, has not power to create, or to give life; this is the prerogative of God alone." Patriarchs and Prophets 264. So I take that as definitive and will not consider that as an option. But some people say that Satan modified early life, twisting pre-existing forms to suit his own purposes. Ellen White actually gives support to this idea as the origin of many of the dangerous plants in this world. This actually makes sense from a biological standpoint as well. Breeders have been developing weird strains of plants and animals for thousands of years. In the animal world, we have hairless cats, voiceless dogs, flightless birds, and sterile insects. Our modifications of plants have been even more extreme. So if we can do this, how much more could Satan do? Perhaps he worked either directly himself or by directing his agents after the fall.
This would appear to be a reasonable answer for the parasite category. For every parasite, we find closely related forms that are not parasites, which in fact are either harmless or beneficial. Ticks suck blood and transmit disease. But mites are nearly identical to ticks and many are valuable for eating minute detritus. Worms that invade the body and drain resources have relatives that aerate and fertilize the soil or recycle nutrients. Flies that bite or spread disease are virtually identical to the vast majority of species that are nectar feeders and crucial to pollination. Even the bloodsucking mosquitoes that can make the outdoors miserable have an interesting twist. Only the females drink blood as part of their reproductive process. You have never been bitten by a male mosquito! Never. The males peacefully drink nectar from meadow flowers. So we can easily see here how an insect created by God in Eden could be changed only slightly to now drink blood. From a tube mouth used to drink nectar, a slight change to a cutting tube to drink blood is not nearly so difficult a leap as the change from grass- eating to meat-eating. So the parasites may well be good candidates for small scale modification of their physical and mental makeup by Satan's power. But could Satan have taken berry-eating birds and altered them to eat insects or fish or even other birds? It would take a greater change than needed for the parasites, but perhaps it is within Satan's powers. So we will leave this as an option for now.
The final option is that God made the predators, in essence recreating some of the animals at the time of the Fall. Now obviously there is no lack of power; God could do this as easily as He made them vegetarian in the first place. But to say that God remade them would mean that He is responsible for their behavior. It would mean that sharks kill seals because God made them that way. A praying mantis kills other insects because God chose that lifestyle for her. This is an idea we find distasteful and wrong, since God cannot be for death.
So to review, slow adaptation is impossible, Satan can make limited changes but not enough to fully suit our situation, and God could easily make the predators but we assume He wouldn't create evil. But are predators really evil as we presume? Is taking the life of another being inherently evil, always? In a perfect world death is non-existent. Since Adam's sin, our world is contaminated by death and will be until remade into the New Earth. Once sin began, all aspects of this world changed. All animals will eventually die; it's only a matter of how and when.
Let's pretend no predators ever existed, that the herbivores of the Garden stayed herbivores forever, even after the Fall. What would have happened? At first they would spread as they reproduced, individuals dying of old age and accident but their population still steadily increasing. At a certain point, depending on how large an area they inhabit, and how healthy the plant food available, the members of any particular species will reach what is called carrying capacity. This means the amount of plant food available is totally eaten by the animals. But the animals are still reproducing and the food can't grow any faster, so there is not enough food to go around. The herbivores are forced to compete for food, the stronger out-competing the weaker. Many go hungry. Their immune systems are weakened, and disease can take hold. Eventually starvation begins as the full misery begins. Starving to death is a bad way to die. Hungry and weak, the individual slowly fades away until finally, miserably, death results. Between disease and starvation, the population crashes to a number far less than the maximum level reached before the crash. Now with plenty of food available for a smaller group size, the population begins to increase again. Eventually the group builds past the carrying capacity and crashes again. This wildly fluctuating cycle of rising and crashing populations has no end; it will continue indefinitely as long as no outside forces interfere. This system is not pleasant; the death endured by these animals is slow, painful, and ugly. This is how the Earth would be everywhere if no predators existed.
But now let's put predators into our thought experiment. Meat-eaters try to catch as many as they can to feed themselves and their young. But catching food that doesn't want to be caught is no easy task, and predators fail to catch prey far more often than they succeed. The most likely targets are the oldest, the weakest, the youngest, and the sick. They are slightly slower and easier to catch, so they are the ones most likely caught. This doesn't mean that they are the only ones caught by predators, as some people think. Random chance, surprise, or perseverance will allow a predator to catch even the fittest, most healthy prey, but this will be a low fraction of the total prey caught. The larger the prey base, the more will be available to those hunting them, and the predator population will be able to increase as well. But when the weak and excess are being removed by predators, the prey base will not increase as rapidly or might not increase at all, as birth rate equals death rate to old age and predators combined. This would mean the herbivores would not exceed the food availability limit. With enough food to go around, the plant-eaters are not as susceptible to disease and they certainly won't starve. Once again, this balanced system can continue indefinitely unless altered by outside forces. When a predator kills a victim, the end is relatively fast and painless, when compared to death by starvation and disease. Death by predator is still ugly and unpleasant, but it is more merciful than the alternative. As Scripture tells us in Lamentations 4:9, "They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: For these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field." Predator numbers are determined by prey numbers, not the other way around. Predators limit but do not control prey populations. This is important and usually not well understood by people. By definition, there are never too many predators in a given area, because they can only survive if there is enough prey available. If prey numbers drop, the predator numbers will drop along with them. Under normal conditions, it is impossible for predators to exterminate the food they eat.
What happens when predators are removed by humans? There are endless examples of this around the world, but one of the most famous took place on the North rim of the Grand Canyon called the Kaibab Plateau. This area is an island of forest surrounded by desert; full of deer, bear, cougar, coyote, and squirrel. Around 1900, human deer hunters pressured the government to kill all the predators on the Plateau. This would mean more deer available to the humans, and who wouldn't want that, right? So genocide began and soon all cougars and bear were gone. The coyotes were destroyed as well, even though they were virtually no threat to deer. Coyotes don't kill healthy adult deer. They usually go after small mammals, but often settle for carrion, since coyotes are too small to attack big animals. The Kaibab deer population soared as planned, and great times for human hunters resulted. But the deer numbers kept climbing, despite the huge hunter kill rate. Soon the deer herd had doubled, and then quadrupled. More and more were shot, but that didn't help, the herd increased still. In 1906, when predator killing began in earnest, the deer numbered about 4000. By 1924, they reached 100,000 deer. Hard winters set in and deer starved by the thousands. 60% of the herd starved in two years. By 1931 they had sunk to 20,000 and by 1939 they fell to 10,000. It was a wildlife disaster that woke people up to the value of predators.
Since then, studies around the world have confirmed the role of predators to wildlife systems. Ecosystems with full levels of predators and prey stay in equilibrium, with no large fluctuations. But as soon as humans shoot, trap, or poison the local predators, everything falls apart. This is why deer numbers have exploded across North America. When market hunters decimated deer in the 1800s for public sale, deer were on the verge of disappearing from large areas of America. Hunters with power and influence took steps to protect deer from market hunting and replace it with sport hunting. Limits were set and land set aside as protected refuges. Females were left alone and only males were killed.
Predators, already losing ground, were pushed out of the Eastern United States completely. Deer increased nicely, but the faulty system hunters favored again led to disaster. With no predators left, humans assumed that role, but they didn't do it correctly. Humans killed the healthiest males for trophies, not the weakest available as normal predators do. With a huge imbalance of far more females to males, the deer reproduced far faster then they would normally do. Also, humans kill a far higher proportion of the herd than predators ever kill. Deer respond when a large portion of the herd dies by increasing their birthrate. Instead of an average of one fawn per doe born each year, now each doe will produce two to three per year. All of these factors combine to cause the deer population to climb higher then ever human hunters can control. Soon herd numbers explode exponentially and now there are more deer than there have ever been in the history of North America. Deer are shot in huge numbers, deer starve during hard winters in huge numbers, deer are hit by cars in huge numbers (killing many people in the process), and deer die from disease from overcrowding in huge numbers. All of this suffering and waste to provide plenty of sport for your average Joe shooting anyone that moves. This is one of the well hidden secrets of state game management, that sport hunting as managed for the last century actually raises deer populations instead of reducing them. This shows that replacing wild predators with sport hunting has been one of the worst mistakes possible.
This principle applies to whatever predator-prey population we study. Those areas of the U.S. that still engage in the disgrace of Rattlesnake Roundups, have documented higher rodent populations than areas with unmolested snakes. This means that regions that destroy their snakes have higher disease rates and increased crop losses for farmers, due to the unnaturally high rodent numbers. Instead of being our enemy, snakes are allies in maintaining our quality of life.
So my point is this. A world with death but no predators is actually worse in many ways than a world with both death and predators. This goes against the grain of our thinking but is a logical deduction. Would Satan really want to make predators? To not have predators exist would have increased the suffering and pain of the world after the Fall. For Satan to invent predators would have defeated his own purposes. So if we view predators through the lens of reality, rather than our cultural biases, God's involvement in making them doesn't seem so bad. Does God want death and killing? Of course not, but Adam's sin forced death to exist, so God has made the best of a bad situation by balancing the system as much as possible. Instead of an evil force, a product of Satan's spite, predation is in fact a useful and comparatively compassionate way to regulate entire ecosystems; preventing them from spiraling into chaos. In fact, we should be grateful for the services of most predators. Bats and birds and spiders devour insects. Without them we would be buried by insects, as they would reproduce until they overran everything else. Rodents also have a huge reproductive rate. Everyone eats rodents, it seems. Reptile, bird, and mammal predators include many rodent eaters. Be glad of this, for without the snakes and hawks and weasels catching the many forms of small rodents, disease would run rampant. Remember the plagues of the Dark Ages? They happened because the Catholic Church promoted the genocide of cats, as cats were considered evil. This allowed rats carrying diseased fleas to multiply and spread all over Europe. Most exotic animal infestations are due to species being transported to places where there are no native predators to limit them. When Australians introduced European Rabbits as a new human food source, they overpopulated to the point of ecological disaster, eating all the grass and overwhelming the landscape. Predators prevent and minimize disease in every ecosystem in the world. Satan wants the rodent population to explode and eat our food and spread disease. Satan does not want the snakes and falcons and coyotes to eat the rodents and limit their numbers.
So when we actually think about it, we are glad that these predators exist. We are glad insects and rodents are reduced by other animals, even when we still don't like the animals doing the reducing. What we especially seem to resent are the predators that kill the three types of animals that we most care about. First are the cute animals: bunnies and cardinals and baby deer. They are of no more inherent value than any other animal, but we object to see the hawk eating the cute little squirrel. Second are the wild animals we have economic interest in killing ourselves. When an elk is killed by a cougar, it means we can't kill that elk ourselves and put his head on our wall. If a cormorant eats a fish, it means we can't hook that fish on a line for sport. Third are the domestic animals that we have economic interest in. We raise sheep and cattle as commodities to be slaughtered for our own profit, and any predation of them means money taken out of our pockets. Skunks in the henhouse mean fewer eggs to sell.
These three areas are where we really acquire our cultural hatred of predators. Soulless industry puts out propaganda about vicious killers crippling our way of life. Ranchers invent wild stories about how wolves are on their doorstep trying to eat them, even though such stories are absolute rubbish. Lies combined with cultural bias lead us to consider all predators evil and deserving of persecution, if not eradication. We are upset when humans kill cute vegetarian animals. But when meat-eaters are killed, we let it pass, since we know down deep that, after all, they probably came from Satan anyway. And so we turn a blind eye to predator destruction, or actively promote it as a good thing. In the end, we are falling for Satan's lies, since he is the one who wants the predators to be wiped out and the natural balance destroyed. When we destroy predators we are annihilating the animals God put on this planet to keep it functional in a sinful state. Instead of eliminating evil, we are actually promoting evil, promoting Satan's desire to increase suffering, both the immediate suffering of the predators themselves and the long term suffering of the increasing numerous herbivores that will overpopulate and starve.
But is there any biological evidence for the idea that God made a special recreation at the Fall? Is there any organism which clearly is not part of Eden, which had to have begun after the Fall, and which is too sophisticated to be the product of Satan's modification of pre-existing life forms? It turns out there is a type of life that exactly fits these requirements. We are very familiar with this organism but most people are unaware of how unusual they really are. When you look at a mushroom, what are you seeing? The colorful aboveground structure is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the reproductive component of fungus, the source of spores that will drift on the wind and start new fungus growth elsewhere. The actual fungus is the hidden tendrils that grow through wood and soil. Concealed from view, these white tendrils grow and spread through every available source of nourishment. Funguses live everywhere, but most are impossible to tell apart visually, as they all look like white threads. But when the time comes to reproduce, fungus will grow a structure that is so unique to each species that it can be used by naturalists to tell them apart. The mushrooms we see on the ground and rotting wood are comparable to an apple or a pinecone on a tree, just a temporary growth whose only function is reproduction. But then what purpose do the fungal threads themselves serve? What exactly does fungus do? The only job of fungus, the only job of fungus, is to break down the dead cells of other organisms, usually plants, and turn them into nutrients that can be used as nourishment. They are the great recyclers of the world, crucial to turning useless dead matter into vital nutrients. Without fungus, dead leaves and wood would never decay and would pile up uselessly, letting nothing new grow. So fungus must exist or life on Earth would be impossible. Let me say that again. Fungus must exist. But how could fungus exist in Eden? There was no dead matter to recycle. There was no possible function for fungus in a perfect world.
Perhaps fungus is an example of some Eden plant form slightly modified to do a new job in a sinful world. There is a major problem with this concept. Fungus is not a plant. Fungus is not related to plants. Fungus is not related to animals. Fungus is a totally separate branch of life. The cell structure of fungus is fundamentally different from plant cells, and there is an important reason for this. Cells of all plants are made from cellulose; this is what makes a plant a plant. But the cells of fungus are made from chitin; this is what makes a fungus a fungus. The reason for this becomes clear when we remember what fungus does. Fungus breaks down plants into usable nutrients. How? Fungus has an extremely powerful acid that digests cellulose. This acid is perfectly designed to dissolve plant cells. But what keeps the fungus acid from damaging its own cells? The acid dissolves cellulose perfectly, but it doesn't dissolve chitin, which is what makes up the fungus' own cells. So fungus is immune to the acid it uses. If fungus wasn't foundationally different from plants, it couldn't function as it does. It is a different form of life from plants, in every way. The changes needed to turn a plant into a fungus are much greater than the changes needed to turn a vegetarian animal into a meat eating one. That's because the latter change involves changing details of anatomy and behavior, not a total conversion of every cell in an organism, as from plant cells to fungus cells. The fact that fungus is small and usually hidden is irrelevant. Fungus could not exist in Eden, as it would serve no purpose and would have no nourishment before decay began. If fungus wasn't created at the Fall, something else would be needed to do the same job. Satan would not create fungus, even if he could. Why would he want to let new life grow by recycling the nutrients? Fungus couldn't evolve from plants any more than birds could evolve from jellyfish. What all of this means is that fungus was a new creation by God to fit the changed conditions of a sinful world.
So we have in the weird, colorful world of the mushrooms a clear case of God making something totally new that feeds upon death. There is no reason to suppose that there is any difference with animal predators. Because of sin, death needs to be controlled and minimized. Predators do just that, making the world better than it would be without them. This is why God made them and made them very well. When we look at any predator, be it fish or mammal, reptile or spider, we find them to be a masterpiece of design and specialization. When we remind ourselves how many animals actually are predators, to exclude them from God's creation would leave very few animals left to consider. Predators are as intricate and amazing as any herbivore, and to disdain them as results of chaos, Satan, or man's manipulation is to make a mockery of the evidence.
So we've looked at the question of predators from logic and reason, but what does inspiration tell us? If predators are not a part of God's plan, then why did He allow them on Noah's ark? The whole point of the flood was to cleanse the world of evil, to start fresh with a remnant. Why not keep all the "good vegetarian" animals and drown all the "bad meat eaters"? But that's not what happened. "Beasts of every description, the fiercest as well as the most gentle, were seen coming from mountain and forest and quietly making their way toward the ark." Patriarchs and Prophets 97. God's miracle brought representatives of animals we don't approve of. What should that tell us?
The Bible states repeatedly that God provides for the animals. "He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field." Psalm 104:10-11. "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle." Psalm 104:14. So God gives water to the animals and vegetation to the herbivores. Sounds fine so far. But then things get uncomfortable for our preconceptions. "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." Psalm 104:21. That can't be right. God wouldn't give meat to lions, we're sure of it. But it continues. In the sea, "wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts . . . there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season." Psalm 104:25-27. Sometimes we forget that the vast majority of sea life is carnivorous, and God provides for them all. And it doesn't matter how we interpret leviathan, as crocodile, serpent, or whale. There are no vegetarian whales. When God speaks to Job, listing the Lord's many tasks man is incapable of performing, He asks, "Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions? . . . Who provideth for the raven his food?" Job 38:39-41. And let's make no mistake, ravens are flesh eaters. In Job 39:26-30, God takes credit for the skills and behavior of hawks and eagles, all of whom are meat eaters. "He [the Lord] giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry." Psalm 147:9. In the Hebrew, the first half of this verse refers to a plant eater (beast) and the second half refers to a meat eater (ravens). We accept the first half as Devine Providence but deny the second half. But scripture doesn't allow us the luxury of such caviling. We either must accept the entire verse or invent hypocritical and contradictory theories to deny the second half to suit our prejudices. And for those people who dismiss these verses as "poetical" and therefore irrelevant, we also have the direct and plain words of Jesus Himself. "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them." Luke 12:24.
So God clearly takes responsibility for feeding all the animals, both predator and vegetarian. But there's one other point to consider. Isaiah gave a prophetic vision of the New Earth to come, when all will be recreated in a perfect and peaceful state. All animals will once again be plant eaters. Those animals specifically listed include wolves, lions, leopards, bears, and several kinds of snakes. Isaiah 11:6-8, 65:25. The real question is why would God recreate animals that Satan was responsible for? If predators are products of evil, they should be destroyed with sin. Instead, God restores them to their original Eden form, in the same way that mankind will be restored to their original nature. Once their vital role as ecosystem regulators is no longer needed, they will be changed back to the peaceful animals they were in the beginning.
Now that we have established the origin of so many of Earth's creatures, how does that effect or alter our attitude and relationship to them? It is human nature to dismiss and despise what we designate as evil. As long as we consider predators to be agents of Satan, we will ignore or participate in any persecution against them. We kill hawks because they catch cute rabbits, or wolves for eating cows, or snakes just for being snakes. These actions have no moral problems if the ones being killed are inherently evil. But when we understand that these animals are under God's care, since He made them the way they are, then that changes our entire attitude toward their destruction. We realize that our duty to do no harm to them is no less than our duty to do no harm to any of God's creation. Of course, this does not mean we can't protect ourselves from attack. The Biblical principles of self-defense apply to both animals and people. But we have absolutely no permission to destroy life solely due to its nature. Shark fishing, coyote poisoning, alligator farming, fox ranching, bear hunting, bobcat trapping, crow shooting. These are all examples of blatant cruelty that we should oppose categorically. We need to also stop killing those backyard creatures that have committed no wrong. There is no bird actually called "chicken hawk"; only Ignorance has named them that. Mountain lions do not need to be "thinned out for their own good". Weasels are not mindless butchers killing more than they need. Bats are not Dracula in disguise. The unrelenting savagery directed against wolves to prop up the evil of the ranching industry must end. Pike fish do not need to be poisoned to preserve trout so that we can torture the trout to death ourselves. Seals need not be brutally clubbed to keep them from eating the ocean's fish. The practical applications extend into many areas and are crucially important.
Ellen White describes God's creation and how it was marred by sin. But she states how even now nature works in harmony according to God's plan. Note how she words the interrelation of all animals. "In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation...It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father's love. Now sin has marred God's perfect work, yet that handwriting remains. Even now all created things declare the glory of His excellence. There is nothing, save the selfish heart of man, that lives unto itself. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life." Desire of Ages 20. All life benefits other life. Only man is selfish, the innocent animals fulfill the roles given to them. Predators do what their God-given behavior demands of them, and nature is the better for it.
Once we expand our circle of compassion to include the predators, we will have made the next step forward in fulfilling our God-given responsibilities toward His created beings. Will we continue to be the agents of Satan and his destructive, cruel, and vindictive anti-predator agenda, or do we have it within ourselves to care for all of the living souls of God's creation? Let us be Christ-like Christians in every area of our lives. Life is a beautiful and wonderful gift that God has given to His created beings. Each of us has the opportunity to cherish life in all of the many forms God has fashioned.