There’s something to be said for short and sweet. Each of the following dozen clips is just 6 minutes or less, totaling up to just over 40 minutes of content. They’re broken into three categories:
- the inner working of the human body
- the wonders of the animal kingdom
- problems with the theory of Evolution
So this evening, instead of your regularly scheduled programming, why not take a peak at some of God’s creative genius? Be sure to gather the kiddos too (though do note the warning on the very first video). These clips may well get them imagining what it would be like to be a biologist, doctor, vet, scientist, or farmer – occupations that allows them to be around and study God’s creatures full-time.
And while all of the videos are amazing, if you only have time for a few be sure to include the one on starlings!
1. WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE (Ps. 139:14)
Conception and implantation (4 minutes)
The amount of teamwork between a woman’s egg and her body, and the man’s sperm is astonishing. (WARNING: This might not be suitable for younger audiences, not because of anything graphic in the content, but only because of the questions that it will prompt, and which mom or dad might not want their younglings to have to think through quite yet) .
Transport inside the brain (4 minutes)
How do signals get transported to and through the brain? It’s an intricate combination of intra and intercellular highways that we’re only starting to understand. To see this same information presented in a lighter, almost comedic manner, be sure to check out “A Day in the Life of a Motor Protein” (5 min). For another informative video, see: “The Workhorse of the Cell: Kinesin” (4 min).
Our cells’ microscopic power generators (3 minutes)
Your body needs fuel constantly. And wouldn’t you know it, our cells come complete with power generations facilities – we have our own power plants!
The simple cell is insanely complex (3 minutes)
You don’t have to understand every bit of this to be hit by how awesomely crafted we are, even on the smallest of scales.
An introduction to irreducible complexity (4 minutes)
Bacteria are all around us, including in us, some to good effect in our digestive tract, and some causing us problems by making us sick. What we’re looking at here is a bacteria’s flagellum motor which can spin as fast as 100,000 revolutions per minute, and stop completely in just one quarter turn. For more on this astonishing outboard motor and other amazing cellular machines, be sure to watch the free one-hour documentary Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines, available here.
2. CREATION DECLARES GOD’S GLORY
Even a bird’s feathers are amazingly designed! (2 minutes)
Any time you dive into God’s creation, whether it’s on the grand scale of space or on the teeny tiny cellular level, you can see what an amazing Craftsman our God is. Here we look at the “simple” feather, and find out it is anything but.
Butterflies are bizarrely cool (4 minutes)
Butterflies are like a Model T that suddenly encases itself in a garage and, after some delay, the garage doors burst open to reveal a helicopter swooping out. And that might not even be the coolest thing about butterflies: just consider their migration. The journey that Monarch butterflies undertake each year involves them navigating a path that their grandparents took. So how do they know where to go? You can learn more about that journey here and in the DVD Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies that these clips come from.
Starling murmuration is stunning! (4 minutes)
This is my favorite clip of the bunch, with starlings diving, dodging, and dancing, as if the thousands of birds were, together, one living cloud. This is from the fantastic documentary Flight: the Genius of Birds (which we review here).
Dolphins are designed to “see” and hear underwater (4 minutes)
Anyone who watched Flipper as a kid is going to want to see this – dolphins are even cooler than we imagined!
3. PROBLEMS WITH EVOLUTION
Is antibiotic resistance evidence for evolution? (6 minutes)
Creationists agree that change happens over time – after all, we believe that today’s dogs come from just the two that survived the Flood. So the fact that bacteria can mutate and change and even develop antibiotic resistance isn’t surprising to us. The real point of dispute is, do these sorts of mutations support the goo-to-you type of evolution – evolution that involves increases in complexity – that is needed for a naturalistic explanation of Man’s origins?
And the answer is, no. This antibiotic resistance leaves the bacteria less fit in the long term.
Evolutionary “proofs” that actually show devolution (1 minute)
Most advantageous mutations involve a loss of information. And while this degeneration fits in well with a biblical understanding that the world is fallen and decaying (Romans 8:21-22, Gen. 3:17-19), it doesn’t fit in well with an evolutionary theory that needs to explain how complex Man arose from one-celled organisms via a long chain of ongoing increases in information and complexity.
Mutations are causing us to devolve, not evolve (2 minutes)
It turns out that mutations, Evolution’s key mechanism, not only aren’t helping us, they’re hurting us. In fact, the accumulation of mutations means that we, as a species, are “rusting out.” If this clip has you interested in learning more, you can watch Dr. John Sanford’s fantastic 1-hour lecture, “All Creation Groans.”
