Dr. Jobe Martin was once an ardent evolutionist and only became a creationist after getting challenged by one of his students. While he was a professor at a dental college, he gave a lecture on the evolution of the tooth – he taught his class that fish scales eventually migrated into the mouth and became teeth – but two students didn’t agree. They encouraged him to investigate creation science, which Martin had never even heard of… but he was willing to take a look. The closer he looked, the more he realized that much of evolutionary theory was based, not on facts, but on assumptions.
His three Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution documentaries are based off of his investigations. In each episode, he shares some of the most incredible features of a variety of creatures, since it was the intricate design evident that forced him to acknowledge that there was a Master Designer behind all this.
In the first episode we learn:
- The bombardier beetle repels attackers by shooting a fiery liquid out of its rear end.
- The giraffe’s heart pumps blood powerfully enough to blow out its own brain. The giraffe’s heart has to be strong to get blood all the way up to its head but what happens to all that power when, instead of pumping against gravity, the giraffe dips its head to take a drink? Then the same strong stream of oxygenated blood will be traveling with enough pressure to create some serious brain trauma….except for the amazing shut-off valves in a giraffe’s neck that kick in when it lowers its head!
- The woodpecker has a barbed gluey tongue that sticks to bugs but doesn’t stick to its own beak. Equally amazing, it has a skull that is designed to do the work of a jackhammer without giving the poor fellow a headache.
Dr. Martin showcased a host of other creatures, and when I first watched this with my preschool daughters, they were all amazed. Though the videos are primarily intended for children, my wife and I were also engaged, so this would make for good family viewing. It has enough pictures and film footage to keep the attention of the very young, and for parents, there’s a narrative that highlights God’s sense of fun and His genius.
That this is a children’s video means it is also not the first film you’d insist your hard-nosed evolutionist friend watch. Incredible Creatures isn’t meant to offer an overly detailed or complete argument against evolution, and adult critics would likely seize on that lack of depth to dismiss it entirely. So get it for your own family or your Christian school. And if you know someone dead-set on evolution, then consider Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels (also free to see!) and its more mature, thorough anti-evolutionary argument.
While all three films in this “Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution” series are good, the first is the very best of the bunch. You can buy high-resolution versions on DVD, or find them on some streaming services. But the producers have also made lower resolution versions available for free, with commercial interruptions. You can watch them below.
INCREDIBLE CREATURES THAT DEFY EVOLUTION I
Documentary
47 min / 2000
Rating: 7/10
Featured creatures include the bombardier beetle, giraffe, woodpecker, chicken egg, beaver, platypus, spider, gecko, and more.
INCREDIBLE CREATURES THAT DEFY EVOLUTION II
Documentary
46 min / 2002
Rating: 7/10
Featured creatures include humpback whales, Pacific golden plovers, dragonflies, hippos, lightning bugs, bears, earthworms, elephants, and more.
INCREDIBLE CREATURES THAT DEFY EVOLUTION III
Documentary
79 min / 2006
Rating: 7/10
Featured creatures include mussels, horses, ostriches, hummingbirds, dogs, sea cows, butterflies, cuttlefish, penguins, and more.