Creation

Creationists, Evolutionists, and Saharan Silver Ants

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The wonders of a tiny desert ant point to the person and work of Christ, and the total incompatibility of evolution and Christianity.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

The wonders of a tiny desert ant point to the person and work of Christ, and the total incompatibility of evolution and Christianity.

A recent issue of National Geographic magazine described one of the myriad small wonders of planet earth, the tiny silver ant of the Sahara desert.Saharan silver ant These ants live in areas where temperatures reach over 115 degrees Fahrenheit - as the article described it, an environment "where shoes melt."[1]

Because of the extreme temperatures of the Sahara, the ants can only venture out of their underground nests for about ten minutes at a time. They often experience temperatures of 117 degrees and higher in direct unfiltered sunlight. Scientists have discovered that several unique features of the Saharan silver ant's physiology permit it to thrive in such a harsh climate.

Uniquely Equipped to Survive and Thrive

This ant species has longer legs than other ants, which keep their bodies a small but critically greater distance away from the hot desert sand. They navigate by keeping track of the position of the sun, so that they always know the most direct route back to the nest, thus minimizing their time spent in extreme heat.

Their bodies produce proteins that prevent thermal shock. Some other creatures produce such proteins after they come in contact with extreme heat. But since the silver ants only exit the nest for a few minutes at a time - not long enough for the protein to take effect - they produce the protein while still in the nest before they venture out, so they are fully protected immediately. If they did not produce the protein in anticipation of a trip outside the nest, they would die before the protein could take effect.

Researchers also discovered that the ants are covered on their tops and sides with a coating of uniquely shaped hairs with triangular cross-sections that act like a tiny air-conditioning system. The hairs are highly reflective under visible and near-infrared light. The hairs also enable the ants to offload excess heat via thermal radiation - much like the heat-transfer process of a household or office air conditioning unit.

"Adaptations" Over Long Ages, Or Original Creation?

Evolutionists call these wondrous capabilities - as the title of the National Geographic article describes them - "adaptations". They refuse to admit their logical impossibility. Clearly, the species would have died out long before time and chance could have carried out the sprouting of longer legs, their sense of navigation, the capability to produce the internal chemicals necessary to survive outside the nest, or the development of triangular hairs.

Creationists, on the other hand, call all of these things the clear evidences of an infinitely wise, omniscient, and omnipotent Creator who spoke the original ancestors of the silver ant into being. He gave them these capabilities even before man's rebellion brought God's curse upon the earth which produced such an inhospitable place as the Sahara desert, and before death in the created order gave these tiny creatures their current food supply, the carcasses of other species.

Evolution and Christ Are Incompatible

Evolutionists of course vehemently dispute creationists' contentions. Indeed, it would simply be a matter of the creationists' word versus the evolutionists' word if we did not have the authoritative word - the Word of God. Throughout it - from the first words of Genesis to the closing chapters in Revelation - we have the definitive Word of the infinite Word who spoke all things into existence by the word of His power, and actively holds all things together by His word - even down to the incredibly wise design of a tiny desert ant.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:1, 24-25)

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17)

The question raised by the phenomenon of the tiny silver ant is not merely one of origins, but of eternal life and death. Evolutionary theory is absolutely incompatible with the doctrine of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How is it with you, dear reader? By whose authority will you stand or fall? The evolutionist denies that which is plain, "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18) because the Word of God makes the evolutionist and his denials "naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). But the time is coming when every knee shall bow, and even the evolutionist condemned to eternity in Hell will admit the truth that

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. (Revelation 4:11)

The time to bow the knee to Christ the Creator is now. Do not wait for the Judgment:

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin [that is, having already dealt with sin], for salvation. (Hebrews 8:27-28)

References:

1. "Meet the World's Coolest Ant: How Did an Ant Adapt to the 120-degree Saharan Heat?" as viewed on 2/28/2017 at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/11/explore-saharan-silver-ants

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