Insect Genealogy

Do insects have a genealogy? In the sense that insects have a line of descent, yes. As short-lived creatures, their descent may include many millions of generations. Human genealogy is of more interest, a treasured historical entity of the human race. The genealogy of modern man represents perhaps as many as 2000 generations since the well known “Cultural Explosion,” considered to have occurred roughly 50,000 years ago. Human genealogy is in a different category of importance than genealogies of lower animals. To the evolutionary biologist, however, their view of descent puts all living things into a common category since all living things were descended from a common ancestor according to their evolutionary paradigm.

Our recent posts have focused on insects, so we remain with this topic for our present discussion. I have searched back through our posts on insects over the past few years. Readers will forgive your blogger if he cites his experiences with grandchildren and their adventures with several wonderful insects in our neighborhood: ants, digger wasps, monarch butterflies, and praying mantises. Our grandchildren have responded with interest, curiosity, and joy as we captured or observed each of these animals. The Monarch Butterfly, from egg, to larva, to chrysalis, to adult, seems to possess more than its share of observational thrills as we participate in collecting eggs, feed the hatched larva for 14 days, provide a place for the larva to transition to a chrysalis, and finally, after a 10-day wait…watch the animal hatch and send it on its way.

Partial archive of past insect posts:

https://www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php/Consider_the_Ant
https://www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php/Wonder_Wasps
https://www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php/Metamorphosis_and_Migration
http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/10/garden-predators.html

When our grandchildren are a little older, perhaps they will become interested in a more in-depth discussion of insect life. For example, what is the life cycle of each of the other insects? How long do they live? How do they reproduce? If they study evolution in their biology courses, they may become interested in the proposed evolutionary history of each of the four neighborhood animals they experienced as young children at the home of their grandparents. The lessons they learn in their secular bioscience classes will be startling: All animals have a common ancestor. According to evolutionary theory, ALL living things have evolved from a common ancestor! Surely our children and grandchildren will be exposed to the presentation of evolution as “good science”—the consensus of the bioscience community on origins. In fact, evolution is the consensus of bioscience educators. Consensus is not a synonym for what is true, however.

Our children and grandchildren in secular schools will have no choice but to accede to the teaching of evolution, notwithstanding the weaknesses of the theory and the ongoing changing viewpoints of evolutionary experts. How is the field of evolution changing? Just a few years ago the wonder of speciation of millions of organisms was attributed to natural selection, mutation, and lots of time. At present, it appears that the case for natural selection and mutation as the driver of the wonders of speciation has become exceedingly problematic. Plentiful time does not help, for over millions of years of the history of life on earth, the fossil record manifests multiple sudden appearances of new life forms. The Cambrian Explosion demonstrates abrupt mass emergence of novel life forms. Some writers describe the scenario as a succession of alternating rapid and slow phases resembling steps of a stairway.

Based on the evidence of nature, supernaturalism appears to trump naturalism when considering origins. But alas, as defined by today’s ruling science practitioners, science does not accept a “supernatural foot in the door.” Did God suddenly create these wonderful animals at certain points in earth history? Or did the naturalistic process of evolution produce them? In most of our science classrooms only natural explanations are accepted. There is, therefore, no basis for discussion when we address the beauty and wonder of ants, wasps, butterflies, and mantises in terms of the production of a supernatural Creator.

Cause and effect is a fundamental relationship in the field of natural science. In terms of recognizing cause and effect when we examine the incredible design and functionality of our insect life, it would be a serious error to overlook the role of the insects’ Creator in producing multiple causes and effects in our world and in our neighborhood.