Logically, we are either:

1) The result of mindless, accidental evolution, or

2) The result of some kind of a creator God.

On the one hand is Evolution that says a speck of matter spontaneously sprang into life, grew and divided multiple times, and after millions of years evolved through a series of mindless accidents to finally result in the millions of species, including humans, that are alive today.

Revealing the Creator God is a dominant theme that runs throughout the Old Testament. The New Testament is then securely connected to that theme in the first chapter of John which establishes the Word [Jesus Christ] as the One who did the creating.

Perhaps the best way to add credibility to ones arguments, and to persuade others, is to use outside references. That is why you will notice in "Creation Corner" articles about 95% of the information is from the "other" sides material, from evolution supporting sources.

Sir David Attenborough, a fellow of the Royal Society, is a widely acclaimed Natural Science television producer and author of many books explaining Natural Science. He is also an Evolution supporter. Thus this writer feels his observations and conclusions are all the more striking. His book "The Life of Birds" was published in 1998 by the Princeton University Press. Some of the information from his book follows.

"Woodpeckers hunt for insects which are beyond the reach of the tree creeper, beneath the bark and even in the wood below. The implements they use are not tweezers but chisels. A blow from a woodpecker’s bill strikes the tree at about 25 miles per hour".

Let’s pause and digest this information for a moment…… First Attenborough sees woodpeckers actually using implements. Then he reports about speed. Have you ever seen pictures of test cars that were crashed into a barrier at speeds of 25 miles per hour? Quite devastating. Yet picture this tiny bird doing this many times a minute, minute after minute. He goes on to explain:

...And does so with such force that the two mandibles of its beak would fly apart were they not, at that moment, held together by a special locking device. The shock of the blow is so great that if it traveled directly to the brain, the bird would be knocked unconscious. That does not happen because its brain lies above the level of its beak and is cushioned by muscles at the base of its beak which act as shock absorbers.

"Having hammered its way into a gallery excavated by an insect larva of some kind, the woodpecker then has to extract its prey. This it does with an extraordinarily long tongue. In some species it is four times as long as the bird’s beak. To accommodate it, a long sheath extends from the back of the beak over the rear of the bird’s skull, along its crest and down over the front of the bird’s face. Salivary glands around the sheath at the base of the beak coat it with a glue-like mucus and this, together with the barbed hairs with which it is coated, makes it stick to the soft skin of a beetle grub so that the woodpecker can drag out its victim.

This equipment is invisible within the woodpecker’s head so we tend to forget it is there, but it must surely rate as one of the most extraordinary devices for collecting food possessed by any bird."

chisels

special locking device

shock absorbers

glue like extraordinary tongue

barbed hairs

stiff bristles

At this point we need to ask ourselves a question. Can these be the result of mindless and accidental Evolution, or do they seem to have purpose, to have been intelligently designed?

Consider further. The woodpecker is a bird that feeds on insects inside a tree.

How, then, could mindless and purposeless Evolution make the connection between a bird outside the tree with its food source hidden inside the tree? Doesn’t it seem Evolution would have immediately settled for food found outside the tree and have gone no further?

Therefore doesn’t it seem logical to conclude only an intelligent mind could have made the connection between the woodpecker and its food and then designed the implements, at least six distinct ones as identified by Attenborough and MacKay needed to accomplish the highly specialized job?

To continue, some birds even make their own tools, as the author goes on to point out.

"A Crow specie found on the island of New Caledonia has been observed with an even greater proficiency as a tool maker."

"The first tool is a poker, a sharp leaf stem several inches long. With this the bird probes around in the crowns of palms. Here, buried in the accumulation of leaf litter lurk big fleshy grubs. Sometimes the crow manages to impale one……but it has also learned that if it does so repeatedly, the grub will become so irritated that it will bite the spike with its powerful jaws and then hang on with such determination that the crow can pull it out."

"The second tool, used for much the same purpose, is rather more elaborate. It is a kind of hook. The bird carefully selects a twig with a curved end, breaks it from its branch and takes it back to its perch. There it removes the bark and any leaves it may have and spends several minutes using its beak to exaggerate the curve of the hook on the end."

"Its third implement is a harpoon, made from the long stiff strap-like leaves of the pandanus. These carry lines of backward-pointing spines down each margin like the blades of a saw. The crow tears a strip from the edge of one of these leaves, and holding it in its beak with the saw teeth pointing upwards, jabs at the grubs so that the teeth snag in the grub’s soft skin."

Again a question. If we observe knowledge and behavior, such as in these crows, that appears to have been programmed into them, is it not reasonable to conclude that a Master Programmer was involved? Reflect also on built in knowledge of nest building by birds, of web spinning by spiders, and on and on.

Living in the Computer Age, I think we have a big advantage over previous humans in seeing and proving the Creator God. Our generation can easily recognize and understand the work of a Creator/programmer that previous generations were unable to do.

The author provides more information on bird implements and special characteristics.

"Vultures have naked heads, for they feed by thrusting their heads inside corpses and feathers would quickly become soiled by blood and guts and would become the source of infections."

"Boobies as they begin their dives for fish they pull back their wings and take the shape of an arrowhead, thus reducing wind resistance, but retaining their ability to steer as they take aim. At the last moment, within a foot or so of the water, they fully extend their wings backwards and hit the surface at 60 miles per hour. At such a speed, the impact with the water must be very violent, the boobies have a network of airsacs just below the skin in front of the body which absorbs much of the shock."

"Nor is water driven into their nostrils for these are permanently blocked and the birds breathe instead through the corner of the mouth.

"The huge precipices of the Outer Hebrides and the Orkneys, some over a thousand feet high, are colonized by millions of Sea Birds which settle on the narrow ledges, in itself no mean feat of aerobatics, and there deposit their eggs. Those of guillemots and razorbills are even more pear-shaped than those of plovers, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The reason for this cannot be to allow the eggs to nestle close to one another, as it is for those of plovers, because guillemots and razorbills only produce a single egg. It could therefore be a safety feature. If objects with such a shape are pushed or knocked, they will not travel far, but merely roll in a circle, a valuable characteristic for eggs that may be laid on bare rock ledges."

"Grebe chicks climb up to the back of one of their parents. Once they are on board, the adult raises its wings slightly to prevent them falling off. The first objects Grebe chicks are given are not food. They are small feathers picked up by the adult from the surface of the water. Each little chick will swallow a great number."

As Attenborough points out, the baby Grebe chicks need this first meal of feathers. We are thus confronted with a problem in logic. How could Grebes survive for millions of years while they were evolving various techniques until finally, and purely by accident, they stumbled on the first meal of feathers solution? Yet that is the scenario Evolutionists would have us picture and believe.

Furthermore, once stumbled upon, how was the knowledge to eat the first meal of feathers passed on to each subsequent parent and to each baby bird?

No, the logical answer seems to be there was a Master Programmer at work and the needed feathers meal was programmed into the minds of the first Grebe parent and the first offspring baby. Programmed so thoroughly that the parent will even illogically pluck out its own feathers if necessary.

"Flamingos live predominantly on blue-green algae. These microscopic plants float in the upper surface of the water and the lesser flamingo collects them with one of the most complex beaks possessed by any bird.

When feeding, it lowers its long neck and holds this beak upside down and pointing backwards, just beneath the surface of the water where the algae it seeks congregates. The lower mandible is bulbous and has a honeycomb of air-filled spaces which cause it to float, so minimizing the muscular effort needed to hold the beak in the right place in the water.

The bend in the middle of the beak is of particular importance. Were the beak straight, then when it opens, the gap between the mandibles would steadily increase from the corner of the gape to its tip. With a bend in the middle, the flamingo is able to separate its mandibles just slightly so that the distance between them is almost the same along nearly all its length. There is therefore no danger of a feeding bird taking in larger objects than it wants."

"Internally, the edges of the mandibles are lined by hinged hornyplates. The birds tongue acts as a pump, moving extremely rapidly backwards and forwards. As the tongue retracts, the hair-covered plates are swept down flat and water is drawn in. As the tongue pushes forward again, the plates lift, water is expelled and the algae and shrimp are strained off by the hairs. Backward pointing spines on the palate and the tongue guide the food particles into the throat. The bird is thus able to swallow its food with a minimum of salt water.

Pumping in mouthfuls twenty times a second, a lesser flamingo can filter twenty liters of water a day and extract from it sixty grams of food."

• A tiny bird’s beak continually strikes a tree at a speed of 25 MPH.
• Woodpeckers are equipped with chisels,
• special locking devices,
• shock absorbers,
• glue like extraordinary tongue,
• barbed hairs,
• and stiff bristles.
• A bird is a tool maker of a poker, a hook, and a harpoon.
• Vultures have naked heads instead of feathered.
• Another bird takes the diving shape of an arrowhead.
• Equipped with a network of airsacs protecting its 60 mile per hour dive.
• Fortunately, its nostrils are permanently blocked.
• Certain bird eggs are specially designed to roll in a circle.
• Needed mall feathers needed to be eaten by newborn grebe birds have been provided.
• Flamingos have a most complex beak,
• equipped with a honeycomb of air-filled spaces,
• also a needed bend in the middle of a beak,
• and hinged horny plates,
• together with a tongue that acts as a pump.

We have to ask ourselves, are all of these implements and special characteristics the result of Evolution which admittedly is:

accidental chance?

Or, are they more logically the result of: