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THE ANCIENT ONES lives! So does TASAT! And a SUNDIVER hardcover! Plus some
Science Fictional Musings
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They're alive!
(1) I'm posting my SF comedy THE ANCIENT ONES!
Samples were available at davidbrin.com. Only now I'll go all the way
through, one chapte...
1 day ago
2 comments:
I love birds, among the many works of God that I admire of Him. Among my favorite is hummingbirds. I have one now coming regularly to a backyard feeder of mine, amidst a foot of snow and nightime teps. near 0. There is just one species that hangs around now through the WINTER in the Western U S, the Anna's...and one species that does the same now in the East, the Ruby-Throat. BOTH normally had NEVER stayed the winter in the past in these areas...way too cold for the little feathered jewels, most of whom would be outweighted by a one-ounce letter. Not only do they have no spare padding to keep warm enough, but their metabolism is so crazy high, they normally couldn't even endure overnight chill even on summer nights were it not for God's already having anticipated the problem and adapting them with something NO OTHER CREATURE HAS EVER "DEVELOPED" (never any such mechanism found elsewhere tho it would NOT have been a survival disadvantage any more than to the hummers themselves (so much for Evolution if all is explained by random gene mutation plus survival of the then fittest!)
When night-roosting they go into torpor, a state of deep sleep, where if you find them you can pick them off a branch like a little statue, unresponsive...their little bodies shut down so completely! This conserves their body fuel, since their metabolism bottoms out. With that their heart rate drops by a factor of I believe 20 times!!! From something like 20 beats per second, to one! You think any human could ever survive such a change? And we're supposed to be an evolutionary improvement...and so is the rest of the supposed evolutionary downline from birds...but none have this capability!!
Back to my original point...why these hummers are now staying the winter, against such GREAT risk to them...is all on account of one thing that biologists can explain.....THE ONCOMING PREVALENCE OF BIRD LOVERS SYMPATHETIC TO THE HUMMMINGBIRDS' PLIGHT, and wanting to keep them around as little delights through long dreary winters! Where NO OTHER FOOD SOURCE FOR THEM EXISTS THRU WINTER BARENNESS, A fleet of hummingbird feeders throughout much of wintry North America now has succeeded in keeping hummers in areas historically known to be off-limits to them in countless bygone winters.
It just hit me...WHAT LESSON CAN WE GET FROM THE WINTER HUMMINGBIRDS? Isn't it T R U S T...in God?
The little hummingbird has to trust its winter "keeper" is going to continue to care for it, through mortal danger! I suppose parent hummers do "teach" their youngins a model of this behavior. But I say, it must go deeper than that. Not only must the hummer trust the bird-lover...it must somehow trust its "discernment" of such a person, that the philanthropist is not going to abandon their charity or occupancy of the area for them. How can a little critter with a brain the size of a pea "discern" where to spend the winter, when everything is at stake in its decision? I believe, for the same reason a plover bird, with a brain only a lil bigger, can somehow "hom" its way to distant island breeding grounds 5000 miles away over trackless ocean...the same way even deciduous trees somehow "know" when it's going to be a particularly harsh winter tho the autumn be mild, and so lose their leaves earlier and more thoroughly than usual... all of which has just transpired here in the Northwest. GOD'S SPIRIT LEADS THEM!!!
So what does this all have to do with you and me? First, that God will somehow take care of you, and lead you, as you are sincerely seeking His will and way for you...just as He does for the hummingbirds. Review later Matthew 6 for that., verse 24 on.
Interesting perspective, Robert, but I think you're wrong. First of all, many other animals hibernate, so I don't think it's as unique as you say.
And you've got the wrong idea about evolution. No, human beings aren't "supposed to be an evolutionary improvement." Whatever gave you that idea? Evolution isn't a straight line - or even a line at all. It's not a path, and there isn't a direction.
In fact, evolution can explain features like this - why they evolved in some creatures but not others - far, far better than creationism. After all, if this is so beneficial, why didn't 'God' create all birds with this capability?
Evolution is restricted by what already exists. And there's no planning or foresight involved in it, not even a little. That's why the bodies of humans and other animals aren't ideal. That's why it often looks like Rube Goldberg designed us. (Google "the panda's thumb" for examples.)
If an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent deity created everything, why didn't he do a better job of it? Why don't all birds have this ability? (Indeed, aren't we supposed to be special - not just another species of ape - in your thinking? So this is something you have to explain away, not me, don't you think?)
Finally, you misunderstand why hummingbirds are more prevalent in the winter these days. There are always outliers in populations, because of natural variability. Thus winter ranges are often fluid.
If you have a series of warm winters, or winters with an abundance of food, more and more birds will survive at their extreme winter range. If you have a bad winter, they'll die off. That's just natural selection (and it would be a horrid plan for any benevolent deity to design deliberately).
In this case, with more people feeding hummingbirds in the winter, more birds have survived, and they left more descendants with similar characteristics. Hummingbirds don't 'trust' anything. It's just that more birds at the northern part of their winter range have been surviving, that's all.
Note that you go through all this, claiming that a god is responsible, without ever providing evidence that gods exist. At best, all you've got is an argument from ignorance. (Although, as I explained, you don't even have that, since evolution does explain this, while creationism can't.)
But at the end, you start talking about "Matthew 6." Wait a minute! What makes you think that this god is the Christian god? Even if your argument were true, it would apply to almost any god. So why aren't you bowing down towards Mecca and praying to Allah five times a day? (Oh, it's because you weren't raised Muslim. Right.)
Your argument is invalid. But even if it were valid, it wouldn't get you to any specific religion. So, for your purposes, this whole argument would be useless, anyway. You can believe whatever you want, but you might as well accept reality when it comes to evolution. Plenty of Christians do.
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