CREATION SPEAKS: Chasing Gulls

Creation Speaks is a Biblical teaching ministry that uses nature writing and photography to glorify our Creator and teach the truth of creation. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" Job 12:7-9

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I want to thank Lee's Birdwatching Adventures for guest posting this blog! Lee's website is about birding from a Christian perspective and has years of articles and content from Lee and other gifted creationists and birders. 

Ring billed Gull, Larus delawarensis, flying over the Atlantic ocean beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, December 23, 2019.

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Lamentations 3:52 "Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause." 

It seems the favorite sport of every dog and child on the beach is to run wildly into a pack of gulls. I have to admit, it does look fun, and I probably did it too as a child. While visiting beach of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina this past Christmas, I marveled at the flight of the terns and gulls. Lifting off, taking to the air, circling around, diving and coming back to a landing to avoid the berserker kids and dogs. How do they do it?

Small terrier mix dog running on the beach, chasing seagulls, and flying in the air on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA. December 24, 2019.

From the beginning, as he marveled at the flight of birds, man began chasing the dream to fly. The first concerted efforts came as early as 1485, if not earlier, with Leonardo DaVinci’s Ornithoper blueprints. Although many efforts were made, it wasn’t until 1903 that flight was accomplished by humans. We may have large jumbo jets carrying people across the globe today, but it was a long, arduous process to get there.
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If it was so difficult for man to learn to fly, how did birds catch on so quickly and gracefully learn to take to the air? The answer: they didn’t learn! The birds immediately burst forth in color and flight on Day 5 of creation! They were designed, equipped and enabled to fly from their very beginning. They "got off to a flying start", so to speak! ​[i]

Flock of Ring-billed Gulls, Larus delawarensis, standing on the Atlantic ocean beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; December 27, 2019.

Does that sound like an impossible fairy tale? Well, consider this yarn: “Flight appears to have evolved separately four times in history: in insects, bats, birds and pterosaurs. These four groups of flying animals didn’t evolve from a single, flying ancestor. Instead, they all evolved the ability to fly from separate ancestors that couldn’t fly. This makes flight a case of convergent evolution.”[ii]
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Did you catch that? The complexity of flight evolved separately on four different occasions? Since the probability of even a simple, 200 component, single-celled organism evolving is at least 10 to the 60th (a “one" followed by sixty "zeros")[iii], flight evolving even once is basically an impossibility. But four times?
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It takes less imagination and faith to marvel at the wonder of flight and know that an incredible Artist designed it in one swift stroke! “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air” (Genesis 2:19). Any other hypothesis is just chasing gulls! 

​[i] https://creation.com/created-to-fly
[ii] https://www.scienceworld.ca/evolution-flight/
[iii] https://www.icr.org/article/mathematical-impossibility-evolution/

Large black and white Great Dane dog with collar walking on the beach without a leash on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA.

Small terrier mix dog running on the beach playing fetch on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA. December 24, 2019.