A rational and spiritual approach to the existence of God. In this first of a three part serial the reasons for the disbelief in God and its solutions are presented

3. A whale of a tale - the dilemma of Dolphins and Duckbills
Scientists are trying to prove the existence of various forms of life through the theory of evolution. However, there are many exceptions to this theory which shake the very foundation of the theory.
Most evolutionists claim that life began in the sea. Since they have generally agreed that life began in the sea, they insist that ALL living forms "gradually" found their way from the sea to the land and to the air.
Let us consider the case of the dolphins. Evolutionists say, "The past of the whales is extremely obscure. All we know is that sometime....some smallish, four-footed land animals began a series of extraordinary rapid evolutionary changes. In the geologically short span of 50 million years they learned to swim instead of walk, and to reproduce offspring which were able to swim from the moment they left the womb."
But did they really do all this? Can it be proven? Is there any fossil evidence? Are these ideas accurate? How could they "gradually" change in such a drastic manner? What caused these changes? We are told in positive terms that these creatures evolved from land animals. What kind of land animals? No one knows where is the evidence? It is non-existent. No fossil remains of the land ancestors of the whale (dolphin) have been discovered as yet! It is non-existent. Missing.
One evolutionist admitted. "As the science of oceanography progresses, we may find the whale's complete skeletal record on the ocean's bottom. Until then the guesses are further apart than those for man's evolutionary record."
Notice it carefully. The ideas about man's evolution are admittedly guesses. And some of the guesses are pretty wild. But admits evolution - guesses concerning the past "development" of whales is even wilder!
After adapting to life on land, the ancestors of porpoises, for reasons no one knows, went back to the sea. Just what the land animal was like no one can be sure, for the 'missing link' in its evolution are lost beneath the sea!
Baby dolphins are born underwater. A mama dolphin nudges them gently to the surface, they must somehow open and breathe through their brand-new little air vent at just the right moment. A second too soon and the baby creature would drown. A second too late, and the same thing would happen.
Remember again, that the very first migration; the very first deep dive; the very first attempt to capture fish for a meal: the very first use of salt water; the VERY FIRST underwater birth; the very first voluntary control of breathing - these and myriad more fantastic firsts all had to occur at the same time! At the very instant the first dolphin swam!
And - from these fantastic abilities, do scientists see great thought and planning? Do they observe great design and intricate creation? Do they stand in awe of the great mind it took to produce and put into action such huge creatures?
Not at all. They see only the creature not the Creator. They are only the material creation - not its producer, designer, sustainer and ruler!
The evolutionists theorize that, given enough time, virtually anything can happen. Do explosions in print shops produce the unabridged dictionary? Do dump trunks, dumping a load of bricks, produce palatial mansions, complete with carpets, appliances, chandeliers, and rare paintings? Do city dumps produce typewriters - which falling together accidentally type out the Encyclopaedia Americana?
Yet these are some of the very arguments used by evolutionists in college classrooms today! But why do evolutionists "take the long way around" in their guesses about the "evolution" of whales and dolphins? Simply to remain loyal to their theory, they must.
Whales and dolphins are certainly mammals. But there is an even more enigmatic mammal found in Australia. And he virtually stuns evolutionists. It is the unbelievable platypus.

The Unbelievable Platypus
"Bizarre." "Monstrous Misfit!" "Unbelievable." "An impossible patch-work creature!" say evolutionists of the duckbill platypus. Evolutionists have a tough time describing and explaining the strangest creatures alive today - the duckbill platypus.
Native to Australia, the platypus seems to be a "patchwork" animal because evolution likes to see some sort of comparison or inter-relationship in all living things. In trying to relate the platypus to various other animals, evolutionists have not been able to stop short of at least four or five widely differing creatures - nowhere near each other in the purely fanciful "evolutionary tree."
Its tail is muscular and flat, shaped like a beaver's tail. Even though looking like a beaver's tail, it is covered with fur instead of scales! The "shoulder" is definitely reptilian.
And then there's the strange looking "bill." But while the ducks have a fairly hard and bony bill, the bill of the platypus is of a softer texture, like pliable skin, and is filled with highly sensitive nerves.
Since the little animal suckles its young, it is classified as a mammal. But, astounding though it seems it lays eggs! The eggs are reptilian in nature, and covered with a skin-like texture, instead of a hard shell. And the little platypus doesn't really "suckle" its young, but actually secretes the milk from a mammary opening which then drips from the hair of the underbelly, and the young lap the milk from the hair!
But in spite of the duck-like bill, beaver-like tail, snake-like eggs and venom fang, and with otter forefeet and young-suckling (but not really!) characteristics of mammals, the little creature has only a single ventral opening for elimination, mating and birth - just like reptiles! But the trouble is he is warm-blooded, which reptiles are not! Further, he stores food in cheek pouches, like some mammals, but unlike mammals, has no exterior ear, but only an opening into his hearing apparatus which is located inside!
No wonder evolutionists get "mixed up" when they attempt "scientific" classification - which could either be mammal, bird, or reptile! The platypus simply does not fit the evolutionary scheme of things.
Even more amazing, there is nothing transitional about the platypus. He is highly intelligent and remarkably built to fit his environment.
Unhappily, no fossils have yet been found in any continent which reveal the lineage of the platypus prior to the last few million years in Australia itself.
All fossil platypuses that have been found look exactly like "modern" platypuses.
So there is no proof from the fossil record, either in recent or in ancient times, regardless of the way in which it may be stated in various publications, that the platypus evolved at all!
The platypus is another of those serious obstacles to the evolutionary theory - a living creature that has no living counterparts and no close relatives in the fossil record. Therefore, science calls this little creature "a living fossil." Evolution is forced to admit they have never changed. That is, that their fossil ancestors, if any, are exactly the same as the living creatures.
Why, having once begun to enjoy the advantages of large brains and maternal care, were the monotremes (the platypus comes under them) not pushed on through the ages by the same forces of selection and survival that shaped the other animals? This is one of the recurrent riddles of evolution and as yet there is no answer to it!
The platypus proves evolution cannot be true. He waves his bill at evolutionists in sad pity. It almost appears as though God made the platypus just to confuse the evolutionists!
But those of us, who have the wit to see, ought to be able to understand from the creation around us, that God does exist.
Thus the dolphins and duckbills (platypuses) drive evolutionists in a dubious dilemma, that rips up evolution. Both the dolphins and duckbills are classified as mammals. The one thing both share in common is their extremely unusual characteristics. Both of these mammals defy evolutionists and shatter the evolutionary family tree.

4. Some Scientists Claim that Life is a Result of a Number of Chemical Combinations
If it is so, then we should be able to raise corpses to life by injecting various chemicals into their bodies! But it is not the case because it is God who has created life.

5. Faith is the Key to Knowledge
We need to realise that many things have to be accepted on good faith. They do not call for proof. For example, we are told that taking poison can be fatal. But we never try it for ourselves, for in that case we would very possibly not live to see the results of such an experiment. Most of us may not have seen anyone die due to poison taking. Yet, if given the chance to swallow poison, we would simply abstain from the act. This is due to an inner conviction that 'poison proves fatal!' Have we ever thought over the reason or proof for such a fact? Certainly not. Still we do hold the statement to be true.
Besides, if we are asked: "How do you know that such and such a person is your father? Have you any proof of it?" Our simple reply would be, "It was my mum who disclosed the identity of my father." One would be dubbed foolish if he sought proof for the fatherhood of one's father. The fact is a matter of faith in the words of one's mother.
So, we do accept some things of faith. But, however, in matters of God, our ego bars us from accepting His existence!


Some Examples of God's Creation

(1) The Human Faculty of Reasoning
The evolution theory fails to explain the highly developed intellectual faculty of human beings for reasoning. Hence, it must be God who has endowed human beings with great intelligence.

(2) The Instincts of Living Entities
(i) The Eel
It is noted that when the eel is ready to lay eggs, it proceeds all the way from European waters to the Bermuda Islands. As soon as the eggs are laid, the mother dies. However, it is a great surprise indeed that the newborn eels reach the very European waters from where their mothers had migrated. The distance covered by the newborn eels is two thousands miles and yet, it does not get lost.
Similar is the case with American eels. They also come to the Bermuda Islands for egg laying, then the mothers die. However the newborn fish head straight for American waters from where their mothers had migrated.
Though the European eels and the American eels gather together, there is never any mixing up so as to result in newborn American eels heading for Europe, or for the newborn European eels heading for America.
This is due to instinct in the eels endowed by God's grace. It is He who has been the unmistakable guide to the eels.
(ii) The Weaver-bird
An experiment was performed on some weaverbirds. They were confined to the four walls of a room where no material for building their nests was available. The offsprings were removed to other confined rooms where they could not build nests. This experiment was extended till the fifth generation of the weaverbirds. Then the weaverbird of the fifth generation was let loose in the open atmosphere. And to everyone's surprise these weaverbirds built the nest exactly of the same peculiar type characteristic of the weaverbirds! How was this knowledge of nest building passed onto the fifth generation? They call it instinct which in other words, implies that God revealed the same to the weaverbirds. Hence, the presence of instinctive nest building indicates the existence of God who inspires them to do the same in their unique style.
(iii) The Calf
A newly born calf, immediately and unmistakably, after getting up, heads for the udder of the mother for suckling. Who has given it the knowledge that its food lies in the mother's udder in the form of milk? Certainly it is God's grace that has revealed to a newborn calf the udder of its mother as a source of milk. Hence God exists.
Science fails to explain all these three phenomena mechanically. God's existence is the only proof for these extra-ordinary events.

(4) Theory of Creation of Earth as a Chance Phenomenon
Let us examine this chance theory in the light of the facts which clearly refute any such basis. Cressy Morrison, former president of the New York Academy of Science, says:
(i) The earth rotates on its axis at an approximate speed of 1,000 miles per hour. If by chance, its rotational speed were 100 miles per hour, what would have been the result? Well, the duration of day as well as of the night would have been 10 times longer. In that case, exposure during the day to the intense heat of the sun would have destroyed vegetation. Vegetation that could have survived the sunlight during the long day would have to stand equally long nights. The chill of the nights would have caused this vegetation to wither away. Thus we arrive at a world bereft of all vegetation! This disastrous effect, thanks be to the grace of God, has been avoided because the rotational speed of the earth has been set at the appropriate speed for vegetation to flourish. The Chance Theory would simply not allow a world flourishing with vegetation. There is, for sure, design and meticulous planning behind every phenomenon that occurs.
(ii) The temperature on the surface of the sun is about 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. If its temperature was to be, by chance half of it, then no human being could survive the resulting cold on the earth. If its temperature was one-and-half times its present temperature, then we would all have been baked to a soot due to the resulting heat. But the fact that the temperature of the sun is appropriate and conducive to human survival on the earth, clearly indicates that creation is designed to definite patterns and not haphazard as the Chance Theory would permit.
(iii) Imagine the moon being 50,000 miles nearer us than at present. In that case, the consequence would be that there would be high tides in the oceans of the earth twice a day. The high tides would be so enormous that the landmass of the earth would be drowned under those tides twice daily! The fact that it simply does not happen, vouches for the intelligent creation of the earth and the moon. No wonder then that the Chance Theory has no chance of succeeding in explaining creation.
Besides, if the oceans were a little deeper than they are at present, then all the supply of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the world would have been exhausted! Thanks be to God who has not left to "chance" such a graveyard of the world!
(iv) If our atmosphere were a little less dense than it is, then the falling meteors would still be ablaze when reaching the earth. They would set fire to the world! But the fact is otherwise, thanks to the creation of God that has allowed no chance to the 'Chance Theory'.
Hence life has not developed as a result of chance. There certainly is a Supreme Controller - God.

(5) There is a Tendency Among some Atheists to Explain the Workings of the Universe as Occurring "Automatically"
But they fail to realise that even the most automatic creations of man - the computer - requires a maker, an operator, and a maintainer! Then how can the whole vast universe carry on automatically as suggested by some of our atheist friends? Undoubtedly, we have to accept the fact that there is certainly a great creator and controller of the same. Hence logic leads us to accept the existence of God as that Supreme Creator and Controller.

(6) There is a Balance Maintained in the World between the Animal and Plant Worlds
Often we wonder how this balance is effected. We are indeed amazed to find how those animals and plants which give rapid new birth have not filled the world!
Also there is some power fixing limitation on the size of rapidly reproducing and growing insects, for example, of the bees. Providence has so endowed them that the air passages for respiration among them are restricted in size. This checks an undue size. If there was no such limitation on size, then we would have had bees the size of a lion roaming about! In that case, man would have simply not survived.
Thanks to a supreme power that has its say in maintaining the balance in numbers and sizes of plants and animals. God is indeed gracious!

(7) The Genes
So unspeakably tiny are they that, if all of them responsible for all living people in the world could be collected together, there would be less than a thimbleful. Yet these ultra microscopic genes and their companions, the chromosomes are the absolute keys to all human, animal and vegetable characteristics. Thus the fantastic genes indicate that they can be the creation of God.

Sadhu Atmaswarupdas