Chances are you live near a tree. A truly brilliant marvel of creation vital to our existence silently operates out of sight. It is a chemical process put in place from the beginning by the master designer Himself.
I watched a David Attenborough nature show set in the jungles of the African Congo where there were plants and trees of uncountable variety, shape and size, being home to a kaleidoscope of wildlife.
I wondered how the uncontrolled mindless nothingness called evolution could have possibly brought into being something so complex and balanced as this process. What could trigger darkness to bring forth light?
And this brilliance is?
Photosynthesis. Its literal meaning is to ‘build with light’. It’s the process by which plants harness the energy from sunlight to synthesise (put together) sugars from carbon dioxide (which they ‘breath’ in) and rainwater molecules to make food molecules. They make their own food.
Oxygenic photosynthesis functions to take in the carbon dioxide produced by all breathing organisms and reintroduces oxygen into the atmosphere. It generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll releasing oxygen as a waste product, and in so doing photosynthesis provides the basic energy source for virtually all organisms.
Build with light
To create substance with the assistance of ‘non-substance’ (sunlight) sounds strange and impossible, being what the Oxford Dictionary calls ‘magical realism’, although nothing is impossible with God.
Examples of magical realism include: the first heart beat, blood formation and circulation long before birth, ‘building’ the human body during gestation, decades-long continuous heart beat, the last heart beat, intellect, thinking, memory, sense of humour, personality, imagination, emotion, natural ability, the power to reason, and the instilled five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
Faith is required to believe something is true with no realistic prospect of ever being able to fully understand or scientifically prove it. Examples include endless space, the eternal existence of God, the operation of our solar system and the universe, the functioning of earth and how it came to be.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3). For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm. (Psalm 33 verse 9).
Plants use much of their glucose as an energy source to build leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds and to convert glucose to cellulose, the structural material used in cell walls. Most plants produce more glucose than they use and store it as starch and other carbohydrates in roots, stems and leaves, and can draw on these reserves for extra energy or building material.
Trees ‘breath’ in what we breath out and ‘breath’ out what we breath in. That’s magical reality. We travel into the countryside surrounded by magnificent tall trees and breath in that clean fresh mountain air.
It simply didn’t happen
Evolution maintains that everything we see around us came into being minute-variation-by-minute-variation at significantly slower than glacial speed, some replicating again and again and some minutely varying yet again to ‘build’ complexity.If photosynthesis was not operating at maximum capacity from day one, what happened worldwide across the whole of the vegetable kingdom?
Somehow did the survival and duplication of the first tiny variation nevertheless occur without the ‘assistance’ of photosynthesis, which then multiplied zillions of times over billions of years? Did photosynthesis itself somehow evolve? Ask any evolutionist anywhere in the universe and you will not get a satisfying answer because it didn’t happen that way.
They hate it
This magical realism is called ‘irreducible complexity’, which describes the lowest or simplest state of a process or thing below which it ceases to be that process or thing. Thus, when does a bicycle cease to be a bicycle? It is still a bicycle when it is minus a seat, but is it still a bicycle when it is minus a seat and chain? Minus a seat, chain and handlebars?
The insurmountably vexing problem for the evolutionist is obvious regarding the supposed achingly slow emergence of the mother suckling her young. When did the suckling action reach operational functionality such that the species could procreate? Until that point was reached how could mother feed her babies to even enable survival?
There from the beginning
In many natural situations irreducible complexity requires full capacity from day one. The evolutionist knows it and hates this awkward truth. In His wisdom and power God designed and made everything to be fully functional from the start. Jesus and irreducible complexity have walked hand-in-hand throughout history.
God says
Speak to the earth [the leaf] and it will teach you…Which of all these [animals, birds, fish, earth] does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? (Job chapter 12 verses 8/9). Put your ear to the earth - learn the basics. (The Message version of the Bible).
But there’s more
Humans are deeply dependent on ancient products of photosynthesis (fossil fuels) that supply our industrial energy. Natural gas and oil being a complex mix of hydrocarbons are the remains of organisms that relied on photosynthesis in the ancient past, plus decomposed compressed trees and other plant matter (coal).
Nature’s solar panels
Plants make good use of sunlight by their leaves trapping energy from the sun. They use it to make food. Plants supply animals with food. Some animals eat the plants and some animals eat the animals that eat the plants. As tiny solar panels leaves are marvels of creation.
LORD all creation sings Your song.
[NOTE: Any technical errors above are solely the responsibility of the writer (perhaps) misinterpreting something on the internet.]
Gavin Lawrie is a retired Barrister and Solicitor from Tweed Heads NSW Australia and author of the book: 'THE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION: Uncovering The Faulty Science Of Dawkins' Attack On Creationism'. He is married to Jan with two adult children and they are grandparents.
Gavin Lawrie's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/gavin-lawrie.html