Amazing Animals! Amazing God!

The Perot Museum is showcasing the Amazing Animal: Built to Survive exhibit currently. We had the opportunity to visit yesterday. As parents, we expect our children will gain something tangible from viewing the exhibits, but we don't anticipate to be amused ourselves. That's the mentality I had walking into the exhibit hall.

So as I was browsing through the different showcases, I found myself totally baffled by how meticulous is the design of each of the species so they can survive in the perspective habitat, under the scorching sun of the Sahara dessert to the frigid temperatures of the north pole!

Just a few facts that surprised me:

Tree leaves are made to curl instead of flapping like a flag when blown by strong wind so they will not be torn or destroyed.

When a duck walks into a cold body of water, its feet do not circulate cold blood back to the duck's body to prevent the duck from losing its body temperature. Whereas humans' body temperature drops when our feet are exposed to chill. 

A Venus fly trap has several sensor "hairs" that differentiate an inedible object from a fly or worm that fall into the trap. It will only close when the hairs are contacted at least twice within a short amount of time. Such mechanism is meant to save energy from unnecessary trapping.

An elephant's big flapping ears are meant to be the ventilation system for its oversize body where heat from the body can be dispersed through the large surface areas of the thin ears in order to keep the elephant cool under the sun.

As a full grown adult I am not able to remember the more than thousand pieces of amazing facts that help animals survive, but the more I read up on each exhibit, the more the question of "why" came to mind. 

The law of science describes the universe, it explains nothing. ~ Eric Metaxes, the Miracles

Science answers the what and the how, but it doesn't answer the "why." These exhibits tell me a lot about what animals or plants possess that help them survive the harshest of the environments, but they don't give any hint of why these creatures are given such "amazing" abilities, nor do they answer how these abilities came about. From Darwin, we learn about the "survival of the fittest," but from whom do the critters get these "custom-made" traits that enable to live when they proliferate.

At the end of the museum trip, there are more questions that than there are answers. All the delicate designs of the critters that enable them to "outsmart" their environment point loudly to something more than merely random formations, or "natural selection,"

Here is something that is even more astonishing!

All creatures have bite PSI (pressure per square inch), in other words, bite strength. Human has the lowest bite PSI compared to almost any other species factoring in sizes, For example, the bite psi of a crocodile is in the two to five thousands range depending on the type, the bear's bite is in the range of 600, and some dogs in the range of 500s, whereas an adult male only has about 150 PSI, and even some insects have higher bite PSI than us to help them get out of harm's way.

As the smartest creature of God, why don't we have a higher PSI to help us survive? Maybe God had something else in mind for us when he gave us weaker teeth. 

Psalm 16:The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Since it's thanksgiving season, it makes me wonder how could we enjoy great food if we had a higher bite PSI We would have chewed up grandma's famous turkey without being able to realize the difference between the juicy texture of the turkey and  a piece of rubber band!

Of course, our intelligence is high enough that we don't need a high bite PSI to keep us safe, and having the ability to enjoy food without just swallowing it gives us pleasures. 

After all, the one thing that is truly AMAZING behind this Amazing Animal exhibit is the God who designed all of it!