The Rain Forests

Whenever tropical rain forests are mentioned, the first things that come to mind are dazzling butterflies, unusual-looking insects, and large, broad-leaved, trees. Rain forests are found in regions close to the equator and consist of dense trees that are always green and very tall. These forests' most important feature is the extraordinary number of plant and animal species they contain. A tropical rain forest, millions of square kilometers in size, is home to a wide variety of species.

Around 250 years ago, the first European researchers to set foot in the rain forests of South America were astonished by the variety of life they encountered. Each new study again revealed the diversity of plant and animal species.

A rain forest in the tropical belt has very different characteristics from those of other forests. For one thing, underneath the very tall trees 50 meters (164 feet) high, there are medium-sized ones, such as palm, cedar, mahogany and figs. The trunks and branches of these are covered in bright orchids, cacti, ferns and mosses. The lowest layer in the forest, the grass layer, consists of a dense vegetation covering and hosts a great variety of insect, bacteria and fungi species. In short, a rain forest's most characteristic feature is the variety of life that so amazes us.

Rain forests comprise just 7% of the land surface, yet contain more than 50% of the plant and animal species on Earth. Researchers also state that this last percentage may change as we learn more about biodiversity. The well-known Smithsonian Institute researcher Thomas Lovejoy makes a very apposite statement: "The larger point is that the more people look at the tropical forest in different ways, as Terry Erwin has done, the more biodiversity there seems to be."⁴¹

So that you can envision the diversity in question. One hectare (10,000 square meters, or 11,960 square yards) of tropical rain forest can contain more than 600 different species of trees.⁴² In one region of the Amazon Basin, 440 species of butterfly can be collected in a single day.⁴³ Forty-three separate species of ants ⁴⁴ and 650 different species of insect can be found on a single tree.⁴⁵ In this same region, one can also encounter hundreds of species of bird in a 1-kilometer (1,094-yard) area of forest. Taking ten species of tree in Borneo as an example, there are more than 2,800 different arthropods on them.⁴⁶ The number of insect species living in tropical forests is estimated to be in the millions.⁴⁷

These numbers do not represent the total number of living organisms in a particular habitat, just the number of species. Another astonishing fact is that in tropical rain forests, according to some experts, millions or even tens of millions of living things live in complete harmony and co-operation..

Soil in tropical rain forests is generally thought of as being rich and fertile. Recently, however, it has been realized that this is not so. In terms of nutrients, the soil is poor, compared to that of other forests.⁴⁸ How did such a great variety of plants emerge from poor soil? The answer lies in the perfection of the rain forest ecosystem.

The biodiversity in tropical forests has been created as a whole, and is based on very delicate, complementary balances. For instance, consider the micro-organisms, minute insects and fungi living on the forest floor. Their dimensions are very small in comparison to the trees and animals, yet they are responsible for cleaning the forest and making the soil productive. They break down dead animals and leaves and branches that fall from the trees, recycling them back into the ecosystem. In this way, nothing is wasted. Professor Wilson describes the importance of this mechanism:

The leafcutters and other kinds of ants, together with bacteria, fungi, termites and mites, process most of the dead vegetation and return its nutrients to the plants to keep the great tropical forests alive. ⁴⁹

We still do not know how many millions of species live in tropical rain forests, but we do know that every species has a different task and importance in these ecosystems, and that these species live together in harmony. This is expressed in an article about Amazon rain forests in the Turkish magazine Bilim ve Teknik ("Science and Technique"):

The continuity of species in this Amazon Basin's complex ecosystem is based on their close dependence on one another. Every species, be it plant or animal, contributes to part of this system with its millions of components. Trees, the epiphytes on trees, fungi, monkeys, vampire bats, eagles, parrots, the crocodiles, piranha fish and lilies in the river, and micro-organisms invisible to the naked eye all make different contributions to the giant ecosystem in which they live. There are very delicate balances here. The rain forest exists together with all these species. The disappearance of a single species will damage several of these balances. ⁵⁰

Indeed, such great harmony and interdependence exist among some species in the forest that one cannot survive in the absence of the other. Some 90% of the trees in the rain forest need animals to spread their seeds,⁵¹ while insect larvae, caterpillars, birds and other animals feed on the seeds of these trees. For example, species of fig tree and fig fly species are so interdependent that either cannot survive in isolation from the other. In the absence of fig flies, fig trees cannot fertilize themselves, and in the absence of fig trees, fig flies are deprived of their natural habitat. There is a different species of fig fly for every one of the more than 900 species of fig tree in tropical regions!⁵²

Traits such as the fig fly's body and mouth structure and the flower's structure and reproductive organs, as well as the insect's flights and the times when the flowers open are in complete harmony. Accounting for this utter dependence between species has always been difficult for Darwinism. For this phenomenon, there is only one explanation: The harmony between plants and animals is a marvel of Creation. There is no chance of this system developing over time through small random changes and the mindless mechanisms of evolution.

Take, for example, the harmonious existence of the hawk moth Xanthopan morganii and one species of Madagascar orchid. To collect nectar, this moth extends its proboscis, some 30 to 35 centimeters (11 to 13 inches) in length, around 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep into the body of the orchid, and thus enables it to be fertilized.⁵³ In order to reach and fertilize the ovary at this depth, the moth needs a proboscis of just such a length, In other words, the two species must be totally compatible with one another.

This represents a major dilemma for evolutionists, because it is impossible for these two different species to have undergone a parallel process of evolution, much less at the same time.

Let us assume that the ancestors of the Madagascar orchid and the Xanthopan morganii moth had had, respectively, much shorter nectary and a much shorter proboscis. (This is the assumption that must be made, according to the theory of evolution.) In that case, both species would have extended their parts simultaneously. The hawk moth and the orchid, would each have been exposed to mutations that simultaneously extended the length of their proboscis and nectary. Of course, such mutations would have had only advantageous effects on these two life forms (and beneficial mutations have never been observed). They would have to out-multiply other members of their species that had not undergone mutation, and this supposed process of natural selection would have to continue completely by chance, but without error, for millions of years.

To believe that is like believing that a lock and the key that opens it each came to be independently, but in a manner totally compatible with each other. Yet clearly, reason requires us to accept that two structures completely compatible with one another are both examples of simultaneous creation. To put it another way, reason requires us to accept that the orchid and the moth were created in harmony with each other.

Another example of the flawless harmony among tropical life forms can be seen in those regions known as flood forests, found along the shores of the Amazon and its tributaries. When the rain is heaviest, they are flooded, and during this period, a marvelous phenomenon takes place. Fish come to eat the fruits that fall into the water and distribute the seeds of those fruits of several species of tree.

Clearly, the variety of species in the rain forests are of great importance to the native peoples living there. But what importance can they have for the billions of humans who do not live in such regions? Scientists have provided the answer: The plants and animals in these tropical forests are of vital importance to every human on Earth. They are described as "the Earth's lungs" because of the way they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and give off oxygen. Rain forests play a major role in the circulation of carbon and oxygen in the atmosphere, the global climate system, water circulation on Earth, and in many other natural balances. In addition, they represent a splendid source of new foods, products and medicines.

The magnificent variety of life in the rain forests is a major headache for Darwinism. The situation does not even permit evolutionists to offer any of their tall tales. Indeed, evolutionist researchers admit that they do not know the reason for the tropical rain forests' glorious biodiversity.⁵⁴ Yet very evidently, God has created the single-celled organisms, plant and animal species in these forests, just as He has created all living things. If evolutionists wish to find a way out of the dead end they find themselves in, they must accept this fact.

To grasp just how irrational the evolutionist claim is, imagine a large factory that manufactures dozens of different products—a wide range of technological devices such as televisions and computers. Now, could these various products all have been invented by chance, with no conscious intervention? Could these devices, products of advanced technology, gradually form through the effects of such natural phenomena as the sunlight, wind, and lightning?

Such an event is of course impossible; both a factory and the devices it manufactures result from the design and planning by engineers and various other experts. Now consider the rain forests, home to tens of millions of different species, all with systems far more complex than those in any electronic devices available today. Such an environment, consisting of life forms that have lived together in harmony and co-operation for millions of years, could not come into being spontaneously, right down to the very finest detail, as evolutionists claim. The sublime intelligence here belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds..

References

41. Thomas E. Lovejoy, "Biodiversity: What Is It?," in Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Don E. Wilson, Edward O. Wilson (editors), Biodiversity II, Joseph Henry Press, Washington D.C., 1997, p. 8, ↩
42. M. Encarta Encyclopedia 2001 Deluxe Edition CD, "Rain Forest." ↩
43. Ibid., "Amazonian Biodiversity." ↩
44. E.O. Wilson, "The Current State of Biological Diversity," in E.O. Wilson, F.M. Peter (editors), Biodiversity, Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 1988, p. 9,. ↩
45. Çağlar Sunay, "Yitirilmekte Olan Cennet Amazon" (The Amazon), Bilim ve Teknik , April 1999, p. 75. ↩
46. "Terrestrial Arthropod Biodiversity : Planning a Study and Recommended Sampling Techniques," a Brief Prepared by the Biological Survey of Canada, (Terrestrial Arthropods) 1994., http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/briefs/brterrestrial.htm ↩
47. Terry L. Erwin, "Biodiversity at its Utmost: Tropical Forest Beetles," in , Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Don E. Wilson, Edward O. Wilson (editors), Biodiversity II, Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 1997, p. 27. ↩
48. Encyclopedia Britannica 2001 Deluxe Edition CD, "Environment, Tropical Forest". ↩
49. Edward O. Wilson, In Search of Nature, p. 143 ↩
50. Çağlar Sunay, Op cit., p. 75. ↩
51. M. Encarta Encyclopedia 2001 Deluxe Edition CD, "Rain Forest." ↩
52. D.H. Janzen, "How to be a Fig," Annual Review. Ecology Systemat., Vol. 10, 1979, p. 13. ↩
53. M. Encarta Encyclopedia 2001 Deluxe Edition CD, "Butterflies and Moths." ↩
54. Virginia Morell, "On the Origin of (Amazonian) Species," Discover, April 1997. ↩