8/3/2019 2011.10 Beavers and Atheists

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Section A18 OCTOBER 2011

Why would I spend a 27-de-

gree winter evening trompingthrough woods with GordonLonie? We were looking orbeavers. We saw many beaver-gnawed stumps plus a dozenhuge cottonwood trees that bea-

vers had girdled, removing barkin wide bands.

Some exceeded two eetin diameter, like in the photo.Some had been girdled several yearsago, but others, like the one pictured,had been reshly girdled. Its un-known why beavers abandon workon trees, but we saw many unnishedlogging projects.

We saw clean-as-a-whistlebranches that beavers had strippedo their bark. Two large beaver-elledcottonwoods lay like white bridgesspanning the Clinton River, the barkpeeled and eaten.

Gordon showed me a reshly cutpile o branches in the river beavers

winter ood. Hed seen beavers aroundit recently. We sat quietly, waiting ona log in the dark, but no beavers ap-peared that night.

The beaver den was probably inthe riverbank immediately beneathour eet, but we couldnt conrm it.Oten beaver dens have a small vent

or escape hole covered with sticks. We searched with fashlights butcouldnt nd it.

IntellIgentDesIgn

Despite seeing no beavers that night, we were both certain that beaverswere nearby, based on the marks vis-ible on trees and branches. Beavers

were the most likely explanation orthe evidence we saw.

Yet a Colorado riend saw thisphoto on my blog and emailed ace-tiously, You were inerring rom themarks on the tree that beavers madethem how do you know it didntgrow that way? Are you implyingthat persons o reason can detectagent causation? Get real!

Yes, causation by intelligent

agents usually can be detected. This presupposition is unda-mental to any examination o pastevents.

The government-unded Searchor Extraterrestrial Intelligence(SETI) presumes the abilityto detect activity by intelligentagents rom their eects. Crimi-nal investigations and archaeol-ogy digs also presume this, asdoes cryptography (Is it a codedmessage or a random signal?) as

well as orensics (Was death romnatural causes or oul play?).

Why are archaeologists so ex-

cited to nd a stone axe buried ina cave? Why are they thrilled tond cave paintings? Its becausethey instantly conclude that mengenerated these eects. They in-

er intelligent causation. The key question is

always, What is themost reasonable explana-tion o the eects? andnot, Can you prove yourexplanation? Withouteyewitnesses or recordedtestimony, one can neverprove the validity o ex-planations o past events.One must evaluate possi-

ble explanations and choose the mostreasonable one.

explanatIons

What about the pictured cottonwoodtree? What is the most reasonable ex-

planation o its girdle?Potential explanations include:1. Beavers girdled the tree.2. The tree grew that way.3. Humans emulated beaver work

with a chisel.Support or Explanation #1:1. Eyewitnesses have photo-

graphed beavers removing bark andmaking similar marks and wood chipsas they elled trees.

2. Eyewitnesses report cotton- woods are beavers avorite ood insoutheast Michigan.

Problems with Explanation #2:1. The tree could not have grown

that way. Trees grow at the bark layer;they die i the bark layer is cut, sever-ing the path o nutrients to the tree.

This is known rom eyewitness re-ports and botanical research.

2. How could the tree grow thewood chips scattered on the ground andcompletely disconnected rom the tree?

3. No historical or eyewitness re-cords exist o cottonwoods growingthis way.

Problems with Explanation #3:1. Other girdled trees nearby were

substantially weathered and appear to

have been girdled in years past. Why would someone come yearater year to perorm thishoax? Did they also spread

wood chips around the trees?2. I done in the same

year, why would anyoneweather some girdles?

3. What could moti- vate someone to girdle andweather trees?

4. What advantage ac-crues? Is it worth the risk o prosecu-

tion to break the law by damagingpark trees?

I cant prove my claim that Ex-planation #1 is correct. But I domaintain that Explanation #1 (bea-

vers) is the most reasonable expla-nation to account or the girdledcottonwood tree. Other explana-tions are implausible.

From the evidence o the girdledcottonwood tree, I have inerredthe existence o intelligentagents (beavers) that caused theeects (girdled trees).

The same reasoning appliesin many areas. Cell phones,computers, and televisions re-quired intelligent agents toinvent, develop and constructthem. It is absurd to believe thatar more complex plants andanimals occurred by randomchance. Evidence o their in-nitely greater complexity is thatthey reproduce ater their kind.

Likewise rom stone aceson Mt. Rushmore I iner theexistence o a carver. Is it prob-able that wind and rain erosionormed the aces we see?

I we are sure the Rushmore

aces must have been designed,is it conceivable that the armore complex beings represent-ed by those simple stone aces

were ormed by random chance?

Thus I iner the existence o aCreator (Intelligent Designer) as themost reasonable and most likely ex-planation or mankind.

CreatIonsDrumbeat

All o Creation thunders Creator!with an incessant drumbeat.

Scripture teaches that all men aremorally responsible to acknowledgeand honor the Creator because the ev-idence o creation is abundantly clear:That which is known about God is evi-

dent within them; for God made it evi-dent to them. For since the creation of theworld His invisible attributes, His eter-nal power and divine nature, have beenclearly seen, being understood through

what has been made, so that they arewithout excuse.(Romans 1:19-20)

Thus, according to Scripture, genu-ine atheists cannot exist. Gods existenceis self-evident andunmistakable.

People who call themselves athe-ists suppress the truth that Scripturesays they actually know (Romans1:18). Those who deny creations evi-dence are willfully ignorant (2 Peter3:5). The evidence is on display, andmen have no excuse.

But now ask the beasts, and let themteach you; and the birds of the heavens,and let them tell you. Or speak to theearth, and let it teach you; and let the

fish of the sea declare to you. Who amongall these does not know that the hand ofthe LORD has done this, in whose handis the life of every living thing, and thebreath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)

All o Creation shouts Creator!

E-mail Dr. Pelletier at

BibleScienceGuy@woodsidenews.org.Read the Bible-Science Guy blog athttp://BibleScienceGuy.wordpress.comand follow him at http://twitter.com/BibleScienceGuy.

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WilliaM T.PelleTier Ph.d.

THE BIBLE aND sCIENCE by WilliaM T. PelleTier, Ph.d. [woodside news COLUMNIST]

2011 William T. Pelletier

Beavers and Atheists

Creator. Soli Deo Gloria.The God of the Bible, Yahweh, is that