03 December 2010

The Wonders of God's World: Arsenic Bacteria

NASA had a special news conference to tout this discovery:

A strange, salty lake in California has yielded an equally strange bacterium that thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it, researchers reported on Thursday.

The bacteria do not merely eat arsenic — they incorporate the toxic element directly into their DNA, the researchers said.

The finding shows just how little scientists know about the variety of life forms on Earth, and may greatly expand where they should be looking for life on other planets and moons, the NASA-funded team said.


Obviously, we don't need to go to other worlds to find strange new lifeforms. The NASA search for life on other planets is fascinating, and stirs excitement in many people, but we often forget just why NASA and many scientists seek to find life elsewhere: because they believe that it will prove evolution and disprove special creation. This find will no doubt be enlisted in that great cause, as well.

But to the committed and knowledgeable child of God, this is one more proof of the marvelous wonder of God's creation. Here is a species which not only can tolerate an element (itself created by God) that normally kills organisms, but which NEEDS this element and incorporates it into itself.

I am reminded of Job 37:14, and of Job 42:3. We know that God did this - now, all you who preach and believe natural evolution, we wait for you to explain how this species could evolve, either with or without divine help.

Edward

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