Protesting About Evolution

This is the title of a series of articles we plan to reproduce which will not only be of general interest, but will also be of help to parents and and school children in particular. It is not always easy to have on hand some useful material to combat this entrenched theory, particularly when it makes its appearance in school lessons.
We have obtained permission from the Evolution Protest Movement (of which Bro. John Byrt is the Australian secretary) to reprint their educa¬tion material. This material has the advantages of being up-to-date, well researched, highly qualified in source — often overseas, free from extrava-gant claims.
The following article consists of material that was used in a series of addresses given during a recent Australian tour of Professor Gish of the U.S.A. Further notes and a booklet suitable for teachers and high school students may be obtained from — The EPM Secretary, 132 Murrumbeena Road, Murrumbeena, Victoria, 3163.

Meet The Bombardier Beetle

During the course of one of his talks, Dr. Gish gave a few examples of creatures with specialised organs. which defy all attempts to construct even a possible mechanism (let alone one supported by fossil evidence) as to how they could arise by the accumulation of grad­ual mutational changes — for, remember, each change must serve some useful function, or at the very least must carry no disadvantage, or it will be eliminated by that very Natural Selection on which the evolutionary progress depends.

One of these that particularly appealed to the present Editor was the case of the Bombar­dier Beetle; and since this also receives men­tion in an article entitled “Darwin’s Beetles”, in the September 1975 issue of the Bible-Science Newsletter, we shall take the liberty of reproducing it here. Bible-Science, in turn, acknowledges indebtedness to a news sheet of the Creation Science Society.

“Brachinus  is called the bombardier beetle because of his long-observed ability to produce an internal explosion which propels noxious decomposition products through twin tail tubes into the face of his enemies. It fell recently to a German chemist, Dr. Hermann Schildknecht, to determine the internal mechanism and chemistry of Brachinus’ defensive artillery. He found that the little I-inch long insect has twin sets of apparatus. Two glands produce a liquid which is stored in two storage chambers. Upon command, some of the liquid is trans­ferred to two combustion chambers, where it explodes and expels the decomposition prod­ucts through the tubes at a boiling hot 212°F.

“Dr. Schildknecht analysed the liquid and found it to contain 10% hydroquinones and 23% hydrogen peroxide — a mixture which spontaneously explodes, when made in the lab­oratory. But the beetle has the wisdom to add an unknown (to science) inhibitor to prevent the explosion until the liquid is squirted into the combustion chamber, where an anti-inhib­itor is supplied. This fantastic natural defence mechanism is reported in the German Applied Chemistry Journal “Angewandte Chemie” (1­7-61) and in “Time” magazine (11-24-61).”

In case the problems this poses for the evo­lutionist are not immediately obvious, we can spell them out a little further. First there is the question of why Brachinus has the arrange­ment of combustion chambers, storage cham­bers and tubes. It is inconceivable that these were already present, serving some other useful function, before the explosion device was com­menced. It is equally inconceivable that they just happened, and were protected from the destructive agency of natural selection, until the moment came when there was a special use for them.

But the only other alternative is that they arose after the explosion mechanism. If this were the case, we have the problem of what the beetle did with his hydroquinone and his peroxide until he developed the appropriate storage chambers. Then again, consider the need for four special chemicals; the two re­actants, the inhibitor and the anti-inhibitor. Were any of these already present for some other purpose — if so, what purpose? Was the inhibitor floating about waiting for a reaction to inhibit? But woe betide that clever beetle who first developed the explosive mixture, if he did not have a supply of the inhibitor on hand! And again, how many thousand years did the beetle carry these three chemicals about before the fourth — the anti-inhibitor — happened along? One might go on; but I am sure you’ve got the message.

Or try the exercise for the case of Stenus bipunctatus, a 1-inch long insect that scam­pers around on the surface of pools. His chief enemy is the fast, long-legged water strider.

“For more than half a century entomologists have observed the Stenus, when pursued by the water strider, can put on a remarkable burst of speed for distances up to 45 feet. German scientists, Karl Linsenmair and Dr. Rudolf Jander, recently discovered the reason for this high-speed capability (“Time”, September 25, 1964; “Naturwissenschaften”, Vol. 50, p.231). Stenus, when in danger, squirts out a charge of liquid detergent from a pair of abdominal glands. As the detergent breaks the surface tension of the water, a small wave is produced which propels the beetle forward at much above normal speed. The water strider, if he skids into the detergent treated area, immedi­ately sinks, because of the broken surface tension.”