Aug

20

How Do We Account for Instinct?

August 20, 2007 | Hits for this post:700 |

There are two basic types of intelligence. One is prepackaged, ready-made kind of know-how which we call instinct. Fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles all appear to operate on this level. They do what they are programmed to do, and that is about all they can do.

At the other end of the spectrum we find humans. People are endowed with free-lance, independent intelligence which allows us to make our own decisions. In between are an assortment of mammals which use a mixture of instinct and “thinking” to one degree or another. Cows, horses, cats, dogs, pigs, monkeys, and dolphins all fit into this broad category.

Honeybees

Instinct tends to complicate the picture for naturalists. Take the honeybee for instance. Like all other insects, this bee is little more than a programmed robot. Yet, at the same time, it possesses a highly specialized instinct. It is an instinctive engineer with a good deal of expertise in honeycomb production.

Using 1.4 ounces of wax, bees develop hexagonal-cells built to a thickness of 0.073 mm with a tolerance of plus or minus 0.002 mm. This minimum amount of wax proves adequate for holding four pounds of honey. Now that is an impressive feat for an insect, doubly impressive considering its small brain, short life span, and utter lack of training. All in all, the bee’s hexagonal-shaped comb is the strongest, most space efficient structure they could build.

No one claims, unless they are joking, that the honeybee came up with the idea of the hexagon design. They couldn’t. They don’t have an independent ability for making decisions. They just do what they are programmed to do.

The question is Who or What programmed the honeybee’s construction instinct? Since the honeybee could not program its own instinct, and everybody agrees that is the case, the only alternative is that some Outside Source programmed the bee’s engineering talent.

What can be said about this Outside Source? Today, no scientists can program instinct. We wouldn’t even know where to begin. That implies a knowledge and technology far in advance of our own. Obviously, this Outside Source knows something of construction too.

Evidently, a higher intelligence with engineering expertise programmed a bit of his own hexagon-building knowledge into the bee’s instinct.

Which came first, the honeybee or its instinct? The honeybee’s entire existence centers around comb construction and honey production. As far as we can tell, that has always been the case. Considering that the bee’s instinctive behavior is such an intricate part of it’s life, chances are very good that whoever designed the honeybee’s body also designed its instinct. And both were made at the same time.

Other Insects

Other insects display home-building instincts too. Australian termites construct high-rise towers. Some measure twenty-five feet in height with overhanging eaves protecting against heavy rains. Termites in Africa dig holes as deep as 130 feet seeking water.

Wasp build homes out of paper, and ants tunnel out complex underground homes. All of these insects depend upon an ingrained architectural instinct, a bit of programmed wisdom by the Outside Source.

One form of instinct we are all familiar with is migration. Mention migration and flocks of ducks or geese come to mind. Usually we think of them in a rough “V” formation where one leg is shorter than the other. But other animals migrate too - fish, whale, and insects. Insects? Yes, insects do migrate. C.C. Williams, a British entomologist, listed some 250 migrating insects.

Monarch Butterflies

In general we can say, populations of insects make migratory movements, heading south in early fall and north the next spring. Individuals probably die in route. That being the case, it is their offspring that continue the round trip. Our information is spotty on most species, so, much of what we are told is little more than guesswork on insect migration. There is an exception, however. That exception is perhaps the most popular insect of all - the monarch butterfly.

Here is what we have learned: Monarchs spend summers as far north as the Great Lakes and Canada. As the summer turns to fall, large loosely formed groups begin massing for southern migration. Butterflies with wings no larger than four inches fly up to two thousand mile to southern California, central Mexico, or Florida for the winter.

En route, the same trees are chosen as resting places every year. Of course none of the insects have seen these trees before. Yet they land en masse on the same branches generation after generation, migration after migration.

Pacific Grove, California is winter home for many, maybe most, west coast monarchs. The whole town is a refuge for the species. In fact, it is one of the few insect sanctuaries in the world. During the month of October, several million monarch butterflies begin arriving in this coastal town overlooking the Monterey Bay. They stay until March.

Some monarchs go elsewhere. On the Monterey peninsula, pockets of smaller concentrations are found. But the vast majority congregate year after year in the same pines in the same grove. The grove itself is nothing but a few acres of tall pines next to the sea.

Nevertheless, Pacific Grove has been the wintering spot for monarchs every year since at least 1907, when locals started keeping records.

In the spring these butterflies return on the northern route home where they mate and shortly thereafter die. Are these the same insects that headed south last fall? Evidently they are. A long-term study with thousands of tagged monarchs proved that large numbers of these butterflies make the round trip, some going all the way from Canada to Mexico and back again.

Curiously enough, the next generation does not make this journey. Nor does the next. During the summer, two or three generations of monarchs live out their short lives mating and dying. The third or fourth generation of butterflies emerges out of their cocoons in late summer.

By and large these are the ones destined for the round trip south. Once more, without leaders and without any prior experience, millions of monarch butterflies will make their way south toward their Pacific Grove winter sanctuary. Year after year, instinct draws them back to the identical trees where their ancestors passed previous winters.

It is an interesting story, and it brings up a lot of “why” questions. Let’s start off by saying that cold weather (or maybe just shortened daylight hours) might compel the monarchs south. But why does Pacific Grove attract so many of these seasonal travelers? How do they find this California town? Why do they stop here rather than continuing southward? Why do they pick out the same trees that their predecessors chose in past years? And why do they return north in the spring?

Monarchs, like honeybees, termites, and wasps, are not capable of independent thought. They don’t plan things out. They don’t set their own agenda. Every third or fourth generation responds to a detailed built-in travelogue. They go to Pacific Grove because that is the place they are programmed to go.

They head north for the same reason. But Who or What designed this travel program? Again, since the programmed instinct did not originate with the monarch, it had to come from an external source. That Outside Source shows both biological and geographical knowledge. What’s more, this Outsider must have a remarkably advanced technology to implant such a thorough migration program into the tiny brain of a butterfly.

The honeybee’s engineering talent, the termite and wasp’s architectural skills, and the monarch butterfly’s detailed, persistent travel itinerary are more than just interesting tidbits of nature. Each show an area of expertise far beyond what any short-lived, microscopic-brained insect could achieve on its own.

They had help. An Outside Source supplied them with specific knowledge to perform specific tasks. What we call instinct is, in fact, a bit of wisdom programmed by the Outside Source.

Evolutionists offer no explanation for instinct. They usually avoid the subject.

Author: Jerry Richard Boone
Jerry Boone, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, United States webmaster@merechristianity.us Mr. Boone is a sailor, author, and webmaster of http://merechristianity.us with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Georgia State University. His works include: Mere Christianity.us and SAFETY LINE - EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN, an apologetic study published 1998.

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