We are all familiar with the basics of growing a plant, or a tree, or our favorite vegetables. Plant a seed in the soil, add water and sunlight, and presto! We are all familiar with the range of plant life that ranges from microscopic to massive. We are all so familiar with these simple products of nature that we lose sight of the miraculous action on display.
It’s not hard to imagine that a seed contains the material needed to produce that first green shoot that stretches out toward the sun, and the first fledgling roots that dig deep seeking water. Beyond that early stage, the real miracles begin to manifest themselves.
Like the DNA in human cells, the seed of a plant contains all the instructions needed to develop the eventual plant. After that, the plant develops and grows according to its built-in instructions. Science can tell us the processes, absorbing water and nutrients from the soil, and harvesting sunlight to fuel the photosynthesis process. But, there’s a lot missing from this simple formula.
While we might not question how a stalk of corn can develop from nutrients in the soil, it’s a lot harder to imagine the huge bulk of material that must be harvested from the soil to produce a 60-foot tall oak tree.
Once again, we are confronted with the conflict between science and faith.
Science can fairly accurately describe the process by which a plant grows and develops. What science cannot explain is why that process occurs. Why does a seed of corn develop into a stalk, but not a tree? Why does that corn stalk survive only one season while the tree slumbers through a winter season and then resumes growing in the spring? Yes, they are different species of plants, but the growth process is essentially the same. Why does one pause and the other die?
When we look at that 60-foot oak tree, how can we imagine that much bulk being created from chemical elements in the soil powered by sunlight? If the tree is leeching that much from the soil, why doesn’t the ground sink accordingly? Why is it that we eat the seeds from the corn plant and discard the stalk, while we frequently discard the seeds from the tree and build houses and furniture from the “stalk?”
While science may be able to explain many of the mysteries of plant life, it will be hard-pressed to provide the answers to the whys.
Like many of the life forms on earth, the wide variety of plants on the earth’s surface have evolved over the course of many centuries. Some have evolved to provide building materials while many others have become food sources. The one thing they have in common is the seed that began their life cycle, and like the DNA that determines the human life form, the instructions are so complex and interdependent that it defies any possibility that it is the result of random accidents of nature.
Intelligent design by an infinitely powerful entity is the only logical choice.
And we call that entity – God.