Design In Parasitic Systems

By Mark Armitage

Reprinted from the San Fernando Valley Bible-Science Association Newsletter Mar ’97 Used with author’s permission.

A microscopic trematode worm (fluke) called Ascocotyle diminuta, which infests minnows in the Point Magu estuary, has an amazing life cycle.

Beginning with the egg at the bottom of the estuary, a snail eats the egg. The egg develops into a structure called a brood sac, within which about 50 cercaria (first stage of the worm) develop. Upon maturing, these worms burst from the snail and swim away. The minnows’ respiratory current then sucks them in and the parasites attach themselves to the gills, drop their tails, penetrate the gills, and form cysts. Each worm will grow until just prior to maturity and stop.

A heron, egret, or raccoon eats the fish. Amazingly, the cysts are resistant to hydrochloric acid (stomach acid), but they dissolve in trypsin, a digestive enzyme in the intestine. Once the cysts dissolve, the worms come out and grow to full size (about 1-2 widths of a human hair). In this warm environment, they begin producing eggs, which are dropped by the birds in their feces to the estuary bottom.

Although parasitism seems strange and harmful to us, many organisms, including us, cannot survive without parasites. Some parasites are bad for their host, but many are beneficial. It doesn’t seem likely that these complex life cycles and host/parasite relationships could have developed by chance. They required the intelligence of God who understood all that was required.

Editor’s note: God’s curse did something that changed the original creation. Adam and Eve would die. He cursed the ground, ushering in a world of toil and sweat. He cursed the serpent, changing it’s mode of locomotion. Presumably, it had legs. (Interestingly, Eve was not surprised the serpent talked—maybe other animals talked. Baalam didn’t seem surprised when his ass talked, but he wasn’t particularly astute.) God genetically reengineered serpents. God also caused changes in plants, or possibly created new ones that had thorns and thistles. Giving birth would be accompanied by pain. God said, "…and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food." Gen. 1:30 Perhaps predators (lions, sharks, velociraptors), sucking pests (mosquitoes, ticks, spiders), parasites, pathogenic bacteria and viruses were also altered genetically. Something happened to change their diets (although male mosquitoes, some ticks and spiders still suck plant juices).

All these animals will be genetically reengineered again, so that:

"…the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." Isaiah 11:6-9

Was there death and suffering before Adam and Eve Sinned?

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…." Romans 5:12

Is the beginning of death applied only to the world of men or to the entire animal creation? The Bible also said:

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19-21

In keeping with the spirit of Isaiah 11, the entire creation will be renewed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. There will be no more death, no more pain, no more mourning, and no more crying. That’s the way it was in the beginning.