An Analogy from Nature: The Dragonfly Gospel
As a biologist and a Christian, Dr. Don Bierle found an analogy about dragonflies particularly meaningful in an article by Lynn Vincent, executive editor for World Magazine.
Dragonflies begin their life as “nymphs” (bug-like and wingless) underwater, usually for one or two years. One day, an unknown stimulus prompts them to climb out of the water and begin to breathe. What follows is truly a molecular marvel, as she described:
The nymph attaches itself to a reed, splits its larval skin, and unfolds a new thorax – twice the length of the old one… Next, the nymph pushes out a dragonfly head and legs, along with two gossamer wings, which grow… quickly… before your eyes. After a 30-minute break to let its legs harden, this new creature warms up its wings and launches on its maiden flight.
The entire process takes just three hours.
There is not even a pupal stage providing for an extended transformation process of the entirely new self that emerges. (By contrast, think of a caterpillar metamorphosing inside its cocoon.)
How do evolutionists explain this with only chance as a means? When Vincent asked Michael Behe, a Lehigh University biochemist, this question, Behe referred to the answer given in a 2019 research paper: “We propose that the final moult, and consequent hemimetabolan metamorphosis, is a monophyletic innovation.” What?! Vincent interpreted the language of the research as saying, “When your theory is weak, dazzle ’em with jargon.” Dr. Behe also commented on this: “Propose means they don’t know, and that nobody before them knew either.”
Vincent calls this the “dragonfly gospel.” She wrote,
This is what you were, God seems to be saying: hiding, crawling around in the dark. And this is what you are: a new creation soaring in the light, beautiful in My sight.
This looks and sounds more like Intelligent Design than chance! Dr. Bierle said he was reminded of what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is definitely Good News!
Source: World Magazine, “The dragonfly gospel,” Lynn Vincent, October 8, 2022, page 24
