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Some religious folks counter with: Did God leave heaven, come to earth, and make life? Did God bring or send seeds and the eggs and the embryos for each different species now found on earth and plant, or did God have angels them plant them on earth? Was Noah's ark a scriptural analogy - a story of events on earth that parallel how life is dispersed through the universe?
Again, I am as certain earth and life on earth is not an accident of nature, as I am about any of the geology or geophysics I've spent my career studying. I am convinced it is statistically impossible for life to be a chance event within the astrophysical and geological framework of earth and our solar system, as we currently understand them.
I have concluded life requires thought, and the words which follow thought. I find the words in John 1:1 extremely compelling: "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In addition to spiritual confirmation, which only comes as an answer to sincere prayer, I anticipate there are patterns to answer these tough questions are in the data, in the information, in the knowledge, in the faith, in the works, and in the wisdom mankind has amassed over the centuries, and is currently collecting
faster than ever before. And from a scientific standpoint I expect most of these answers will found in the DNA and RNA and proteins and metabolism and reproduction and ability to adapt found in the various forms of life on earth.
Of microorganisms, plants, and animals, mankind most
consciously interacts with animals. Arthropods are the largest grouping of animals with common traits, and include insects archnids, crustaceans, and others.3.189 There are over a million species today, and a fossil record reaching back to the Precambrian geologic age. There are approximately 5,000 dragonfly species, 2,000 praying mantis, 20,000 grasshopper, 170,000 butterfly and moth, 120,000 fly, 82,000 true bug, 360,000 beetle, and 110,000 bee, wasp, and ant species described to date.3.190 There are 65,000 - 73,000 named species of Arachnids, including spiders, scorpions, and mites.3.191 There are 52,000 described species of crustaceans, including
lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, and barnacles.3.192 There are approximately 8,225 species of reptiles,3.193 6,000 described living species of amphibians,3.194 between 9,000 and 10,000 known living bird species,3.195
and approximately 5,800 species of mammals, including humans,3.196 on planet earth.
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paradoxes