Parasites in Paradise
Ryan Cox • October 26, 2021
Parasites in Paradise
“If there was no physical death or bloodshed before Adam and Eve sinned, then what did carnivorous animals eat?
What did mosquitoes drink? How do you explain parasites?”
These are some of the questions we come across, most often not from evolutionists, but from Christians trying to answer basic questions about the pre-Fall world. Now, as Dr. Sharp would teach, we can never fully understand perfection this side of the Fall. However, there are good, science-based answers for such questions.
Carnivorous Animals
It has been well established that all animals can or could at one time survive on a plant-based diet. Today we see dogs eat grass when they are sick. Fossils reveal that some ancient crocodiles were herbivores.¹ And then there is Little Tyke: a female African lion that 75 years ago refused all meat, including milk containing blood droplets. Living on a vegetarian diet, she grew up to be, according to one zoo curator, the best of her species he had ever viewed.²
So, yes, it is an observable reality that all animals could have survived on plant-based diets before the Fall when there was no pain, suffering, bloodshed, or death.
Mosquitoes
When we address the subject of mosquitoes in the Garden of Eden, most do not realize that today there are nearly 3,600 species. They ALL
feed on nectar, honeydew, and other plant juices. None of the males in any species suck blood. It is only females in some species that ever feed on blood, and the only reason for their bloodsucking is the acquisition of protein and iron for egg production.³
Yet, even that is not always necessary. Some females can produce eggs through autogenous reproduction, which is without any bloodsucking.⁴
Therefore, based on observational data, it is a reasonable assumption that in perfection, mosquitoes survived on nectar, as they do today, and females produced eggs through autogenous reproduction. There was no need for bloodsucking before the Fall.
Parasites
A parasite is one organism living on or in anther organism. They can range anywhere from animals (lice, etc.) to fungi (ringworm, etc.) to plants (mistletoe, etc.) or single-celled protozoans (malaria, etc.). Let’s take nematodes (roundworms) as an example. Estimates as to the number of species within the phylum of Nematoda
range anywhere from 25,000 to 1 million. Of those, only about 35 occur as parasites in humans.⁵ They feed on the insides of algae and bacteria while decomposing organic matter, which allows for soil fertilization. Hence, they can be found underground, in oceans, and even on mountains. One cubic meter of dirt can contain over 1 million of them, laying an estimated 200,000 eggs at one time. They are a vibrant, essential part of life on Earth.⁶
At some point in history when there was a scarcity of resources, they learned to feed upon insects that had previously transported them unharmed. The insects, like blackflies, transported them to humans, and they eventually adapted to infect people. But because of how few species do this, even evolutionists do not believe they were originally parasitic.⁷
Heart Condition
This, sadly, does not keep some from using parasites as a “reason” for rejecting our Creator God. Sir David Attenborough of the BBC responded in an interview, “There are creation legends everywhere; every society has one, all over the world. But they can’t all be true. If you want to decide what the truth is, how are you going to do it? As far as I’m concerned, you look for the evidence in the rocks and in the creatures around you… The evidence is for evolution.”⁸
What concrete evidence did he find? “…I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, that’s going to make him blind… Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child’s eyeball? Because that doesn’t seem to coincide with a God who’s full of mercy.”⁹
As is evident in his response, it was not a matter of scientific observation that led to his rejection of God, but rather a matter of his heart. This is a clear example, as the Apostle Paul said, of “professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
“¹⁷
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
¹⁸
being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart…
²¹
…truth is in Jesus,
²²
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self…
²⁴
and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)
Endnotes
1.
Tim Collins, “Ancient crocodiles were not fierce meat-eaters but survived on a diet of PLANTS, study finds”, UK Daily Mail, 27 June 2019, <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7188337/Ancient-crocodiles-survived-diet-PLANTS-200-million-years-ago-study-finds.html>.
2.
David Catchpoole, “The lion that wouldn’t eat meat”, Creation
22(2): 22-23, March 2000, <https://creation.com/the-lion-that-wouldnt-eat-meat>.
3. "Mosquito”, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., ed. 23 October 2021, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Feeding_by_adults>.
4.
K. Sawabe & A. Moribayashi, “Lipid Utilization for Ovarian Development in an Autogenous Mosquito”, Journal of Medical Entomology, Vol. 37, Iss. 5, 1 September 2000, pp. 726-31.
5.
Anderson, Roy C.
Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates: Their Development and Transmission. CABI, 2000, p. 1.
6.
Scott Arledge, “Can a Merciful God Great Parasites?”,
Acts & Facts
50(8), 2000, <https://www.icr.org/article/can-a-merciful-god-create-parasites/>.
7.
Christoph Dieterich & Ralf Sommer, “How to become a parasite – lessons from the genomes of nematodes”,
Trends in Genetics, Vol. 25, Iss. 5, May 2009, pp. 203-9.
8.
"Wild, wild life”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 2003, <https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/wild-wild-life-20030325-gdghkj.html>.
9.
Ibid.
As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the renewed interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for evolutionary reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. While Blue Origin is best known for its New Shepherd rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule, this NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown through experimentation and observation to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
Moses & History (part 2)