Creation Moments

Mark W. Cadwallader: Evolution discovers Asian spiders with structural engineering degrees. Find out more next on today's Creation Moment. And now, here's our Creation Moment host, Ian Taylor.

Ian T. Taylor: For over a century, scientists have wondered about the embellishments that at least 78 species of spiders weave into their webs. The extra bars and X's seem to have no obvious purpose. Some have suggested that they might be hiding spots, sun shields, bird warnings, or insect lures. Now, a researcher at the University of Kyoto may have discovered the purpose of these designs. If he is right, evolutionary theory may be the victim of one of these spiders' webs. The Asian spider he studied builds two different types of web. When it is well fed, this spider adds silk bands around the web spokes.

However, when this spider is hungry, it arranges these bands so that they spiral towards the center of the web. After testing the tension in both web types, he discovered that the webs with the spiral bands are much more sensitive to even the smallest insect than the banded webs. In other words, the hungry spider is looking for any insect it might eat. The full spider is only interested in larger insects. The question is, how could mindless evolution give these spiders the knowledge of structural engineering needed to create these designs? In addition, according to the evolutionary tree for spiders, this knowledge would have evolved at least nine times.

A much more logical and straightforward explanation is that the creator gave spiders this knowledge when he made them.

Mark W. Cadwallader: To receive a free copy of our resource catalog stuffed with creation products, articles, tracks, puzzles, and more, call us toll-free at 1-800-42 BIBLE. That's 1-800-422-4253. And be sure to join us next time for another Creation Moment, proclaiming evidence of God's truth.