Tapestry of Life

Charles Darwin believed in competition and external "pressures" in the "struggle for life", and his followers have continued that motif. This is wrong. Evolutionism is an Eastern religion at its source, and other Eastern ideas talk about the "interconnectedness of all things". This is a bit more correct. In reality, our Creator designed living things to work together.

Credit: RGBstock / Andreas Krappweis

We have microorganisms living in us to benefit our health, and there are many instances of symbiosis, large and small in nature. Trees actually communicate and work together for survival more than they compete. People and animals are designed to have companionship. Speaking of trees, let's take another look at forests for some insight. Not just trees, but other living things there — and elsewhere. It's a tapestry, or a web of life, that is larger and more intricate than we can imagine. In fact, life is irreducibly complex, all the way down to the nitrogen cycle.

Ecology is the study of relationships. Through it we catalogue and explain how organisms relate with each other and with their nonliving environments. Ecosystems are the places where these relationships flourish, including both the living and nonliving elements of the environment.

These relationships express themselves in many ways, such as the division of labor in each ecosystem. Each organism contributes what are called ecological services, providing essential food or clean water, regulating chemicals or temperature, and otherwise supporting the health of nearby creatures. The ways these duties are efficiently divided seem intentionally designed, and every creature has an important role in the whole ecosystem.

To read the entire article or download the audio version, click on "Seeing the Forest amid the Trees — The Web of Life".


Goodbye, Ray. Your music touched me.