I attented the September ’08 meeting of the Kanawha Creation Science Group recently, where we screened and discussed Dr. David Menton’s video, “The Hearing Ear and the Seeing Eye.” The video lecture gets it’s title from Proverbs 20:12:
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made both of them.”
Dr. Menton apologized at one point that those who’d agreed to have the lecture wanted him to make it not only boring, but informational as well! This video was truly jam-packed with information about the irreducibly complex mechanisms God created to give us sight and hearing! Sometimes it was almost too overwhelmingly technical. But it was worth the time to get an overview of how well-designed and complex these organs are.
One of the things that struck me was an aside about the lobster’s ears and how the lobster goes about re-asserting its balance whenever it molts. The following synopsis was taken from the Creation Instruction Association‘s website:
“Our sense of balance is regulated by fluid that seeks its gravitational balance as well. There are also hair cells within this that can register the movement of this fluid with the aid of little rock-like structures that react to gravity and pull the hairs down etc. Without these, we would have no sense of balance. Even lobsters have stones in their ears. When they shed their skeleton they actually lose these stones and, therefore, lose their sense of balance. To overcome this, they somehow know that they need to stuff bits of sand into their ear after shedding their shell (who told them to do this?). Gravity causes the sand to fall into this chamber than the hair registers this and he has balance again. One could do an interesting science experiment. Take a crawfish or lobster and keep it in a tank. When it sheds its shell make sure there is no sand or gravel in the tank. Then put iron filings in the tank. Once the lobster inserts them into his ear, a simple magnet can cause it to lose all sense of orientation.”
Another proof of the Intelligent Designer’s agency! Praise be to God!
The Kanawaha Creation Science Group will next meet on October 2nd, the day before the Kanawha Creation Science Conference, at 7:00 PM at Greater Things Fellowship.
Directions to Greater Things Fellowship:
Exit I-64 at Exit 56 (Montrose Drive), turn left on Kanawha Turnpike, make a right at the second street (Tremont Street), turn right at the end of this street onto Highland Avenue. The church is on the left near the end of Highland Avenue.
*The general meeting of the KCSG is the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m., also at Greater Things Fellowship and includes a speaker or Creation presentation.
Defending Genesis 
You know, pointing out that something is complex isn’t the same as showing that it must have been designed.
How do lobsters know to put sand in their ears? There’s a field of psychology called evolutionary psychology that attempts to explain some features of the mind, such as ingrained behaviour, as evolutionary adaptions.
Now I’ll admit right up front that there’s a lot of controversy surrounding this- many areas of human pschology in particular have been explained away as holdovers from our evolutionary lineage with little or no evidence (or sometimes even common sense).
Regardless, inherent behaviour doesn’t automatically need a designer to explain. It’s fairly easy to envision how certain behaviours could be selected for in much the same way that physical traits are.
By the way, I was researching this (I do that) and, unwary of jumping to conclusions and declaring lobster ears to be proof of natural selection’s agency (praise be to Darwin) I E-mailed a lobster research institute to ask them how lobsters learn to inserts sand into their ears. I’ll be sure to share their reply.
Sirius, you amuse me with your statements (this is a good thing). I enjoy learning from your point of view and the way you use language is great. Not only do I laugh, but I learn. I just started reading and studying this part of science (I am a psychologist so there are different things I study) and it is amazing how many fairy tales are published as truth. Thanks again for your posts.
God Bless
V