Do we believe that all things came from nothing, that there is no God, and no preexisting intelligence that designed all things, and that intelligent life is just a byproduct of evolution? As life as we know it originates from seed, can the genetics that control it provide evidence to make a case for a creator? Within a tiny seed planted in the ground, a complex and enormous tree can grow with a programmed system to reproduce itself continually. I believe in that replicating mechanism of life is a fingerprint of an intelligent designer. The intelligence we see in the seed that controls its physiology isn’t a byproduct of its evolution, but the other way around. Seed is the byproduct of intelligence.
I chose the name for this Blog based on the assumption that seed is a tool of the creator to program into a small biological chip all the information needed to reproduce any living thing He desires to create. The reproductive process can replicate through the joining together of the seed of two living beings much like the creation account in Genesis 1. See the post Foundations in Genesis.
In the New Covenant seed is referred to as the vehicle from which our material and spiritual life is provided for. The inference is that we are dependent on God, the creator of all things as the source for the supply and reproduction of all our needs.
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 2 Corinthians 9:10-11
In the Genesis account of creation, it speaks of the seed of vegetation, the seed of animals and the seed of man[1]. From vegetation man has learned how seed is taken from a fruit producing plant, planted in the soil, nurtured to maturity, and harvested. Grain is the harvested seed of grasses such as wheat, oats, rice, and corn that are of life sustaining food. From the grain gathered from wheat for example we’ve learned to grind it to fine flour and make bread to sustain life.
What does science tell us about seed?
Farming techniques had progressed through crossbreeding for many thousands of years until recent years as research has opened our understanding to the presence of DNA within the cell and how it functions in reproduction. Now we can reengineer the genome, the genetic code that instructs the replication of DNA, bypassing traditional methods of crossbreeding, and modify the characteristics of a plant or animal to produce greater productivity, quality, and its ability to survive.
When breeding plants or animals two parents are cross bred to produce modified offspring that possess the best characteristics of the two. Our ancestors practiced selective breeding by visually choosing the plants with the most beneficial traits called phenotypic selection. Parent plants with the most valuable traits like flavor, texture, and adaptability, are selected and continually improved through generations of breeding. Today phenomics has evolved to incorporate the analyzing of the genes of a plant to produce the most beneficial outcome. This is called genotyping which allows breeders more unique insights into creating new genetic combinations.
Genetic modification of seed utilizes technology to add a specific stretch of DNA into the plant’s genome, giving it new or different characteristics. The seeds produced by these modified plants will inherit the new DNA.
Farmers then work with a nucleus seed that has all the characteristics that the breeder has modified into it for greater genetic purity. A breeder seed is then produced of 100% genetic purity to create a foundation seed that is genetically pure to 98%.
Are we intelligent designers or re-designers?
All the developments to create better results throughout the millennium have come through human observation and intelligent modifications. From perception to modification, the greater success of the plant and crop is the result of experiment and design.
In the post Foundations in Genesis the example of the creation is a template for mankind as we have been made in the likeness of God. We can perceive in our conscious mind and create in the material but only with the material as we have been given. We can now enter the process of the seed and re-engineer and recreate, not create. We can change the course of life from the material realm we live in but not create the material and life from nothing. We can’t speak life it into existence like God, but we are beginning to intelligently unravel the mysteries of life and understand the mechanics.
Scientific research has begun to open the door to understand life and origins. The mechanics within a seed reveals the intelligence that formed it and programmed it to continually reproduce itself.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. Genesis 1
Science either reveals the workings of God as creator in the Genesis account or dispels it as a myth. The question remains; is the biblical narrative true and humankind been made to reproduce the image and likeness of the creator?
And God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over… And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. Genesis 1:26-27
[1] Genesis 1:11-12; 4:25; 7:2-3