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I have to tell someone this little thought that came into my head the other day. Unfortunately for you, BookTalk members, I felt you might be the only people that might have the slightest interest in my observation! I was helping wash my car the other day. I found myself trying very hard not to step on the many caterpillars crawling about. A few times I worried over stepping on what I thought was a caterpillar, but was instead that caterpillar-looking thing that carries pollen from oak trees. Now, some of you are already onto my next leap. I considered the idea that these two events (caterpillars crawling about and oak pollen vectors laying about) were not accidental. I wondered if the timing of the caterpillars might have co-evolved with the timing of those caterpillar-looking pollen things. Birds may just mistake those pollen vectors for caterpillars, just as I did. I thought it was kind of cool that I realized this possibility for the first time in my life. Yes, people, that is it! That is my big revelation! I hope some of you will find it interesting!

That's very interesting and I think is a valid observation. Creative 'lies' by creatures ensure their genes survival. Google it and see if you find anything. I'm sure some evolutionary biologists would love to study this.

tarav wrote:. Yes, people, that is it! That is my big revelation! I hope some of you will find it interesting!

Better than my announcements around here, I'm sure! I do think it's pretty neat. We could have a thread called "Discoveries."

The New Yorker Digital Reader : Feb 05, 1955 Some geometrid caterpillars are able to camouflage themselves by sticking ... flaps of flesh that make them look like oak tassels; they're devils to spot. ...
archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=16998&startpage=page0000024

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You guys are awesome! I knew this was the place to go with my little revelation--lol!
Interbane, it brought a little smile to my face to read your comment about the idea that biologists would want to study that! That is flattering. I wish I could do it!
Bill, you're right this should be our "Discoveries" thread. We can have our very own BookTalk HMS Beagle! I hope people will post their observations.
Thomas Hood, you took Interbane's advice and googled the topic for us! I am thankful to you for that post, because now I can stop calling those things, "caterpillar-looking oak pollen vectors" and call them "oak tassels"!

DWill wrote: I do think it's pretty neat. We could have a thread called "Discoveries."

I like this idea. "Observations" would also make a good title for such a thread.

Saffron wrote:

DWill wrote: I do think it's pretty neat. We could have a thread called "Discoveries."

I like this idea. "Observations" would also make a good title for such a thread.

In the abstract it's a good idea. But I need something to report on, an observation to make, and I can't think of one as good as Tarav's. But I'll try this: I was riding a bile along about 25 miles of the C & O Canal in Maryland last weekend, looking at one point at a 40-foot vertical cut in the rock face. I was trying to imagine how long it must have taken for those strata to be laid down, then I thought of people who believe the age of the earth is 6000 years. Well, how much of just that rock face could have been produced in 6000 years? A foot or so? Less? Then I thought about the implausibility of such a belief and how people could manage it. It's not brainwashing or anything like that. It occurred to me that, paradoxically, it's the very unliklihood of such a belief being true that could attract someone. There can't possibly be a person who is unaware of geologic processes such as erosion and sedimentation, and the immense time scale along which they occur. Yet if you want to believe that your God can do anything, the seemingly impossible, then believing in young earth creatioinism makes him that much greater in stature. It becomes a wonder. A few hundred years ago, by contrast, there would be no wonder felt in a 6000-year-old earth; that was just the simple fact provided by someone who calculated it somehow using the Bible. Thanks for listening.

Bill said,

It occurred to me that, paradoxically, it's the very unliklihood of such a belief being true that could attract someone.

That is a good observation about the minds of people who want to believe in miracles and such. The performer of the miracle is just that much more powerful, the more impossible the feat is!