Science and faith : Plant movements (part 1)

Everything in the universe is in a state of motion, almost everything moves, be it animate or inanimate, but what's the difference between the motions of each category? For example, a straw floats on water also, there are water worms that swim and look exactly like straws, what is the difference between the motions of each? What is the difference in motion between a plastic fish and a real fish? Both swim, eh?  

Actually, there is a big difference, as the straw or the plastic fish swims along the current, whereas a real fish may swim against the current, and against the gravity, a fish goes down, then upwards against the gravity, then, dive against the floating law and it goes right and left freely. 

The motion of animate creatures is made purposefully. Amid the inanimate things and creatures of nature there appeared a creature that has an ego; man came to life, to life and move according to his own laws. However an inanimate straw is controlled by the laws of environment, a straw goes with the current it has no will of its own, whereas animate creatures have their laws, according to their own will  

Animate creatures are free to go right, left, upwards or downwards, against laws of gravity that attract everything downwards, fish swim upward, right? And the floatation law attracts things upwards, but fish go downwards. Allah has the Attribute of being the Ever-Living and thus, He has bestowed life on all of his creatures, and given them the freedom to move. Thus we have got our free will and can choose.  

Scientists have made a wonderful experiment on sponges: they cut a sponge into several pieces and threw them in the sea, then every piece grew into a new sponge so, they took a sponge, cut it into 500 pieces and threw them back, Prof.Wilson made an amazing experiment, he took a sponge and ground it... he ground, minced and crushed it totally then, put the part in a mesh, with pores smaller than those of a sieve. The sponge was surely dead yet, amazingly every part passing from the mesh into the water gave rise to a new sponge. So strange! Will in magic shows magicians may cut a handkerchief into many pieces, then out of the blue, it comes out as good as new, from his sleeve. But then for the first time we learnt of a creature cut into many pieces, that were ground, crushed and minced and placed onto a mesh, yet every piece that passed into the water gave rise to a new sponge. As if the magician's handkerchief was not only as good as new, but every part yielded a new hanky, still this is beyond any magician's capability, and is the basic characteristic of life. Life goes on and rejuvenates itself through resisting environmental problems, which may act against the continuity of life.  

Nonetheless, life forms resist these aggressive, hostile attempts, by re-emerging, as they once were. Cooked peas go bad after 2 days however; peas remain fresh while raw and resist such decay. At a butcher's, meat may not in days, while my shoulders, made of flesh, have been good for 40 years, in winters and summers! My flesh is alive resisting the attempts of the environment to disintegrate it; it's a unique trait of life. Our temperature in winter, summer, spring and fall is about 37 (degree) °C., it's the same through the environment conditions isn't stable around us. All humans, mammals and all hot-blooded creatures keep their body temperatures stable in unstable conditions. So strange! Creatures have the ability to preserve themselves against harmful environmental factors, and may also, adapt to survive the changing conditions; they all want to go on living. One of the Attributes of Allah is “The ever-Living", and thus. He's bestowed on the ability to survive. So, Allah has bestowed on man this characteristic the ability to go on living.    

Allah has many unique Attributes, and He has created man to have similar ones; creatures continue living and some of them last in life for many years. Again, the body temperature remains almost the same everywhere, and in different climates, it's always about 37(degree) C, despite changing weather temperatures. Sometimes you meet someone after 15 years and thing s/he hasn't changed, well , this is a kind of continuity of the same state; when one hasn't changed this implies that many biological processes have occurred, so that one'd look the same, otherwise one may get too overweight, or lose much weight and become emaciated. For a man to look the same without changing for 15 years, this necessitates many biological functions. An apple tree absorbs soil minerals, water, fertilizers and mud particles, and then gives us apples in the end; it makes use of the environment to give fruits. Also horses eat clover and this helps them grow; the hair of a horse's tail, the hoof, teeth and skin all are clover products! 

Also, boards eat grains, grow and reproduce. Similarly, man eats lots of things that help him grow, adding more flesh and fat to his body. That way we gain power over the environment; we eat things found in the environment, and turn them into tissues of out own. Man is not only a creature, each is known as a specific individual, this is another exclusive thing of ours, i.e.individualism and having distinguished characters. Actually, “man" is a general word, but possessing exclusive qualities makes us the people we are. If one was burnt and a doctor told him that he needed skin grafting, could the skin of any other person be readily used? No way. The doctor would tell the patient that an autograph is needed. Why? Cos homographs from another person's skin may be rejected by the recipient. Why not? Are not both humans? No that does not count! Each is a distinct individual, with their own DNA and genetic characteristics; every person differs from the other. Well a straw can be replaced by another, and a chair can be replaced, but the genetic code can't be replaced. Every one of us is made of certain, unique genetic codes. Skin grafting is easily possible, if the skin is taken from the same body, otherwise, it is rejected. This also applies to organ transplants kidney or heart, etc. we hearer about cases of failed, rejected kidney transplants; sometimes, only the patient's twin's kidney may be suitable. Matching of tissues to be transplanted must be done first. It’s a big problem. Each is a distinct individual, with their own genetic setup; God has created every human to have an exclusive DNA sequence. We are all made of proteins, yet, mine has distinct features, related to my family, and your proteins are distinguished by sequences derived from your folks. Thus, we all have our own DNA code, how amazing! This exclusiveness is incredible. We are all distinct, both in our outward appearances, and in our genetic and DNA makeup. No two persons have ever had the same fingerprints; ever since the moment when God created Adam on till now.  

There are billions of people on the earth, with almost totally different fingerprints; even twins don't have identical fingerprints. See this degree of exclusivity? But how come we are this unique? When Almighty Allah has created us, and as He is the One and Only, He's bestowed a touch of this attribute on us; each being "one" of his own. Each one of us is not only a creature; each is a unique person. This is a God-given gift, granted to us when we were created. The One Lord has bestowed on us a touch of individuality; therefore we're not only creatures, but also, distinct human beings. This is a strange phenomena about animate creatures. Note this: water makes its way up a palm tree that may be 20 meters high; against gravity. How strange! So, every creature has its own laws and rules of life, and the laws of life forms are superior to those governing inanimate objects, that are controlled by laws of gravity, Newton's laws etc, while creatures are controlled by superior laws, including phenomena of the osmotic pressure, capillarity and so forth.     

Botanists discovered amazing laws governing plants life that have superiority over the laws controlling inanimate things; e.g. water makes its way up a palm tree; 20 meters high, without a pump and against gravity. How come? By its own superior laws, granted by God gifs to His creatures. This is a very interesting point about life forms. Another strange thing about them, is the ability of “self healing"; if one is injures, some bleeding will occur, then a clot will be formed, followed by complete healing that may take a few days. This applies to all creatures; get a knife and make a cut in any tree, well after a week you'll find that the tree cells have regenerated to heal that cut.     

The human body can close and heal its wounds, and the same happens in trees, too. It happens automatically, As if God provided His creatures with an inner hospital, along with a surgeon, too! This is a very strange phenomenon; creatures have the ability to achieve self healing , in many cases, moreover , they reproduce to ensure the continuity of their species; man can't but get married and have children to carry on with his life. Man sacrifices for his children, too. There are many amazing examples to sacrifice in the world of living creatures; male bees die after copulation, and so do male ants; they die after impregnating the queen. Also a female octopus fasts after laying its eggs; it carries the eggs without eating, to preserve the young after the eggs hatch; if it ate it'd contaminate them by the excretions. So as to keep the eggs safe and sound it doesn't eat; a female octopus keeps fasting until it dies. Such sacrifices are made in order for the species to go on. This is a character found in most life forms.  

Another point is how do humans protect themselves and species? By marriage and reproduction. There is another strange thing; at the beginning of life on earth , there was neither senility nor death, death was due to outside factors; a cell would reproduce by division into two, then the two’s become four, then eight, then 6.32 and so forth. Every time a cell would grow it'd divide it grew without getting old. It would grow to a certain extent then divide , but not die; death was due to external causes, for example, when a disaster would happen in swamp; a drought, a fire, being eaten, and so on Death would come from outside the cell; no spontaneous death. A cell would grow then divide, that's how reproduction started. When did death and senility appear? They appeared with the appearance of male and female sexes.  Reproduction used to be a vegetative asexual, cells grew, divides and so on. Then males and females appeared in the animal kingdom, and as this happened, death due to inner causes came to existence. Why?  

Because a creature may as well perish after reproducing : for example, a male copulates and as the embryos grow in the female, its job is done, this it may as well grow old and eventually perish. Then death due to cellular causes came to existence, after life had used to go on for good, in the absence of external harmful agents. Once the sexes were, death due to cellular causes started. Creatures’ main biological role is reproduction, and their role in life may be over after mating, as another generation'de be born, so the older one must end. This is also, another kind of extreme sacrifices, cos life is the most precious thing that man and the other living creatures sacrifice, for the sake of coming generations. The ability to have sexual reproduction has rendered us able to improve the offspring by abstaining from consanguinity, especially after the end of sibling marriages, which would eventually lead to sterility and many other diseases. Now better generations are born due to the decline in consanguinity. When reproduction by division ended and creatures could mate, their offspring got stronger, yet death was the price to pay. When one contemplates life, one finds many through-provoking issues and concepts. For example, the plant motion, we're going to talk about now, is not merely random and haphazard. It must be a purposeful locomotion whose aim is not only to move. True, plants move to get food and sunlight or to reproduce. The same happens when I get dressed, have breakfast and go purpose to my lady; all are meaningful, purposeful and intended steps, not random ones. Sometimes, motion entails artistic scheming and cunning aims, and at times, it implies beauty and reason. Most movements are purposeful and maybe cunning, but never haphazard....(next post)

Thank you for reading 

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