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Trees Again

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At the risk of beating a dead horse, Creation Moments had another talk about trees, this time the fact that trees seem to be able to communicate by way of pheromones to warn each other when gypsy moth caterpillars start to attack. Once the trees have been warned, they begin to produce as many as eight poisons that kill the caterpillars when they eat the leaves (full link is here: http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/tree-wars).

All this shows, to the creationists, that God is concerned about everything, not just humans. While I can understand this sentiment, and would expect no less from a Creator, I cannot agree for the following reason. When the creationists make this statement, it is really just a hook for creationism, not truly a statement of faith to the glory of God. What's behind this statement is an implicit argument for fundamentalist creationism, which I will always fight, in arguing for design. The facts before us are much better explained as an example of evolution, in which the trees have evolved defenses against their attackers. Were we to observe the process long enough, we would expect to see the gypsy moth caterpillars begin to evolve their own defense against the poisons that would render them harmless. Then the process would begin all over again, with the tree evolving new defenses and the caterpillars evolving resistance.

It is just one of thousands of arms races in the natural world, all of which are explained by evolution.
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