The Bombardier Beetle Theory

The myth, the legend, the bug that all creationists bet their chips on to prove the existence of God as the father of creation. There are other things mind you that creationists offer as proof of a divine creator making a world of purpose. However this particular creature of our earth is highly contested. His whole construction is up for debate and everything that makes up his construction is in review.

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth. Through His spoken word, all of creation was made flesh and blood, dirt and water. Within that, I believe that science shows proof to the existence of God. What does all of that have to do with the bombardier beetle? How does the bombardier beetle fit into creation? Many creationists have argued that there is no possible way the bombardier beetle could have evolved. They state that the beetle would have blown itself up as it evolved, thus never making it into existence today.

First let’s look at what the bombardier beetle is. A beetle is any number of insects in the order of coleoptera that are characterized by hard, horny forewings that cover up and protect the wings they fly with. More specifically the bombardier beetle is of the family carabidae, or ground beetles. Beetles have 3 main parts to them, the head, the thorax and the abdomen. As earlier stated, the beetle has 2 sets of wings; the outer, hardened wing is called elytra. In many cases, the elytra of the beetle are so long that they cover up the abdomen entirely. The elytra cover and protect the membranous hind wings along with the abdomen.

Why is it called a bombardier beetle? These beetles have a built in defense mechanism against ants and other predators that allows them to shoot fluids out of their abdominal tip. Let’s focus in on the abdomen area of the beetle for this. Inside of the abdomen of the beetle are chambers that house chemicals; hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide. These chemicals produce gases within the little beetle. These chemicals, when mixed together, can paralyze or irritate the attacker causing it to back away or flee entirely from the beetle. Similar to an artillery shot. I mean, these little fellows have been recorded to shoot these fluids over 20cms. No small feat for a small bug. And they have excellent control, something you really want out of your artillery in an army.

So why doesn’t the beetle irritate or paralyze itself? Simply due to the fact that the chemicals are basically inert inside the beetle, they wont react until they are joined in another chamber of the beetle. When the beetle needs to defend itself, it forces the liquids from their respective chambers into another chamber to create benzoquinone. Study shows that this chemical produces gasses within the beetle that force the liquid out when the pressure builds up enough. Little valves inside the beetle control this. These chambers open and close to allow the chemicals to go into the combustion chamber and not flow back into their original chambers where glands are producing the fluid. When the pressure becomes great enough, the fluid is then shot out of the beetle’s abdominal tip. When the fluid comes out it makes an audible pop of sorts through a process called flash evaporation. This fluid is hot and toxic, so don’t catch one of these guys and try making mixed bombardier beetle drinks!

Still wondering how this points to creation? How is this not a normal defense mechanism created by evolution?

This is a question posed to me by a lot of people when I talk about the beetle. In truth, there is no scientific principle, no scientific method to prove things either way. You can use the beetle to argue creation or evolution. However, there are lots of things that are the same way. There is no scientific proof of evolution and no scientific proof of creation. To prove something scientifically, you have to be able to control the circumstances and make the results happen repeatedly. There is no way to repeatedly make something evolve from one state to the next.

To make it factual, you are going to need to make it happen over and over and over again. When a human is born, it comes out the way it is to be. My body was in this particular “evolutionary” state. There wasn’t anything about me that changed the face of humanity; my children didn’t turn into the next stage of evolution either. They have the same eyes as I do, the same reflexes, the same body structure. There are oddities at times, I cannot and will not deny that. They are however outside of the norm. They are not the rule; the whole of humanity does not change into those oddities.

If God created it, as I believe, then why did He give it a defense mechanism? It shouldn’t have needed one in the perfection of creation that was the Garden of Eden. I’m sure that it didn’t. To me, the answer lays in the angels of God.

Angels do not have free will as man does. It is one of the reasons that God created man, so that something of free will would choose to worship the Lord. Satan and 1/3^rd of the angels were cast out of heaven. Why? They didn’t have free will do disobey God, however Satan wanted to be higher than God, more exalted. He thought he was better than God. What happened to cause the 1/3^rd to get cast out with him? My closest guess is that they agreed with Satan. He was the master of music in heaven, maybe that 3^rd was under his influence or they were in his division of angels that he had charge of. The angels worship the Lord because they have to. Yet these angels, the 3^rd cast from heaven with Satan, are the same that roam around tormenting and deceiving the people of earth, the demons that we see.

This leads me to say that the ability torment was in their nature, just not something that God allowed them to do prior to kicking them out. The same is said of the bombardier beetle. The nature was there already, its purpose different than what it is today. Vultures and chickens are scavengers. That doesn’t mean that they scavenged before the fall of man, but rather after the fall, this nature was already in them. Look at the serpent that deceived Eve. The serpent in and of it’s self was a crafty little guy, he didn’t come to be what he is today though until the fall happened. I feel these natures were already there, suppressed by the perfection of Eden, and designed by God to perpetuate life and death in the event of sin. As a creator He knew what would need to be inside of something like the bombardier beetle.

So the beetle, evolution or creation? You decide