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The earthworm is an excellent example of economy of design
No text can better describe God’s care and concern over such a lowly creature as the earthworm, which lives most of its life in the underground darkness of the soil. There it discovers enough food to thrive, and in the process it fertilises the soil.
The earthworm is an excellent example of economy of design. Its body essentially consists of two tubes, one inside the other. The inner tube contains the worm’s simple brain, five hearts, and an intestine. The outer tube consists of two kinds of muscles covered by reddish-brown skin. One set of muscles extends along the earthworm’s body and gives the creature the ability to become shorter and thicker. Another set of muscles encircles the body and allows the worm to become longer and thinner.
The earthworm has no bones, so its body is very flexible. To move forward, the worm lengthens the front part of its body to push through the soil. Then it pulls up the rear part to “catch up” with the front. The earthworm has no legs, but does have four pairs of tiny bristles called setae located on all but the first few and last segments of its body. The setae give the earthworm traction as it moves. Mucus, the slimy substance secreted by the skin, helps the worm to slip easily through the soil. Some of the mucus rubs off the earthworm’s body and hardens the walls of its tunnels.
During daylight hours the earthworm tunnels in warm dark earth. As it eats its way along under the ground, it churns air, water and nutrients into the soil. In addition, it leaves behind its waste products, called castings, as a natural fertilizer. At night, when the hot sun has set, earthworms venture above ground to fee on vegetation.
An earthworm’s body is not cluttered with eyes, ears, and nose. It has neither lungs nor gills. Instead, it uses sensitive receptors in the skin to pick up sound vibrations and changes in light, temperature, and the chemicals in the soil. And it breathes through the pores in its skin, using the tiny pockets of air trapped between grains of sand. Only God’s creative and sustaining genius could make something so perfectly simple as an earthworm.
