Creationism, Evolution, and the Common Cuckoo in England

Posted by John Blatchford Oct 11, 2009

The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is having a hard time in England, with only an estimated ten to twenty thousand pairs left in the year 2000 – about a 60% drop since the 1960’s.

The cause might a reduction in insect numbers, either as suitable insect food for the cuckoos, or as food for the Dunnocks, Meadow Pipits, and Reed Warblers that cuckoos usually choose as hosts (cuckoos are brood parasites – laying their eggs in the nests of other birds).

Whatever the reason for the worrying crash in the cuckoo population, it is almost certainly due to human activities.

Creationism and Evolutionists

Creationists would probably see the Common Cuckoo as a bird specially created for life in England, while those who believe in evolution by natural selection would understand it as a species that has evolved over time to fill a niche in the English countryside.

Human Activities and Species Decline

Maybe creationists would see human beings as having every right to influence their environment in a way that is detrimental to other creatures, and maybe evolutionists would see human beings as just one more species – one capable of influencing the distribution (and in many cases survival) of other others. But surely the real issue is that mankind is impoverishing the natural environment – whichever view is held.

Our grandchildren, or their children, might well grow up in a land where the cuckoo rarely heralds the English spring, and they will certainly see fewer wild species than our parents and grandparents.

In my own view this is something to be taken very seriously indeed. While it can be argued that humans have always exerted a similar effect on their immediate environment, that environment now spans the globe. Pollution is worldwide, habitats are being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate, and climates are changing.

• If all life was created specially, then we are systematically destroying a large part of it.

• If all living things evolved gradually over time, then we are changing the environment too fast for most species to adapt.

Mass extinction due to human activities is very close, and – however the living world came to be – there is little time to address the problem. The creationist/evolutionist debate pales into insignificance in the face of this crisis.