Page 16 - The Miracle in the Spider

16 THE MIRACLE IN THE SPIDER

here are hundreds of species of spiders in the world. These
small animals can appear to us sometimes as a construction
T engineer capable of performing calculations for building its
nest, sometimes as an interior designer making complicated plans,
sometimes a chemist making incredibly strong and flexible threads,
deadly venoms, and dissolving acids, and sometimes as a hunter using
the most cunning tactics.
Despite their numerous superior characteristics, nobody in his
daily life even bothers to think what special creations spiders are.
According to this underestimation there is nothing surprising in the
existence of spiders, nor in that of anything else. But this is a
completely mistaken way of thinking. Because, as we begin to learn
more about spiders, as about the behaviour of all creatures, examining
for example their methods of hunting, reproducing, and defending
themselves, we find ourselves face-to-face with characteristics that fill
us with awe.
In nature all living things adopt behaviour patterns that require
intelligence in order to live their lives. These behaviour patterns, that
underlie skills, proficiencies and superior planning capabilities, have
one thing in common. Each and every one necessarily requires ability.
Skills that a human being can master only by learning, and gaining
proficiency and experience, already exist in these living creatures from
the moment they are born. The later parts of this book consist of
questions which need to be answered: how these abilities, which will
be described in some detail, came about, and how living creatures
learned them. These living things, acting in accordance with such
highly intelligent blueprints, hunting with such calculation, and when
necessary, behaving like chemical engineers, knowing what material to
produce in a particular situation, really baffle scientists who study
them. So much so that even evolutionist scientists admit that the
cleverest living creatures have characteristics necessitating
intelligence. Scientist Richard Dawkins, despite the fact that he is an