Ever since it was noted some time ago that crows could use twigs to pry up worms from crevices, scientists have touted this as evidence that humans are not the only tool-using animals.

To figure out how they got this ability, scientists showed two birds how to use twigs to pry up worms. To be fair, they also gave another two birds twigs without teaching them anything. Lo and behold, all four birds used their “tools” with equal agility. Reluctantly, scientists concluded that the ability to use tools was not learned, but “hard-wired” into bird brains (Nature, Jan. 13, 2005).

Interestingly, birds also use twigs to build nests. So why are twigs used to pick up food regarded as “tools” while twigs used to hold up little birds are called “raw material”? Could this bias be due to the urge in some scientists to prove that humans are not unique?

Even if birds do learn to use tools, they do not make them. Humans, however, are different. They not only make tools, they make tools that can perform tasks on their own. On January 14, 2005, the Huygens probe landed on Titan, the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere, at a temperature of minus 290°F.

During the descent, with the probe slowing from 12,400 mph to 10 mph, on-board instruments did the following: 1. The aerosol collector pyrolyzer studied clouds and aerosols in Titan’s atmosphere; 2. the doppler wind analyzer evaluated winds and their effect on the probe; 3. the descent imager and spectral radiometer measured optical properties of the atmosphere and the surface and took a mosaic picture of the landing site; 4. the atmospheric structure instrument evaluated atmospheric density and wind gusts; 5. the surface science package measured the roughness of the surface and underground structures; 6. the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer studied the chemical composition of gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. All these tasks were done by tools at a “mere” distance of 805 million miles away from earth, on their own.

Obviously the ability to create and use such tools is not hard-wired into human brains as you need to go to school to learn it. Even then, not everyone grasps the concepts. Now, how do you design a brain (starting with DNA) that can develop such intricate marvels?

Everyday, new discoveries in science are making life harder for the evolutionist. Evolutionists, much to their dismay, are finding now that they must preach their message to every generation of uneducated youths because, when left alone, people tend to conclude that they are products of design, not randomness.

That should not take more than a bird brain to figure out, should it?

(Dr. Richard Yen is a cell biologist, founder of a biotech company and advisor to the West Coast Chinese Christian Conference. His website is www.drrichardyen.org.)