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Archer Fish

Archer fish can calculate
trajectories when spitting at
their prey. They are as great
at killing those whom they combat
with minute missiles made of spittle
as humans when they go ballistic.
which proves that we should not belittle
such little creatures as simplistic,
but praise the Lord who taught them trig
and calculus far better than
we know when we attempt to zig
and zag away from missile man.
God programmed them to spit while we
are programmed for much higher skills,
like science, art and poetry,
regarding anyone who kills
a fellow man as very wicked,
unless he's wearing uniform,
in which case he has won a ticket
to act as archer fish perform.

The Archer Fish, renowned for being able to shoot down insects with a well-aimed spit of water, is also adept at calculating just where its prey will fall. In fact, researchers have found that the fish starts sprinting towards the landing spot within 100 milliseconds of a hit—a reaction time twice as fast as the average human’s. And unlike humans, in that time the Archer Fish has already extracted all the information needed to predict the insect’s trajectory. So, not needing any further visual cues, the fish charges straight to the point where its victim will hit the water. In contrast, outfielders in games like baseball or cricket keep their eye on the ball, running in a curved path as they keep track of its flight. That means running further, which takes longer. Said one researcher, ‘The Archer Fish would be the better outfielder. This means the Archer Fish’s brain is capable of complex mathematics (trigonometry and calculus) . But the programming required for this calculation is very advanced, and would also be useless unless it was fully functional. Since one never sees natural processes giving rise to programmed information, the fully-formed program is evidence of an intelligent Programmer who programmed the original kind from which today’s Archer Fish is descended. As with all living things, each generation is programmed to pass on the original program, with the ability to vary within its own kind. But no new programs ever arise. All things reproduce ‘after their kind’ as Genesis indicates (in addition to showing brilliant design) .

1/2/07

poem by Gershon Hepner
Added by Poetry Lover
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