Cornerstone Magazine: Fall 2014 Volume III Issue II | Page 10

The Oldest Tree
Lydia Yamaguchi ’13

The Gift of
Evolution
MITCH AKUTSU

“I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do,
and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and
beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too
much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself
that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have
designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express
intention of their feeding within the living bodies of
Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.”
–excerpt from a letter written by Charles
Darwin to Asa Grey, 1860
The “ichneumonidae” that Darwin refers to is a giant
family of parasitoid* wasps (about 60,000 species). Every
single one of these wasp species lays their eggs in other
organisms, usually caterpillars of moths and butterflies.
Once the eggs hatch, they eat their host from the inside out,
killing them and metamorphosing into adults to repeat the
process. It’s funny that Darwin mentions cats and mice. Yes,
cats playing with mice is cruel. But it gets worse: there’s
a protozoan called Toxoplasma gondii that, upon infecting
the brain of a mouse or rat, will cause the rodent to be
attracted to cats, making them run to their own death.
If God really is a loving God, how can these cruel
interactions exist? The question stumped Darwin, and
actually contributed to his eventual rejection of Christianity.
I don’t believe it’s our job to label things cruel or not cruel.†
Toxoplasma gondii (toxo) can only reproduce in cats. If the
cat doesn’t end up eating the toxo-infected mouse, toxo
will have no chance of survival. The same goes for the
wasps. The wasps need the nutrients just as much as the
caterpillars do, and thus, they evolved to get nutrients in an
incredibly efficient, albeit uncomfortably close, way. Why

* Ecology jargon. A parasitoid is distinguished from
a parasite in that a parasitoid will eventually be the
cause of death for its host; parasites may not be.
When discussing cruelty in this essay, I only consider nature and
biological systems. I do not address the cruelty of human behavior,
which many find easier to reconcile with the idea of a loving God.

†

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CORNERSTONE Magazine

would either organism be more entitled to the nutrients?
What does this have to do with a loving God? This is
simply how the universe works. Being upset about
these parasitic examples is analogous to being upset
about gravity causing milk to spill from an overturned
cup. Things have to die for other things to live; that’s
just how energy works in biological systems.

Things have to die for other things to live; that’s
just how energy works in biological systems.
The main idea behind Darwin’s words was to attack
intelligent design. Eaten to death in their caterpillar stage,
parasitized butterflies never have a chance to spread
their often beautiful wings. If God “designed” butterflies
in the way intelligent design purports (via manipulations
of A’s, T’s, C’s, and G’s‡ over time) would he have
designed just as many parasitoid wasps to kill them? In
this context, God seems to have contradictory intentions,
and Darwin recognized that. However, believing in the
inherently random process of evolution is not incompatible
with believing in a very close and personal God.
One of the b Y