Question 34: Gannets lay two eggs. One of the eggs develops; the young gannet that comes out of the second egg is killed by the older one. Is it not mercilessness?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Answer: Everything is in the proper place in the universe. There is a complete balance, system and order in the creation and death of beings. Allah’s mercy and grace are observed obviously in the creation of beings and in the continuation of their lives.

The mercilessness and disorder that are put forward and claimed to exist in the universe are in the minds and hearts of evolutionists who do not actually accept a creator. In this realm, there is no randomness and mercilessness as they perceive.

Gannets (sulabassana) live in rocky areas on the cliffs facing the ocean in large colonies. Although they are seen in almost all seas, they mostly live on the North Atlantic coast. Thousands of them live together on small ocean islands. Allah created these beings with traits that enable them to spend most of their time in the seas and to breed in colonies on the coast or on the islands. They dive into the sea at a speed of 100 meters per second from a height of thirty meters. The airbags at the edge of the wings of these animals, which hit the water almost like a bullet, prevent their bodies from being damaged during this impact.

Their breeding areas are the North and South Atlantic. The existence of about 20,000 gannets on the Bass rocks in Scotland and 100,000 gannets on the island of St Kilda are reported. In a colony consisting of 200 thousand pairs, a gannet can recognize its spouse, to which it is loyal throughout life, thanks to its voice.

Gannets are about 80 cm tall and 1.5 kg in weight; they are large seabirds with a wingspan reaching 2 meters. The gannets living in the northern hemisphere lay one egg while those in the southern hemisphere lay two eggs. If that single egg is somehow wasted, they immediately lay an egg again. The young bird, which hatches after an average of 44 days, feeds itself by putting its beak into the mouth of its parents down to the throat. 80% of every 500 eggs hatch.

In those who lay two eggs, the first young bird hatches about five days before the other one. When the younger one hatches, the older one kills it if it is alive. However, if the older one dies before the younger one hatches, the younger one will replace it. In blue-footed gannets (boobies), the older one does not kill the younger one, but it grabs the food that the parents bring. If the older one does not die, or if there is not enough food for both, the younger one can die of hunger in a year.

That is the reality about gannets. The biologist Richard Dawkins, who is now an atheist evolutionist, cannot accept the death of this second young bird in his conscience and states the following for the sake of ideological propaganda: “Why does this mercilessness take place if there is a creator? Creationists should explain it.”

If you ask whether there is a need for an ecological balance and order in the universe, they will mention the necessity of such a balance and order in detail. So, how will that balance and order be achieved? If every egg hatches, or if every young bird that hatches becomes an adult gannet, will these animals, which breed geometrically, not disturb the balance of nature? There are at least a few million gannets in the world. These large birds feed on small fish. One gannet eats at least twenty fish a day. This means that one million birds eat 20 million fish a day. It is clear that this number would increase geometrically if the second young bird survived. Those who cannot accept the death of a baby bird must also explain such developments that will threaten the life of all living things. Will they lament for all eggs that do not hatch and the young birds that cannot survive?

These atheist evolutionists, who try to prove that there is no God, consider themselves engineers appointed to arrange the world. They think if everything happens according to their minds and ideas, there will be order and compassion in the universe. To poke their nose into everything like this and to object to creation, which they cannot comprehend, means to go too far.

If there is one aspect related to humans in the creation of a being, there are a thousand aspects related to its creator. The issue of environmental balance mentioned here is only one aspect of the issue. Another aspect is that this being becomes a mirror to the names of the Creator. Therefore, the length and shortness of the life of this being is not considered. It is enough for it to live for a moment instead of not living at all. This short life makes that being attain eternal life in the hereafter.

One of the issues that atheists cannot understand and comprehend is life in the hereafter. According to them, life consists of only about this worldly life. When this life is over, everything ends and disappears. According to creationists, the worldly life is very short and temporary. What is essential is life in the hereafter. The beings that live in the world even for a second will enjoy the eternal life in the hereafter. Therefore, there is no need to lament that they do not live long enough in this short worldly life. The short life of some living being smakes room for other living beings in the world and allow them to meet life, and perhaps to live for a few years longer. From this point of view, the death of those young birds without being exposed to some nutritional difficulties and tough living conditions is not mercilessness but perhaps a great favor and mercy both for them and other living things, opening the way to eternal life for more living beings.

The long life of a small number of gannets for keeping the existing environmental balance is mercy, grace and grant of Allah for the short worldly life of a large number of gannets, which guarantees eternal life in the hereafter for them. He who changes the short worldly life with eternal life will not lose and be deceived; this short worldly life is great mercy for him.

Evolutionist atheists are deprived of such an eternal and joyful life in the hereafter. Since they do not believe in Allah and in the hereafter, life in the hereafter will be torment in torment and agony in agony for them. They interpret the manifestations of Allah’s mercy and grace on these existing living beings as torment and mercilessness since they see the reflections of their life in the hereafter in a way. What they see is correct, but their interpretation is wrong. The merciless and painful life they see is a reflection of their life in the hereafter.

Both life in the world and in the hereafter are mercy in mercy and grace in grace for the believers. To be a mirror to the names of Allah and to realize that one is His work is both a great blessing and happiness. Even if the atheists are not aware of it, the Quran declares that whatever is on earth and in the heavens mention and glorify Allah and prostrate before Him:

…Whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. (al-Hashr, 24)

Seest thou not that to Allah bow down in worship all things that are in the heavens and on earth,- the sun, the moon, the stars; the hills, the trees, the animals; and a great number among mankind? (al-Hajj, 18)

That is, even though all beings including non-living beings prostrate before Allah, some people are deprived of it. They must be the atheists who do not know Allah and claim that He does not exist, that everything is random and work of coincidence and nature, and who try to make young people irreligious in the name of science.

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