![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dana.ucc.nau.edu\/~mm372\/fireflies.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\nThe sure sign that summer is here can be seen out many windows right now: fireflies<\/a>, or \u201clightning bugs<\/a>\u201d as we used to call them. Their luminescence<\/a> is one of the mysteries of biology<\/a>, not to mention evolution<\/a> more specifically. And thus the firefly nicely illustrates the problems created by the \u201cGod of the gaps\u201d approach \u2013 i.e. appealing to God as the explanation for all the things we cannot currently explain.<\/div>\n
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Not only do gaps in our knowledge and understanding get filled, but they also get separated from one another. Now that we can conduct genetic analysis, there is no longer any doubt about the evolutionary relationships between different insects, and given enough time, presumably scientists with the necessary technology could make incremental changes that could have come about naturally and reconstruct each step along the evolutionary pathway. So now, rather than the firefly<\/a> being but part of a larger inexplicable mystery, the firefly\u2019s glow is an island of mystery in a well-researched and often well-understood field.<\/div>\n
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