elegant and fascinating of our large insects. One is Megarhyssa , which para-
sitizes wood wasps ( Siricidae ) by penetrating logs to reach the host which
lives deep in the tree trunk, an amazing feat of intricate precision.
Finally, and very importantly, life among these nonhumans is not nearly
all confl ict. We are now seeing that cooperation, commensalism, symbio-
ses, and other “positive” relational behaviors are crucial for evolution. It is
now certain that no organism functions alone. All require very close asso-
ciation with other organisms, often very distantly related ones, for their
very survival. A recent paper from the laboratory of Margaret McFall-Ngai
summarized this thinking and will probably be of historical importance to
the next large change in thinking about the nature and evolution of life
on this planet. It emphasizes the nearly universal importance of intimate
associations between multicellular organisms, including humans, and our
microbiological partners. 11
We can try to divide all of these biological phenomena into “good” and
“bad,” into stuff we like and stuff we fi nd disgusting, into things we fi nd
delightful and things we fi nd cruel, into things that give good moral les-
sons and things that teach us what we should avoid doing, but that really
makes little sense. It certainly makes no sense whatsoever biologically nor
do I think it makes sense theologically.
C REATION UNDER LIMITING CONDITIONS
Death is a consequence of material limitations probably caused by rebel-
lion in spiritual reality (see below, especially references to Levenson and
Boyd). This material reality that we inhabit has some real limitations.
The big one is that there is only a certain amount of it—only a limited,
though vast, amount of matter. Imagine that to end up with one planet
on which could evolve one material species that could be given moral
sense and thus the ability to communicate with an altogether loving
Creator, required an investment of the vast majority of this matter as
nonliving stuff. 12 The tiny remainder was available for living things and
they subsequently evolved, leading to human beings. Now, with matter
being severely limited, and given that all living things share the same
atoms with all other living and nonliving things, biological life must be
recycled—death must occur. Put another way, the limitations on matter
mean that living things cannot go on reproducing and consuming for-
ever. Living things must individually die or stop reproducing and con-
suming. It’s an unyielding equation.
302 B. K. (BEV) MITCHELL