Kepler’s Kind

Kepler at a campground in his own fireside chair. He watches everything, not wanting to miss anything.

We’ve had our Jack Russell terrier puppy for 3 1/2 months now, and we’re thoroughly enjoying him. Kepler is a smart little fellow and has learned many things.

We named the puppy Kepler for the Biblical creationist, mathematician, and astronomer Johann Kepler (1571-1630) who discovered the three Laws of Planetary Motion.

The Dog Kind

Kepler is one of over 200 different dog breeds, not including all the mixes and mutts. Dogs range from tiny Chihuahuas to horse-size Great Danes with numerous different colors, markings, fur types, and barks. The tremendous variety Yahweh built into the Dog kind is absolutely amazing. All the genetic variety observable today was present in Noah’s two dogs on the Ark.

I find it very interesting how Kepler can recognize the Dog kind regardless of the particular dog. Of all the dogs we meet at campgrounds, from the smallest purse dogs to huge Great Danes, Kepler knows they are dogs. He demonstrates a laser-beam interest in watching any dog, plus an urgent pull to interact. No other critters provoke that response from him. Kepler even recognizes dogs on TV and in videos; he’s instantly interested when a dog appears on the screen or he hears a bark. He approaches dog statues as if they are live dogs until sniffing informs him otherwise.

Recently he saw a deer in a neighbor’s yard and was skittish, but he’s never that way with dogs. No matter what they look like or how fierce they act, he always wants to meet and sniff them.

Kepler strains to meet Drew & Martha,
two Jack Russell – Beagle mixes

Nobody taught Kepler to recognize the Dog kind. Yahweh built that into his DNA to reveal His glory in the little dog.

How does this reveal Yahweh’s glory? Well, the natural question is, how does Kepler know how to recognize all kinds of dogs? That raises the issue of who created dogs and instilled this capability. It points to the dogs’ Creator.

Nobody has the slightest idea how DNA codes for a dog to recognize other dogs as dogs. And nobody knows how to modify the code to make a dog “recognize” some other animal, like a deer, as its same kind. The DNA code is still far beyond man’s full comprehension. Yahweh does many things to confound man’s so-called “wisdom” and thereby display His glory.

Yahweh is the Great Creator who made a pair of dogs on Creation Day 6. He programmed into their DNA all the traits man so appreciates, and arranged for them to reproduce only “after their kind” (Genesis 1:24-25). Evolutionists fail to understand this “after their kind” foundational principle that Yahweh established at Creation. They try to figure out where dogs came from, believing they developed out of other kinds of “simpler” animals. This never happened.

Man’s sin nature inherited from Adam has sometimes blocked his ability to recognize his own kind as dogs do. There are many cases throughout history, like the Jews in Nazi Germany and the aborigines in Australian, in which men classed others as subhuman and murdered them. In many cases this was based on and justified with an evolutionary world view.

Kepler’s namesake, Johann Kepler, believed that God created the universe according to a logical plan that man could ascertain through the application of his God-given reasoning powers. Professor Kepler described his own scientific research and study of the universe as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” His study of the heavens led him to proclaim,

“Great is God our Lord, great is His power and there is no end to His wisdom. Praise Him you heavens, glorify Him, sun and moon and you planets. For out of Him and through Him, and in Him are all things….. We know, oh, so little. To Him be the praise, the honor and the glory from eternity to eternity.”

As a friend commented, the world-famous scientist Johann Kepler would be happy to know that he continues to glorify God through a little dog — at campgrounds — under the heavens.

Questions to Ponder

1. Do you have a pet who stirs your admiration of the Creator? What remarkable behaviors or traits have you noticed?
2. What examples have you seen of Yahweh displaying His glory through confounding man’s so-called “wisdom”?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the second article in a series of blog posts on our Jack Russell terrier Kepler.
Read the prequel:1. Why I Named Our Puppy “Kepler”

Read the sequel:
3. Kepler’s Lopsided Trade

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday November 5, 2014 A.D.

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)