PLANTS: The Glory of God is Intelligence

When God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was not as an observer to freeload off Gods generosity, but in order for them to be an active participant in caring for the garden.   Even though it was not necessary for the garden’s survival God commanded us to tend and take care of it (Moses 3:15). This commandment prepared man for the similar but far more arduous task that Adam and Eve were to face when they were cast outside of the Garden to eventually become caretakers for all of Gods creations.  God was preparing Adam for this lifetime responsibility.

The planting of seeds through the earth and God’s individual commandments to each plant that they multiply and create seed to fulfill the measure of their creation is dependent not only on natural resources such as water from God but also on the direct action of man.   God remains the creator, but the implication is that without man to act as a caretaker plant life would be unable to fulfill its measure of creation.   Man must depend on the resources that God has given him, but the vegetation is also dependent on both God and man.

I am not suggesting that God is incapable of looking after the garden Himself or any other part of creation without man’s help, but rather that God designated the care of the garden to be man’s commandment, his work.

President Joseph F. Smith said “love of nature is akin to the love of God” He reminded the members of the LDS Church that “men learn more easily in sympathetic relationships of all life than they do in the seclusion of human interest.”

All living things—mankind, animals, and plants—were spirits before any form of life existed upon the earth (Gen. 2:4–5; Moses 3:4–7).  Every living thing (plant, animal, human) is spoken of as having a soul (Moses 3:9, 19). 

Do all of Gods spiritual creations or souls come with intelligence?  Intelligence is defined as the light of truth which gives life and light to all things in the universe.  Currently, scientists are studying plant intelligence and finding amazing results in the ways plants communicate to each other, insects, and us.

Darwin was one of the first to publish an observation he had of the root radical (the tip of the first root of a seed). In his book, The power of movement in plants he found a region in the radical that seemed to be showing similar hormones and activity to human thought.  He suggested that plants have an intelligence similar to the lower levels of insects. 

Researchers from all over the world have since studied this science.  In the 70’s the most popular, yet controversial book was published.  The Secret Life of Plants by Tompkins and Bird was filled with research trials that were very supportive of the idea that plants could not only think, but can feel and express themselves.  My Favorite of this research was one of Cleve Backster’s experiments involving a police telegraph machine, two common house plants, and a mean student.  He concluded that plants could possibly identify a murderer in a police lineup.   This research and many others have been attempted to be replicated by academia with insignificant results.  Many plant scientists that continue research in this field claim The Secret Life of Plants  was very damaging to their field of study.  It has been decades since the Plant Science world discredited the New York Best seller.   But the romanticism of the book continues in many of, I will say, our hearts.  I still think there is some validity to the books claims... mostly because I want there to be.  However, the science community abandoned any further research and has been extremely skeptical of any further attempts to study this area.

In 2005, researchers in Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and America, had the first ever International Conference of Plant Neuorbotany.  One such researcher, Stefano Mancuso has this point of view. Human grossly underestimate plants because they process and move so slowly.  Or the inverse of that we move so quickly.  They may move slowly but they move and respond in a knowing way, no matter how long it takes them to do so.

Much research is now showing us the amazing life of plants their abilities to call in predatory insects to feed on pests, the abilities to warn neighbors, the movement away from competing plants, Plants speaking to each other through sounds and a chemical vocabulary we can’t directly perceive or comprehend.  Researchers are also with new improved methods showing that Backsters research on Plant memory was not all that farfetched.  Interestingly enough plant will pass those memories into seeds so future generation will remember what to do. 

When most of us think of plants, to the extent that we think about them at all, we see prettiness, simple, or maybe useful.  I see creations that hold more of the mysteries of God than science can begin to understand.  Plants hold the keys to our future, they are our friends, and our responsibility.

References

Video:  

Plant Intelligence by Stefano Mancuso Ted Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/stefano_mancuso_the_roots_of_plant_intelligence

Plant Learning by Ariel Novoplansky  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aClSp71zfro

Do plants communicate with themselves?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldZK4M_RvCM

Article: 

The Intelligent Plant by Michael Pollan http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_pollan?currentPage=all

Book: 

The Secret life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird