Whales Write Songs

Psalm 148:7
“Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:”

Most of us have heard recordings of whales singing. Scientists have not yet learned to understand the whale’s language, but they have identified individual verses in whale song. Now they are more convinced than ever that whale song is a sophisticated language.

Whale song is made up of complex and stylized compositions, many of them longer than the longest of human symphonies. A single whale song can last up to 22 hours! Scientists have learned that humpback whale songs change a lot from year to year. Yet each humpback in an entire ocean will always sing the same song as the others. Scientists wondered how whales could keep the verses straight since the song changes so often.

Researchers have concluded that whales, like human beings, use rhyme to help remember their songs. Biologists studying whale song report that they have identified the same sub-phrases turning up in the same positions in verses that are next to each other. Whales apparently compose their long songs with rhymes, making them possibly the greatest poets on earth!

Evolutionists tell us that language is such an advanced development that even the first human beings could do no more than grunt and growl. And yet the whale not only has a sophisticated language but also creates poetry. Christians can comfortably put evolution aside to realize that the Bible is right when it says that the whole creation praises God. And whales make it very clear that the Creator Himself is the author of language – not some caveman.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, one of Your greatest gifts to us is language because through it we learn of Your love for us in sending Your son, Jesus Christ, to save us from sin, death and the devil. With that in mind, help me to be a good steward of the gift of language in praise and witness to You. Amen.

Notes:
Science Frontiers, July Aug. 1989. p. 2. Newsweek, Mar. 20. 1989. p. 63.