If Animals Could Talk
by Werner Gitt (Braunschweig) and
Karl-Heinz Vanheiden (Hammerbrucke)
Distributed by Master Books
Foreword
Animals have very efficient communication systems, which they use to converse with one another. Nevertheless, they are not able to speak to us in human language. So we have projected ourselves into them, and we have made ourselves their "mouthpieces". That's the reason for the title of the book: "If Animals Could Talk" .But if animals could tell us about themselves, using our scientific knowledge, if they could tell us about the way they live, the special way they are made and many details about their individual design -what they would say would be unique praise to the Creator. We have therefore chosen certain animals and would like to speak for them in order to show something of the great Creator Himself: the rich treasure of His ideas, His joy in creating, His love for beauty in form and colour, His painstaking care - and finally, His love for humankind and His desire to save us through Jesus Christ.
The book is written in a way that would present each individual animal of a particular species as an imaginary dialogue partner for the reader. Each animal deals with questions that might arise, and answers them in this hypothetical conversation. Through this method, the material is presented in a narrative form and we hope - in a lively and entertaining way. We have not tried to skip difficult topics, but have tried to deal with them in the same narrative way, and make them accessible. We have often taken examples from everyday experience to clarify detail, or to show it in its proper context. We think that this method makes statistical information more comprehensive. Literary Genre: This book is neither a dry book of facts, nor a scientific treatment, but rather an engaging "dialogue" between certain creatures and us humans. While, at a superficial glance, these stories might appear to be fairy tales or fables, such an evaluation would be essentially false. Rather, we are dealing with a special literary genre which deals responsibly with factual matter, but as a stylistic tool, has animals speak for themselves, and thus describe the works of God and praise their Creator.
"But ask now the beasts,
and they shall teach thee;
and the fowls of the air,
and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth,
and it shall teach thee:
and the fishes of the sea
shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these
that the hand of the Lord
hath wrought this?
In whose hand
is the soul of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind."
(Job 12:7-10 King James Version)Through this book we are also making a stand for the protection of the animal kingdom. Mankind has received a vocation from God:
“… and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”
(Genesis 1:28).
We have therefore been appointed as administrators over the animals. We will eventually be called on by Him to give an account of ourselves in this capacity. For this reason cruelty to animals and the extermination of complete animal groups, which is often purely based on profit grounds (i.e. whales), can only be condemned.
Contents: Out of the great diversity of the animal kingdom, with more than a million different species, we have selected only a very small sample. But despite this limitation, they are all real animals, on the earth, in the earth, in the water, or in the air, that talk to us. The one exception to this is where one tiny part of the human anatomy talks to us about God’s construction principles. The facts presented have been scientifically confirmed, even if they are presented in a non-scientific form, due to the narrative style we have chosen. In order not to disturb the flow of reading by constantly referring to source literature, we have generally omitted footnotes.
Circle of Readers: We have not been writing for a specific type of reader, in terms of age, education or profession. Rather we want to be accessible to everybody – young and old, laymen as well as experts. Furthermore, the conversations will be valuable, whether the reader believes in God, or doubts His existence. Actually, we have been writing more for the “seeker” than for anybody else. We have smoothed the way for such a person, without Biblical preparation or knowledge, so that he or she can come to know the Creator personally.
Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Allan Collister and Mark Garvey who were able to devote their valuable time to the translation of this book. A special note of appreciation is due to Sarah J. Curtius, Colette Drescher and Thomas Ruchatz who edited the translation.
Werner Gitt (Braunschweig) and Karl-Heinz Vanheiden (Hammerbrücke)
Foreword to the Second English Edition
This book first appeared in Germany in 1990. It is now in its 10th edition, with 300,000 copies in circulation. In the meantime, translations have appeared in a number of languages – e.g. Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, French, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian and Russian. We are delighted to know that it has won so many friends at home and abroad. Among them have been those who have made the breakthrough in their thinking from evolution to creation, and have also found the Creator as their personal Lord.
The authors are also delighted that this book is now appearing for the second time in the English language. The first edition was thoroughly checked from a technical as well as linguistic standpoint and improved in several places. This effort was undertaken by the scientist/writer Russell Grigg (M.Sc), who works for the world-renowned organisation for creation science/research‚ “Answers in Genesis” in Brisbane (Australia). Russell is well-known to the readers of their colourful magazine, “Creation ex Nihilo” (print run > 50,000, with subscribers in over 120 countries), for his thought-provoking articles. We want to thank him most sincerely for this careful reworking of the English text.
November 1998