Puzzle of Horse Whinny Solved

Horses use a process known as “biphonation” in order to produce two frequencies simultaneously. According to the researchers:

They generate the lower tone by vibrating their vocal folds, similar to the way humans create sound while singing. At the same time, they create a high pitched sound by whistling inside the larynx.

Horses are the only large mammal known to be capable of whistling with their larynx (small rodents, like mice and rats, can also do it). Interestingly, Przewalski’s horses (Mongolian wild horses) also produce this whistle, but other members of the horse kind, including zebras and donkeys, don’t appear to produce both frequencies.

But, of course, the researchers give credit for this complex process to random chance evolutionary processes.

The researchers suggest that this vocal ability likely evolved so horses can communicate multiple independent signals at once.

Horses are indeed very communicative, both with their voices and with their body language and facial expressions. But this ability did not evolve.

Horses are indeed very communicative, both with their voices and with their body language and facial expressions. But this ability did not evolve (nor do the researchers have any evidence that it did!)—they only assume it did because of their evolutionary presuppositions built on a secular worldview by which they interpret the evidence (although it’s a false interpretation).

I recently shared a news article that highlighted the difference between observational and historical science in a study. Well, this article highlights the role of presuppositions and worldview: The researchers assume evolution, and they discovered that horses use biphonation to communicate; therefore, they conclude that biphonation must have evolved to help horses communicate. But they’re just assuming it evolved! It’s circular reasoning based on an arbitrary authority—man’s opinion.

Horse communication didn’t evolve. The horse kind was created by God with the ability to communicate from the beginning. And horses that use biphonation do so not by evolutionary luck but because God created them with the genetic potential to do so.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.