Speciation and the Animals on the Ark

ICR ^ | April 2009 | Daniel Criswell, Ph.D.

[GodGunsGuts]

Speciation and the Animals on the Ark

by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D.*

Many people who use biological data to support an old-earth position believe that the appearance of millions of animal species does not support a young earth interpretation of creation. Nor do they think that a recent global Flood would support the existence of a great number of animals today if Noah only took two of each kind on the Ark. However, the science of how speciation occurs, and the definition of a species versus the biblical kind, does explain how many variations of the same kind of animal can arise quickly from small populations, such as those on Noah's Ark...

[GodGunsGuts]

Ping!

[Patrick1]

Pluto used to be a planet too.

[BipolarBob]

God would have to make a miracle happen for all of this to occur . . . Well, I guess that does explain it after all.

[DevNet]

*The Creator God endowed His creatures with the potential for all the wondrous varieties that not only are evident in the fossil record, but also surround us today. This variation is made possible by the genetic information given to animals at the time of creation.*

Then explain all the creatures that kill and maim children.

[katiekins1]

many variations of the same kind of animal can arise quickly from small populations, such as those on Noah’s Ark...

The ark (aka) The White House, shelters many variations of ANT-AMERICAN species that need a INTENSE. REDITION to another planet.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[stormer]

[GodGunsGuts]

LOL...Everyone knows that it is the Evos who start with the conclusion first, and then scrounge around for facts to fit it. Here is but one example of how it works (many could be given!):

[DesertRhino]

Has nothing much to do with anything, but the other day i heard some cop describe a desperate suspect as “fighting like he was the third monkey on the ark”.

[GodGunsGuts]

He actually made it on board? What a clever monkey!

[Alter Kaker]

However, the science of how speciation occurs

The science of how speciation occurs... is, ahem, evolution.

[GodGunsGuts]

Not at all, it is a frontloaded capability built in by the Creator. Duh!

[BrandtMichaels]

Actually the term you’re looking for would be devolution - micro-devolution - since we now know the sub-set of DNA is something less than the original not greater (there’s that darn math again - dohhh!). A wolf has DNA capable of de-evolving into all the dog kinds but a poodle has a very limited DNA that can no longer evolve back into the wolf.

[Caramelgal]

This is a pretty good refutation of the Young Earth Flood model of speciation.

FYI – this comes not from some atheistic, materialist, Darwinist, "Evilutionist" website but from a Christian Apologetics Creationist website, but that withstanding, still has some good info and raises some very interesting questions for you YEC'ers to answer.

Rapid Post-Flood Speciation: A Critique of the Young-Earth Model

One problem for the global-Flood view is explaining how the earth was repopulated with land animals after the Flood. Young-earth creationists who recognize the problem of fitting all the land animals on the ark now conclude Noah only took pairs of the Genesis "kinds." These, they say, were the ancestral seeds God provided to repopulate the world. As the "kinds" left the ark, they gave rise to the many different species on Earth today. For example, horses, zebras and donkeys descended from an equine "kind," dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals from a canine "kind," and cattle, bison and water buffalos from a cattle "kind."

(Snip)

If true, the amount of post-Flood speciation must have been staggering. Young-earth creationists estimate Noah took 8,000 to 20,000 species on the ark. They also say a significant number of these species went extinct shortly after the Flood. Based on their dating method, approximately 7 million species have existed since the Flood-about 2 million have gone extinct and 5 million are alive today. Therefore, nearly 7 million species must have arisen from far less than 20,000 species in a time frame of a few hundred years.

(Snip)

In fact, if the Flood was as catastrophic as young-earth creationists maintain, it is doubtful anything would have survived. The young-earth model would require vertical land erosion of more than 700 feet per day and tectonic uplift of more than 200 vertical feet per day. Anything more than just one foot of erosion or tectonic uplift is sufficient to destroy most modern cities. Though the ark was seaworthy for a local flood, the G-forces produced by such cataclysmic movements would have destroyed it and its occupants.

[Non-Sequitur]

So what did all the animals eat? Each other?

[Caramelgal]

So what did all the animals eat? Each other?

You evidently don’t know or read your Bible much! (/s)

You see before The Fall, eating was not necessary. No animals or plants ever died in The Garden as there was no such thing as death. All the plants and animals where put their solely for aesthetic purposes including the dinos.

But then again Eve was persuaded to eat a fruit. She might have been hungry then again maybe not as that would imply an allegorical interpretation and we all know the Bible is literal in this respect. ;),

After The Fall, Adam and Eve and their progeny were still vegetarians until Moses said it was OK to eat meat.

After The Fall, predatory animals perhaps did eat meat and presumably that could have included human prey but then again maybe not.

Some say that the predatory animals on the Ark were put into a state of suspended animation and required no food or water.

After the Ark landed on dry land it must have been a free for all since millions of species must have gone extinct shortly after the food waters receded. I guess they went extinct because they couldn't find enough food?

[atlaw]

Isn’t this an argument for (very) rapid evolution, with some semantic changes thrown in make the argument more palatable?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Evolution is atheist and incompatible with Biblical teachings, but fast evolution is perfectly compatible?

I need more coffee.

[GodGunsGuts]

If the ability to speciate rapidly is defined and frontloaded by the Creator, then it is not evolution.