Living Things Engineered for Change, Part 3

This post features the third part in a series by Dr. Robert Carter, first two of which were made available in this post. I thought he was done, but he had some more to discuss with us. In this article, he discusses a model for the created kinds, baramins, of Genesis.

Darwin's "Tree of Life" simply does not work. Biblical creationists have pointed out that created kinds are like an orchard, or branching trees in a forest. Dr. Carter believes that this concept should be developed another way.

Corals extend tentacles, NPS / A. Bourque
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Many secularists get furious — furious, I tell you — that creation scientists reject their classification system (which materialists stole from creationist Carl Linnaeus and modified to fit atheistic naturalism), and are working on baraminology, the study of created kinds.

No, creationists do not believe in the "fixity of species" (no speciation, everything stayed the same). The kinds are not species, but are close to the family level of standard classification. Scientists dispute species, whether on individual critters or even the definition itself. Ironically, species means type or kind in Latin.

Paleontologists are a bit too free when calling things species just because something looks different. Fossils are generally impressions of dead things, so paleontologists have no ideas of how they acted (and mated, important for defining species) when they were alive. Yet the classifications of dead things in rocks has a big impact on biologists.

Dr. Carter draws from his study of corals and other creatures. He proposes different types of baramins, and if we understand it properly, why many so-called species can interbreed, as well as the appearance and disappearance of species over the years.

I am using this article to introduce the ‘braided baramin’ concept.

I was first introduced to this idea in graduate school when we discussed a book titled Corals in Space and Time by the well-known coral reef scientist J.E.N. Veron. He used the phrase ‘reticulate evolution’, where ‘reticulate’ means net-like. . . .

Veron claimed that evolution in corals happens with an interconnected pattern of speciation over time and space. If you go to a coral reef today, for example, you might find many species in the genus Acropora. But if you go to another reef, you may not find the same species. In fact, you might come across a species that looks intermediate between those on another reef. If you travel back in time, the fossil record displays many more intermediate-looking species. It is easy for a trained person to quickly identify the family to which a living or fossil species belongs. The exact species, however, can often be quite hard to figure out.

To read the article in its entirety, be kind and visit "Species were designed to change, part 3 — The tangled web of (intrabaraminic) life".