Baraminology

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Adam was the first biologist.  Biologists are little more sophisticated than librarians.  In Genesis, God gave the task of naming the animals to Adam.  This is '''Baraminology''', also known as biology.
 
 
 
'''Baraminology''' is a [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] branch of biology that attempts to provide a [[creationism|creationist]] alternative to [[Linnaean taxonomy]] based on a [[Biblical Literalism|biblically literal]] [[Young Earth Creationism|young earth]] world view.
 
'''Baraminology''' is a [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] branch of biology that attempts to provide a [[creationism|creationist]] alternative to [[Linnaean taxonomy]] based on a [[Biblical Literalism|biblically literal]] [[Young Earth Creationism|young earth]] world view.
  

Revision as of 22:28, 6 November 2007

Baraminology is a pseudoscientific branch of biology that attempts to provide a creationist alternative to Linnaean taxonomy based on a biblically literal young earth world view.

Baraminology, like most creation science, did not arrive from any observable evidence, but as an attempt to deal with one of the many problems that have plagued the story of the global flood. It was obvious even to creationists that every single species could not fit on Noah's Ark so they attempted to redefine the meaning of the word "kind" found in Genesis as a much more inclusive group which would lower the number of animals Noah had to bring on his ship. Thus was born Baraminology.

Contents

Definition of a Baramin

Baraminology has come under much criticism for its inability to provide a definition of what a baramin actually is. Creationists have been repeatedly grilled for a clear explanation and how to tell if two creatures are part of the same "kind" but have been unable to formulate a satisfactory answer. It is evident that the only thing that defines a group as a baramin is whether or not creationists claim a group to be such.[1]

It is often put forward that a baramin is a group composed of creatures that can hybridize. Creationists will point to examples of tiger-lions and horse-zebra combinations to show that species can interbreed but this is a defective strategy, The vast majority of organism are incapable of hybridization.[2] This means that claiming that a baramin is defined by the ability of its members to interbreed means that there would have to be most likely over 50,000 of these "baramins" which defeats the only purpose of baraminology; to trim down the number of animals Noah would have had to bring on his ark during the global flood.

Extreme rates of evolution

Creationists hold that instead of some of every species on Noah's Ark during the Global flood only baramins would have to be brought. This removed the problem for the idea of biblical inerrancy of how millions of creatures could have fit into a single boat. This claim has the side effect of making creationists supporters of Super Evolution. The number supported by most modern apologetics groups is that Noah would have only needed to being 8,000 baramins aboard (this is including extinct animals like dinosaurs), some have even put the number as low as 2,000 baramins. The problem is that evolution just does not happen that fast. If genetic differentiation was accelerated up to the level where 2,000-8,000 creatures change into the many tens of thousands of vertebrate species there would have been extreme consequences.

Accumulation of Negative Mutations

The greatly increased mutation rate that Baraminology requires would have caused severe problems in the populations on which the accelerated evolution was acting. With genetic change occurring as fast as creationists claim it was, the rate of negative mutations would accrue in the gene pool much faster then they could be removed.

The are an estimated 4 harmful mutations per zygote (embryo),[3] normally this is not a problem because nearly all mutations are recessive so these malignant changes can be weeded over time by natural selection. With baraminology, however, rates of mutation would at times have to be accelerated 250,000 times,[4] and we could expect to see gigantic influx approaching one million detrimental genetic changes per fertilization. Needless to say, this scenario results in the sudden termination of all life on earth.

Cancer

An increased mutation rate would also greatly increase the prevalence of cancer. A sizable portion of cancerous growth is caused by genetic mutations,[5] this means an increase of even a few hundred times, far less then creationism demands, would most likely have tremendous and fatal consequences upon animal life.

References

  1. Scientists confront creationism, Laurie R. Godfrey, ISBN-10: 0393301540
  2. WP:Hybrid
  3. The American journal of human genetics
  4. The creation museum teaches super evolution
  5. WP:cancer
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