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Created kind - Definitions

Created kind - Definitions: Encyclopedia II - Created kind - Definitions

The concept of the "kind" originates from a literal reading of Genesis 1:12-24: And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind … And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind … And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the ear ...

Created kind: Encyclopedia II - Created kind - Definitions

Created kind - Definitions

The concept of the "kind" originates from a literal reading of Genesis 1:12-24:

And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind … And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind … And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so.

In 1941, creationist writer Frank Lewis Marsh proposed that the Biblical created kind could be defined in terms of reproduction. He argued that as long as two modern creatures can hybridize with true fertilization, the two creatures are descended from the same kind. This idea has been adopted to support the practice of baraminology, the attempt to classify created kinds. Creation scientists posit that kinds are a form of clade, in that a posited kind displays evidence for common lines of ancestry among its member organisms. The few creationists who work to make the classifications have not so far come up with a consistent set of rules for establishing when this criteria is met. As such, kinds do not coincide with any particular level of taxon. In some cases, such as humanity, kinds coincide with species or genus. In other cases, such as Felidae, they may be equivalent to the family level of taxonic classification.

Microbiologist and creationist Siegfried Scherer refined the criteria to state that if two creatures can hybridize with the same third creature, they are all members of the same "basic type". Thus all members of a ring species would be members of the same basic type. Scherer also updated Marsh's explanation of true fertilization:

Two individuals belong to the same basic type if embryogenesis of a hybrid continues beyond the maternal phase, including subsequent co-ordinated expression of both maternal and paternal morphogenetic genes.

There is some uncertainty about what exactly the Bible means when it talks of "kinds". The original Hebrew word used is min, which is used to describe a variety of organisms. Russell Mixter, another creationist writer, comments that

One should not insist that "kind" means species. The word "kind" as used in the Bible may apply to any animal which may be distinguished in any way from another, or it may be applied to a large group of species distinguishable from another group ... there is plenty of room for differences of opinion on what are the kinds of Genesis. [1]

"Creation science" proponents posit that the defining element of kinds is creationist-approved evidence for common lines of ancestry among the organisms in the posited kind. The few creationists who work to make the classifications have not so far come up with a consistent set of rules for establishing when this criteria is met. As such, kinds do not coincide with any particular level of taxon. In some cases, such as humanity, kinds coincide with species or genus. In other cases, such as Felidae, they may be equivalent to the family level of taxonic classification.