[Pim Pendergast]

Originally Posted by Black Knight

So Noah got 3 million Independent species of animals on one boat. Then deposited all of them in their correct habitats (marsupials in Australia etc) after the great flood?

Originally Posted by Black Knight

I would be very very careful with your wording. It would support evolution even more to say that "Noah" only took one type of camel/rino/cow/sausage tree etc.

Mrs Ethelreda answered your question very wisely when she said that Noah took one of each kind of animal on the ark. She was in no way endorsing evilution. Baraminology is a branch of creation science dedicated to classifying animals into their kinds. Baraminologists acknowledge that there have been changes within animal kinds since the Flood but reject the notion that one kind has ever evolved into another kind. So when we look around today we see a variety great cats. There are lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars, leopards and cheetahs. And there were once sabre tooth tigers, but they are now extinct. All of these great cats are descended from one pair of great cats that Noah took on the ark. Lions can still mate with tigers and leopards and produce offspring after their kind (Gen 1:24-25). What we have, then, is an orchard of life, with each tree representing one kind,

as opposed to the evilutionary tree of life, which proposes that all life is descended from a single organism.

Contrary to evilutionary theory, variation within a kind is not caused by the addition of genetic information but the loss of it.

All observed mutations demonstrate a loss of genetic information from the genetic code, or they are neutral. — Answers in Genesis

All the variation among great cats today is the result of the loss of genetic information. So the original pair of great cats on Noah's ark carried all the genes that their descendants have. They carried the genes for stripes, spots, manes and sabre teeth. After the Flood the descendants of the original pair began to spread out and enter new territories. As they diverged, some lost the genes for stripes, spots and saber teeth, becoming lions. Some lost the genes for spots, manes and sabre teeth, becoming tigers. Others lost the genes for stripes, manes and saber teeth, becoming leopards. Cheetahs in turn diverged from leopards when they lost the genes that made them slow. Those that lost all these genes became pumas.

This loss of genetic material occurred at an astonishing rate. The Flood occurred around 2,500 BC. Yet by 1900 BC, lions had become a distinct branch, for Jacob compares his son Judah to a lion (Gen 49:9). By the 7th century BC, leopards had become a distinct variety of cat, for they are mentioned in the book of Jeremiah (Jer 13:23). Sadly, many species, such as the dinosaurs, didn’t lose their genetic material quickly enough to adapt to the changing conditions on earth after the Flood and so became extinct.

The ability of one kind to produce many variants through the loss of genetic information explains why Noah probably only had to take tens of thousands of animals on the ark with him as opposed to millions. Not that the latter would have been impossible for God; there was just no need for it.