Creationists Claim Evidence of Noah’s Ark

IT’S A SLOW NEWS DAY, so we went looking for something that Curmudgeon fans might find amusing. We found it at the website of Answers in Genesis (AIG), which explains itself as follows (Curmudgeonly bold added for emphasis):

We focus particularly on providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis, as it is the most-attacked book of the Bible. We also desire to train others to develop a biblical worldview, and seek to expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas, and its bedfellow, a “millions of years old” earth (and even older universe).

From this shamelessly anti-science source, we bring you: Life: Designed by God to Adapt. Here are some excerpts, with bold added for emphasis:

When God first created animals, he created them according to their kinds, with the ability to reproduce, and with instructions to increase in number and fill the earth (and seas; Genesis 1:20–22, 24–28). After the Flood, land animals and birds that had been preserved on the Ark again reproduced to fill the earth (Genesis 8:15–19).

Baraminologists (creation scientists who work to identify created kinds) have determined that many animals represented by a single breeding pair on the Ark have diversified so that today they are typically represented by a whole family. For example, the family Canidae is believed to be made up of animals from one baramin, a single created kind. This family includes dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes and jackals. … Both dogs and wolves are first mentioned less than a millennium after the Flood, indicating that diversification occurred very rapidly.

Amusing. Creationists are forever asking: “If man evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?” Perhaps we should respond: “Why are there still wolves?” But let’s continue with the AIG article:

Historically, evolutionists have told us that changes in living things occur at a slow, deliberate pace. Yet the creation model clearly requires that significant changes be able to occur quite rapidly, if necessary, as animals multiply and fill the earth. Today we see animals that have adapted to a variety of different environments and niches. Is there any scientific evidence that animals can adapt so quickly? Indeed there is! One example in lizards appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year.

That refers to this: Lizards Rapidly Evolve After Introduction to Island. Interesting, but not paradigm shifting. Leave it to a creationist, however, to leap upon one anomalous data point (or perhaps a few of them), ignoring millions of others that support a different conclusion:

Ironically, it is the creationist model that requires such changes to be able to occur relatively rapidly. There are a number of examples in the available literature that demonstrate rapid adaptive evolution when animals are introduced into a new environment or the environment changes.

[…]

Christians should be encouraged by the increasing number of articles showing examples of rapid adaptive changes. As more detailed evidence is presented, it should be very interesting to watch evolutionists attempt to explain these changes in their naturalistic model. All we see in these examples of animals adapting rapidly to new environments confirms the Bible’s testimony that we truly do have an awesome Creator who created life to inhabit the earth.

Amazing, isn’t it? Out of the millions of species living today, the creationists find one example of rapid evolution in an isolated island environment (the kind of thing Darwin observed during his visit to the Galapagos Islands), and they seize upon this to “confirm” the scriptural account of Noah’s Ark.

Perhaps the creationists at AIG should consider changing their ways. Their creation “science” museum seems to have received a warning: Spring Storm Rips Through the Area.

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