Clayton, Shaw and Swamidass: Questions from FaithAscent 2018

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

Question 3: Kinds of Mice and Rats

@Brandon_J

Second,you said that rats and mice having drastically different DNA makes it hard to believe the creation model in which rats an mice are the same kind. Since rats and mice cannot produce a viable zygote, I don’t think that the YE folks would put them in the same kind. (comment, not a question)

It turns out that in modern day YEC, very different animals are often placed in the same “kind” in order to fit everything onto the Ark. Viable zygotes are not a reliable way of parsing this out. Most would place mice and rats in the same group. This is consistent with the “Orchard of Life” model that evolution is allowed within groups of the same “kind.” For example, one creation group writes “Rats may actually share ancestry in the same created kind as mice.” Rats: No Evolution! | Answers in Genesis

The story gets stranger. The evidence for common descent is so strong, it seems, that even some YECs think that whales evolved from terrestrial ancestors:

@swamidass

Some wonder if walking whales were on the Ark, and think 4,000 years was enough time for them all to evolve. Says Dr. Kurt Wise,

“…some of the animals which are aquatic or marine today may not have been aquatic at the time of the Flood. The marine and sea otters, for example, are members of the mustelid (weasel) family and their aquatic character is likely to have been revealed after the Flood. The whales might turn out to be another example… Vestigial legs and hips in modern whales confirm legged ancestors of the whales existed only a short time ago. It is possible that the purely marine cetaceans of the present were derived from semi-aquatic or even terrestrial ancestors on the ark .” https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2017/10/05/walking-whales-on-board-noahs-ark-the-inevitable-end-point-of-creationists-post-flood-hyper-speciation-belief/

We have to commend Dr. Wise for following the evidence here. However, I think this process still needs a few million years to take place. 4,000 years is not enough.

Pretty interesting right? That is evolution: common descent.