How Should Christians View Biological Classification?

[T_aquaticus]

AiG still doesn’t get it. From the article:

As a result, modern classification is now changing into a largely dependent technique known as cladistics. Because of a pervasive evolutionary mindset, a new dogma has emerged. It is a concept summed up as “common design equals common ancestry.” In other words, if creatures share similarities, then it is presumed that they have a common ancestor in the past.

That’s wrong. If a species shared derived traits with both mammals and birds this would violate the predictions made by the theory of evolution, and by extension common descent. It isn’t common design that equals common ancestry, it is PHYLOGENETIC SIGNAL that equals common descent. It is the PATTERN of shared derived features that points to common descent.

Common design can produce almost any pattern of shared features, but evolution and common descent (in combination with vertical inheritance) can only produce statistically significant phylogenetic signal. When you see a pattern of shared features that matches a known natural mechanism, then the most parsimonious explanation is that natural mechanism.