Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Serious question for creationists..?
I've seen creationists say that evolution within a 'kind' is possible, and they call this microevolution, but that evolution into an entirely different type of organism, which they call macroevolution, is impossible. My question is: exactly what is the precise definition of a kind? It isn't a species or even a genus since creationists say that Darwin's finches on the Galapagos are all of the same 'kind' even though they comprise different genuses (geni?).
Are members of the same taxonomic family all of the same 'kind'. You'd probably consider a tiger and a leopard to be the same kind, but consider a housecat, a bobcat, a puma, a mountain lion, a tiger and an African lion - are all of these of the same 'kind'. How about a seal and a dolphin - or a seal and a whale.
Do you have a specific definition of what a 'kind' is and what separates one from another?
7 Answers
- ?Lv 77 years agoFavorite Answer
It's simple. If evolution can be proven, the organisms are of the same "kind". If it can't, they are of different "kinds". You have to learn to think like a creationist..
BTW, the plural of "genus" is "genera".
- Brigalow BlokeLv 77 years ago
Yet another answer asserting that Charles Darwin was the be-all and end-all of evolution. He sorted out a few things and made a few hypotheses which turned out to be correct 25 years or so after he died.
The word "kind" is used by creationists because it can mean anything they want it to mean. Loose or no definitions of this or that are the basis of most of their arguments, when they are not indirectly or directly lying.
- JayLv 47 years ago
You asked -'Do you have a specific definition of what a 'kind' is and what separates one from another?'
The word 'kind' is not a term within the scientific community, as a whole or specifically among biologists.
The word 'kind' comes from primitive humans, before 300 C.E. & is contained the storybook called the Bible.
In biology, the words of species, sub-species, etc. is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
Source(s): http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Species http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/spec... - Anonymous7 years ago
As you say, 'kind' is meaningless in a biological sense because, like everything creationists say, it is too vague. They use this term to justify myths like Noah's arc where, say, a cat was on board to represent the feline 'kind'.
Apparently, all the extinct and extant felines since then were derived from this arc cat. If that isn't evolution, what is?? They cannot comprehend the major error in their own fallacy.
- How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- ?Lv 77 years ago
They mean it in exactly the same sense that Charles Darwin did (more than 100 times) in his text On the Origin of Species.
If as Made from Embryonic Stem Cells asserts the word is meaningless in a biological sense, then apparently Darwins text is meaningless in a biologial sense because that is the word Darwin used more frequently than any other word to describe organisms.
Source(s): Here is the text check for yourself: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2009/2009-h/2009-h.... - ?Lv 77 years ago
Of their own kind ,it has yet to be proven that the genus pan and the genus **** are different species, I suggest that one of those creationists step up and prove once and forever they are different species.
- ?Lv 47 years ago
It's obvious. A lion is a different kind than an elephant. However, an elephant may be the same kind as a mammoth. Just use your eyes.
