Evolution: A Counterfeit of Kinds Peter Schexnayder
God created all life with purpose rather than by random chance. Evolution robs mankind of his understanding of God’s ultimate plan, because man’s “kind” is God.
T he term “evolution” has fully permeated society. Not only is it taught as a foundational fact of life and has become the basis for most educational textbooks, but the term is used to describe any progression outside that of natural life. Sports have even “evolved.” Consider the pole vault or gymnastics which have both advanced substantially since the first modern Olympics in 1896. Maybe you have read about the “evolution” of tech- nology like the microprocessor? Or perhaps you have heard about the “evolution” of traditional courtship as compared to modern app-based dating. The theory of evolution, or the idea that life came from non-life and improves and diversifies through random mutations, can be difficult to avoid. Very little in the world of modern science, health, or psychology exists outside the concept. In fact, the Bible teaches us that evolution is not the answer for where life comes from or where it is going. Rather, the Bible clearly explains that God created life in discrete bundles. He called these bundles - “kinds.” But why should we care? Why do we need to differen - tiate between evolution and kinds? The answer may be more important than you think. A Kind The Creation account in Genesis 1 records that God created the creatures upon the Earth “according to their kind,” and that God later collected pairs of each “kind” on Noah’s Ark, to preserve them. A “kind,” then, is exactly what it sounds like. It is a kind, or type, of animal. The question lies in how spe- cific or general these “kinds” are, whether there is a “rodent kind” or separate “kinds” for rats, squirrels, and beavers. We don’t know how precisely these were divided, but we do have some clues from The Flood account.
Firstly, we are given the dimensions of the Ark. While the exact size of a cubit is known to vary, using a stan- dard of 18 inches we can see that the base of the ark was just shy of 40,000 square feet, almost an acre. The Gen- esis account tells us there were “lower, 2nd, and 3rd decks” which represents three acres of space, for liv- ing quarters, food, and animal storage, including sev- en pairs of all clean animals (for clean animals review Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14). We would be hard pressed to find a local zoo as small. Certainly, “kinds” are not individual species of animal. On the other hand, we can know that “kinds” are more specific than “bird.” We know this because Noah had both doves and ravens on the Ark, and sent one of each out to check for dry land. We understand what a “kind” is, and very roughly what types of kinds there would have been. Certainly, there is great biodiversity within each “kind”, as what few animals were on the Ark became the great variety of creatures we find on the Earth today.
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