Alligators Are Still Alligators

The lead author of the research paper says,

If we could step back in time 8 million years, you’d basically see the same animal crawling around then as you would see today in the Southeast. Even 30 million years ago, they didn’t look much different. . . . We were surprised to find fossil alligators from this deep in time that actually belong to the living species, rather than an extinct one.

A species millions of years old with no evolutionary change is a surprise to evolutionists, but not to those who start with God’s Word. We know alligators haven’t been around for millions of years and didn’t evolve, so it’s no surprise to see relatively few changes in the few thousand years they’ve been on the planet. In fact, on the basis of the incredible amount of genetic information in each animal kind’s DNA, creationists would expect to see some evidence of change—but only within the kind. Alligators would always be alligators!

Now, the report states that the paper’s lead author

hopes his research findings serve to inform the public that the alligator was here first, and we should act accordingly by preserving the animal’s wild populations and its environment. By providing a more complete evolutionary history of the alligator, his research provides the groundwork for conserving habitats where alligators have dominated for millions of years.

But from an evolutionary perspective, why is it important to help the alligators? After all, isn’t it all about “survival of the fittest”? If the alligator is less fit to survive, who cares if it has been around for supposed millions of years? Why should we—the allegedly more evolved creatures—change our habits to promote the survival of a less-fit species or one that is a threat to us on occasion? Evolutionists can be so inconsistent!

If the alligator is less fit to survive, who cares if it has been around for supposed millions of years?

But from a biblical perspective we are called to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. The very first command God gave to Adam and Eve has been called the dominion mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Of course, we know from Scripture and the character of God that dominion means we are to lovingly care for the earth, not greedily take advantage of it for our own ends. We are to use the earth’s resources for man’s good and God’s glory. Preserving alligators and their habitats makes sense in a biblical worldview, but not in an evolutionary one.

Learn more about our duty to care for the earth in this article by AiG’s Avery Foley, “Should We Take Care of the Earth?”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.