Lesson 23: Have Animals Evolved? Part 2

by Stacia McKeever and Dan Lietha on May 2, 2016

“O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” (Psalm 104:24).

What Does Science Say?

Scientists have found that inside plants and all living things is a special chemical called DNA (which stands for “deoxyribonucleic acid”). DNA carries the recipe that tells each plant and living thing what to look like, how to grow, and so on. Parents pass a combination of their DNA on to their children.

To understand what this means, let’s use the dog kind as an example. Scientists have found that all dogs are descended from a wolf-type dog. (This is probably the type of dog that was on the Ark with Noah.)

As the DNA has been combined and passed down over the years, the recipe from the original dogs has produced a wide variety of dogs:

dogs with short legs and small bodies (chihuahuas)
dogs with short legs and long bodies (dachshund)
dogs with longer legs and large bodies (mastiffs)
dogs with longer legs and thin bodies (greyhounds)
dogs with thicker fur (collies)
dogs with longer fur (cocker spaniels)

Even though they may look very different, they are all still obviously dogs, and examples of the dog kind. Many of the different varieties are able to mate with other varieties. However, there is a limit to what the DNA recipe within the dog kind can produce. Dogs cannot grow fins or gills like a fish, or wings and feathers like a bird because dog DNA doesn’t carry the recipe for these features. Scientists have found that there is no known way that new recipes can be added by natural processes, for example, to the dog kind DNA.

This is true for the other kinds of animals and plants, too. On its own, a fish could never develop the DNA recipe for lungs, legs, and arms and turn into an amphibian. A dinosaur could never turn into a bird. And a cow could never turn into a whale. Each kind will simply continue to reproduce more of its kind.

In the beginning, God created each kind with the right mix of DNA to produce much variety within the kind. Those animals and birds that survived the Flood on the Ark were the ancestors of today’s variety. Scientists have confirmed that animals reproduce according to their kinds, just as the Bible teaches!