The Mystery of Created Kinds

I’m Inspector Barry Mins, and every Tuesday, I will be investigating some organisms that may have gotten on the Ark with Noah. And you can join in the investigation too! Every week there will be clues scattered throughout the post that point to where I am tracking down these incredible animals. There will also be a clue as to next week’s amazing creature! Each week we will also have a fun activity to help you keep the clues in your brain!

However, before we get into the mystery of baramins, which is a fancy word for created kinds, we need to know how baraminologists (the scientists who study created kinds) know what a kind is. While the Bible never gives us an exact definition of a kind, there are clues that it might be a reproductive group. In Genesis 6:19-20, the Bible tells us the reason the kinds got on the Ark was to keep them alive. That means they had to have babies when they got off the Ark. Since God specifically said that He wanted kinds on the Ark, not species, that means that two members of the same kind could have babies in the beginning.

The idea that two members of the same kind can have babies together is known as the hybridization criteria. However, a lot has changed since creation and even the flood. As animals got off the Ark, they spread out across the earth. As they spread out, they became more specialized to their environments. The specialization means that some members of the same kind never saw each other anymore and thus did not interbreed. Some specialized so much that they couldn’t have babies anymore. Baraminologists needed another clue to solve the mystery of created kinds.

Dogs and Cats

The clue they needed comes from Genesis 2:19, when Adam named the animals. In order to name the kinds, Adam had to be able to tell them apart. Just like your mom and dad can tell you from your siblings, Adam could tell a cat from a dog just by looking at them. Modern baraminologists have used this method as well. It’s called the cognitum approach, and it is an important clue to solving the mystery of the original created kinds.

Some baraminologists have looked for other, non-Biblical clues as well. Usually, these clues are from DNA, the code that determines what each living thing looks like, or statistics. When Answers in Genesis determined the kinds that went with Noah on the Ark, we mostly used hybridization and the cognitum approach as they most closely fit the Biblical description of kinds. We did use the results of the other methods sometimes as well, particularly when we did not have very many clues to work with.

Also, because we wanted to make sure we did not miss any kinds, we think that we overestimated the number of baramins on the Ark. So, some kinds we talk about might be combined after more research.

Clue: Next week’s kind only has one species in it, taking its name from its large bill.

Want to test your knowledge? Try out this crossword puzzle!