RSR: How Many Animals Were on the Ark?

See our RSR report of all the Noah's Arks (plural :) at rsr.org/noahs#arks* As Few as 1,000 Pairs of Animals on the Ark: Real Science Radio hosts Bob Enyart and Fred Williams discuss a wonderful article about the significant research project underway at Answers in Genesis (and other creation research centers) to identify the created kinds among land animals so that we can learn more about our Creator God, the creatures He made, and about how much work it would have been for Noah's family to clean up after all those critters! Of course, per God's criteria reported by Moses in Genesis, no bacteria, insects, plants, nor fish had to be brought onto the ark. Also, taxonomists tend to fall into the camps, or bounce back and forth between the two, of lumpers and splitters. For example, a lumper might be tempted to suggest that crocodiles and alligators were of the same original created kind, but a splitter might go to war over such a notion! Creationists demonstrating the feasibility of the ark would be conservative and not err on the side of lumping. As it turns out, by generally counting "kinds", and usually not "species", current research indicates that there could have been as few as 2,000 animals on the ark.

Racoon in a Denver suburb* Hear RSR's Interview with a BaraminologistRSR interviewed in studio Dr. Roger Sanders about his field of baraminology, the furtherance of Adam's first task, which was to name the animals, into a classification of living things within the framework of the created kinds as described in Genesis. The anti-creationist National Center for Science Education begrudgingly states, in an article by Alan Gishlick, that researchers such as Dr. Sanders, "practice a form of systematics, called 'baraminology', and for creationist science it is surprisingly rigorous and internally consistent."

* Research Project and Genetic Diversity Prediction between Clean and Unclean Animals: Biblically speaking, the difference between "clean" and "unclean" animals is that the clean animals were acceptable by God for sacrifice, and so God instructed Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals on the ark. As a result, even though some of these clean animals would have been offered up as sacrifices, a creationist prediction of Real Science Radio is that there may be greater genetic diversity among today's descendants of the clean land animals as compared to unclean land animals.

* Fun Facebook Page: Bob and Fred just found out about an encouraging page: facebook.com/hydroplate! And see also our own rsr.org/hydroplate page!


* Today’s Resource: Have you browsed through our Science Department in our online store? Check out especially Walt Brown’s In the Beginning and Bob’s interviews with this great scientist in The Hydroplate Theory & Walt Brown on the Air! You’ll also love Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez’ Privileged Planet (clip), and Illustra Media’s Unlocking the Mystery of Life (clip)! You can consider our BEL Science Pack; Bob Enyart’s Age of the Earth Debate; Bob's creation/evolution debate that hits on Junk DNA with famous evolutionist Dr. Eugenie Scott.