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- Title
Founder Events: Foundational in Rapid Post-Flood Diversification.
- Authors
Lightner, Jean K.; Ahlquist, Jon
- Abstract
A biblical view of natural history begins in Genesis. God created plant and animal life according to their kinds, telling them to reproduce and fill the earth. Another important historical event was the global Flood, where terrestrial and flying animal numbers were severely reduced. Again, the creatures preserved on the ark went on to reproduce and fill the earth. Although creationists reject universal common ancestry on biblical grounds, they still need to adequately account for the diversification and speciation that has occurred within the various kinds of animals since the Flood. Because a biblical model demands the rapid diversification of creatures into forms filling different ecological niches, or adaptive radiation, creationists have the opportunity and responsibility to contribute to our understanding of this important topic and thus show the relevance of the biblical model. Many biologists recognize three sources of adaptive variation: environmentally based sorting of ancestral alleles, mutation, and hybridization. Conditions following the Flood would have led to an inordinate number of founding events, potentially contributing to environmentally based sorting of alleles. Evolutionists have done considerable work to understand the effect of founding events on subsequent populations. Much of that work is reviewed here. Yet a blind spot remains, as most techniques intended to identify the founder effect assume it is random and that founders do not select the new environment or niche. It is concluded that founder events were foundational in the rapid post-Flood diversification that has taken place in history, setting the stage for other processes that contributed to rapid speciation. There is a tremendous need for creation research to further elucidate key details and promote a biblical understanding of natural history.
- Subjects
NATURAL history; FLOODS; BIBLE. Genesis; CREATION; ALLELES
- Publication
Creation Research Society Quarterly, 2017, Vol 53, Issue 3, p217
- ISSN
0092-9166
- Publication type
Article