Species/Kinds (for Peg...and others)

Hi, Hooah.It may be beneficial for me to point out that you're actually talking to ICANT, not Buzsaw. There actually is a difference. There actually is a pretty solid definition for "baramin," which is the "kind" of the modern, trendy Intelligent Designist. It uses a concept called "Potentiality Regions," which simply delimits the amount of gross evolutionary change that is possible for a single species or lineage to undergo.There is nothing conceptually wrong with this definition. There are three problems with baraminology:

1. There is no agreement about how large a potentiality region can be.
2. There is no evidence that the amount of potential evolutionary change is rigidly restricted, and no mechanism that has been shown to restrict it.
3. They try to fit the entire thing within a < 10,000-year window for religious purposes.

The first has been hammered to death in this thread. However, in all honesty, it is no different in principle from the lack of agreement among mainstream scientists about how to properly delimit "species," and both Peg and ICANT are justified in their complaints about this.The second is the most severe problem. Baraminologists should be focusing their efforts on discovering any mechanisms that might restrict the amount of evolutionary change, yet I have not really heard anything serious proposed, other than some vague assertions about genetic entropy and deterioration (sometimes they like to throw in telomere shortening, but I'm not sure why).The third is the most ideologically problematic. There could very well be something to the "potentiality region" concept, but to try to cram it within the mythology of any particular religion is entirely too narrow-minded and, more importantly, unevidenced.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.