Claim CH520:
The pre-Flood climate was uniform, allowing all animals to live not too
far from Noah. There was no need for them to migrate across entire
continents.
Response:
- Geological isolation allows diversity, and the lack of it causes
species to go extinct. Different regions with the same climate often
have very different species (for example, polar bears in the Arctic and
penguins in the Antarctic). One of the leading causes of extinction
today (perhaps the leading cause) is introduced species.
If even one
species such as a goat, pig, or snake gets into a region where it
did not used to live, it can cause extinctions -- either by
out-competing the indigenous species for resources or by preying on the
indigenous species directly.
- The brown tree snake has caused the extinction of many native
Pacific Island birds, including nine of the eleven native species on
Guam.
- A single introduced land snail species eliminated all the native
snails of Tahiti.
If all the species (or even "kinds") today were kept
together, most of them would quickly go extinct.
- Uniform climates do not support a wide variety of species. You find
different communities in tundra, temperate forest, tropical forest, and
desert because of their different climates. A single climate would
rule out the biota from all other climates.
- Whatever the climate was like, some species could not survive in it.
Grylloblattids thrive in cold temperatures, and many species die in
temperatures above 10 degrees C (Lloyd n.d.). Temperatures that low
would kill tree sloths. Some cave species require 100 percent humidity.
Other species would die from fungal and algal infections at humidities
even close to that high.
- All animals coming from a uniform climate strongly argues against
creation. Creationism argues that features of animals are designed;
for example, that the camel's desert adaptations are designed for the
desert, that the mountain goat's sure-footedness is designed for
mountains. (Evolution says much the same, but "designed" by natural
selection.) If all animals come from the same sort of climate, there
is no need for such features, so it does not make sense that they are
designed.
References:
created 2003-8-20