In creation science, baraminology is a system for classifying life into groups having no common ancestry, called "baramins". Classification is based on a literal creationist reading of "kinds" in Genesis, especially the distinction between mankind and other animals. Supplementary criteria include the ability of animals to interbreed and the similarity of their observable traits. Like all of creation science, baraminology is pseudoscience and is unrelated to science: modern biological facts have shown that all life descended from one common ancestor. The scientific alternative to baraminology is cladistics, which classifies species based on evolutionary history.

Interpretation of Biblical kinds

The Bible mentions kinds on several occasions. Genesis 1:12-25 gives an account of the creation of living things:

Genesis 7:13-16 states that there are distinct kinds of cattle. In Deuteronomy 14:11-18 varieties of owl, raven, and hawk are presented as distinct kinds. The Hebrew word מִין min is used exclusively in a set phrase of the form לְ l+מִין min+possessive pronoun suffix, which is translated as after their/his/her kind. (A few other words are translated into English with the word kind, such as in Leviticus 19:19, which speaks of כִלְאַיֶם kila'im of cloth, cattle, and seeds. The word min is never used in relation to humans, but the Greek word γένος genos is used in 2 Maccabees 7:28 "... and so was mankind made likewise". ) Apart from what is implied by these passages, the Bible does not specify what a kind is. The fact that kind is used in this set phrase, among other reasons, has led to the hypothesis that it is not a referential noun in Biblical Hebrew, but derived from לְמִינֶה l'mineh = of him/herself, of themselves.

Traditional interpretations, such as those of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and the Vatican, hold that the Bible makes theological and not scientific statements about reality, and that no conflict exists between science and the Bible. A typical interpretation of Genesis, with focus upon the kinds, is that all things were created, that the ordered multitude of creation is as God intended, and that the evolutionary model "is strongly animated by [a] fundamental feeling of solidarity with the whole of creation", the latter in reference to parallel concepts of common descent and common creator. Others point out that, in Genesis, the manner in which the earth brings forth life is unspecified, which is compatible with evolution.

Overview

Baraminology is founded upon a Biblically literal interpretation of the Bible: that each kind was brought into direct physical existence by God and that these kinds share no ancestry. Baraminology emerged as an effort by young earth creationists to make this view scientifically appealing. The idea of a baramin was proposed in 1941 by Frank Marsh, but was criticized for a lack of formal definition. In 1990 Kurt Wise and Walter ReMine introduced baraminology in pursuit of an acceptable definition. ReMine's work specifies four groupings: holobaramins, monobaramins, apobaramins, and polybaramins. These are, respectively, all things of one kind; some things of the same kind; groups of kinds; and any mixed grouping of things. These groups are similar in name to the concepts of monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly used in phylogenetics

Conditions for membership in a (holo)baramin and methods of classification have changed over the years. These include the ability to create viable offspring, and morphological similarity. Some creationists have suggested that kind refers to species, while others believe it might mean any animal which may be distinguished in some way from another. Another criterion is "baramin distance" which is calculated based on the similarity of the animals' characters, using methods borrowed from phenetics. In all cases, methods found to place humans and other primates into the same baramin have been discarded .

Criticism

Baraminology has been heavily criticized for its lack of rigorous testing and post-study rejection of data which does not fit desired findings. Baraminology is a pseudoscience, and has not produced any peer-reviewed scientific research, nor is any word beginning with "baramin" found in Biological Abstracts, which has complete coverage of zoology and botany literature since 1924. Universal common descent, which states that all life shares a common ancestor, is well-established and tested, and is a scientifically-verified fact However, neither cladistics, the field devoted to investigating the ancestral relationships between living things, nor the scientific consensus on transitional fossils are accepted by baraminologists .

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