Saturday, September 28, 2019

Genesis 1:11-13 comments: after his kind


1:11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.
In the same 24-hour period as the sea and land being divided you can see plant life being created from the earth, not out of nothing. Life is created out of substances already formed the previous day. A fundamental point of biology is made here in that plants yield fruit after their kind. It seems obvious that an orange tree doesn’t produce pears but this will be an important point to remember in a few verses. Kind is a Biblical taxonomic classification. Just as we use Species, Genus, Family, or Order God uses the more general word, Kind. Kind is much larger than species and should not be confused with that word as there are more than two dozen definitions of species, none of which denote the Kind of Genesis but rather smaller divisions of plant and animal life.[1] It is important to change your way of thinking as you have been polluted by the fallacies of Modernism. A biological creature’s nature is determined by its Kind, from the top-down. It’s Kind is not determined by its individual components. Context is what is important in biology. Just think of language. The words rite or right have a meaning based on the sentence they are in. For instance, we speak of ‘a religious rite,’ a ‘rite of passage,’ or ‘turn right,’ or ‘my legal rights.’ The context determines the meaning just as the design determines the expression of genes. Put Reductionism back in its box and you will understand reality so much better. God, speaking through Moses’ writing, is speaking here about original creations from which developed all other types.
There was a pre-Darwin doctrine claimed by both scientists and Anglican churchmen called ‘The Immutability of Species,’ which insisted that all species were specially created by God at the beginning. This clearly confused kinds with species.
Grasses include wheat, rice, corn, and other grains such as millet and rye. Fruits would include apples, citrus fruits, melons, etc.[2]


[1] John S. Wilkins, “A List of 26 Species ‘Concepts,’” Evolving Thoughts Science Blog. October 1, 2006. http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2006/10/01/a-list-of-26-species-concepts/

[2] ”Cereals, grasses, and grains,” United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/food/grains.shtml, (accessed 5.3.2016).


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