User:Pbarnes/creationist orchard

A creationist orchard is a metaphor used to describe the belief that there are multiple phylogenetic trees rather than one single tree as suggested by the theory of universal common descent. The metaphor was created after creationism began getting associated with fixity of the species, a belief many creationist do not accept. A creationist orchard accepts evolution according to it's biological definition, but denies many part of the theory in general such as universal common descent.

The study of these created kinds of organisms is known as baraminology or typology.

Etymology
Kurt Wise is attributed to the creation of the metaphor in an attempt to dispel the association with fixity of the species and to easily define his view much the same way as theory, universal common descent. The metaphor is described in a number of books published by young earth creationist and intelligent designers. In the book Refuting Evolution, Jonathan Sarfati devotes much of chapter 2 to explaining the creationist orchard.

History
Prior to Charles Darwin work on evolution, most biologist believed all species remained unchanged throughout the history of the earth. Biologist began to question fixity of species when they began observing interbreeding amongst various species, this theory began to diminish and was replaced with theory of evolution.

Darwin was raised in a religious family and was a clergyman who believed in the fixity of the species but rejected the theory after his studies on the Galápagos Islands in which he observed many examples of species which did not remain unchanged. This change is described by Darwin as adaptation.

In the years following Darwin, many creationist attempted to reconcile the thing Darwin could not. These individuals believed a literal creation as described in Genesis and also many aspects of evolution Darwin theorized.

Belief
A common argument against the theory of evolution is that genetic information does not advance but only digresses as time progresses. Many creationist claim God created the various kinds with perfect genetic information. With the affects of the fall of man, the environment created a number of pressures similar to natural selection which cause the perfect genetic information to become less than perfect but at the same kind creating diversity.

Supporters of the creationist orchard believe the change in the environment paradise to a survival of the fittest scenario the perfect genetic information began to be lost. The loss of the perfect genes resulted in diversity of each species. By these different forms of the same species "interbreeding" they claim the result only "appears" to be evolution in progress but is really just a combining of the original perfect genetic information which produces the something more similar to the original perfect ancestor.

An example for this belief is the relationship between a wolves, foxes, and dolphins; most creationist believe wolves and a foxes are related by ancestral evolution but argue against the belief that a wolf and a dolphin once shared a common ancestor. According to creationist orchard supports, the common wolf-fox ancestor shared all the best traits of both species but when genetic information began to be removed from the individual species due to their harsh environment they began to only maintain certain traits; these traits resulted in the wolf and fox species we see today.

Orchard Theorist
Young Earth Creationist:
 * Ken Ham
 * Kurt P. Wise
 * Jonathan Sarfati
 * Kent Hovind