Hello everyone who still cares,

I'm sorry, I was hoping to stick to birds but I think I should answer
questions directed to me by Don Baccus. Obviously my original point was
lost in the details but:

>Quick, educate me: just WHAT is a "kind" as spoken of in the bible? Order?
>Family? Genus? Species? Subspecies?

Couldn't tell you - wasn't there was I?
What is a species? Any bioligist will tell you that's a sticky question
and we are stuck with working definitions because life doesn't fall into
neat little categories all the time.

>
>Tell me where in the bible the distinction is made.

I don't think it is! Though it does talk about fowls, fish, etc. My
opinions about the likelyhood of a reptile evolving into a bird via small
evolutionary changes (DNA substitutions and the like) can stand
independently of any opinion I have about the Bible.

>Tell me EXACTLY where the distinction between "macro" and "micro" evolution
>lies.

Check with Steven Gould - I don't know! Give me a precise definition of
species so I know what speciation is! To ME anything beyond Genus or maybe
Family seems pretty big. All I know is that getting 2 or 3 species
(depending on the definition of species!) of warblers where we once had 1,
due to changes in breeding range, plumage, song, whatever, seems rather
plausible to me - and we can observe these kinds of changes. Does that
mean that since we see changes in plumage and song that if we add lots of
time we will change a reptile into a bird? As I said before - maybe, maybe
not!

>You didn't read my statement about the THEORY of gravity, did you?
Actually, I did - excuse me for being so beneath your intellect.
Yes, gravity is a fact and Newton, et al. proposed theories to explain it.
Yes, evolution occurs, is a fact, and many people have proposed theories to
explain it. But some of these ideas about what happened in the past cannot
be tested or observed. These should not be treated as fact, beyond debate.

>Pardon me for disagreeing, for I believe lying is never right ESPECIALLY
>in the name of God, not "even if" in the name of God.

I could not agree more! As I said before, they will have a lot to answer
for.

Regarding the age of the earth: I don't know what the age of the earth is
and don't really care. I never argued for a young earth, only for the
right of people to give their opinion. Finally, who is the ICR and why do
I care? (I know who they are) Obviously your bitterness toward these
people has made it impossible for you to talk about the subject with anyone
else without labeling them.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Stout
Burnaby, BC
bestout at sfu.ca