Tadpole 2 Frog = Evolution?

Biblegems #187

Question: Do tadpoles turning into frogs and caterpillars turning into butterflies represent a change of “kinds,” from one kind of creature to another, which would support an evolutionary model?

This is a really significant question. In the book of Genesis God reveals how creation took place, including how plants and animals were created according to their specific “kinds.”

         Gen. 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

The term “kinds” describes a group of creatures or a group of plant life that share the same genetic “pool.” For example, all the different variations of dogs—from a wolf to a cocker spaniel—are still dogs; they are of the “canine” kind. Likewise, cats are of the “feline” kind.

Sometimes, however, there is such a dramatic change in appearance within a “kind”—like a tadpole to a frog or a caterpillar to a butterfly—that it looks like evolution from one kind of creature to another is taking place. The truth is, the biblical term “kinds” refers to forms of life that reproduce themselves, no matter how much change in appearance happens during the process of reproduction. It is for this reason that a chimpanzee will never give birth to a human, or even evolve into a human, because the chimpanzee does not have the same kind of genes as a human being.

Tadpoles, on the other hand, are produced by frogs in the reproductive process and grow into fully developed frogs themselves. A tadpole does not have legs and must live in the water (like a fish), but it has within its design everything needed to grow legs, live on land and breathe air as it matures. So a tadpole will never become a goldfish because it is designed to become a frog. A caterpillar will never become a snake because it is designed to grow into a butterfly.

The theory of Evolution requires that one kind of creature, like a cold-blooded reptile, mutate into a different kind of creature, such as a warm-blooded bird. Even if the change from reptile to bird, or from a monkey to a human, takes millions or billions of years, the change from one "kind" of creature to another "kind" of creature requires drastic mutations at the genetic level. Such a mutation, by definition, is an abnormality, an error in the normal process of reproduction. That would make pretty much all of life as we know it the result of a chain of mutations—errors and abnormalities. According to evolution you and I as human beings are the result of a long history of genetic mistakes.

Well, here is the good news:

         Gen. 1:27, 31 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. …God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.