Response To and Expounding Upon Genetics in Limited Pools

When sharing the original post with a friend, he focused on the notion that it was unlikely that every species, or even most species, has/have reached a near extinction event that would require a limited pool of options in terms of mating. While I acknowledge that this would make sense if one does not ascribe to The Bible or a text with a similar flooding event, my actual point in this post is that every sexual species would have necessarily been at the juncture of a single pair (or possibly extremely limited and closely related pairings, such as in the case of litters- or somehow multiple near simultaneous emergences of the same species from unrelated ancestors, though that is hard to picture from a purely genetic chance perspective), at that species' initial emergence. I should add that this only takes into account the biblical account (flood reset) and science (macro-evolution), but I could imagine other belief systems including creation of entire herds or settlements or what have you, and even I have have some suspicions regarding The Land of Nod being somehow related to Adam's deep sleep, allowing for the emergence of soulmates from "elsewhere," though this would have been pre-flood regardless. The point is that, by the two popular belief systems that I am most familiar with, both of these systems require each sexual species to be at a juncture of limited genetic supply, not necessary when they neared extinction, but when they first emerged (from the Ark or the genetic pool, as a distinct species from their ancestors).

In fact, if looking for genetic variation specifically, there would actually be significant advantage to the Ark account over the macro-evolution account, if examining each by their own claims, as macro-evolution would likely begin with two individuals that were closely related already, and would depend on genetic chance, including the associated birth defects, to adapt from that starting position. Alternatively, assuming that God did create many animals initially (Genesis 1:24*, for example, does not indicate how many animals were produced from the land) and allowed these species' to bloom over time before calling the optimal pairing, to avoid genetic mishaps, to Noah's Ark, would have a much higher success rate, even if genetic chance were the governing force, in the same way that we see today, from that point forward. While it does feel like there is a cruelty to this, I cannot presume the perspective at the time, either of The LORD, or even that of the animals; I could certainly see a kind of "off switch" being used, prior to the rains beginning, for all those innocents not in the Ark.

I digress- essentially if I gave the impression that this would only apply to nearly extinct species returning from the precipice of extinction, I apologize. My point is that, in macro-evolution, every sexually reproducing species began in this limited genetic information state, and reproduced within their own close family for multiple generations before other options were available in any way. As just one example of cross species breeding- which would presumably be the situation for that pair that emerged as a new species and any of the members of their ancestral species, once the genetic leap to a new species was made- examining the horse, donkey, and mule, while it is evident in some cases that some lines might be crossed between species, the offspring do not result in the same species and, in this example, do not result in a viable result, in terms of further reproduction. Therefore, I believe that the scenario where a single pairing is solely responsible for generating an entire species, or "kind," must be considered for all species, from a scientific perspective.

As an aside, I once wrote of how this might work, suspecting divine interference was not required at such a depth/involvement as one might think, but rather that there is a signal that can be sent (something similar to the mole rat's signal but with a very different result) that can unlock a function of DNA not seen, to allow for the rapid blooming of many species from a single starting pair, essentially setting that pair as something like a genus (or above?) all their own, for that timeframe. This idea/signal could then combine with the stabilizing codex I described in the original post here to create a lot of genetic variety, including many new species, in few generations, with only single pairs of originating partners, in each case (per the account of the Ark). While I fully admit that this would still be divine interference, it would primarily be in the form of laying the groundwork exquisitely well, in terms of how DNA functions. It is possible that the conditions on the Ark itself, with the pheromones of so many different species in such close proximity for the several months that this was the case, had been previously embedded as "the signal." Personally I have also seen, especially recently, that animals can act quite strangely, as in they can all seem to be on the same page about something and act as if tame, so even getting them to the Ark might be a simple matter, perhaps a communication within a dream, if I were to hypothesize. It feels as though each piece is in place for this juncture, honestly.

*Genesis 1:24

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.