In the Ostrich Family - Creation Moments

Isaiah 13:21

“But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.”

I remember a news report on a local radio station in Bridgend, Wales, which said that there was an ostrich on the loose, running through the town center. There wasn’t. But a local park had an enclosure where they kept a few rheas. One of these birds had got loose and was running through Bridgend’s downtown.

The rhea is a big, flightless bird from South America but quite a bit smaller than an ostrich – both species of which are African. However, they resemble ostriches – as do emus from Australia. The resemblance is so great that they were, for many years, grouped into one family – the ratites. However, it does not appear possible to hybridize across these species, and yet hybrids between the two extant species of ostrich are certainly possible.

Evolutionists have now placed these three types of birds in separate families. They still believe they are related, however, but more distantly than previously thought. Creationists accept the different families but now accept these as separate baramins. This means that God created ostriches, emus and rheas separately, and there is no common ancestor of the three types.

The classification changes to these flightless birds shows how evolutionary research can be used by creationists with a constructively critical analysis. The apparent similarity in appearance between these created kinds is no more significant than the similarity between different families of, for example, monkeys. Apparent similarity is never an argument in favor of evolution, which is not consistent with the Bible, and is scientifically impossible.

Prayer: We pray, Heavenly Father, for men of science to acknowledge Your hand. Thank You for the wonder of Your creation. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Encyclopaedia Britannica, < https://www.britannica.com/animal/rhea-bird-group >, accessed 1/30/2019. Image: Rheas, Public Domain.