Pedigree Dogs and Artificial Selection
Creation.com, 7/1/10, “‘Parade of mutants’—pedigree dogs and artificial selection” [Excerpts]: When choosing a pet, many people opt for purebred pedigree dogs. Though they come at a price, it is easier to predict the eventual size, temperament, and needs of a purebred dog breed than for a “mutt.” But as a new BBC documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” shows, the cost of breeding purebred dogs is genetic as well as economic.
All dogs are descendants of a wolf-like ancestor. This ancestor had the genetic diversity that allowed people to breed dogs as different in size as the Chihuahua and the Great Dane. Other traits such as colour, temperament, and exercise needs are just as diverse among the breeds. This great variability is an example of just how much genetic variation is built into the various created animal kinds. Other breeds, as will be shown, are the result of downhill mutations.
Over many hundreds of years, humans have produced the various breeds by specifically selecting different traits to breed for; there are currently over 200 distinct varieties of dog, but all belong to the same species, and could theoretically breed with each other….
Over time, breeding only for certain traits allows great predictability in what a dog’s offspring will look like—a Dalmatian mated with a Dalmatian will produce Dalmatian puppies, and so on. When this occurs regularly, the type of dog becomes an official breed. But this predictability comes at a genetic cost. The breeders have drastically reduced the amount of genetic information in the population of dogs—such as for other coat colours and lengths, or different sizes or temperaments.
The Eugenics movement, founded by Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton, held that the key to human improvement was in controlling who could reproduce with whom…. While we know today that the eugenicists’ ideas about purity make no scientific sense, the documentary argues that The Kennel Club is one of the few organizations that still operate under the fundamental assumptions of eugenics.
On a Positive Note
MidwestOutreach.org, 2/13/25, “On a Positive Note” [Excerpts]: According to “Most American teens ‘very motivated’ to know about Jesus: Barna” by Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter:
Although religious affiliation and church attendance are on the decline, more than half of American teenagers say they’re “very motivated” to know more about Jesus, and just over 75% say they’re at least “somewhat motivated” to learn about the centerpiece of Christianity, according to Barna Research.
While not a biblical worldview, there is an interest in churches that take the time to answer the questions and disciple the youth into a biblical worldview that could bring about a considerable change in culture as a whole.
Swedish Woman converts to Islam [3], joins ISIS, holds slaves
JihadWatch.org, 2/13/25, “Sweden: Woman converts to Islam [3], joins ISIS, holds Yazidi slaves, forces them to recite Qur’an and pray” [Excerpts]: What Lina Ishaq did after converting to Islam [3] is wholly inexplicable in light of the picture of Islam [3] that the Western political and media establishment pushes on the public. Maybe that picture is inaccurate, eh?
“A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old woman to 12 years in prison on genocide charges, in the country’s first court case over crimes by the Islamic State group against the Yazidi minority.
“Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Stockholm district court said in a statement….
“Ishaq also forced the Yazidis, who practice their own religion, to ‘become practising Muslims’ by making them recite Koran verses and pray four or five times a day.
“She also called the injured parties ‘demeaning invectives such as “infidels” or “slaves”’, the court said….
“Ishaq grew up in a Christian Iraqi family in Sweden but converted to Islam [3] after meeting her late husband and Islamist Jiro Mehho, with whom she had six children, in the 1990s….”
