The Great Chain of Being

Answers in genesis has begun to publish a peer-reviewed 'sceitific journal' It's taken them a few months to scare up even 3 articles, however, so its coming out on the web a piece at a time. Here is the abstract of the first article, Microbes on the day of Creation:


The world of germs and microbes has received much attention in recent years. But where do microbes fit into the creation account? Were they created along with the rest of the plants and animals in the first week of creation, or were they created later, after the Fall? These are some questions that creation microbiologists have been asking in recent years. Ongoing research, based on the creation paradigm, appears to provide some answers to these puzzling questions. The answers to these questions are not explicit in Scripture, so the answers cannot be dogmatic. However, a reasonable extrapolation from biological data and Scripture can be made about the nature of microbes in a fully mature creation. This article attempts to provide reasonable answers to when microbes were created and is meant to stimulate discussion and further research in this area.

Very little has been written in Bible commentaries or in creation literature on the subject of when microbes were created. Some have postulated that microbes were created on a single day of Creation, such as Day Three—when the plants were made. This is partially due to the “seed-like” characteristics that bacteria and fungi have—therefore classifying microbes as plants. In addition, we observe microbes (such as Escherichia coli) isolated in the lab and we tend to think of microbes as individual entities much like birds or fish or animals and, therefore, created on a single day. However, in nature, the vast majority of microbes live in biological partnerships, not in total isolation. The natural symbiosis of microbes with other creatures is the norm. Therefore, we postulate that microbes were created as “biological systems” with plants, animals, and humans on multiple days, as supporting systems in mature plants, animals, and humans. This idea is further supported by the work of Francis (2003). Francis calls microbial symbiotic systems a biomatrix, or organosubstrate. He proposes that microbes were created as a link between macroorganisms and a chemically rich but inert physical environment, providing a surface (i.e., substrate) upon which multicellular creatures can thrive and persist in intricately designed ecosystems. From the beginning, God made His creation fully mature, and complex forms fully formed. This would ensure continuity and stability for the times to come. Although we cannot be certain as to specifically when the Creator made microbes, it is within His character to make entire interwoven, “packaged” systems to sustain and maintain life. 

So, there doesn't seem to be any science in it at all, as far as I can tell (We assume every article ever published in a peer-reveied sceince journal is wrong and then start guessing...), but it rather falls back on the Great Chain of being: the Idea that God is linked to rocks by an infinitely graded chain of entities moving from the more God-like (e.g. angles) to the more rock-like (e.g. truffles), with man square in the middle. But then they can't even call it the Great Chain of Being, beucase it wouldn't sound scientific. They ought to be more careful about that though, since that is exactly the kind of idea Darwin learned about in school which got him thinking...suppose you could move up or down the chain?