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There were two interesting contradictions in the article announcing the "Encyclopedia of Life." First, the number of species referenced above, 1.5 million species, contradicted the 1.8 million species quoted at
the beginning of the article.(ibid) To me this demonstrates biologist don't even know the extent of the types of life currently existing on earth, at least by
+/-20%. Given this disconnect with the most basic of biological data, how can anyone accept scientists know with certainty how life came to exist? Sure, some
scientists believe God had nothing to do with life on earth. And even more certainly, most religious folks believe God directed how the earth brought forth every living creature.2.234 The second contradiction is how biologist - like most institutions involving human beings - do not agree how to spend the money which is available. Paraphrasing Biologist Dan Graur at the University of Houston in the article announcing the project: the money would be better spent on pure science, collecting new knowledge, instead of performing an editorial effort on information which is already known.2.235 My response, in the spirit of Best Practices, is that information is not known until it is documented. Given the widespread availability of the Internet, it makes sense all information about
life is documented in a manner making the information available to all of mankind. I think this is a most important step in understanding God's handiwork on Earth, and at the same time I understand it is not my livelihood which is challenged by this "editorial effort."
In concluding this section about how the biological is something to be acted upon, it seems appropriate to summarize the scientific classification of life. For biological systems, classification is called an alpha taxonomy, which is the science of finding, describing, and categorizing organisms into taxonomic groups or taxa, then naming these organisms.2.236 There are seven major levels of taxonomic groupings in the traditional Linnaean taxonomy, as illustrated by the following classification for modern humans:2.237
- Kingdom: Animalia (with eukaryotic cells having cell membrane but lacking cell well, multicelular, heterotrophic);
- Phylum or Division: Chordata (animals with a notochord, dorsal nerve chord,
and pharyngeal gill slits, which may be vestigial);
- Class: Mammalia (warm-blooded vertebrates with hair and mammary glands which, in females, secrete milk to nourish young); Subclass: Placentalia (giving birth to live young after a full internal gestation period);
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paradoxes