Christians: If you breed dogs until they look like penguins, will you still call them dogs?

Question

What if you breed penguins until they look like dogs. Will you still call them penguins?

Don't dismiss this question. It is far deeper than you realize. You should think about it.

Dewcoons: Is it really that cut and dried? What about lions and tigers? If they mate, the male offspring is sterile but the female offspring is not. Are lions and tigers the same species? Are Horses and Donkeys the same species? What if you breed a male Great Dane with a female Chihuahua. Will the giant fetus kill the mother and prevent viable offspring? If so are they a different species?

Answer 1

Your question calls to mind the image of Kirk Cameron holding a picture of a 'crocoduck' asking with mock sincerity 'where is it?' Made all the more laughable because when shown a picture of Archeopteryx he just shakes his head and says 'that's clearly a bird.'

Answer 2

The scientific definition of a "species" is a group which is able to mate and have viable offspring. If you created a penguin looking "something" by breeding dogs, then it would be a dog, because it breeds with dogs. It would not be a new species, but simply another breed of dog. For it to become a different species, it would have to lose the ability to breed with dogs. For it to become a penguin, it would have to gain the ability to breed with penguins.

Look at dogs sometime, and the variety between say a Great Dane and a toy poodle, or between an English sheepdog and a Mexican Hairless. People have bred that many differences into "dogs", but then still remain "dogs". Even if you were to bred one that looked close to another species, it would still be a dog.

An animal that is bred from dogs and breeds with dogs is a dog. An animal that is bred from penguins and breeds with penguins is a penguin.

Answer 3

Likewise, the Bible asks if a leopard can change his spots? It is quite obvious that he cannot, however, we may be able to change the outside of a leopard (or ourselves), but never the inside. No matter how much a dog looks like a penguin, he is still a dog. God can change a leopard....inside and out.....and a dog or penguin. However, it is then called a new creation. So are we, accustomed to doing evil, only be able to appreciate good when God changes us.....likewise a new creation.

Answer 4

If it were possible for that to happen then where are all the cat/dogs, the chicken/horses and so on. If this question is serious then I wonder just where you are trying to go with it? Perhaps that is a road we shouldn't go down?

Answer 5

If you breed penguins until they look like dogs they will neither remain penguins nor become dogs.

They will become guinea pigs!

Answer 6

The biggest challenge in breeding miniature horses isn't making them small, but keeping it so that they look like horses.

Answer 7

One day you too will come to understand that you aren't a filthy mindless (not brainless) beast roaming a rock out in the middle of space for no reason other than to ponder while developing a capability to extinguish itself in only a small fraction of its own existence.

Answer 8

What does this have to do with Christianity?
How would we breed dogs to look like penguins or vise-versa

Answer 9

Christians would not breed penguins with dogs because that is the work of the Devil.

Answer 10

People have bred dogs to look like rats but still call them dogs (Mexican Hairless) http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/uploadimages/126_01_2.jpg