I've always had an interest in the history of domestication. That is, I've wondered why we don't see newly domesticated animals here and there. Why settle for cows, sheep, dogs, and all the others that were domesticated thousands of years ago? And just how did those people back then start domesticating, anyway?

PBS had a Nature program on that discussed that very thing regarding dogs. Part of their theory is that Man couldn't have domesticated other animals or survived in some climates without dogs. I immediately thought of the Silver Fox Farm in Siberia but was also reminded of this experiment in the program.

In a nutshell, when foxes were selected for a specific behavior - friendliness, or tameness - some very interesting physical changes occurred as well. The new domesticated foxes are different from wild foxes just like dogs are different from wolves. It's all really cool stuff.

We can only assume something similar happened when Noah's kids left the Ark. Taking a wolf, or the ancestor to both wolves and dogs, they began the process that has led to the domesticated dog. And the sheep. And all the other domesticated animals (obviously from their respective species).

Darwinists have assumed that this sort of change would take place over thousands of years through natural selection. But the Fox experiment has proved that drastic changes can occur over very short periods of time. While they called this "evolution" I have my doubts.

For one thing, we have the obvious intervention of Man in this process instead of leaving the whole thing up to chance. An intelligent mind is behind the domestication of foxes and guiding the changes. We have never seen traits like these in foxes in the wild and I can only assume that we never would have seen traits like these in wolves.

Second, with selective breeding, no new genetic material is added to the group. Instead, different traits are selected and encouraged. Any genetic changes are a result of dominant and recessive genes, along with quantitative traits (those that cover a range of possibilities and are possibly controlled by several genes). All that genetic material was already in the fox population. Selective breeding just enhanced some and reduced others.

So I remain amazed at our ancestors and the accomplishments they made. I am also still amazed at how a person's personal beliefs color how they see results from experiments such as this.  Certainly many see this as confirmation of the theory of Evolution. I see this as confirmation of Creation and God's design.

Now, I'm only a hack - I admit it. I'm not well versed in all the science and research behind all this. But research is still cool and I'd love a domestic fox for a pet! Who knows? I may not be allergic to foxes, unlike dogs, cats ....