Linnaean taxonomy

Linnaean taxonomy refers to the taxonomic system developed in the 18th century by Carolus Linnaeus wherein life forms are classified according to a ranked hierarchy.

The basic hierarchy (leaving out the sub- or super- ranks, and other more technical ranks) is as follows:

• Domain
  • Kingdom
    • Phylum
      • Class
        • Order
          • Family
            • Genus
              • Species

Linnaean taxonomy was originally developed as a physicotheological system in which nature was viewed as another testament of God to be read much like the Bible. By seeking to document the patterns of concinnity in Creation, Linnaeus and his peers hoped to elucidate the mind of God. It was not originally meant to describe a system of biological descent, which Linnaeus, a devout Christian and creationist, would have considered shocking. Linnaeus also applied his taxonomy to mineralogy, but that usage has been superseded by chemical classifications.

Evolutionists inherited the Linnaean system from the Christian founders of biology and tried to adapt it to the Darwinian world view of ever-transmogrifying species. However, since the Linnaean system describes a fixed creation with no way for members of one order or family to move to another order or family, this Neo-Linnaean Synthesis has always been problematic.

While the system is still in almost universal use for the naming and categorizing of creatures -- especially in the form of the binomial nomenclature, where species are given a scientific, Latinate name comprised of a generic and specific descriptor (e.g. the common wombat is known as Vombatus ursinus) -- it has largely been replaced as a framework for describing origins by creation science's baraminology and the evolutionists' cladistics.