Pulitzer Prize winning author Jared Diamond cites the “Anna Karenina Principle” in explaining why early man was able to domesticate some wild animals (dogs, cats, etc.) but not others (like foxes). Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy begins his classic Anna Karenina with this sentence: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” 

Tolstoy meant that happiness in a family comes when many different aspects such as sexual attraction, agreement about money and child rearing and other vital issues all work out. But even if many of these aspects are good, the family will be unhappy if any one of the key aspects is missing. In similar fashion, Diamond says that many factors of geography, climate, culture, etc., had to work out perfectly to allow man to domesticate animals (Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, New York: Norton, 1999, p. 157).

Diamond is an evolutionary biologist, and has some interesting insights into micro-evolution. Micro-evolution is the evolution we see within a species, such as the various breeds of dogs, derived from ancient dogs, or the domesticated sheep, cattle and horses, from ancient sheep, cattle and horses. Through processes over time, usually aided or planned by man, these changes have happened. But there is no evidence, of course, for macro-evolution, the change of one species or biblical “kind” into another.

Consider how the Anna Karenina Principle applies to our earth. How is it possible that our planet is just the right distance from the sun, just the right tilt and orbit around the sun, with just the right atmosphere, and so many other factors, so that life came about? Without this perfect planned combination, life as we know it could not exist on earth. With the domestication of animals, many factors have to be in place, but most important is human intelligence which makes it happen. The psalmist reminds us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). God the Creator put everything in place for His creation. Evidence of design and a Designer is everywhere in our earth!