The Unlikely Buddha

Giant pandas have been a symbol of friendship and goodwill between China and the United States for over 70 years. In 1941, on the eve of the United States entering World War II, the Chinese government gifted two pandas, Mei Mei and Ping Ping, to the Bronx Zoo. The pandas were an instant hit with the American public, and their arrival helped to soften the image of China in the United States. In the following decades, China gifted pandas to a number of other countries, including the Soviet Union, North Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, the most famous panda diplomacy occurred in 1972, when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai gifted two pandas, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, to President Richard Nixon. The pandas were a symbol of the new era of friendship between the two countries, which had been estranged for decades. Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling were housed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, where they quickly became national celebrities. Millions of Americans visited the zoo to see the panda...

According to the Bible, Noah was instructed to bring two of every "kind" of animal onto the ark. The Hebrew word used for "kind" is "min," which is a broader term than the modern classification of "species."  Theologians estimate that there are around 1,398 known kinds of land animals and flying creatures, including extinct ones. This means that Noah would have needed to bring around 6,744 animals onto the ark. Some people believe that the biblical "kind" is equivalent to the modern family level of classification. This means that all animals within a family, such as all cats or all dogs, would be considered to be of the same kind. Others believe that the biblical "kind" is a broader category that includes multiple families. Scientifically speaking, it is impossible to say for sure how many species of animals existed on Earth at the time of Noah. This is because the fossil record is incomplete and we do not have a complete unde...