Genetic Monkey Business

Genesis 1:27
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

One commonly heralded claim to the evolution of man from the animal kingdom is the statement that humans and chimpanzees are more than 98 percent genetically identical. Many people think this claim has been proven, but it has always been an assumption made by believers in evolution.

Now geneticists have begun to examine this claim. Researchers recently completed the first detailed map of one chimpanzee chromosome. That alone should tell us that the claim of genetic similarity between humans and chimps has never been proven. They then compared this with the corresponding human chromosome. In a detailed examination they found 68,000 small differences in the DNA between the two genes. An analysis of the 231 genes of this chromosome showed that 83 percent of them would make proteins that differed from one another. They noted that if this pattern held for all the comparisons between human and chimpanzee genes, they would expect thousands of differences. In other words, rather than humans and chimps being more than 98 percent genetically identical, so far they have proven to be 83 percent genetically different!

There are, of course, more differences between humans and chimps than genetics. Humans were created in God’s image and therefore are morally responsible to God. And most importantly, humans have been redeemed by God’s Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross of Calvary. p.a.b.

Prayer:
Lord, I thank You that You have made me and redeemed me. Amen.

Notes:
Discover, 1: 2005, p. 30, Chris Jozefowicz, “Proteins Make the Primate.” Photo: Chimpanzee in the Leipzig Zoo. Courtesy of Thomas Lersch. (CC-BY-SA 3.0)