Darwin vindicated!

by Glen on 2001-02-22 17:40:54

MSNBC’s Arthur Caplan is reporting that Darwin has been vindicated because the cracking of the human genome puzzle confirms the theory of evolution. In paragraph 5 of his article, Caplan delivers a “see, we told you so” remark to scientific creationists.

I’d like to make two comments about the article.

1. The Bible does not take a stand on evolution – it simply points out that God created all things, and that he created them according to their kind. In other words, life began in categories. Obviously, if science finds that genes evolve, that’s no problem. Scientists are uncovering the marvelous sophistication of an amazingly creative God, and if they can walk away from all they discover and believe it happened on its own from the very start, they are terribly deceived.
   
2. As Christians, our focus is the lost soul of men, just as this was Christ’s focus. God did not send Jesus here to debate evolution. We’re to be fishing for men just as Jesus demonstrated. Don’t get sidetracked!

Now on to the article…

“MOST REPORTERS ballyhooed the fierce competition
between scientists working for the publicly funded Human
Genome Project and those employed by the privately funded
Celera Genomics Corporation of Rockville, Md., to gain credit
for the discovery. Others wondered about the financial
implications of allowing human genes to be patented.

Still other headlines were meant to give us pause about
whether it would be good or bad to know more about the role
genes play in determining our health. Knowing more about our
genes, after all, might not be so great in an era in which there is
not much guarantee of medical privacy but a pretty good
chance of discrimination by insurers and employers against
those with “bad” genes.

There were even a couple of headlines that suggested that
humanity should not be quite so arrogant since we do not have
as many genes as we thought relative to other plants and
animals. In fact, as it turns out, we have only twice as many
genes as a fruit fly, or roughly the same number as an ear of
corn, about 30,000. Reductionism may not be all that it has been
cracked up to be by molecular biologists.

But none of these headlines
capture the most basic, the most
important consequence of
mapping out all of our genes. The
genome reveals, indisputably and
beyond any serious doubt, that
Darwin was right – mankind
evolved over a long period of
time from primitive animal
ancestors.

Our genes show that scientific creationism cannot be true.
The response to all those who thump their bible and say there is
no proof, no test and no evidence in support of evolution is,
“The proof is right here, in our genes.” Eric Lander of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge,
Mass., said that if you look at our genome it is clear that
“evolution … must make new genes from old parts.”

The core recipe of humanity carries clumps of genes that
show we are descended from bacteria. There is no other way
to explain the jerry-rigged nature of the genes that control key
aspects of our development.

No one can look at how the book of life is written and not
come away fully understanding that our genetic instructions
have evolved from the same programs that guided the
development of earlier animals. Our genetic instructions have
been slowly assembled from the genetic instructions that made
jellyfish, dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and our primate
ancestors.

There is, as the scientists who cracked the genome all
agreed, no other possible explanation.

Sure the business side of cracking our genetic code is
fascinating. And we all need to be sure that our government
does not leave us in the genetic lurch without laws to ensure
our privacy and protect us against genetic discrimination.

All that, however, is
concern for the future.
Right now the big news
from mapping our genome
is that mankind evolved.
The theory of evolution is
the only way to explain the
arrangement of the 30,000 genes and three billion letters that
constitute our genetic code.

The history of humanity is written in our DNA. Those who
dismiss evolution as myth, who insist that evolution has no
place in biology textbooks and our children’s classrooms, are
wrong.

The message our genes send is that Charles Darwin was
right.”