Perspectives

one couple that colonised the A Shrinking Date For '' island in the beginning, called 'Smith', or Most creationists will have by now Harry and Sally, but with four different (2) There were only a small number heard of the '' surnames: Smith, Jones, Brown and of surnames on the islands to begin hypothesis, the finding that all modern White. In due course the population with, and the other surnames went humans can be traced back to one grows, with each generation marrying extinct. woman. Some recent findings on only among any of the other surnames Returning to the 'Eve' debate, it when 'Eve' is supposed to have lived available. It is very easy to set up a is clear from the above example (by are very encouraging for creationists. simple computer simulation to show just swapping the sexes around) that But first we should review a few how readily a surname can 'die out' — the evidence from mtDNA which has things, and hopefully sweep away with a line ending in only daughters. suggested that all modern humans some common misunderstandings. In due course, all the people on come from one woman can mean one Evolutionists do not claim, nor can that island could end up with one of two things:- it be fairly stated, that this evidence surname only — say Smith. (In fact, (1) There really was only one couple proves that there was only one woman this is what happened on Pitcairn in the beginning — that is, alive at any point in the past. Holders Island, inhabited by the descendants of mitochondrial Eve could be the to the 'Eve' theory certainly insist that the Bounty mutineers — all ended up real (Biblical) Eve; or all modern humans are indeed with the same surname after a few (2) All modern humans are descended descended from one woman. generations.) from only a small population However, they believe that there were This is only probable where there existing at one time. The other other women present at the time, and is only a small number of surnames 'mitochondrial lines' (from the that any of these other women could initially, that is, a small original other females living alongside the have contributed DNA information to population; if the number of surnames one whose mitochondrial our present gene pool of humanity. is too large, it becomes very 'surname' is found in all How does this apparent contradiction improbable for it to narrow down to populations today) have gone come about? only one. extinct whenever a line had no The answer lies in the fact that In one sense it could be said that female offspring. 'Mitochondrial while we all inherit our usual 'Harry Smith' is the 'father of all on Eve' is the only one of the original complement of (nuclear) DNA from the island'. Yet this does not imply that population in whose offspring both mother and father, we only inherit Harry Jones, for example, is not the there has been a continuous supply mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from ancestor of any of them. Harry Jones of female descendants in each our mother (see Figure 1). Think of it could very well have contributed generation. Any of the other like a surname, only related to the nuclear DNA to opposite sex. In our society, we inherit any of today's our surname only from our father. A islanders, without surname can become 'extinct' without being their 'sur­ implying that all the people in a line name ancestor'. have died out — all it takes is for there Let's say you to be only female descendants at any are a researcher level. investigating this In the same way, if a line of descent particular island, in a human population has only males without the benefit at one point, then that line 'dies out' of any written as far as its 'mitochondrial signature' records. You notice is concerned, that is, nuclear DNA is that all people on still passed on, but not mtDNA. To the island today are make it easier to understand, let's named Smith. return to the surname analogy (then Now this could be later just substitute females for males). for two reasons:- Imagine that an island is colonised by Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of a human cell, showing (1) Because there the nucleus and mitochondria where the nuclear DNA and four couples, each with the first names really was only mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) reside (respectively). CEN Tech. J., vol. 12, no. 1, 1998 1 women living alongside her could standard evolutionary theory had like. 'If he/she acts in so many respects have contributed nuclear DNA to predicted, hence the 'out-of-Africa' like a human, he/she is a human' — today's populations, via their sons. theory. and thus a descendant of . I trust the analogy is clear. The Evolutionists have guessed when Neandertals (some of whose physical mitochondrial Eve data does not force their mitochondrial Eve lived via the traits can be found in some European the belief that there was only one idea of the 'molecular clock', that is, populations) were not a different woman from whom we all descended. that there is a more or less fixed rate species (or a spiritless race not In other words, it doesn't prove the of mutational substitutions per year in descended from Adam, as Rossists Bible — but, a very important 'but' — any population. How do they know proclaim) but were post-Flood it is most definitely consistent with it. what this rate is — in other words, how humans, representing a subset of the In other words, had there been is the 'molecular clock' calibrated? By original gene pool broken up at Babel. more than one mitochondrial using evolutionary assumptions about Creationists have correctly 'surname' it would have been a severe the timing of events based on their countered both Eve's 'age' and the challenge to the Biblical scenario. And interpretation of the fossil record. For Neandertal assertions by saying that it was not something that was expected example, if it is believed that humans the molecular clock calibrations are by evolutionists. and baboons, last shared a common way off.2 Since, for example, the To explain it in their scenario ancestor 'x' years ago, and if the creationist's (true) Eve lived only a few requires a small population of modern number of differences between baboon thousand years ago, the mutational humans to arise in one part of the world and human mtDNA is y, then the substitutions in mtDNA must have (archaic humans having already substitution rate per year is y/x. In this happened at a much faster rate than evolved and spread across the globe), way, estimates of when 'Eve' lived assumed by evolutionists to date. and from there spread out to replace have varied from as low as 70,000 to all the other less-evolved humans, so as high as 800,000 years ago, but more GOOD NEWS that we all descend from that small commonly in the range 200,000- original population (the 'out-of-Africa' 250,000 years. In fact, a number of recent studies or 'Noah's Ark' theory of human It has recently been claimed that on living populations have indeed evolution). Neandertals were not direct human come up with results which indicate a The Biblical creationist would ancestors, but a different species in much higher mutation rate in human conclude that the one woman fact. This claim has been made on the mtDNA.3,4 suggested by the mitochondrial data is basis of the number of substitutional Although not all studies to date almost certainly the real Eve .l differences in one stretch of mtDNA have found the same high rate, at least between that extracted from the one two studies, looking directly at WHEN DID 'EVE' LIVE? Neandertal successfully tested and the substitutions occurring today, have average of today's populations.2 In a found rates as much as 20 times higher Evolutionists, aware of the way in consistent Biblical model, there would than previously assumed (see Figure which the mitochondrial Eve be no 'proto-humans' having music, 2).5 Studies on the bones of the last discovery could be seen to have jewellery, trade, clothing, shelter, Tsar of Russia also showed that he, vindicated the Bible, have long sophisticated hunting weapons and the along with 10-20 per cent of the countered by saying that their 'Eve' lived far too long ago to be the Biblical Eve. How do they calculate this? The answer has to do with why this scenario came about in the first place. MtDNA is known to be much more transparent to selection than nuclear DNA. In other words, there are many places where a genetic 'letter' can be replaced with another by way of a mutational 'copying mistake' without causing any problems to the organism. Comparisons between various groups of people alive today can be made on the basis of the number of letters which are 'different', having been substituted by mutation. Modern humans were Figure 2. Mitochondrial DNA mutation rates seem faster when studied over a few generations, much closer to each other than rather than over long time-spans.

2 CEN Tech. J. vol. 12, no. 1, 1998 population, actually had at least 2 types in certain stretches of DNA called 'hot the mitochondrial 'molecular of mtDNA, a condition called 'hetero- spots', and/or that the high (observed) clock' is ticking at a much faster plasmy', also caused by mutations.3 rate causes back mutations which rate than evolutionists believed This, too, throws off the 'molecular 'erase' the effects of this high rate. possible. If correct, it means that clock' calibrations. Therefore, conveniently, the rate is mitochondrial Eve lived 6,000 to According to one review of the assumed to be high over a short 6,500 years ago, right in the data, these recent results would mean timespan, but effectively low over a ballpark for the true 'mother of all that mitochondrial Eve long timespan. However, this is special living' (Genesis 3:20). lived about 6,500 years ago — a pleading to get out of a difficulty, and (4) These real-time findings also figure clearly incompatible with the burden of proof is on evolutionists seriously weaken the case from current theories on human origins. to sustain the vast ages for 'Eve' in the mitochondrial DNA which argued Even if the last common face of these documented, modern-day (erroneously) that Neandertals mitochondrial ancestor is younger mutation rates. These are indeed were not true humans. than the last common real encouraging results for creationists. ancestor, it remains enigmatic how In summary: REFERENCES AND the known distribution of human (1) The mitochondrial Eve findings FOOTNOTES populations and genes could have were, in the first instance, in line arisen in the past few thousand with biblically-based expectations; 1. I say 'almost certainly' to cover the claim years.'4 while not proving the Biblical Eve, that she may have been one of the small post- Flood population, although I would not The review in Science's 'Research they were consistent with her expect sufficient mtDNA divergence in the News' goes still further about Eve's reality, and were not predicted by small number of generations between date, saying that 'using the new clock, evolutionary theory. creation and the Flood. she would be a mere 6000 years old'. (2) The dates assigned to 2. Lubenow, M. L., 1998. Recovery of Neandertal mtDNA: an evaluation. CEN The article says about one of the teams mitochondrial Eve were said by Tech.J.,12(l):87-97. 5 of scientists (the Parsons team ) that evolutionists to rule out the 3. Loewe, L. and Scherer, S., 1997. 'evolutionary studies led them to Biblical Eve. But these dates were Mitochondrial Eve: the plot thickens. expect about one mutation in 600 based upon 'molecular clock' Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 12(11):422-423. generations . . . they were assumptions, which were 4. Gibbons, A., 1998. Calibrating the "stunned" to find 10 base-pair calibrated by evolutionary beliefs mitochondrial clock. Science, 279 changes, which gave them a rate about when certain evolutionary (5347):28-29. of one mutation every 40 events occurred, supposedly 5. Parsons, T. J. et al, 1997. A high observed 4 substitution rate in the human mitochondrial generations.' millions of years ago. DNA control region. Nature Genetics, 15: Evolutionists have tried to evade (3) When these assumed rates were 363-368, as cited in Ref. 4. the force of these results by countering checked out against the real world, that the high mutation rate only occurs preliminary results indicate that C. Wieland

and catch, all in the right place. The Design in Living Organisms: thrust of Behe's book is that many structures in living organisms show Motors irreducible complexity, far in excess of a mousetrap or indeed any man- In our everyday experience, we the difference between a book made machine. can usually tell whether something has containing nothing but ABCD been designed. The main evidence is repeated and a book of Shakespeare. MOTORS: A CASE STUDY high information content. The On a practical level, the inform­ information content of any ation specifies the many parts needed Motors are irreducibly complex, arrangement is the size, in bits, of the to make machines work. Often, the because they need many parts working shortest algorithm required to generate removal of one part can disrupt the together to function. For example, an that arrangement. This means that whole machine. Biochemist Michael electric motor needs a power source, repetitive structures, like crystals, have Behe, in his book Darwin's Black fixed stator, movable rotor, and a a low information content, because all Box, calls this irreducible commutator or slip rings. that is needed is to specify a few complexity.1 He gives the example of The more parts needed for a positions, then the instructions 'more a very simple machine: a mousetrap. machine, the harder it is to make it of the same'. The difference between This would not work without a smaller. Miniaturisation is such a vital a crystal and an enzyme or DNA is like platform, holding bar, spring, hammer part of the computer industry, and the

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