The Secret to Human History

Back in July I posted an article about a new video series on genetics and the human race by Nathaniel Jeanson. The series applies cutting edge research to our human ancestry and makes some remarkable discoveries- some surprising, and others predicted according to a Biblical worldview. In this article, I’ll highlight Part 5 & Part 6 of his video series.

According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were the first two humans created by God. Their offspring began to increase in number on earth, and then God sent a global flood because man had become violent and corrupt. All mankind and land animals were destroyed, except for those on board the ark- Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives- eight people in all, and a specified number of land animals. It was these representatives who exited the ark and repopulated the earth. The next significant event was the human dispersion at Babel.

If these events are true human history, then shouldn’t there be evidence? Absolutely! Creationists have been providing evidence for decades, but only recently have scientists been able to study the human genome in such detail. Genetics confirms the Biblical account in Genesis, and, believe it or not, the evidence can even be found in studies produced by evolutionists.

Nathaniel Jeanson first draws our attention to the cell, calling its complexity “a testimony to design.” The cell’s ability to compress information is far superior to that of what humans have been able to accomplish. Information is stored inside the nucleus and consists of DNA. When DNA is passed from parent to offspring, copying mistakes result. These copying mistakes are key, working like a clock, ticking the passage of time every generation. However, this nuclear DNA isn’t a reliable dating technique because it has been diluted by both parents. Instead, researchers use mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is located outside the nucleus and comes only from the mother. This is a more reliable technique since it can’t be diluted by the father. Interestingly, as we move back in time, there are fewer mistakes!

This is profound because it means humans are acquiring more and more mutations as time passes, making us more susceptible to genetic disease. Our ancient ancestors, in contrast, had fewer mutations and were more “fit”. Compared to us, their DNA was superior; this is opposite of what evolution demands, but is predicted by Biblical history- where Adam and Eve would have had zero genetic mutations. According to evolutionary philosophy, however, mutations are what lead to greater fitness.

Jeanson points out that the more mtDNA we have in common with one another, the closer our ancestry. And the more different our mtDNA, the more distant our ancestry. He suggests, if we wind the clock back far enough, we should be able to find an ancestor who connects us all- Mitochondrial Eve.

Consider, if we diagram a standard family tree, we see more and more branches as we go back in time. But these branches can’t go back forever- otherwise, that would mean there were billions and trillions of people in the distant past, which is an impossibility because the world population gets smaller as we go back in time. At some point the branches must be connected, and once they’re all connected, we arrive at the beginning and meet our common ancestor.

Evolutionists, interestingly enough, don’t stop when they get to the first human ancestor. No, they keep going back in time and connect our human lineage to chimps. Therefore, they claim the first humans were not represented by two persons- as the Bible says- but by many individuals about 100 to 200 thousand years ago.

But Jeanson asks, if we remove these evolutionary assumptions, where is the beginning? As it turns out, there’s a natural center point to our ancestry, and that is represented by three ancient groupings (called L, M, N haplogroups). These groups are recognized by evolutionists and are found in their literature. Thus, we can trace all modern humans back to Noah’s three sons- Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Okay, but how long ago was this? According to evolutionist Ann Gibbons, “Researchers have calculated that ‘mitochondrial Eve’- the woman whose mtDNA was ancestral to that in all living people- lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. Using the new clock, she would be a mere 6,000 years old. No one thinks that’s the case.” (emphasis added)

Did you catch that? No one? That’s not intellectually honest because creationists do make that claim. Evolutionists, however, are not basing their timeline on the genetic evidence, but are using geologic time and applying it to genetics. An honest interpretation of the evidence actually supports the Biblical timeline. Jeanson says, “not only does the Bible indicate that Eve- Mitochondrial Eve- lived 6,000 years ago, but looking at straight-forward science, there she is, there’s the echo.”

Lastly, Jeanson calculates there were about 10 generations from Adam to the flood, and about 180 generations from the flood until today, meaning that our first maternal ancestor lived less than 200 generations ago.

In Part 6, Jeanson found what he calls the “smoking gun of human history”, and this is worth looking at. This time we’re focusing on the Y chromosome passed from father to son. This concept is similar to Mitochondrial Eve, but, in this case, only males have a Y chromosome, so only fathers can pass it on to their sons. Therefore, females cannot dilute the genetic signal, making this another tool for us to view the past. Once again, we can count the number of mistakes from one generation to the next, then do a global comparison. The Y chromosome acts like a ticking clock, and if we turn back time, we can rewind history to the beginning, all the way to Adam, hence the term “Y Chromosome Adam”.

Evolutionists, however, deny the existence of a literal, Biblical Adam and Eve. They describe Y Chromosome Adam as a larger population of humans coming out of Africa that shared a common ancestry with apes, and they stretch the human family tree over 200,000 years.

But according to Jeanson, if we only rely on data from genetics, we get a Biblical time scale of 6,000- 4,500 years. The 200,000 years promoted by evolutionists has been manufactured to fit their long age assumptions.

These assumptions can be tested scientifically. All we have to do is count the number of mistakes per generation from father to son.

Jeanson shows how evolutionists based their early studies on low-quality DNA, and the rate of copying errors fit their 200,000-year expectations. Obviously, this didn’t look good for creationists. But when two subsequent studies based on high-quality DNA were published, the results were consistent with the Biblical expectation of 4,500 years. But since these results contradicted the earlier studies, evolutionists literally filtered out the rates so that they conformed to evolutionary time. According to the paper, “The number of father-son Y chromosome differences (mutations) was approximately 10-fold higher than the expected number… considering the range of published (Y chromosome copying mistake) rates… this finding prompted us to explore additional filters.” (emphasis added)

This is truly amazing! Since the high-quality DNA didn’t give them the desired results, they stuck with the low-quality DNA, used filters to tweak the results, then claimed that “we found a rate that’s consistent with evolution”.

The science actually matches the Biblical timeframe, but not evolution, and evolutionists had to fudge the data in order to get the results they wanted. As Jeanson said, “They’re bound by the framework of evolution” and “rationality gets thrown to the curb.”

Lastly, Jeanson explains that the branches on a family tree reflect population size, and it’s possible to construct a global family tree by using DNA and placing it on a graph. This results in a ‘hockey stick’ graph of human population growth, and this is acknowledged by evolutionists. This hockey stick shape is what the global human family tree looks like when using the Y Chromosome. But this shape shouldn’t exist if the global family tree is hundreds of thousands of years old. On the other hand, if the global family tree is about 4,500 years old, then this is the shape we’d expect to see. Jeanson calls this discovery positive evidence for creation and smoking gun. He made a testable, scientific prediction, and there it is, stamped throughout the global family tree.