by Bill Nugent
Article #142
Since the recent mapping of the human genome (DNA) many evolutionists have claimed that human DNA is 96% or more similar to that of a chimpanzee. Even if one were to generously grant that the similarity is 98%, and that human DNA contains 1 billion base pairs, that still means that humans and chimps have 20 million base pairs that are different. This is especially significant because a random genetic mutation that changes even one base pair can often be crippling or fatal.
Furthermore the evolutionists need to explain the fact that there are roughly 10 million base pairs in Human DNA that are not in chimp DNA and there are about 10 million base pairs in chimp DNA that are not in human DNA. These are called “insertions” and “deletions” and prove that human and chimp DNA are radically different. Evolutionists have no sound explanation for this. Therefore, the recent advances in genetics regarding DNA mapping serve to disprove evolution and support the need for a Creator!
In one sense it is not surprising that the DNA of chimps and humans have many similarities because both have similar body tissues such as bone, nerves, blood, muscles, etc. Human DNA has similarities with the DNA of animals and even plants because all life forms are built of the same or similar types of proteins. Much of the information in DNA is blueprints for proteins.
It has been estimated that human DNA is 50% similar to the DNA of a banana! God the creator designed life consisting of creatures that use similar proteins because humans must eat other forms of life. If bananas were completely different and had alien chemical composition how could we eat and digest them?
Again let’s suppose that the human and chimp DNA are 98% similar. This is an exceedingly generous assumption because the high similarity figures (97% and higher) were generated by very limited comparisons of genes in experiments dating back to the 1980s. A more recent study by R. J. Britten published inProceedings of the National Academy of Science 99:13633-13635 puts the similarity at only 95%. R. J. Britten is not a creationist to my knowledge.
If we nonetheless assume 98% similarity, that 2% difference means 20 million base pair differences. Evolutionists assume that humans evolved from a chimplike ancestor in less than 5 million years. If we figure each generation at just 20 years that means 20 million genetic base pair changes must occur in 250,000 generations. This figures to 240 base pair mutations in each generation. I defy any evolutionist to show me just ten base pair mutations that occurred among humans in the last three generations.
Even if by incredible coincidence a favorable genetic mutation occurs, you then run smack up against Haldane’s Dilemma. Haldane’s Dilemma is the problem of the dispersion of the favorable genetic mutations into the entire human gene pool. This dilemma is especially difficult to surmount in complex life forms like humans with long generation times (20 years per generation in our example).
Since human beings all over the earth are remarkably similar in genetic makeup (having similar intelligence and able to interbreed) evolution theory demands that these 20 million base pair mutations must have spread to the entire gene pool. Calculations according to Haldane’s Dilemma prove that 5 million years is a tiny fraction of the time it would take to disperse the genes to all people groups. David DeWitt Ph. D. calculated that under ideal conditions it would take 150 billion years for 10 million mutations to spread to all people groups.
Haldane’s Dilemma is a minor glitch compared to the major glaring genetic challenge to human evolution. Surely you remember from biology class that the overwhelming majority of genetic mutations are harmful to the organism.
Not only are mutations overwhelmingly harmful but also consider that Dr. Lee Spetner, in his book Not By Chance, shows that of the hundreds of genetic mutations that have been studied at the biochemical level, none have added any new information to the DNA.
Genetic mutations scramble or delete the chemical base pairs that compose the DNA molecule. Even the rare occurrences of natural genetic splicing are simply a transfer of preexisting genes from one organism to another. Therefore it is impossible for random genetic mutations to cause uphill change in the DNA that would turn a chimplike creature into a human over time. Evolution has no mechanism for biological change and for this and many other scientific reasons, evolution is disproven.
(Much of the material in this article was derived fromHuman/Chimp DNA Similarity by Don Batten, Creation19(1):21-22 12/96-2/97 and Greater than 98% Chimp/Human DNA Similarity? Not Any More by David DeWitt Ph. D. onanswersingenesis.org.