Human Chimp DNA Similarity

Genesis Apologetics

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The idea that human and chimp DNA overlap by 98 -99 % has been widely used to promote the idea that humans and chimps shared a common ancestor millions of years ago.

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But have you considered how they came up with this estimate? One of the things that not many people know about this study is that large sections of DNA from both the human and the chimp genome were left out when making this comparison.

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Let's see how MinuteEarth, a secular training site that holds to an evolutionary perspective describes it.

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When researchers sat down to compare the chimp and human genomes, those single -letter differences were easy to tally, but the big mismatched sections weren't.

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For example, if a genetic paragraph thousands of letters long appears twice in a human squirrel but only once in its chimp counterpart, should that second human copy count as thousands of changes or just one?

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And what about identical paragraphs that appear in both genomes but in different places or in reverse order, or broken up into pieces?

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Rather than monkey around with these difficult questions, the researchers simply excluded all the large mismatched sections, a whopping 1 .3

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billion letters in all, and performed a letter -by -letter comparison on the remaining 2 .4 billion, which turned out to be 98 .77

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% identical. So, yes, we share 99 % of our DNA with chimps if we ignore 18 % of their genome and 25 % of ours.

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Wow. Ignoring 18 % of the chimp genome and 25 % of the human genome.

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That's a lot to ignore. In fact, this represents hundreds of millions in each side of the comparison.

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Could the sections they left out be responsible for coding most of the obvious differences we see between humans and chimps?

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The video explains. And there's another problem. Just as a small tweak in a sentence can alter its meaning entirely, or not at all, a few mutations in DNA sometimes produce big changes in a creature's looks or behavior, whereas other times, lots of mutations make very little difference.

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So just counting up the number of genetic changes doesn't really tell us that much about how similar or different two creatures are.

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It certainly makes sense that just counting up the number of genetic changes doesn't really tell us that much about how similar or different two creatures are.

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Indeed, human DNA and gene -level comparisons are frequently made to other mammals, such as mice, cows, and even dogs with high levels of overlap.

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And we are obviously quite different from these animals. The fact is, the human and chimp genomes code for two completely different creatures.

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While both are mammals based on scientific criteria, God made man in His image and gave him a soul that is eternal.

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Chimps which are soulless tree -dwelling animals, and humans which are eternal souls wrapped in bodies that have vastly different capabilities than all animals, because we were created in God's image and charged to be caretakers over creation, including chimps.

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Being made in the image of God and charged with taking care over God's creation would mean that humans would have several distinctions from chimps.

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Let's take a look at just some of them. First, humans are the only living thing on the planet that has a conscience and a sense of morality.

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Our conscience lets us know when we failed or when we might fail to abide by either governmental laws or God's laws.

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Primates know nothing of laws. They live only by instincts. Next, humans can speak.

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For example, the English language contains over one million words, and we can speak all of them.

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Plus, we can even learn or invent totally different languages. Apes cannot speak any of them.

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They do not even have a speech program installed in their brains. Speaking of brains, ours are 400 % larger than chimps.

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We're also much smarter, having an average IQ of 100, when chimps can't even take the test.

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Our brain cells' DNA carries very unique methylation patterns that enables us to think the way we do.

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The human neocortex is disproportionately large compared to the rest of the brain, with a 60 to 1 ratio of gray matter to the size of the medulla in our brainstems compared to just 30 to 1 in chimps.

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Overall, humans have almost twice as many spindle cells than chimps, enabling us to pull out memories from past experiences and use them to plot our next actions.

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These functions activate when moral dilemmas present decisions we need to make that will directly affect other lives.

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The insula part of our brains has 46 times the number of spindle cells compared to chimps, about 83 ,000 for humans compared to only about 1 ,800 for chimps.

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This makes sense because this part of our brain takes information from our skin, internal organs, and cardio system and converts it into subjective feelings such as empathy towards others who show signs of anguish or pain.

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Our DNA differences direct the construction of uniquely human physical attributes. For example, we are typically 38 % taller than chimps, 80 % heavier, and live twice as long.

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We have eye whites for rich and nuanced nonverbal communication, which no apes have. We walk upright, while chimps, with their curved fingers, long arms, and unique locking wrist systems, are designed for living in trees and walking on all fours.

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Their knees also point outward for climbing in trees, whereas our knees point forward so we can walk or run all day if needed.

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We can't even swap any of our internal organs with chimps. Humans build space shuttles, write songs, worship, pray, and sing.

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Chimps don't do any of these things. God specifically designed us, formed the first of us from dust into the image of God, and gave each of us an everlasting soul.

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We were charged to be caretakers over the entire animal kingdom. Yes, we share vast

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DNA sequences with chimps, but we should expect this on the basis of creation. We also share plenty of DNA with mammals other than chimps.

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After all, God made mammals and men to metabolize the same food sources, grow the same basic materials like bones, teeth, muscles, skin, and hair, and produce placentas and milk for the next generation.

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The fact that we have sections of DNA that are similar to these creatures only shows that our designer used similar

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DNA instructions for making similar features and functions. It does not mean that one creature led to the other.

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Bible -believing geneticist Dr. Jeffrey Tompkins said, "...the programmer doesn't start from scratch each time he develops a new program.

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Instead, he uses the same general command that he used for other projects. It shows the creator's efficiency and ingenuity."

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We see the same pattern of both similarity and differences in organisms' genomes. Biblical creationists say the similarities in DNA arose because the same creator adapted the same basic code for separate created kinds.

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If a gene in different creatures encodes a similar protein for a similar biochemical pathway, it's not due to evolution, but because of a single programmer.

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This similarity is a hallmark of all human -engineered systems, so why should we not expect to see it in God's creation?

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Clearly, overhyped stories of chimp -human similarities overlook some basic observations.

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They overlook huge sections of DNA. They overlook the possibility of intentional programming to explain similar

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DNA sequences. And they overlook unbridgeable physical, mental, and moral differences that all fit the