Did Humans Evolve or Were They Created?

Human Origins in the Bible and the Creation Week

Is there scientific evidence that supports the Bible's account of human origins? Let's look and find out. The Bible is very clear about human origins. Genesis lays out who made us, God, or Elohim in the Hebrew, what we were made from, dust, how we were made, divinely spoken into existence, who we were made like, in God's image, our role in creation, dominion, and our marital covenant for family.

Scripture even includes when we were created during creation week, day 6, and the time in history, about 6 ,000 years ago based on the genealogies in Genesis. Next, Scripture is consistent about this account, with every Bible contributor in both the Old and New Testaments holding to the same description of how we came to be, spanning 66 books over 1 ,500 years written by 40 writers in 3 languages on 3 continents.

Mitochondrial DNA Mutation Rates and the Evolutionary Clock

What about DNA research that purportedly shows our genome dates back tens of thousands of years, far outreaching the Biblical timeline? Recent research into mitochondrial DNA mutation rates gives the answer.

This is unique because it comes only from the mother's egg, making it useful for tracing maternal ancestry. Since DNA was sequenced in 1981, researchers have been studying the mutation rates in mtDNA to try and estimate when different groups of people possibly diverged.

Evolutionary researchers have based these timelines on the assumption that humans and chimps shared a common ancestor about 5 million years ago. That date was based on counting the mtDNA and protein differences between all the great apes and timing their divergence using dates from fossils of one great ape's ancestor.

This evolutionary assumption counts on the mtDNA mutation rate of about one mutation every 300 to 600 generations or one every 6 ,000 to 12 ,000 years. But do these evolutionary assumptions hold up? Actually, recent studies have shown that the actual mutation rates are much faster than the rates assumed by evolution theory, causing researchers to rethink the mtDNA clock they depend on for forensic investigations.

This discovery was published in Nature Genetics by Dr. Parsons and his colleagues who investigated the mtDNA of 357 individuals from 134 different families representing 327 generational events which are counted by the number of times that mothers passed on mtDNA to their offspring.

Parsons' team showed that mutation rates actually occur at a rate of one every 33 generations, which was 20-fold higher than the estimates based on the theoretical 5 million year timeline between chimps and humans that expect about one mutation in every 300 to 600 generations or one every 6 ,000 to 12 ,000 years.

This study was published in Nature Genetics and the faster rate has stood fast even as the number of families in the study has doubled. Other studies have confirmed these findings since Parsons' discovery.

For example, Howell's team analyzed mtDNA from 40 members of a family with an overall divergence rate of one mutation every 25 to 40 generations. Howell remarked that both of our studies, his and Parsons', came to a remarkably similar conclusion.

Based on these findings, Howell warned that phylogenic studies, studies that try to estimate the evolutionary branching between animal kinds, have substantially underestimated the rate of mtDNA divergence.

Mitochondrial Eve, the Flood, and the Babel Dispersion

As one science writer puts it, evolutionists are most concerned about the effect of a faster mutation rate. For example, 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. This of course fits well within the Bible's timeline. Based on their updated work, identifying 220 soldiers' remains from World War II to the present, Parsons and Holland now have new guidelines, adopted by the FBI as well, to account for a faster mutation rate.

Studies have also confirmed that there was a massive DNA variability explosion that happened on Earth just thousands of years ago, within the time frame of Noah's flood and the Babel dispersion that occurred afterwards.

Adam, the Fall, and the Gospel

If there's no historical Adam, there's no gospel. If Adam and the fall are not historical, then Jesus died for a mythological problem and is a mythological savior offering us a mythological hope. The truth is that we are too sophisticated to evolve out of some primordial mud pit over billions of years.

We sing, worship, have ceremonies, pray, educate ourselves, and do so many other things that reflect the fact that we are spiritual beings and not animals. God made us on the sixth day of creation to name and take dominion over the entire animal kingdom.

This happened just thousands of years ago. God sent his son to redeem us from the fall that happened when our real forefathers sinned. We have been mercifully brought into a place of grace, forgiveness, and rest if we accept his sacrifice by confessing our sins and surrender our lives to him.

Resource for Further Study

Looking for answers about what the Bible teaches about creation, the fossil record, dinosaurs? Download the Genesis Apologetics app from the iTunes or Google Play stores for answers to these questions and more.