Drawing up the human gene map within the framework of the Human Genome project was a major scientific development. However, evolutionist publications have distorted a number of the project’s results. It is claimed that the genes of chimpanzees and humans bear a 98% similarity and assumed that this shows their closeness, which is used as evidence for the theory of evolution.
However, this is in fact a false proof that evolutionists exploit by making use of society’s lack of information on the subject.
First of all, the concept so frequently touted by evolutionists—that 98% similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA—is a deceptive one. In order to claim that the genetic structures of human beings and chimpanzees bear a 98% similarity, the entire chimpanzee genetic code would have to be mapped, in the way the human one has. Then the two would have to be compared, to obtain the results. Yet no such results are yet available: While the human genetic map has been completed, the chimpanzee equivalent has not.
In fact, the “98% similarity between human and ape genes” slogan was deliberately produced for propaganda purposes many years ago. This “similarity” is a highly exaggerated generalization, based on a similarity in the amino acid sequences in between 30 and 40 of the basic proteins present in man and ape.
Sequence analysis of the DNA strings corresponding to these proteins was performed using a method known as “DNA hybridization.” and only these limited proteins were compared.
Yet there are around 30,000 genes in human beings and these genes encode some 200,000 proteins. There is thus no scientific justification for claiming, on the basis of a similarity in 40 proteins out of 200,000, any 98% resemblance between human and ape genetics.
The DNA comparison of those 40 proteins is also questionable. Two biologists named Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist carried out the comparison in 1987 and published the results in the Journal of Molecular Evolution.31 However, another scientist by the name of Sarich examined their data and concluded that they’d used a method of questionable reliability and had exaggeratedly interpreted the data.32
Basic proteins are essential molecules commonly found in many other living things. The structures of the proteins in all living things, not just of chimpanzees, bear a close similarity to those of proteins in human beings.
For example, genetic analyses reported in
New Scientist revealed a 75% similarity between the DNA of nematodes (millimeter-long worms that dwell in the soil) and humans!
33 This, of course, does not imply that there is only a 25% difference between human beings and nematodes.
When the genes of the fruit fly species
Drosophila were compared with human genes, a 60% similarity was determined.
34 Analyses of some proteins seem to show that man is actually closer to very different living things. In one study performed at Cambridge University, certain proteins in terrestrial organisms were compared. Astonishingly, in almost all the specimens involved, human beings and chickens were found to bear the closest relationship to one another. Our next closest relative is the lizard.35
Another example used by evolutionists with regard to the so-called “genetic similarity between man and ape” is that there are 46 chromosomes in human beings and 48 in gorillas. Evolutionists assume that chromosome numbers are an indication of an evolutionary relationship. But in fact, if this logic employed by evolutionists were valid, then man would have a much closer relative than the chimpanzee—the potato! Both human beings and potatoes have exactly the same number of chromosomes: 46.
These examples demonstrate that the concept of genetic similarity constitutes no evidence for the theory of evolution. Not only are the genetic similarities incompatible with the evolutionary family tree proposed, but they actually provide totally conflicting results.
In addition, the similarities discovered are actually evidence for creation rather than for evolution. It is perfectly natural for the bodies of humans and other living things to exhibit molecular similarities, because all living things are made up of the same molecules, use the same water and atmosphere, and consume foods made up of the same molecules. Naturally, their metabolisms—and thus, their genetic structures—will tend to resemble one another. However, this is no evidence that they evolved from a common ancestor.
Another example will help elucidate this: All the buildings in the world are constructed from similar materials—bricks, iron, cement, and so forth. But this does not imply that these buildings evolved from one another. They were built independently, using common materials. The same principle applies to living things.
Apart from the superficial similarity between human beings and apes, there is no question of their being closer to each other than to other animals. In terms of ability, a bee producing honeycombs that are geometrical miracles, or a spider weaving a web that is a marvel of engineering, are much closer to man than are apes. In some respects, one can even say that these invertebrates are superior.
Yet the huge gulf between human beings and apes is too vast to be bridged with evolutionist claims and myths. Apes are animals and, in terms of consciousness, are no different to horses or dogs. Human beings, on the other hand, are conscious, possess free will and are capable of thought, speech, reasoning, decision-making and judgment. All these attributes are processes of the soul they possess. It is this soul that gives rise to the major difference between human beings and animals. Man is the only entity in nature to possess a soul. No physical similarity can bridge this widest gulf between humans and other living things.
32 Sarich et al., Cladistics, Vol: 5, 1989, pp. 3-32.
33 Karen Hopkin, “The Greatest Apes,” New Scientist, May 15, 1999, p. 27.
34 “Fruit Fly Gene Success,” BBC News, 18 February, 2000.
35 Mike Benton, “Is a Dog More Like Lizard or a Chicken?” New Scientist, Vol. 103, August 16, 1984, p. 19.
