Young Earth Creationist

These are summaries of interviews on views and thoughts of origin

Three people were interviewed. They included a professor of biology, an aunt of Roman Catholic religious persuasion and a family friend. In the interview with the professor, she states that she is not sure of the length of the days in Genesis 1 because they have been a controversial subject. She stated that life on this earth is approximately four and a half billion years old. Further she believes that humans and apes share common ancestry. She says she does so because she took part in a research that found many similarities. She does not believe in religion and so she does not believe in the existence of first humans; Adam and Eve (Writer Thoughts). The family friend on his part states that the days stated in Genesis 1 are normal days that are just as long as ordinary ones. When he was asked how old the earth is, he says it is billions of years old as he learnt from his biology classes. Owing to his biological classes’ background, he also believes that man and ape are relatives. He further states that he isn’t sure what to believe with regard to the existence of Adam and Eve. On her part, my aunt believes that the days stated in first Genesis were six literal ones; because that is what the bible states. The aunt believes, based on biblical accounts that the earth is 6000 years old. Of course, she refuted claims of apes and man being relatives. Although she has witnessed scientific evidence of man and apes sharing DNA, she sticks to her Christian, and catholic views that they are not. She also strongly believes that Adam and Eve were real people.

My Interview Responses

After examining major arguments that were not literary in nature, Hasel, concludes that, based on investigation of the genre, grammar, syntax, semantic and literary aspects, the arguments do not hold water (Booth, 2003). The evidence, in total, meets at every point; which leads to the conclusion that the term day in first genesis means a 24-hour day; consistently. Hasel further states that the author of the scripture could not produce more inclusive and comprehensive data to capture the concept of day in literal terms. I tend to concur with the idea of literal day as expressed in Genesis 1 because after reading through it, my mind settled on the same notion. Based on my science background and thinking patterns, I agree with the facts stated by science with regard to the age of the earth and life generally. The age of the earth and the solar system can be determined by radioactive elements that naturally occur in rocks (Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Science).

A number of such elements decay with half-lives ranging between 700 and over 100 billion years. Half-life refers to the time half of elements take to decay into radioactive form of another element. Based on such time keepers, it has been estimated that meteorites (fragments of asteroids) were formed between 4.53 billion years and 4.8 billion years back. These time keepers were applied to the lunar samples; which are also known to be the oldest; collected by Apollo astronauts. They yielded that they were between 4.4 and 4.5 billion years. These, consequently provided fair estimates for the time the moon could have been formed. The oldest rocks known on earth are found to the north west of Canada. They are dated about 3.5 billion years. Nevertheless, there are other equally old rocks that have been found in other places on earth. Zilcon crystals in Australia have been dated 4.3 billion years. Indeed, these are now the oldest known materials on the surface of the earth. The age of the earth is arrived at by calculating the duration it takes for the development of the lead isotopes observed in the oldest lead ores on earth. They have indicated that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. These are comparable to the age of the meteorites. It is not possible to date the beginning of life in such precise fashion. Evidence shows that organisms that look like bacteria occupied the earth about 3.5 billion years ago. For a long time, it has been claimed that apes and humans share common ancestry (Wall, 2013). Such outcomes have been confirmed by a number of molecular studies in the past decade. It is public knowledge now that baboons and chimps are man’s closest relatives. This set is followed by orangutans and gorillas. It is notable that the divergence of sequence at orthologous sites comparing humans and chimps is a mere 1.2%. This has been pointed out to be a larger divergence compared to the one found between fruit flies that belong to the same species (Wall, 2013). Indeed, genomic studies of the ape have already helped scientists understand human biology, history and effects of natural selection in a better way. These great apes remain critical for research that relates to genetic studies of humans. Thus, I agree that, indeed, humans and apes share a common ancestor. New research proposes that all men can trace their origin to a man that lived over 135 years ago. The research also suggests that this man must have shared the earth with the woman who bore all men. These findings are detailed in the journal science. They emanate from the comprehensive analysis of the male sex chromosome. These results override earlier research reports that suggested that man’s ancestor of most recent day existed only about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Although they overlap in terms of time, it is likely that Eve of ancient time and Adam did not live near each other (Ghose, 2013). According to Michael Hammer, an evolutionary scientist at the University of Arizona, these results form a segment of the long story. The same journal of science suggests that men had a shared and common ancestor between 180,000 and 200,000 years back. Another study by Hammer and group demonstrated that a number of men in Africa showed divergent and unique Y chromosomes that relate to an even older man who existed between 237,000 and 581,000 years back. This chromosome defies the fitting traits in Bustamante’s family tree. It is reported that it is much older. Gene studies rely on samples of DNA. Thus, they do not give a complete account of the history of humans. There are varying estimates of how old the common ancestor of man is. According to Mellissa Wilson Sayres, a University of California, Berkely geneticist, the two people didn’t even know each other (Ghose, 2013). They are not parallel to the biblical Adam and Eve. They were not the first of modern humans on the planet earth but simply a sample of many thousands of people that lived at the time and retain unbroken lineages with modern man. The remainder of the human genome has small DNA snippets from a variety of ancestors. Hammer says that it’s only that they do not appear in the mitochondria or the male sex chromosome DNA. The lab by Bustamante is trying to sequence DNA from another set of about 2000 men. Such data could be helpful in pointing out exactly where on the African continent these ancient human beings could have lived. I hold similar views with regard to Adam and Eve. I strongly disagree with my aunt. I have similar views with the biology professor to a certain extent (Writer Thoughts). I also believe that we disagree on points because of conflicting ideologies between us; scientific versus creationist.

References

Booth, W. (2003). Days of Genesis 1: Literal or Nonliteral? Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 14(1). Retrieved, from http://www.atsjats.org/publication/view/40

Ghose, T. (2013). Live Science: Scientific News, Articles and Current Events. Genetic ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ Uncovered. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.livescience.com/38613-genetic-adam-and-eve-uncovered.html

Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Science (2 ed.). (1999). Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/6024/science-and-creationism-a-view-from-the-national-academy-of

Wall. (2013). Great Ape Genomics. Institute for Laboratory Animal Research Journal, 54(2). Retrieved, from http://ilarjournal.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/2/82.full#ref-19

Writer Thoughts