Human Evolution Timeline:
Revelations in Bible Quotes
by
Ruy Miranda
The human evolution timeline is found
recorded in Bible quotes (Book of Genesis).
Adam's rib symbolizes the chromosome and is
the key to the man ape evolution. In
discussing evolution vs creation, many
convergences like this one are found.
Someone who holds to the theory of evolution
and denies creationism might ask why such an
important matter as the creation of human
beings would be in a symbolic message rather
than in explicit language. And, after all,
the Holy Scriptures don`t talk about
chromosomes. That is a valid question, which
shall be pursued below. First off, the main
interest is to see the points of confluence
between evolution and creation regarding the
appearance of the human being.
Parallelism Between Adam's Rib and Science
There is an amazing coincidence between the
numbers in the Book of Genesis involving
creationism and numbers in science regarding
man's evolution from the ape. The
parallelism begins on the Bible quotes
according to which God took out one of
Adam's ribs and made the woman, Eve, with
it. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to
fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one
of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its
place. Then the rib which the Lord God had
taken from man He made into a woman, and He
brought her to the man."
The number of ribs - Men have 24 ribs - 12
on each thoracic side. The same number is
found in women. The text says that God
removed one rib and not one pair of ribs.
Had He indeed removed only one rib, man
would have different numbers of this bone on
each side of his chest. Not only that, but
there would also remain a doubt about the
number of ribs in a female.
These contradictions disappear if the text
is examined from the standpoint of
information conveyed by Jesus Christ to His
disciples: "To God nothing is impossible".
God may have removed one of Adam's ribs but
He did it in such a way that the woman and
all her descendants would have the same
number of ribs. However, it is assumed that
the rib's removal is symbolic language and
explained it cannot be regarded as direct
language.
A look at it now from the standpoint of
science. The chimpanzee, from which science
now admits that man has evolved, has 24
chromosomes in its sexual cells, i. e., 24
chromosomes in each spermatozoon and 24
chromosomes in each ovulum. This is referred
to gametes, those sex cells capable of
reproducing the species. Therefore, the
number of ribs in a man and of chromosomes
in a chimpanzee are identical. The other
cells in a chimp, as in a human, are diployd,
that is, they have the chromosomes in pairs
- therefore, they have 48 chromosomes.
Confluence of Book of Genesis and Human
Evolution Timeline
Were we to admit that the rib symbolizes the
chromosome, the implicit and explicit Bible
numbers say that God removed a chromosome
from a chimpanzee and made a woman out of
it. In other words, the "man", a chimp, lost
a chromosome and thus a woman was formed.
Indeed, the woman, just like the man, has
one chromosome less than a chimp in the sex
cells. The human spermatozoon has 23
chromosomes and the human ovulum also has 23
chromosomes. It makes sense. The other cells
in the human being are diployd, i. e., they
have 46 chromosomes. But it is needed to see
what science says regarding the man ape
evolution, that is, man's evolution from the
chimpanzee. Man's evolution from the ape -
It is admitted that, in the evolution of the
species, through some unknown phenomenon,
two chimp chromosomes were fused and thus,
primitive man, a hominid, came about. Some
theories claim that the female came first,
which, if true, would give further
consistency to the symbolic version of Adam
and Eve's story.
In a nutshell, this is what the matter has:
• Number of ribs in the human being: 24 •
Number of chromosomes in the chimp's
gametes: 24 • Creation: removal of one rib.
• Evolution: fusion of two chromosomes. •
Rib symbolizes chromosome. • Removal of one
rib = fusion of two chromosomes. • Number of
chromosomes resulting in the gametes: 23 -
New species: man, hominid.
Without wandering too far from these basic
issues, it should be asked why there are so
many differences between human and chimp,
given the "simple" fusion of two
chromosomes. Furthermore, those in favor of
creationism would argue that, since the
similarity between a chimp's DNA and that of
a human being is above 98%, humans and
chimpanzees ought to be more alike. These
are pertinent questions which must be
carefully examined.
Starting with the numbers: the difference
between human and chimp DNA is less than 2%.
For three reasons, this percentage can be
very meaningful:
the science is just barely beginning to
understand the human genome, that is, the
DNA map, that of genes and each one's role.
On the other hand, the researcher know also
little about the chimp genome. Thus, it is
perfectly acceptable that this percentage,
though small, means much in terms of
anatomical and physiological differences
between the species;
the differences may be situated in
fundamental parts of the DNA, enough to
cause the differences between the species;
the amount of DNA in the cells is not always
proportional to their complexity. Therefore,
the arrangement of DNA components in humans
may be more important than the quantity.
Thus, the slightly less than 2% difference
between chimps and humans may become more
meaningful. The "simple" fusion of one
species' two chromosomes may cause many
differences in the resulting species.
Why is the Bible not explicit? - In other
words, why, since the issue was raised in
the beginning of this article, does the
Biblical message not speak directly about
chromosomes? At least two answers are
possible.
The first has to do with Christian and
Jewish dogma: this is a sacred text,
dictated or inspired by God, and there is no
questioning how God speaks. The second has
to do with the Biblical writers: they would
be human beings possessing a deep knowledge
of evolution timeline and humans nature.
They knew that it would not be possible to
write what men would not understand at that
time (existence of chromosomes, genes, DNA).
They further knew that, in a patriarchal
society such as the one they lived in, women
should remain in a secondary role, in the
written version, to make the acceptance of
God's word easier.
The faithful cling to the first answer, the
dogma.
But those who are not faithful may properly
ask how those writers, barely out of a
semi-nomadic life, could possess such
knowledge about the evolution of the
species. Examined as a book and without any
preconceived position, the Bible is a
singular book and its writers differed from
common mortals. However, as intelligent as
they might have been, there was no way they
could have held such knowledge. Thus the
answer is: this is a mystery yet.
Book of Genesis & Science: More convergence
In the pleasant study of Biblical numbers
involving creation vs. evolution, there are
other convergent points. Example: part of
the sacred text reproduced at the beginning
of this article and science's version of the
differences in man/ape. The Genesis
expression "closed up the flesh in its
place" conveys a special meaning and
suggests more parallelisms between religion
and science. It could be read as "closed up
the frontal lobe in its place".
In the monkeys the frontal lobe is 9% of the
brain. In the man it is 30%. The frontal
lobe is a tissue ("flesh"), a nervous
tissue. The frontal lobe integrates most of
the brain functions. Its prefrontal portion
is related to the initiation of planned
actions, i.e., thinking, idealizing, acting
in orderly fashion, and letting out
emotional expressions. In the difference is
the "closed up the flesh in its place."
Subsequent Procreation
The appearance of the human being raises the
issue of procreation. In the history of
creation, this problem does not exist: once
created, Adam and Eve started to reproduce.
However, in evolution, ONE individual, from
the fusion of the two chromosomes, would not
give origin to the human species. To
illustrate,suppose that the fusion of the
two chromosomes took place in a female,
resulting in 23 chromosomes in the gametes,
living with males bearing 24 chromosomes in
the gametes. Procreation would be
impossible. Even if they copulated, no
ovulum would be formed due to the lack of
symmetry in the DNA. How, then, would the
human being have procreated in evolution?
More likely the phenomenon - physical,
chemical or physical-chemical - had by then
reached several individual chimps, causing
chromosome fusion in many of them, both
males and females. In the history of
evolution, there is still another
peculiarity: the bonobos have more elements
than the chimpanzees to be man's ancestors.
Chimpanzees vs Bonobos
Preference for the chimpanzees over the
bonobos - In the evolutionary scale, science
shows preference for the chimpanzees over
the bonobos, even though the latter are more
similar to human beings. See some ones:
the similarity percentage between bonobos'
DNA and humans' is greater than that of
chimpanzees;
their genitals are more protuding and face
forward, as with humans; except for humans,
they are the only primates who copulate from
the front;
they engage in homosexual and heterosexual
relations;
upon reaching adolescence, the females
abandon their group and join another one. In
their new group they submit themselves to
the female - including sexually - and then
copulate with the males;
the females keep together in groups and the
male respects them because, together, they
will fight him for food;
they stand on two legs more frequently than
chimps do and their laughter is more
expressive. They are also more cordial in
the group.
Despite all this, it is believed that man
has evolved from chimps, due to the fact
that they are found in many African regions,
in wide-open areas, which would have favored
their territorial dispersion. Bonobos, on
the other hand, live in closed-in woods, in
some regions in Africa. However, from the
genetic, anatomic, emotional and behavioral
standpoints, more likely the human species
has come from the bonobos. Perhaps, after
their community was hard-hit by a cataclysm,
they took refuge in closed-in woods.
Man's Ancestor: Neither Chimpanzee nor
Bonobos and Adam`s Rib
Another theory admits that chimpanzees,
bonobos, gorillas, orangutangs, gibbons, all
belong to the primate family known as Pongid,
just like the Hominid family, whose sole
representative is man, all belonging to the
Hominoids super family, and would have come
from individuals known as Old World Monkeys.
It is possible that some violent
environmental change hit Africa and Asia,
altering the genetic structure of many Old
World Monkeys (Cercopitecoids) sometime
between six million and twenty-five million
years ago. Different Pongids came into
being.
Why would not different hominids have
appeared? Present day human must have
featured differences among individuals from
the very beginning. For instance, there must
have appeared at the same time individuals
with white skin and with black skin in
Africa and in Asia. Weather conditions and
the fight for survival would have made
easier for white-skinned individuals to
disappear from Africa and for black-skinned
individuals to disappear from ice-cold
regions.
The theory of a common trunk for all
Hominoids does not change the parallel with
Adam's rib. The whole Hominoid super family
would have come from individuals with 24
chromosomes in the gametes. One family (Pongid)
continued with 24 chromosomes in the gametes
while another (Hominid) appeared with 23
chromosomes.
About the Author
Ruy Miranda is a Brazilian Physician and a
former University Professor. In
http://www.bible-quotes-science-info.com
he offers articles on Bible and science and
excerpts of his novel "Bible Quotes in
Crystal Land". He is not a religious person. |
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