Anyone genuinely interesting in questioning the widespread view that humanity evolved from nothing via rock, bacteria, fish, lemur-like creatures and ape-like creatures can find a wealth of material to the contrary, produced by highly qualified and intelligent people. I here summarize a YouTube video titled, “Harvard Trained Biologist Wrecks Evolution and Billions of Years”.
Dr Nathaniel Jeanson is a Harvard trained geneticist who works with Answers in Genesis. His most recent book, “Traced” and associated YouTube videos have been attracting considerable attention.
THE HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. In this video hosted by Stephen Hackett* Dr. Jeanson begins by summarizing the history of the creation/evolution debate along with relative court decisions in the United States which have had an impact on the teaching (or lack) of creationism in schools. Not that creationists were trying to have their views push out all others: they were looking for side-by-side information for students. Jeanson says that much of modern creationism until recently has been on the defensive. Creationists offered answers to the claims of evolutionists but didn’t always attack the problem scientifically. This resulted in an 1980’s decision which ruled that creationism was not scientific because it lacked rigorous research and therefore could not be taught in public schools.
Creationists set about providing remedies to this accusation, and aimed from that point forward to take an offensive position against the teaching of evolution. “Creationists have asked questions, done experiments, looked at data and made predictions”, says Nathaniel. He proudly believes that his own findings in genetic research have put evolutionists on the defensive.
IRRIDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY. Jeanson speaks about the landmark works of Dr. Michael Behe, who posed a strong challenge to evolution with his discussion on “irreducible complexity” in nature. Behe famously used the simple comparison of a mousetrap, saying that if only one part was missing, it would not function at all. The cell is immeasurably more complex than a mousetrap, and therefore to assume it all came together by chance is stretching credulity to a ridiculous limit. It all works together or not at all. Coming back to Behe’s work later in the video, Jeanson, asked about rebuttals to Behe’s model of irreducible complexity, stated, “I have yet to see any substantive or rational arguments against what he’s saying”. Jeanson cites an example of an evolutionist claiming that you can remove the base of the mousetrap. This is a fallacy, says Jeanson, since the floor becomes the base.
THE SCIENCE OF GENETICS. Speaking of Darwin’s theory, Jeanson states that the science of genetics “didn’t exist” at the time of Darwin – that’s how primitive the scientific community’s view of inheritance was. He says that DNA is “a record of the origin of species”, and as such is one of the best tools we could have to examine our origins. “The only scientific record of a family tree is in DNA”, he states. In making predictions, Jeansons matches the Bible and specifically Genesis with genetics in DNA, since he realized that there should be a genetic record of creation and the Flood contained there. If Scripture is true (and Jeanson believes it is) the “family tree” of species should show that there are kinds or families of animals (not a scientific term but one used to give us a simple picture) such as the dog kind, the cat kind and so on.
DNA supports the limited common ancestry of species within kinds or families. It supports the concept of humanity going back to two humans – Adam and Eve – and more immediately going back to Noah and his sons. It also supports our understanding of different ethnic groups going back 4500 years to Babel.
Genetics can be scrutinized. Jeanson says, “This is bona-fide work now”. In other words, it’s scientific research. (I will share a link to Jeanson’s video series on his research below this post).
Jeanson poses the question, how did both male and female evolve together? Isn’t it some sort of incredible coincidence that they did? If one had evolved first, what would have become of him or her if he or she had to wait a million years for the other to evolve?
SCIENTIFIC ORTHODOXY. Hackett raises the subject of scientific orthodoxy, and Jeanson replies that evolutionists have faith that their problems will be solved in future. In the meantime, it’s scientific heresy to question the orthodoxy. Jeanson opines that there are no real atheists in the world. Richard Dawkins, while conceding that things in nature do “look like” they are designed, they aren’t. Jeanson believes that avowed atheists generally have some sort of trauma in their past, and their view can be summarized this way: “There is no God and I hate him”. Nathaniel wonders who can say, “I know everything there is to know about the universe”. In other words, the insistence that there is no God can be nothing more than a claim: it cannot be scientifically proven.
HUMAN AND CHIMP DNA. Hackett asks about famous claims of the alleged 98% similarity between human and chimp DNA. I intend to review another recent video by another creationist on this, but Jeanson’s take on the matter is that even given a 98% similarity there are sixty million DNA letter differences in the sequence. Jeanson says that entire chunks of chimp DNA do not match human DNA, and vice-versa. More recent research gives a number around 89% similarity. This number might sound impressive, and it’s framed in this way as a psychological tool to convince people, but the more sobering truth is that an 89% similarity means there are 350 to 400 million letter differences in the sequence.
Jeanson dismisses similarities between species, drawing attention to the automobile. They all have four wheels “because that’s what works”. So it is in nature: some designs and features work well and so deserve to be used in more than one living system. He observes that even given a 98% similarity, the huge difference in the DNA sequence plays out in our experience. Chimps don’t write symphonies and they’ve never been to the moon.
NEANDERTHAL MAN AND FOSSILS. Hackett asks Dr. Jeanson about Neanderthal Man: what were they? They’ve been classified as an intermediate species, and even some alleged Christian scientists have taken this secular line, attempting to fit the whole story and timeline into Genesis. In answer, Jeanson draws attention to the fact that standard science now sees no time when there were only two people, so such organizations as Bio Logos are not successfully placating secular science; neither are they being true to the Bible. Dr. David Menton effectively demonstrated differences in the structure of human and ape skulls and showed that all available remains found are either one or the other. They aren’t half and half. There is no ambiguity, says Jeanson: there is only either ape or human.
Speaking of paleontology, Jeanson insists that the “vast majority” of fossils in the fossil record is as a result of the Biblical Flood. Sedimentary layers containing these fossils span entire continents and beyond. Fossils are found on mountain tops. There is abundant related evidence for the Flood, says Jeanson. Mentioning radiometric dating methods which are used to give very old ages for rocks and fossils, Jeanson says that these are flawed, being based on several assumptions (one being that the earth is very old).
As well as sedimentary layers from the Flood there are post-Flood layers. Jeanson says that Neanderthals are found in post-Flood layers. He also draws attention to Genesis 9 verses 18 and 19 which speak of those few humans who survived the Flood: “From these the whole earth was repopulated”. Therefore, Biblically speaking Neanderthals were human. Their skulls had more variety than modern humans for various possible reasons: longevity, diminished vitamin D due to the post-Flood Ice age, and others causes. Jeanson says that attempts to process Neanderthal DNA are probably futile due to degradation over time.
*Stephen Hackett’s channel is @BiblicalStudiesandReviews
LINKS:
HERE’S A LINK TO DR. JEANSONS’S ORIGINAL VIDEO SERIES ON THE GENEITC HISTORY OF HUMANITY, BASED ON HIS BOOK “TRACED”:
(30) The New History of the Human Race with Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson – YouTube
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 