UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY OF DNA

I considered how I would publish this article for weeks. I considered submitting it to a "Christian" magazine, a research magazine, a published book, or publish it on LinkedIn. A Christian magazine would help other Christians but that would leave out all the unbelievers, I love, who need to read it too. The same result came to my mind concerning a research magazine, but it would be the "Christians" I love that would not have access to it. Most Christians do not read research magazines. A book would take too long, and this message needs to be shorter than a book, written and read today!

Before we unfold, what I call, the mystery of DNA, I would like to share with you how and why I am writing this article as a published work for, Truth with Grace. I was reading about the Genome Project that took place between 1990 and 2003, that was conducted by Craig Venter and Kenneth Kidd and their scientific team from all over the world. They claimed, through their findings through their project, that Darwin's theory of our human species did originate from Chimpanzees. My scientific research for this article came from articles in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, written by James Franklin Crow, the Massachusetts Institue of Technolgy, Harvard, Washington University school of Medicine, and the Broad Intuition of Sciences. I also was reading a book by Peter Enns, The Evolution of Adam, what the bible doesn't say about human origins. It amazes me daily how God interacts with our needs, through His Holy Spirit, compelling us to read certain articles and books by certain Authors.

For those of you who do not know Peter Enns, he is a PhD from Harvard. He is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University. He is also a cohost for a podcast, The Bible for Normal People. He has written many books, and I stopped at two. The other one I read is, How the Bible Actually Works, In Which I Explain How and Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers-and Why That's Great News. I still do not understand why the Bible is ambiguous to him, but we know not all humans think alike. If any of you know me at all, you know I am not keen on formal Academic titled teachings or teachers who teach us about Jesus or the Bible. I do believe in formal degrees for many subjects but learning who God is and what He has to do with humanity is not one of them. Most formal Theologian academics are not spiritual, but they do have knowledge and wisdom, but their knowledge and wisdom come from their own understanding of who God is because of the way their minds are trained to learn. I have no formal academic training that taught my mind how to learn a certain way, so my mind is open to learning from God through His Holy Spirit. Just like all those in the Bible that came before me, and those in the world that are taught by God's Holy Spirit that His Word (Jesus) testifies too. Peter Enns is a truth seeker, and I feel his passion for helping people, but his Books and teachings lead us away from God, not to Him. Peter Enn and many other academics proclaims the Genome project, and its findings claim that Darwin's theory about our human origin is true, so, that led me to find out what the Genome project really proved.

This is where the mystery of our DNA unfolds. First of all, the Genome Project never claims they found the origin of our human species. They did, however, find similarities with all species. The mouse, elephant, cattle, and chimpanzees were the closest to our human species. The chimpanzees have ninety six percent of the human genes in their DNA, where the mice, elephant, dog and cattle have ninety percent.

I am not a scientist, but I have studied enough that I can write it down for us non-scientist that desire to understand. DNA is a system of molecules that make up a strand of chemicals in our body that makes each human unique. We can read a DNA sequence like we can a paragraph

or book, but our DNA's paragraph or book has three billion letters. It has a lot to say! This picture is One Billion dollars, and our DNA has 3 billion letters!

Contained within the 3 billion letters of the human genome are about 21,000 genes.

All humans have the same genes arranged in the same order. More than 99.9% of our human DNA sequence is the same. Even though ninety nine percent of our sequence is the same there is still one point four million differences! Those one point four million differences are what makes each human different. In fact, DNA looks exactly the same in every organism on earth. All living things have DNA. And whether it comes from a human, a plant, or another animal it's all the same molecule. It's the order of the letters in the strand that makes each organism different.

Now, back to Chimpanzees, if each human is different from each other this means all human are different than all other animals including Chimpanzees. There is close to thirty-five million DNA base pairs that differ between the shared portions of the genomes of Chimps and humans. Not only that, there five million sites that differ because of an addition or deletion in one lineage. Genes make up our physical appearance as well as our inner appearance, and there are great differences in chimpanzees and humans externally and internally.

What does all this mean according to what God reveals in Genesis. All living things were formed from the ground. All living things have the elements of the ground in it, and we all need to consume all those elements for us to remain healthy. Each species has their own DNA strand and then individual letters in that strand, genes, and then elements according to their various kind. Are we similar, yes, because we were all formed from the ground. Are we the same, no, we all have different genes, different DNA strands, and the measure of difference may not look close in number, but when the strands are broken down the differences are large according to brain and body function. Humans are closer to the primates, but that does not make us a primate, it makes us human. We are also close related to mice, cattle, and elephants according to our DNA, but we are not elephants, mice, or cattle.

Yes, there are fossils scientist have tested from Chimpanzees and other primates, but there is no link that connects each fossil being the same species. Chimpanzees are different and humans have evolved, but not from them. We are not a variation of a prime mate species, but apes, tarsiers, lemurs, lorises, and monkeys are. There is no proof except a theory from a scientific illusion that brings humans and prime mate species together. Scientists are still spending funds looking for the one species (parent) that brings them together, and I know they will never find. For me, the Genome Project proved more about God's truth than disproved it. We are all connected but are different with different purposes that help us live together!

I hope this makes the Bible and God less ambiguous, and lot clearer for your mind to see. God blesses everyone!