Some Biblical Claims Supported by Evolution

I thought it might be an interesting change to show that evolutionary theory and techniques are not completely at odds with even a literal interpretation of the Bible. For example, did you know fathers pass along their Y-chromosome to their sons only, not their daughters?

In Exodus, God gives to Aaron and all of his male descendants the job of high priests of the Israelites. These men are known as kohanim, the Hebrew word for priests. Today they typically have a last name of Cohen, Cohn, or something similar. If these males share a particular male common ancestor, perhaps Aaron, then their Y-chromosomes should all be very similar compared to the Y-chromosomes of other Jewish men (and other men in general).

A few years ago, a team of geneticists from the University of Arizona and the University College in London examined the Y-chromosomes of about 200 Jewish men from all over the world. Jews who did not have last name derivative of kohanim had a diverse assortment of Y-chromosomes. But about 50% of the Jews with a kohanim last name had the same genetic markers present in their Y-chromosome, exactly as if they had shared a common male ancestor, one more recent than other Jews! Not only that, but chromosomes mutate at a known rate. Their calculations showed that the man who carried the original Y-chromosome present in modern kohanim lived approximately 106 generations ago. Figuring about 30 years per generation, that means he lived about 3,200 years ago, which would easily fall within the time frame in which Aaron is said to have lived!

This fascinating story is from Steve Olson's Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...816727-2266514

Maybe they should try this out on other people who share the same last name, like Smith or Jones to see if they are related to each other or not.

John...?

What are you doing with that drill John? ...I think you'd better put it down ...John?

Ok...that's not funny John..

Whoa! ....stop! ....No ...John!

AAAAAAAAHHHH*!!!! ....

*(scream stops abruptely)

Interestingly enough, this isn't a phenomenon isolated only to the Jews. Many people groups that stayed genetically isolated (i.e. they only married within their small group) including the Jews have developed recorded genetic defects.

One example is the hemophelia in the Russian ruling classes.

Another example is very close to my family. My family has a Mennonite background (an Anabaptist movement much like the Amish) that was genetically isolated for hundreds of years and developed the genetic disorder retinal dystrophy which causes imperfect eyesight that is not correctable by any type of medical treatment today. My brother and I both have it, but now at least two more of my cousins in the same generation have developed it, and some geneticists are very interested in studying our medical history to get a better idea of the extent and lineage of this disorder...

Smiths or Jones is a common name that isn't related to any isolated people group, but there is no denying that isolated people groups DO tend to develop genetic disorders that are unknown to the outside populations until the group scatters with modernization...

__________________

Olson discusses several examples of that to discuss things like race (no such thing at the genetic level), the origin of Native Americans, the first Europeans, and lots of other cool stuff.

Along the lines of the OP, Olson also discusses a curious claim of the Lemba people, a tribe of black Africans living along the Limpopo river in the southern part of the continent. These folks have several rituals, especially food rituals, that are very similar to traditional Jewish rites. What's more is that they claim to be ethnic Jews! When a sample of DNA was taken from the males, it was learned that about 2/3 of them had kohanim Y-chromosome markers! Some of them really are ethnic Jews! They say their Lemba tradition says their ancestors came here by boat from a town called Sena, which is similar to many town names in Israel, Eygpt, Yemen, and Ethiopia. There may be something to it.