Y-chromosomal Adam, Mitochondrial Eve

This morning we are moving towards “God created Adam....” (Genesis 1:27), but  I felt first to mention some interesting echos from science.  Y-chromosomal Adam is the name given by researchers to the man who in the male- lineage is the most recent common ancestor of all living humans. Mitochondrial Eve is the female counterpart.  Male Y-DNA is transmitted through the male,  and is the DNA used, for example,  in paternity suits to determine fatherhood.  Someone said “coincidences are little miracles for which God gets no credit.”  Whatever, I have been chronicling things in science that fit well with the Genesis record.  You can make up your own mind about these things.  I need to stress that it is “the most recent ancestor,” not necessarily the original. But what is puzzling about Y-chromosomal Adam and  Mitochondrial Eve, is that she is said to be (in terms of human lifetime) very much older him, too long for them to be mates.  

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the only way that this could occur, is if all but one line of the males survived some sort of disaster, while at the same time a number of different female lines survived.  The Genesis flood story, documents such a disaster. In particular we read “So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood” (Genesis  7:7), and the Lord shut them in (verse 16).  The flood came, “the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth,”  and “all flesh died that moved on the earth” (verses 17, 21).  

As I say, you are free to make up your mind about these things. In his book “Quarks,  Chaos and  Christianity,” physicist-turned-theologian John Polkinghorne comments  “a big fundamental question, like belief in God (or disbelief), is not settled by a single argument. It’s too complicated for that. What you would have to do is consider lots of different issues,  and see whether or not the answers one gets add up to a total picture that makes sense.” Lee Strobel (The Case for a Creator) in chronicling his own journey from atheist to believer comments “when I opened my mind to the possibility of an  explanation beyond naturalism, I found the design hypothesis most clearly accounted for the evidence of science. The ‘explanatory  power’ of the design hypothesis outstripped every other theory. ”  I would recommend the these books to anyone with an open-mind searching for God. As with these men Francis Schaeffer comments “Ultimately belief is a leap of faith, but it does not have to be blind.”  But actually, atheism is also a leap of faith, and in spite of their denials, it surely is, and to me with much less evidence!

Father, it was and is important to me to know that I have not believed cunningly devised fables (2 Peter 1:16). Though I find You only when I search for You with all my heart (Jeremiah 29:13), nevertheless the mind matters (Mark 12:30). I like to add to  Schaeffer's  words. Yes it is a leap of faith, but having taken the leap,  I was not left forever wondering if what I had believe is true. Your Spirit witnesses to my spirit that I was and am a child of God (Romans 8:16), and for this and many other things, I give You thanks and praise in Jesus Name Amen