Page 202 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The Errors of the American National Academy of Sciences

Common Design

What is the significance of the fact that human DNA bears a 95%
resemblance to that of chimpanzees? To answer this question, we
need to look at some comparisons between human beings and other
living things.
One of these comparisons provided the interesting result that
there was a 75% similarity between man and worms of the nematode
phylum. On the other hand, analyses based on certain proteins have
18
portrayed man as close to very different creatures. In one study car-

ried out by researchers at Cambridge University, certain proteins in
some vertebrates were compared. Astonishingly, man and the chicken
were paired off as closest relatives in nearly all cases. The next closest
relative is the crocodile. 19
The picture revealed by these studies is this: there are genetic
similarities between man and other living things. Yet, these similari-
ties do not reveal any kind of "evolutionary scheme."

The existence of these genetic similarities is very normal, even
inevitable. That is because the human body is made of the same mate-
rials, the same elements, as those of other living things. Man breathes
the same air, eats the same food, and lives in the same climate as ani-
mals. All life on Earth is "carbon-based"; in other words, it is con-
structed from organic molecules (carbon compounds). Therefore, a
human being naturally has proteins and genetic codes that are similar
to those of other living things. This, however, does not mean that man

and other organisms share a common origin or that man evolved
from other creatures.
In fact, genetic comparisons among living things have struck at
the very heart of the 150-year-old evolutionary tree. What, in that
case, could be the scientific explanation of the similar structures in liv-

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