Human Evolution: How Random Process Fulfils Divine Purpose.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Finlay, Graeme
- Source
- Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith. Jun2008, Vol. 60 Issue 2, p103-114. 12p. 9 Diagrams.
- Subject
- *HUMAN evolution
*BIOLOGICAL evolution
*SPECIES
*MACROEVOLUTION
*GENETICS
*GENETIC mutation
*GENOMES
*PROBABILITY theory
- Language
- ISSN
- 0892-2675
Some people deny that speciation and macroevolution have occurred, and that new genetic functionality can arise from the randomness of mutational mechanism. The genome sequences of many mammalian species are now available for comparison, and have provided a wealth of data that can address these issues. The aim of this article is to show that humans and other mammals share distinctive genomic features that have arisen from singular mutational events. These shared features provide compelling evidence that (1) the human species is descended from ancestors shared with other mammals, so establishing the truth of speciation (our own) and of macroevolution, and (2) new genes have been generated by mutational events that are recognized to occur randomly. This article reflects on how the randomness of natural process achieves God's creative purposes. We can see this pattern in the way God constrains the randomness of history (or indeed of our own lives) into his purposed end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]