According to the prevailing evolutionary theory, modern humans evolved about 200,000 to 250,000 years ago.  If evolution were true, one would expect that there was an abundance of mutations in the human genome during that time and afterwards.

But according to recent research, that is not the case.  In fact, the new study indicates that at least 90% of the deleterious mutational variants in the human genome occurred in the last 200 to 400 generations (5,000 to 10,000 years).

Researchers from the University of Washington conducted a genetic study involving about 4,300 European-Americans and 2,200 black Americans.  Their study concentrated on a single-letter variation within the human DNA of all of the study subjects.

What they found is that the vast majority of mutations found happened in fairly recently and were not spread over a couple hundred thousand years as they had expected.  In commenting about their results, Joshua Akey, one of the researchers involved in the study said:

Recent human history has profoundly shaped patterns of genetic variation present in contemporary populations.  Our results suggest that ~90% of evolutionary deleterious variants arose in the last 200-400 generations.

There’s an enormous amount of recently arisen, rare mutations that’s directly attributable to the explosive population growth over the last two to four generations.

The researchers said they could also see evidence of mass die-offs such as the Black Plague that killed nearly one third of the European population around 1350 AD.  Events like this are known as genetic bottlenecks as they can have a major influence in reducing the number of genetic variations passed on.

From the study, they determined that every person has an average of about 150 new mutations that their parents didn’t have.  This many new mutations can have a significant effect on the local population, depending upon the size of that population.  As the populations continue to grow and expand, it creates opportunities for even more new mutations to occur.  The faster a population grows, the greater the rate of mutations such as a population explosion that they say occurred about 5,000 years ago.

This is where I started to get really excited about their study and their findings.  They talked about a population explosion that started most of the increased mutation rate happening about 5,000 year ago.  Interestingly, they didn’t offer any definition of what caused that population explosion.

Perhaps I can shed some light on it for them.  When I turn to God’s Word in Genesis 6-8, I read about a flood that destroyed all human life on earth except for 8 people.  We have no idea of what the earth’s population was prior to the Flood, but many creation scientists believe it was in the millions.

According to Genesis chronology, the Flood occurred around 1,656 years after Creation.  If you follow the rest of biblical chronology and the work done it by Archbishop James Ussher, Creation occurred in 4,004 BC.  Doing the math, that places the Flood, which would have been the greatest genetic bottleneck in history, about 4,360 years ago.  If you take into account the rapid population explosion that took place after and then account for the dispersion of people to all parts of the world from the Tower of Babel, which would have created a larger number of smaller bottlenecks, the biblical dates will fall within the parameters of the researchers conclusions.

However, you won’t find them making the same connection because they reject the Bible as just a collection of old stories and fairytales.  But when you start with God’s perfect and true Word, you find that real science supports the Bible and makes a lot more sense than believing in hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, but most all of the mutations found are only about 5,000 years old.


Human Genetic Variation Recent, Varies Among Populations, Science Daily, Nov. 28, 2012.

LeBlond, Lawrence.  Gene Mutations Began Showing Up In Last 5,000 Years Of Human Evolution, Red Orbit, Nov. 29, 2012.

One Human Family: The Bible, Science, Race and Culture

A fascinating and deeply informative read that goes way beyond the normal ‘all one race’ conclusion. Combines sensitivity with a rejection of ‘political correctness’. This blow-by-blow tour of race-related issues across the world, with amazingly apt anecdotes and analogies revealing a wealth of research and life experience, is unlike any other creation book you’ve ever read. For many, it will make ‘the lights go on’—not just about race but the whole biblical ‘big picture’ of human history.


Paperback book; 378 pages

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