Forge of Creation

Is DNA really a recent discovery?

Now that they claim that the human genome project is completed, it may take a while for the “smoke to clear”, or as some conspiracy theorists may suggest, “for the evidence to be hidden”.

It seems that there are some few genes in our code that don’t appear in anything else on the planet. Some are present in bacteria. One report says 223, the other says 40. Either way, if those genes did not evolve on earth, how did they get in us? The implications are that evolution is only partly responsible for our apparent intelligience and domination of this little rock. One of the solutions presented are that we may have been changed by bacterial infection. Another is that this proof that has been anticipated by Intelligient Designers that “God” created us by modifying our genes.

IMHO I have a problem with both assumptions: If bacterial infection could change our genetic structure, then we could not possibly be safe from this change repeatedly in short periods of time. We would all be mutants, hardly similar to our own family members.

On the other hand, if an omnipotent “God” created us, there would be no need to “modify” anything earthly to perform the feat.

My real question is this: Is there any natural way that we could have received these genes? How about a method that doesn’t depend on either cross-bacterial osmosis or god? 

 I think it is no accident that the ancient symbol of the medical profession (the Cadeuseus) is strangely reminiscent of an only recently discovered strand of DNA. I also think it is no accident that the human race was subjected to numerous genetic bottlenecks, which evidence looks suspiciously like a breeding program. Why did the hardier, stronger Neandertal man go extinct while modern man flourished at a time when no other species were going extinct? How can we have exactly the same mental capacity today as we did 30,000 years ago, but have only decided to use it for something other than food gathering over the last 4,000 years?