The June 27th Reasons to Believe e-mail, sent out by the organisation Reasons to Believe says the following:

Genetic studies to date of DNA taken from representatives of different population groups demonstrate that humanity had a recent origin from a single location. These studies also indicate that humanity's original population size was small and that all of humanity traces back to a single woman, called mitochondrial Eve, and a single man, called Y-chromosomal Adam. Genetic data also affirms that humanity expanded from near the Middle East to populate the globe. These insights square with the biblical account of humanity's origin. New research examines the genetic variation of Asian and Australasian people groups and confirms the primeval migrational pattern of humanity from near the Middle East into Asia and Australia. This new work shows rapid human migration along the southern coast of the Middle East through India and other parts of Asia. As anthropologists study human genetic variation, the biblical description of human origins continues to gain support.

Here are two of their sources:

• Vincent Macauly et al., "Single, Rapid Coastal Settlement of Asia Revealed by Analysis of Complete Mitochondrial Genomes," Science 308 (2005): 1034-36.
• Kumarasamy Thangaraj et al., "Reconstructing the Origin of Andaman Islanders," Science 308 (2005): 996.

You can look for further information on this and other evidence that the Biblical Account of origins is accurate on the Reasons to Believe website. I highly recommend that you sign up for their Reasons to Believe (amost) daily e-mail.

Posted by The Donkey at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I watched an interview with Cees Dekker the other evening on Dutch TV. He is professor of Molecular Biophysics and recipient of the prestigious Dutch Spinoza prize (which according to their own website is regarded by some as the 'Dutch Nobel Prize').

He has been published in Science and Nature about 13 times and is, according to the Spinoza website, one of the most famous Dutch physicists outside of Holland. He is famous for his work on carbon nanotubes. Last week, he was a guest in a Dutch debate program called "Rondom Tien" where he was introduced as the one who inspired the Dutch Minister of Education Van der Hoeven to call for a discussion between evolution and ID (eariler reported here and here).

Prof Dekker was interviewed the other night on a Dutch Christian talk show called Het Elfde Uur ("The Eleventh Hour"). This is a well-known talk show that is hosted by Andries Knevel and has gained the respect of a broad spectrum of viewers, christian and non-christian alike. To give you an idea of the caliber of the program, his first guest that evening was the vice-prime-minister of Holland and Minister of Fincance Gerrit Zalm. Anybody who's anybody has been in the program. Here's a link to the program (sorry only in Dutch).

The discussion centered around Prof Dekker's interest in ID, his skepticism of evolution via natural processes and a new book of which he is a co-editor called "Schitterend ongeluk of sporen van ontwerp? Over toeval en doelgerichtheid in de evolutie"* ("Wonderful accident or traces of design? About chance and purpose in evolution") which is a multi-contibutor multi-disciplinary book about ID.

In a weblog, Knevel touched upon the heated debate in the Dutch parliament last week after Minister Van der Hoeven's announcement. He also mentioned Prof Dekker's appearance in "Rondom Tien" (Around Ten) and the emotion which was displayed by the other guest Bert Bakker who is a member of parliament from a liberal party (D'66). This is what he said:

Such agression, emotion and bottled-up anger that came out[in the parliament]! Particularly from the representatives from the Groen Links (Green party) and the D'66. In the last ten years a minster has not been more fiercely attacked than on that day [...] Why such aggression? Because it has to do with a Faith! [Faith as in a religion] Richard Dawkins, the great evolutionary theologist from England, once said that the theory of evolution has finally laid a foundation for atheism. If there was one thing the Members of Parliament in question didn't want, was someone tampering with atheism. One Faith against another, in other words.

And about the show "Rondom Tien":

The pleasant Cees Dekker was compared by Bert Bakker (D'66 party) to the religious fundamentalists in America, even with George Bush himself. Bakker himself appeared to not to know anything about ID.

For more on the reaction of certian politicians go here.
*Cees Dekker, Ronald Meester en RenŽ van Woudenberg, eds., Publisher Ten Have, Kampen 2005, ISBN 90 259 5483 9

Posted by The Donkey at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)