In 2016, I came across Francis Collins' The Language of God in church library and decided to zoom into the chapter discussing evidence for evolution. Not so much interested in theological discussions of theistic evolution, I just wanted to find out what compels the scientific community to accept it as the prevailing working hypothesis.
Francis led the team that mapped out the human genome at the beginning of the century. The evidence from fossil record made sense but didn't seem like a smoking gun. Then I read the genetic evidence for evolution... maybe because I'm not a hardcore biochemist, the argument which I had heard before didn't really sound that compelling.
At this stage, I would consider myself a fence sitter, leaning more on Intelligent Design. Definitely not a Young earth creationist. But not really comfortable with everything hangs together in a theistic evolutionary configuration either. Christians can sit comfortably within the spectrum, don't marry your theology to the prevailing scientific paradigm of the day.
Until I came across this video which explains how the human genome is related to the chimpanzee's.
The penny dropped.
Humans have only twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, while chimps have twenty-four pairs. What's the difference? The human chromosome 2 was fused from two ape chromosomes. The presence of vestigial centromere and telomeres provide the smoking gun that finally compels me to accept that evolution is not just a theory, but fact.
It's the best explanation for how all of life came about. And the proof is written in every single cell of our bodies.
What theological impact does that have? A Young Earth creationist once told me, it's the place of Death. Is it an enemy to be defeated? Or just a fact of life or the tool by which God created life?
Evolution implies that death has always existed since the beginning, not a result of the fall. It took millions of years in suffering, death and extinction of species to arrive at where we are today. It changes almost everything overnight.
To quote Steve Jobs:
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
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