Well I thought some of you guys might like to know what kinda stuff I've been up to down here at school. So this is something that I put together for a blog that we had going to discuss ideas with Genetic research and other genetics related topics for my genetics class, we did the blog instead of a paper, and I think that it was a lot better.
So this is one of the posts that I made to the blog:
In an article in the October 9, 2006 issue of Time magazine called “What Makes Us Different”,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1541283,00.html the authors discuss the recently sequenced chimpanzee genome. It is believed the closest evolutionary relatives to humans are the chimpanzees, and that humans and chimps diverged from a common ancestor around 6 millions years ago. The recently sequenced chimpanzee genome would give evidence for the relationship between the two species. When they examined the chimp and human genomes side by side scientists were able to determine that between the two there is only about 1.23% that is different, and the majority of the differences occur on the Y chromosome. They also determined that of all the proteins coded for in human DNA 29% of them are the same as proteins coded for in the chimpanzee genes, and that in the proteins that are different they only differ by 1 or 2 amino acids.1
These findings lead to the question, what really makes us different from chimpanzees and other primates? Is it the few genetic variations in our cells, or is there something greater? If the evolutionists are to believed we are no more than a complex grouping of nucleic acids, amino acids and lipids that have managed to align themselves into the right package to facilitate life, and that the reason we are seen as a more “advanced” animal than the chimpanzee is because our DNA went through the right series of mutations. These mutations give us the ability to engage in agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy, while our nearest relatives cannot. This line of thinking seems to indicate that had it been the other way around, and had the mutations occurred in the chimpanzee genome instead that they would be the ones that can do all these things, and that humans would be just another animal.
I have to wonder however if it is only the 1.23% difference in our genes which allows us to do this or is there something more? I personally believe that the main thing that governs our humanity comes not from the sequences of genes that differ from those of other animals, but that it lies in something not even governed by genetics. Our genes may play a part in allowing us to be human, they do after all give us the size of brain we need to be able to do all the complex things we do, however they are not the only component of our humanity.
The Bible says that “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27) this does not mean that our physical self looks like God, but that our soul is like God’s. This in my opinion is what makes us human and separates us from other animals.
So what do you think? Is our humanity in our genes or is there something else that makes us the creatures that we are?
1. What Makes Us Different? An article in Time (October 9, 2006). By Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman
Hope you enjoyed the read, and feel free to let me know what you think.
One more final to go, so I better get to work.
See most of you soon.
Some Pretty Ice 
