Say Anything Blog

Humans Are Not 98% Genetically Identical to Chimpanzees

Commentary by Wesley J. Smith. Note: This article originally appeared on Smith’s blog, http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/

August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I have been researching the purported genetic near-identity between humans and chimps - asserted as the “scientific” basis for the Great Ape Project - and found (unsurprisingly) that the entire advocacy line that “humans and chimps share 98% of our genes” is plain false. This gets a little complicated, so stick with me.

First, the 98% figure is probably overstated. An article in Science puts the actual figure at 94%. (Jon Cohen, “Relative Differences: The Myth of 1%, June 29, 2007). But even these figures are only measuring about 2% of our total genetic makeup - that is, those genes that code for proteins, the building blocks of our physical bodies and functions.

The vast majority of our DNA, known as “non-coding DNA” - sometimes called “junk DNA” because it was once thought not to have function - is very different in humans from most non-coding genes found in chimps and other apes. However, recent research has found that, contrary to previous belief, this repetitive DNA isn’t “junk” after all, but has distinct purposes.

Research continues as to the exact nature and functions of non-coding genes, but given the wide differences between human and ape non-coding DNA, even if the purported 98% genetic similarity to coding DNA is true, it is actually only 98% of a much smaller percentage of our total genetic makeup, perhaps as low as 98% of 2%!

Proponents of the Great Ape Project might reply in defense that the coding genes are the ones that really count, but that is not scientifically supported anymore. And even if true, as we have discussed previously here at SHS, the 2-6% difference constitutes tens of millions of biological differences.

So this is the bottom line: Creating a human/chimp moral equivalency is not scientifically justified based on a close biological relationship between us that is actually quite vast. Rather, as one scientist quoted in the Science article referenced above put it about this issue:

“I don’t think there is any way to calculate a number [percentage of similarity]. In the end, it’s a political and social and cultural thing about how we see our differences.”

Exactly. This is about politics and ideology, pure and simple.

“Now the genetic difference between human and his nearest relative, the chimpanzee, is at least 1.6. That doesn’t sound like much, but calculated out, that is a gap of at least 48,000,000 nucleotides, and a change of only 3 nucleotides is fatal to an animal; there is no possibility of change.” (Human Genome Project, Quantitative A Disproof of Evolution, CEM facts sheet. Cited in Doubts about Evolution?)

Evolutionsists will NOT be convinced by this research. Creation Research and I.D. folk will brag about this being one more arrow in their quiver to strike at the heart of Darwinism.

The truth is, neither Darwinian Evolutionary Theory nor the two Supreme Designer explanations for the origins of life can be absolutely proven, they are both to a very large extent faith based religions. Nonetheless, this data supports other data that it should, if people were objective, at the very least end the line of arguement about the close biological relationship between apes and man.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081308.html