Response to Clarion coming

Our readers who also read Clarion will no doubt have noticed a significant effort by several writers in that unofficial organ of the Canadian Reformed churches to oppose evolution and/or promote the views of scientific creationists.

Be assured that we are well aware of significant problems in the positions taken by many of these writers, including their perception and subsequent portrayal of our own positions. First and foremost among these is a continuing lack of engagement of the distinction between evolution as a biological theory and evolutionism as an all encompassing philosophical worldview. Second is the misperception that we are attempting to use results of modern science to force a reinterpretation of Scripture. Third is a complete failure to face matters of Biblical and scientific hermeneutics, that is, the interpretation of Scripture and creation. Fourth is a troubling reliance upon the dubious though ever popular rhetoric of young-earth creationist organizations.

We expect in the next month or so, as time permits, to set the record straight by articulating these and other points in more detail, for the sake of the gospel and the advancement of God’s Kingdom for His glory, perhaps by means of responses in Clarion but also on this blog itself. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, your comments and E-mail responses to this blog entry are most welcome. Please be aware that we will likely not respond to many comments in detail --- after all we are drafting our detailed replies --- but we would appreciate hearing what our readers think about what’s transpired in Clarion.

Sincerely, from all of us at
Reformed Academic

Studies of the Human Genome

Due to continual advances in DNA sequencing technologies, we have recently witnessed an explosion in the amount of DNA sequence data and the emergence of the field of genomics. The amount of sequence information continues to grow exponentially. Although sequencing the human genome for the first time was a monumental task, it is now much easier to obtain and compare the sequences of entire genomes.

In addition to humans, many other organisms have been sequenced, which allows comparisons with each other and with the human genome. Comparisons of the human and chimpanzee genomes have aroused special interest because it has been shown that the human and chimpanzee genomes share over 98% of their DNA sequences.

This high degree of similarity has troubling implications for those who believe that the Bible teaches that humans and chimpanzees are separate creations. Todd Wood is such a person who is trained in genomics and has examined this data closely. Wood’s paper can be seen here.
Although the paper is three years old, the story will not have changed substantially, except that the chimpanzee sequence is now more complete.

Wood treats the data honestly and candidly. Since he rejects a priori the possibility of common ancestry between chimpanzees and humans, he investigates possible ways of accounting for the high degree of similarity, none of which are well developed.

We invite you to read this paper carefully and comment on it.

If you need clarification on a point he makes, that's fine too.

How much are Wood’s suggestions for reconciling these data worth investigating?

If common ancestry is the best explanation of the data, what are the theological implications?

How would you fit Adam and Eve into such a scenario?