One common question asked of creation scientists is “If all mankind descended from two humans, then where did all the ‘races’ come from?” New research, published in the journal Evolution no less, supports the creation-based answer to this question.

Studying ancient skulls in Argentina and surrounding areas, researchers discovered that the wide variety of head shapes they found was not generated randomly. And since typical evolutionary processes such as mutation and genetic drift supposedly occur randomly, other possible causes must be considered. The authors of the study proposed that climate and diet were “capable to generate large craniofacial divergence in a short period of time.”¹

However, there must be more to the story than weather and food. Diet and climate had a limited external influence on the internal biological development mechanisms, which themselves could not have evolved. The authors admit, “The relationship between diet and facial shape…and general size variation could be related to phenotypic plasticity.”¹ This “plasticity” is probably what creation researchers increasingly point to as the major cause of “variation within a kind.”²

This research adds to a growing list of biological examples of recent, rapid variation within kinds,³ which would be expected within a living world made only thousands of years ago. The apostle Paul referred to the Genesis account of human origins as real history: “[God] hath made of one blood [Adam and Eve] all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). Thus, the visible differences between peoples today, except for those caused by mutation, represent traits that were either exhibited by or were latent in Adam and Eve.

In considering questions of human origins, one common assumption is that immediate descendants always look quite similar to their parents. This can be true, but not always, as the results of the study from Argentine researcher S. Ivan Perez in Evolution demonstrated.¹ Even today there is a great deal of potential for marked variation in a single generation (and there was undoubtedly much more 6,000 years ago). For example, a British couple with medium skin tone recently had twins, one with dark skin and the other with light.⁴ If human skin coloration follows the polygenic inheritance pattern, then it is quite possible that Adam and Eve had dark and light-skinned grandchildren. Thus, the first parents likely had medium-toned skin.

The pertinent question deals with where the mechanisms required for growth and development came from, complete with their blueprint for mankind’s unique general head shape, as well as its potential for plasticity of that shape within limits. Like Darwin in his famous book, these authors described how features vary, but not how they originated. The Creator has clearly addressed origins, and He indicates unequivocally that humans were made by Him and for Him, just as the evidence indicates.⁵

References

1. Perez, S.I., and L. R. Monteiro. 2009. Nonrandom Factors in Modern Human Morphological Diversification: A Study of Craniofacial Variation in Southern South American Populations. Evolution. 63 (4): 978-993.
2. Parker, G. 2006. Creation: Facts of Life. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 126-146.
3. See, for example, Thomas, B. Snail Changes Outpace Evolution’s Slow Crawl. ICR News. Posted on icr.org April 14, 2009, accessed April 20, 2009.
4. One Twin’s White, the Other’s Black: Twins’ Parents Both Have White Mothers, Black Fathers. ABC News. Posted on abcnews.com April 7, 2006, accessed April 20, 2009.
5. Colossians 1:16: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on May 1, 2009.