>Yunis & Prakash's excellent article is carefully and conservatively
>argued and for me settles decisively the issue of man's common
>ancestry with "a progenitor of chimpanzee and man" (Yunis & Prakash,
>p1525). I thank you for drawing it to my attention.
>
>I have no problem if God fused an ape's two chromosomes but then I am
>a Progressive (Mediate) Creationist, who maintains that God may have
>supernaturally intervened at strategic points in the history of
>life. But it seems a bit inconsistent for you, a Theistic
>Evolutionist, to maintain that God fused only chromosome 2, but left
>the other chromosome to change by natural mechanisms. If the other
>chromosomes can change by natural mechanisms, why can't chromosome
>2?
Stephen, I must say I am impressed that you were willing to change your
opinion about this issue.
>Of course, the above applies to *modern* humans. Your 5.5 mya Flood
>theory is that Adam was not a modern human but either a Homo habilis
>or Australopithecus:
>
>"The only way to fit the scriptural account with the scientific
>observations is to have Adam and Eve be Homo habilis or
>Australopithecus." (Morton G.R., "A Theory for Creationists", DMD
>Publishing Co., 1996, http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/synop.htm)
>
>There is AFAIK no way of knowing whether Homo habilis or
>Australopithecus had 46 chromosomes or 48. It might be that Homo
>habilis did, I doubt that a member of a different genus like
>Australopithecus had 46 chromosomes. Yunis and Prakash's
>diagram on p1528 shows the change to chromosomal 2 as ocurring
>well after the chimpanzee split, which was about 5 million years
>ago.
>
You are correct that we may never know and I tend to agree that the Piths
probably weren't human in a theological sense.
>>SJ>Secondly, since the adult human body contains 100 trillion cells
>>>(Stringer C., & McKie R., "African Exodus", 1997, p117), each with
>>>the same number chromosomes, are you claiming that God performed
>>>not one chromosomal fusion in this ape but 100 trillion?
>
>GM>Stephen, Stephen, you forget that man starts with a single cell, a
>>fertilized egg. If the fusion happens here, then it will be in all the 100
>>trillion cells derived from that egg. What kind of biology do they teach
>>down in Australia?
>
>I didn't "forget". I was trying to draw you out, and I succeeded!
>Your web page says that Adam was a "still born" whom God "fixed":
>
>"During this time, there was among the physical ancestor of man a
>very rare mutation -- a chromosomal fusion. But this error was
>almost always fatal. God took one of these creatures, a still born,
>fixed him, and blew his breath into him..." (Morton G.R., "A Theory
>for Creationists", DMD Publishing Co., 1996,
>http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/synop.htm)
>
>This seems to imply that God "fixed" Adam, ie. carried out the
>chromosomal fusion, *after* Adam was delivered still-born. Now you
>are saying the fusion took place when Adam was "a single cell". Which
>is it to be?
No. In my view the fusion was the cause of Adam's still birth.
>"When chromosome bands are compared and homologies are identified, a
>close relationship between the two species can be established. In
>this comparison, at the species level, chromosome morphology is a
>measure of phylogenetic change. Chromosome number, on the other
>hand, depends on a more superficial "packaging" process and does not
>represent a basic criterion for relationship. In this example (Fig.
>18.25), one near centric change has made a difference in number,
>while the basic chromosome units are essentially homologous."
>(Gardner, 1991, p507)
>
>But this seems to defeats your whole argument for the essential
>difference between chimp and man being a fused chromosome 2. If the
>material inside the chromosomes is of greater importance, and the
>location of lesser importance, then why your emphasis on this one
>fused chromosome?
I have never claimed that the "essential difference" between us and the apes
is a chromosomal fusion. The essential difference between us and them is
the fact that we have the image of God and all that entails, they don't.
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm