Creation scientists say new genetic findings challenge the evolutionary model and show that humans and chimps did not evolve from a common ancestor.

Scientists from MIT and the University of Massachusetts Medical School recently published a report in the journal Genome Research entitled “Evolutionary dynamics and tissue specificity of human long noncoding RNAs in six mammals.” The article compares human long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) with lincRNAs of several mammals—including chimps and rhesus monkeys.

According to experts, lincRNAs are critically important to cells’ existence and serve many different roles. Not only are lincRNAs found within cells’ nuclei and cytoplasm, but they also assist communication between cells.

“LincRNAs play diverse regulatory roles in human development and disease,” the authors of the Genome Research article wrote, “but little is known about their evolutionary history and constraint.”

According to evolutionary theory, the lincRNA patterns of humans and chimps should be similar, since—according to evolutionists—humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor. However, the journal article reports that a significant portion of human lincRNA is unique to humans—not found in chimps or monkeys.

“We find that at least 35% of human lincRNAs show orthologous transcripts across mammals, and 20% are not conserved beyond chimp and undetectable even in rhesus,” the scientists reported.

This unexpected revelation led the scientists to assume that human-specific lincRNAs are “faster-evolving” than lincRNAs from animals. However, Dr. Jeffrey Tomkins, a geneticist with the Institute for Creation Research, says this assertion does not hold water.

“For evolution to appear plausible in the 2 to 6 million years of estimated time between the divergence of humans and chimps from a common ancestor (a mere blip on the scale of alleged evolutionary time), scientists need to have a human chimp DNA similarity of about 98%,” Dr. Tomkins told Christian News Network. “This is based on known mutation rates in human DNA sequence—assuming that mutation can actually accomplish something good.”

However, the Genome Research article revealed that chimps and humans are more genetically dissimilar than evolutionists expected.

“Of the several thousand lincRNA genes studied by this research group, only 80% had similar counterparts in chimps,” Dr. Tomkins stated. “This is way outside the 98% paradigm.”

Dr. Tomkins further explained that lincRNA genes are especially important, because they “provide the meta-information regulating how protein coding genes are utilized.”

“This is why the human genome contains over twice as many noncoding RNA genes as it does protein coding genes,” Dr. Tomkins noted. “It is these types of metadata genes that are the key players in the genome that explain what makes different types of creatures genetically unique. Like humans and chimps.”

Dr. Tomkins told Christian News Network that he has personally studied over 50,000 lincRNA gene regions and found that the genes of humans and chimps are distinctly dissimilar.

“Overall, there is only about a 67 to 79% similarity in DNA sequence,” he said. “It is the shorter lincRNA genes that tend to be the most similar, such as the ones analyzed in this recent study—but even these are only about 80%.”

“The biblical bottom line that fully matches up with the genetic data is that humans are uniquely created in the image of God and did not evolve from apes,” Dr. Tomkins concluded. “Humans and chimps were created uniquely and separately—their distinctly different genomes corroborate this.”

Become a Christian News Network Supporter...

Dear Reader, has ChristianNews.net been of benefit and a blessing to you? For many years now, the Lord has seen fit to use this small news outlet as a strong influential resource in keeping Christians informed on current events from a Biblical worldview. With much compromise and many falsehoods in modern-day Christianity, we strive to bring you the news by keeping Christ and His word in focus. If you have benefited from our news coverage, please prayerfully consider becoming a Christian News supporter by clicking here to make a one-time or monthly donation to help keep the truth of God's word widely and freely published and distributed. May Christ continue to be exalted through this work!