Genome is the name for the entirety of the genetic information possessed by a cell--and thus, by a living thing. Hundreds of scientists in some 20 laboratories have been working for more than a decade to analyze the genetic information in the DNA molecule in each one of the 100 trillion or so cells in the human body. The Human Genome Project, run by an international body consisting of 16 institutions, aims to describe the whole of the genetic data inside the human cell and to read all the DNA texts written in genetic language. The biologists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and experts in a great many other fields formed part of this international project, working to produce a biological map setting out human beings' physical characteristics. Yet despite all these efforts, the technology for recording the DNA sequence is still very slow, and recording the DNA sequence in a single human chromosome is a very expensive process--so expensive that some $2.7 billion has already been spent on the Human Genome Project,118 far more than was spent on sending man to the Moon and back.
The draft of the human DNA sequence was completed in 2000. However, the project assumed its final form, with the correction of errors and completion of gaps, only in April 2003. The National Human Genome Research Institute, and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health co-coordinated the 13-year Human Genome Project, some of whose objectives may be summarized:
*To determine the 30,000 or so genes in the human genome and to produce a map of the human genes.
* To determine the approximately 3 billion base pair sequences constituting DNA.
* To preserve the information obtained in data banks for use in future research.
* To develop methods and materials for the analysis of the data obtained.
* To determine the links between genes and their functions.
* To establish how genes work as a single unit in chromosomes, and.
* To determine the basis and causes of genetic diseases.
The gene mapping technique employed in the project is to clarify where genes are located in the chromosomes, thus revealing the anatomy of a person's genome. With the mapping of the relative positions of a great many genes and other genetic markers along a chromosome, it is possible to produce a whole genome map. The mathematical analysis of the genome and a series of complex statistical analyses are employed to determine the location of genes on chromosomes, needed for us to understand the basic functions of the human body. One of the important objectives of the Human Genome Project is therefore the determination of the bases and causes of genetic diseases. It is hoped that with the data obtained from the project, an estimated 4,000 inherited diseases can be identified, and in the near future, therapy will be possible by means of the production of special drugs aimed at high-risk genetic diseases.
The Size of Genes is No Measure of Their Complexity
It is very easy to misinterpret the enormous size of the human genome. The reason why human beings have 25 times more DNA than a fly is not because human beings are larger and more complex. There is no correlation in biological terms between the amount of genetic information and complexity. The single-celled organism Paramecium caudatum, , for instance, has 8.6 billion nucleotides, which is more than twice as many as the human genome. With 670 billion nucleotides, the single-celled Amoeba dubia possesses the broadest known amount of genetic information.119
Scientists working on the Human Genome Project state that they are still only beginning to understand the functions of genes and the relationships among them, because the emerging results were by no means what they had expected. For example, even a mouse or a stalk of wheat has longer DNA than human beings. This again shows that there is no direct correlation between DNA length and an organism's complexity. The biophysicist Dr. Lee Spetner refers to this:
The chromosomes of some organisms may have much more DNA than are in the chromosomes of others. You might then think the amount of DNA in the genome is a better way to measure organ complexity, but that's not entirely correct either. Although humans have 30 times the DNA of some insects, there are insects that have more than double the DNA in humans. The amount of DNA is not a reliable measure of complexity because not all the DNA may have to do with complexity. . . .120
It also emerged that previous estimates of the number of human genes were also incorrect. When their research began, scientists estimated that human beings had between 50,000 and 140,000 genes, but the latest studies established only between 25,000 and 30,000. This came as a considerable surprise to scientific circles. Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, explains:
Humans have more genes than expected. My definition of a gene here-- because different people use different terminology--is a stretch of DNA that codes for a particular protein. There are probably stretches of DNA that code for RNAs that do not go on to make proteins. That understanding is only now beginning to emerge and may be fairly complicated. But the standard definition of "a segment of DNA that codes for a protein" gives one a surprisingly small number of about 30,000 for the number of human genes. Considering that we have been talking about 100,000 genes for the last fifteen years (that's what most of the textbooks still say), this was a bit of a shock. In fact, some people took it quite personally. I think they were particularly distressed because the gene count for some other simpler organisms had been previously determined. After all, a roundworm has 19,000 genes, and mustard weed has 25,000 genes, and we only have 30,000? Does that seem fair? Even worse, when they de-coded the genome of the rice [plant], it looks as if rice has about 55,000 genes. . . . What does that mean? Surely, an alien coming from outer space looking at a human being and looking at a rice plant would say the human being is biologically more complex. I don't think there's much doubt about that. So gene count must not be the whole story. So what is going on? 121
The difficulty here stems from Darwinist scientists constructing their claims on the assumption that humans are the most complex life form, for which reason they should have a greater number of genes. Since the human cell was a great deal more complex, it was expected to have a greater number of genes compared to the 6,000 in a yeast cell, 13,000 in the fruit fly, 18,000 in one species of worm and 26,000 in a plant species. However, the Human Genome Project invalidated the dogmatic logic that the more complex an organism, the larger its DNA and the number of its genes.
Neither gene numbers nor DNA size shows evidence of evolution, though evolutionists are trying to distort this latest development, which really does work against them, and to depict it as proof of their theory! Due to both a lack of information and their prejudiced attitude, some media organizations also imagine that the Human Genome Project is uncovering proof of evolution, or else they seek to give that impression. Yet all the genetic findings obtained from the project have closed the doors field in Darwinism's face, as has happened in other branches of science.
Evolutionists' Distortion of Genetic Similarity
With the production of the human gene map, the findings from the Human Genome Project are being distorted and used as a propaganda tool in some evolutionist publications, claiming that there is a 98% resemblance between human and chimpanzee genes, which is proposed as evidence for evolution. In fact, however, these claims give no support to evolution; on the contrary, they are false evidence based on distortions.
Even if there is a 98% resemblance between the chimpanzee and human genomes, it is illogical to infer that man is 98% chimpanzee. Human beings share specific genes with a great many other living things. For example, according to analyses carried in New Scientist magazine, a 75% resemblance has been determined between human DNA and that of nematode worms.122 However, this hardly means that human beings are 75% worm, or that there is only a 25% difference between them! Some evolutionists even see and speak of the illogicality of such inferences. Prof. Steven Jones issued a reminder if a 50% similarity is revealed between human beings and bananas, that will not mean that human beings are 50% banana. It is known that even if the genes in two life forms are the same, they can still work in entirely different ways. Moreover, genes are sometimes involved in more than one function, and one function is controlled by more than one gene. This broadens the mathematical difference to a very considerable extent.
But analyses of various proteins show that human beings are very close related to very different life forms. In one study, researchers from Cambridge University compared the proteins of various terrestrial life forms. Astonishingly, in just about all the examples used, human beings and chickens turned out to be one another's closest relatives. Our next closest "relative" is the crocodile.123
Another example that evolutionists use to claim genetic similarity between man and ape is the fact that humans have 46 chromosomes, and chimpanzees and gorillas have 48. Evolutionists regard similarity between chromosome numbers as an indication of an evolutionary relationship. Yet if their logic were correct, man would have another relative just as close as the chimpanzee: the potato! The potato has exactly the same number of chromosomes as the chimpanzee and the gorilla: 48. On the other hand, the wild hare has exactly the same number of chromosomes as human beings: 46.124 These examples show that similar numbers represent no evidence at all for the theory of evolution, because genetic similarities do not fit the scenario claimed, but actually produce completely opposite results to it.
The Darwinist media use information selectively, as propaganda tools. Since they claim that man and ape descended from a common ancestor, they emphasize the resemblance between the two species' DNA. Yet there are a number of studies –again carried out by evolutionists!– showing the invalidity of the "98% similarity" claimed by evolutionists for so many years. But these studies are deliberately not reported, or else given only very limited coverage.
A report titled "Humans, chimps more different than thought," carried on the CNN website on 25 September, 2002, reported the findings of this research:
There are more differences between a chimpanzee and a human being than once believed, according to a new genetic study. Biologists have long held that the genes of chimps and humans are about 98.5 percent identical. But Roy Britten, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology, said in a study published this week that a new way of comparing the genes shows that the human and chimp genetic similarity is only about 95 percent. Britten based this on a computer program that compared 780,000 of the 3 billion base pairs in the human DNA helix with those of the chimp. He found more mismatches than earlier researchers had, and concluded that at least 3.9 percent of the DNA bases were different. This led him to conclude that there is a fundamental genetic difference between the species of about 5 percent.125
On 23 September, 2002, the website of the British magazine New Scientist reported on the same subject, under the caption "Human-Chimp DNA Difference Trebled":
We are more unique than previously thought, according to new comparisons of human and chimpanzee DNA. It has long been held that we share 98.5 per cent of our genetic material with our closest relatives. That now appears to be wrong. In fact, we share less than 95 per cent of our genetic material, a three-fold increase in the variation between us and chimps. 126
In conclusion, the genome project has revealed no findings in favor of the theory of evolution. On the contrary, it shows that on the basis of DNA and gene structures, no evolutionary tree of life can be constructed between living things. This deals a severe blow to Darwinism. Living things' DNA codes clearly show that the tree of life, imposed as the truth ever since the 19th century, is actually specious.
The real aim of those sections of society blindly devoted to Darwinism is not to publicize the facts, but merely to propagate Darwinism. However, all the foundations on which their propaganda is built are crumbling away with ongoing scientific discoveries. Confronted by this, increasing numbers of people are realizing that the theory of evolution was a deception perpetrated for ideological reasons. In its place, the fact of creation is spreading rapidly. In the Qur'an, Allah reveals as follows:
Do not mix up truth with falsehood and knowingly hide the truth. (Surat al-Baqara, 42)
Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it and it vanishes clean away! Woe without end for you for what you portray! (Surat al-Anbiya, 18)
Scientists Still Have Insufficient Information
Although scientists across the world have been working on the human genome for decades, our knowledge of genetic structure is still very limited. Scientists working for the Celera company, using advanced laboratory technology and computer analysis techniques, identified 26,500 human genes and provided estimated locations for around 13,000 of them. Using a different method, the Human Genome Project estimated that there are 31,778 human genes. What these two methods agree on is that human beings have between 30,000 and 40,000 genes. Given the complex nature of human genes, it is presently impossible to provide an exact number.
According to Human Genome Project estimates, those sections of DNA concerned with instructions for the production of protein represent less than 5% of the DNA sequence. The remaining genetic information consists of genetic control regions regarding chromosomes and DNA segments that are not yet understood.127 A great deal more research is needed before we can fully understand human genetic data.
As scientists seek to reveal how the genetic mechanism functions, they cannot explain how such a perfect system came to be. Under the caption "Messages from the Genome" in the December 2000 issue of Harper's Magazine, Arthur Cody describes the operations within the genome as a series of "triggering processes" and then poses the following questions:
What triggers the triggerer? Nobody knows. More than that, nobody has any theoretical proposal to suggest . . . . 'Triggering' is an interesting biological event; it goes nowhere toward explaining construction. What kicks the homeotic gene [which regulates the embryo development] into action? No answer exists, factual or theoretical . . . . Not only does no one know, no one has the slightest idea how to look for an answer . . . . Everything truly essential about the process is utterly and even radically incomprehensible. 128
To the writer's questions, there is only one answer, of course: all these things take place under the inspiration of Almighty Allah. By the will of our Lord, billions of atoms combine together in such a way as to comprise all the functions of life. Indeed, with the conclusion of the Human Genome Project, the details of the genetic information that reveals the sublime creation with which Allah brings living things into being have been revealed for all to see. Today, anyone who examines the results of the project and discovers that in a single human cell is sufficient information to fill thousands of encyclopedia pages will see this as evidence of a magnificent creation. One of those who express this fact is the physicist and geneticist Prof. Francis S. Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project and head of the National Human Genome Project Research Institute. In 2005, Prof. Collins was awarded the Allen Prize, regarded as the American Society of Human Genetics' most prestigious award, for his lifetime's study of human genetics. In a speech, Prof. Collins stated that his studies had deepened his faith in Allah:
From my perspective as director of the Human Genome Project, the scientific and religious world views are not only compatible but also inherently complementary. . . The elegance and complexity of the human genome is a source of profound wonder. That wonder only strengthens my faith, as it provides glimpses of aspects of humanity, which God has known all along, but which we are just now beginning to discover.129
Any honest scientist will admit that faith and science are compatible with each other and that the universe is full of proofs of Allah. However, the dishonest approach adopted by the Darwinist-materialist media clearly demonstrates their selectivity. The words of this scientist, who headed the Human Genome Project and who confessed his amazement at the superior organization manifested in DNA--and how a single molecule strengthened his faith--appear nowhere in the press. However, the perfection in the order created by Allah is far too apparent to be concealed in any way. In the Qur'an, Allah reveals the attitude of believers:
Those who have been given knowledge see that what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the truth and that it guides to the Path of [Allah], the Almighty, the Praiseworthy. (Surah Saba, 6)
There is an excellent example in them for you to follow that is for those whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day. But if anyone turns away, Allah is the Rich Beyond Need, the Praiseworthy. (Surat al-Mumtahana, 6)
The Director of the Human Genome Project Describes His Faith in Allah
The most senior official in the Human Genome project, Francis Collins, was an atheist until the age 27. Seeing that sufferers from disease acquired great spiritual strength thanks to their faith in Allah, Collins began believing in His existence. He describes how as a young doctor, he was affected by the strength that faith bestowed on critical patients:
They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance . . . That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.1
In the years that followed, Collins saw the magnificent information contained in DNA, was definitively convinced, and declared the reason for his belief in his book The Language of God, in which he describes how there is a logical basis for the existence of Allah and how scientific discoveries draw man closer to Him.
In an article titled "I've Found God, Says Man Who Cracked the Genome," published in The Sunday Times on 11 June, 2006, he writes:
One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war . . . I don't see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years. When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it. But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the Creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along. When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can't survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can't help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God's mind.2
1, 2- Steven Swinford; The Sunday Times, 11 June 2006; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2220484,00.html
The Successes of the Human Genome Project are Part of the Destiny Created by Allah
In the wake of the conclusion of the Human Genome Project, certain publications began spreading misleading messages to cover up the impasse in which the theory of evolution found itself. One of the subjects brought up under different slogans and captions most frequently by the Darwinist-materialist press is the claim that the discovery of the gene map will supposedly be able to alter people's destinies. It is a grave error to spread messages such as "Man will no longer be a victim of fate" together with information about the human gene map. In fact, the map's completion will definitely make no difference to human destiny, because the map itself is also part of that destiny. Allah reveals this fact in the Qur'an:
But you will not unless Allah wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. (Surat al-Insan, 30)
Destiny is the way that Allah knows all things in the past and present in the form of a single moment. Allah knows beforehand all things that have not yet taken place. A great many people fail to understand how He knows events that have not yet taken place. But the destiny that a person has not yet encountered is simply an event that, for that person, has not yet taken place. All events described as of "unknown" result are unknown to us alone. Omniscient Allah is unfettered by time and space. For that reason, the past, present and future are all one for Him, for He is the One Who created time and place. In the Sight of Allah, everything we are experiencing at this moment and everything we will experience in the future are all already over and done with. When the time comes, all humans witness the destiny created for them by Him.
Did you suppose that
We created you for amusement andthat you would not return to Us?
(Surat al-Muminun, 115)
In the same way that someone who holds the CD of a film can perceive the film's beginning, middle and end as a single disk, so Allah is aware of everything to come for all the human beings He has created. He Who knows all things as a single moment, shows us the infinite nature of His might by creating limitless infinity of time in that single infinitely small instant. In the face of these scientific developments, believers must be aware that all knowledge belongs to Allah, its real and only owner, as is revealed in the Qur'an:
They said, "Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise." (Surat al-Baqara, 32)
He creates the lives of all human beings who have ever lived, together with all the details thereof. All events that may appear positive or negative and that people will encounter from birth until the moment of their death take place with Allah's knowledge. In Surat al-An'am, we are informed that everything that happens in the world, both great and small, does so at Allah's choosing:
The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the Earth, and nothing moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat al-An'am, 59)
This applies to everyone and everything. Nobody can intervene in the destiny created for them by Allah, nor make the slightest alteration in the course of events. For example, Allah has created everyone and everything with a specific life span; and the moment, place, time, and form of that death are already set out in His Sight. When a person falls ill, that too has been determined billions of years before they were ever born. Whether they will recover from that illness is also set out in their destiny. Everything that can play a part in their recovery--doctors, nurses, hospitals, drugs and therapies--have all been written down beforehand in His sight. Therefore, if a person recovers, that does not mean that they changed their destiny, but that recovery was ordained beforehand. In the verses, Allah reveals:
Your Lord knows you best. If He wills, He will have mercy on you, and, if He wills, He will punish you. We did not send you to be their guardian. My Lord knows best everyone in the heavens and Earth. . . . (Surat al-Isra, 54-55)
One day in the future, if people's lives are extended through direct intervention in their genes, this does not mean that they interfered in their own destiny. What it means is that Allah created them with long life spans, and the production of the gene map is the means whereby their lives can be lengthened. The fact that the person is living at a time of technological advances in genetics, and the prolongation of life through medical means are all a part of destiny: Everything is determined in the sight of Allah long before the person even comes into the world.
Similarly, someone with a potentially fatal disease who is cured as a result of medical discoveries lives his destiny as well, because being cured is also in his destiny. The production of the human gene map and the means of intervening in humanity's genetic makeup do not oppose the destiny created by Allah. On the contrary, humanity is following the course created for it, using information created by Him. If, thanks to these scientific advances, someone lives to the age of 120, that is the age appointed beforehand by Allah, and that is how long the person will live. In one verse, Allah reveals that everyone's life span is determined in a book in His Sight:
Allah created you from dust and then from a drop of sperm and then made you into pairs. No female becomes pregnant or gives birth except with His knowledge. And no living thing lives long or has its life cut short without that being in a Book. That is easy for Allah. (Surah Fatir, 11)
In short, such expressions such as "cheating fate" and "changing one's destiny" are inaccurate terms stemming from ignorance of the fact of destiny. Even the fact that someone will employ these expressions when they speak is determined beforehand in their destiny. It has already been determined in the sight of Allah where, when and under what circumstances a person will use them. Allah is aware of all things.
He has revealed that all things are written in a book in His Sight. We live just what is written in that book, no more and no less.
… Whom not even the weight of the smallest particle eludes, either in the heavens or in the Earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that which is not in a Clear Book. (Surah Saba, 3)
Nothing occurs, either in the Earth or in yourselves, without its being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for Allah. (Surat al-Hadid, 22)
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