The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his065/btgen3.arj/BTGEN3.TXT

Text File | 1991-03-17 | 4KB | 84 lines

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WHERE DID THE RACES COME FROM?

by John D. Morris, Ph.D.

Waiting in airports and long airplane rides have become a way of
life for the ICR staff scientist.  Imagine my appreciation when
two black servicemen engaged me in a delightful conversation
about creation the other day.

        As it turned out, both men were dedicated Christians, but
had no previous teaching on creation, although both knew
evolution had to be wrong, based on the clear statements of
Scripture.

        Finally, they asked the question which they had always
wanted to ask, but had never dared to:  Where did the races come
from?

        Perhaps I was reading too much into their comments, but I
felt like weeping (and still feel like weeping) as I recognized
what generations of racial prejudice had done to these two men.
From Darwin on down, evolutionists have preached that the Negro
race was lower on the evolutionary scale, much closer to the apes
than the Caucasian.  As a matter of fact, the whole concept of
race is evolutionary, not Biblical, for "God hath made of one
blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26).  All of mankind springs
from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and then through Noah's
family.

     The Biblical distinction is between national groups,
and especially languages, not skin color or other physical
characteristics.  These two men, and probably many blacks, had
been bludgeoned by evolutionary dogma into questioning their own
self-worth, wondering if their standing before God was equal to
that of other ethnic groups.

        Actually, the Biblical model regarding the origin of
physical characteristics is easily the best historical and
scientific explanation.  Starting with Noah's family, the
creation model postulates a "racially mixed" population, with
much biological potential for variation.  As family groups were
isolated by language barriers, environmental factors allowed
particular traits already present to be expressed more
frequently, while genes coded for other characteristics were not
favored and were eventually suppressed.

        Genetically speaking, the differences between the various
races are extremely small.  All are of the same species, are
interfertile, and produce fertile offspring.  The most noticeable
difference is in skin color, but the fact is, we are all the SAME
color;  some people just have a little more of that color than
others.  Skin shade is due to the amount of a substance called
melanin in the skin;  the more melanin, the darker the skin.
Racially mixed individuals can parent children who are all the
way from quite dark to quite light, or anywhere in between.   The
predominant shade for freely interbreeding individuals would be
brown.

        While prejudice, persecution, and racial hatred follow
directly from the application of evolutionary teaching, some have
even proposed racism in the name of Christianity.  The Christian
must not allow himself or herself to think this way.  The Lord
Jesus certainly didn't.  He was likely neither white nor black,
but somewhere in between.  He died to provide all men the
opportunity for eternal life (II Peter 3:9, for example).
Indeed, heaven will be populated by "a great multitude...of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues (who will) stand
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes"
(Revelation 7:9), all redeemed by His blood.  In the end, all
racism, as well as racial distinctions, will be abolished."


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