Religiously speaking, why is one of the human chromosomes actually two fused together? Proving evolution again?

@Dr. Bob: "The evidence of chromosomes and their arrangement doesn't support either position, one way or the other."

WRONG!!!

The validity of a scientific theory is determined by the ability to derive verifiable predictions from it. In the case at hand, some background information is warranted.

About fifty years ago, when it was first noted that apes have 24 pairs of chromosomes, but humans have 23, the creationists subsequently pounced upon that as evidence against the evolution of humans from a common ancestor with the apes. The evolutionary scientists, however, using evolutionary theory and an understanding of genetic modification, proposed that two of the chromosomes must have joined together in the line that led to man from the common ancestor, thus reducing the chromosome number.

That prediction has been verified with the results of the recent human and chimp genome projects. It was found that human chromosome 2 is the result of the joining of two chromosomes that have homologues in the chimp. The decoding of the genomes revealed that human chromosome 2 has a stretch of non-functioning telomere coding in the exact place it should be if the two chromosomes had joined in the human line from the common ancestor with the apes, and there is also non-functioning coding for a centromere in the exact location where the extra centromere would be as it occurs in one of the homologous chimp chromosomes, as well as a functioning centromere in the same location as in the other homologous chimp chromosome.

Long before the genome projects verified it, this article contained an example of the proposition that two of the ancestral chromosomes joined together to form human chromosome 2. (The link is to an abstract of the article. The full article is available for a fee. Sorry)

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/215...

The following site (which is an NIH human genome site), however, does have this statement: "Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes - one less pair than chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes. For more than two decades, researchers have thought human chromosome 2 was produced as the result of the fusion of two mid-sized ape chromosomes and a Seattle group located the fusion site in 2002."

http://www.genome.gov/13514624

These sites explain the finding of the genome projects.

http://www.evolutionpages.com/chromosome_2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chromosome_2

http://www.gate.net/~rwms/hum_ape_chrom.html

No creationist/ID pseudo-scientist could make a before-the-fact prediction like that. All they can do is to make up pseudo-explanations after the fact of the finding, just as @Dr. Bob did.

So what it boils down to is that creationism/ID fails and evolutionary theory succeeds. That is the case in this case and in every other case.

The problem is that creationists and IDers are so mentally bound to their superstitions they can't understand that.

Humans are indeed more related to chimps (genetically) than rats are related to mice. But if you examine Cladograms, humans are also very closely related to a myriad of other organisms, as well. If you examine arms in humans, whales, bats, and cats, they are all analogous. Does this indicate that all of the above organisms evolved from a common ancestor? Perhaps. Or, it could very well be that all of those organisms developed morphologically similar appendages because it was evolutionarily advantageous for each individual species.

Evolution is true, yes. That does not preclude the possiblity of God, divine intervention, or Intelligent Design. Why would it?

Almost anyone with a college degree DOES NOT agree. Characterizing the disagreement about key issues in evolutionary theory as being so minor that "anyone with a college degree agrees" means one of two things: A) You're lying or B) You're ignorant of the controversies.

The more likely answer is B).

This is a silly argument. What we see in chromosomes is exactly what we'd expect to see if creatures evolved. It's also exactly what we'd expect to see if we were directly created by a God who used a common set of building blocks to permit a complex food chain. The evidence of chromosomes and their arrangement doesn't support either position, one way or the other.

You are mistaken.

I understood evolution when I was a highschool freshman.

I thought the capacity for bacteria to adapt from one thing to another proved evolution?

How am I to get a grip of what evolution really is, if the goalpost keep changing?

He did it for a joke.

"Hahahaha... just imagine their crunched little faces... 'But that makes no sense!' they;ll say.... hehehehe... I'm already laughing!"

***

Oh man. Creationists give me a headache. Especially if they try to pretend to be intellectually superior.

It is strong evidence that the modern synthesis is correct. It is not proof.

Evolution has nothing to do with religion. LOL.

The devil!!!

The devil is in your words sir!!!

evolution is obviously here to test our faith