THE "MITOCHONDRIAL EVE" DECEPTION ON THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL

The Discovery Channel recently broadcast a documentary called The Real Eve, in which imaginary scenarios were put forward regarding the spread of modern man, who allegedly emerged by means of evolution in Africa, to the rest of the world.

However, scientific discoveries show that the evolution of man is nothing but a fantasy, and that the claims made on The Discovery Channel are unfounded. This article reveals the scientific errors made by the channel.

The program begins with the claim that all human races in existence today are descended from one single woman who lived in Africa some 130,000 years ago, and that this woman was the first representative of Homo sapiens, who allegedly emerged through a process of evolution. Since these claims concerning this woman are based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA, this mythical female is known as "mitochondrial Eve."

It is suggested that these human beings, with their large brains, left the continent, maybe to find new resources, and began spreading to the rest of the world some 80,000 years ago. The likely migration routes of one small group of humans, shown wearing primitive clothing, and the incidents that may have taken place during their journey, are depicted. Such issues as climate changes, the relationship between Neanderthals and modern man, and a number of fossil discoveries are also discussed. The Darwinist message is that every person alive today is the product of evolution, and that the traces of this so-called evolution are to be found in our genes.

Paleontological methods based on the fossil record and biological methods based on mtDNA and Y-chromosome analyses yield extremely contradictory results about the dates of the human origins scenario. This is natural, because, neither on the anatomic level, nor on the molecular level, is any organism the "ancestor" of another.

Yet the genetic facts said to confirm these claims are not actually objective scientific discoveries at all, but rather facts interpreted in the light of evolutionist prejudices. In other words, such interpretations of genes have no realistic basis.

The clearest example of this is the concept of "mitochondrial DNA" (mtDNA), used as the springboard for the evolutionist claims in the program. Mitochondrial DNA analyses always take pride of place in the claims put forward on the program. The allegations that Homo sapiens emerged some 130,000 years ago in Africa and that the first Americans came to the continent 20,000 years ago, as well as the speculation regarding the migration routes taken by human beings as they spread out of Africa, are all based on mtDNA.

The fact is, however, that age analyses based on mitochondrial DNA have recently been scientifically disproved!

Until very recently, it was believed that mtDNA was passed on only by the mother, for which reason a woman's mtDNA could be followed down the generations. Evolutionary biologists frequently resorted to mtDNA analyses and used mtDNA to put forward speculation about the origin of life. Yet due to their attachment to evolution as a dogma they interpreted mtDNA in a one-sided manner, and imposed the precondition that the differences between the various examples of mtDNA they examined had to have come about by mutation.

However, a fact that emerged only last year has fundamentally undermined the credibility of these analyses. An article entitled "Mitochondria can be inherited from both parents" in the well-known magazine New Scientist described how 90% of the mitochondria in one Danish patient had been passed down from the individual's father. It thus emerged that all the mtDNA research employed to support imaginary evolutionary scenarios was actually meaningless. New Scientist confessed this fact in these words:

Evolutionists cannot reach an agreement even on the most basic topics regarding their theory such as when and where the first human beings emerged and how they spread around the world. The "out of Africa" theory (above left) holds that the first human beings emerged in Africa and then emigrated to all around the world. In contrast, some researchers such as Milford Wolpoff maintain that human beings evolved not only in Africa but simultaneously in Africa, Europe, and Asia (below left). These contradictory theses show one thing:that man never underwent an evolutionary process.

Evolutionary biologists often date the divergence of species by the differences in genetic sequences in mitochondrial DNA. Even if paternal DNA is inherited very rarely, it could invalidate many of their findings.1

For this reason, the "mitochondrial Eve" thesis put forward on The Discovery Channel has been totally invalidated by the above finding. Evolutionist sources such as The Discovery Channel interpret the genetic differences among the peoples of the world in the light of their own prejudices to reinforce their own theories. That is what invalidates the evolutionist claims based on genetic analyses.

Another research technique pointed to by evolutionists as supporting their "out of Africa" theories is Y-chromosome analysis, based on the study of the Y-chromosome, which can only be passed on by the father. Yet when Y-chromosome and mtDNA analyses are compared, the inconsistency of the evolutionist claims becomes even more obvious. Furthermore, a great many paleontologists fiercely oppose chronologies based on genetic analysis. The paleontological evidence is completely at odds with mtDNA and Y-chromosome analyses.

The researcher Spencer Wells, who studied the differences between the various human races using Y-chromosome analysis, suggests that all human beings are descended from a common ancestor living in Africa some 60,000 years ago. Paleontologist s basing their figures on the fossil record claim this happened some 40,000 years earlier. There is obviously an enormous difference between the dates proposed by genetic analysis and the fossil record. Alison Brooks, a paleontologist at George Washington University, says, "The dates don't compare well to the order or the geography of the migration patterns revealed by the fossil record."2 The difference between Y-chromosome and mtDNA analyses is even greater. Research based on the latter puts this departure back by 90,000 years, to 150,000 years ago.

It can be seen that evolutionists cannot even agree among themselves about the "out of Africa" theories discussed on The Discovery Channel. In fact, many evolutionist anthropologists and paleontologists completely oppose the "out of Africa" theory. One group of scientists led by such researchers as Alan Thorne and Milford Wolpoff defend the multi-region theory and put forward discoveries showing that the "mitochondrial Eve" thesis is a work of fantasy. The 68,000-year-old Mungo Man discovered in Australia by Alan Thorne has dealt a serious blow to the "out of Africa" theories, and of course to the "mitochondrial Eve" thesis.3

The reason why there are so many mutually conflicting theses is that the suggested process of evolutionary change is totally imaginary and unreal. Since there was no evolutionary process in the past, everyone comes up with his own individual scenario.

Mutation and the Molecular Clock Deception

The program on The Discovery Channel carries various pieces of speculation about when the first Americans might have reached the continent. This migration was first thought to have taken place 15,000 years ago. The program describes how following mtDNA analyses, the date was put back by another 5,000 years, to 20,000 years ago. One researcher whose views were reported says that a mutational difference had been identified between those people who crossed the Bering Strait to America and those who remained in Asia. He then goes on to comment on the "molecular clock," something that is frequently cited by evolutionist researchers, using the expression "if we assume that a mutation takes place once every 20,000 years …" Yet this interpretation is nothing but an evolutionist castle in the air, based on no scientific foundation: The concept of the molecular clock used in the identification of genetic mutations is a completely hollow concept, the result of prejudiced views.

It will now be useful to consider this concept, so frequently resorted to in the evolutionists' distortions of the genetic facts, in more depth.

The so-called molecular clock hypothesis assumes that the amino acids in the proteins of living things, or the nucleotides in their genes, change at a particular rate. The claim put forward on The Discovery Channel that human beings undergo a mutation once every 20,000 years is based on that hypothesis. Evolutionists examine the mitochondria of chimpanzees and human beings, who are assumed to have descended from a common ancestor, and identify different nucleotides within the analogous regions of the DNA. Assuming man and chimpanzees to have split apart some 6 million years ago, they divide that 6 million by the number of their different nucleotides, thus coming up with a kind of timetable of imaginary mutations.

Naturally, these claims are based on nothing more than evolutionist prejudice, and have no meaning whatsoever in the face of the scientific facts. (For further details, see Darwinism Refuted:How the Theory of Evolution Breaks Down in the Light of Modern Science by Harun Yahya, Goodword Books, 2003)

The "winding up" of this molecular clock rests entirely on evolutionist prejudice. In fact, the "clock" in question is not synchronized for that very reason: It was claimed in one article in the well-known journal Science that according to one new molecular clock "mitochondrial Eve" must have lived no more than 6,000 years ago.4

All this shows that the "mitochondrial Eve" thesis expressed on The Discovery Channel is actually quite meaningless. The essence of the theory is that evolutionists dazzled by the illusion of Darwinism naturally look at genes under the influence of that illusion, and see exactly what they want to see.

The Neanderthal Deception

In that section dealing with the "out of Africa" scenarios, we are told how modern human beings encountered Neanderthals when they reached Europe, and brief information regarding the Neanderthals is supplied. Despite the Neanderthals' being accepted as a human race, Neanderthal Man is still portrayed as a primitive species. The recreations portrayed by The Discovery Channel show Neanderthal Man as a human who screamed instead of using proper speech, a wild thing who howled like a wolf.

The fact is, however, that discoveries regarding Neanderthal anatomy and culture show that there was nothing primitive about Neanderthal Man at all, and prove that they were a human race who lived, thought and spoke, and enjoyed a culture and civilization just like modern man.

The evolutionist distortion in this regard goes back to the 19th century, to the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossil in 1856. The distortions in the skeletal reconstruction made by the French anatomist Marcelline Boule led to Neanderthal Man's being regarded as a brutish ape-man, who walked in a crouch and possessed no culture. In fact, the word "Neanderthal" even entered the English language as a synonym for "crude, ignorant." However, new findings regarding the Neanderthals have shown that this was utterly mistaken, and the idea that they were ape-men has now finally been abandoned.

The Discovery Channel is still serving as a tool for Darwinist propaganda in this area. Its attempt to portray Neanderthal Man as a product of evolution by describing him as "10 times closer to man than the chimpanzee" is a totally meaningless and fictitious comparison.

Conclusion

The "mitochondrial Eve" documentary shown on The Discovery Channel constitutes an enormous deception. The analyses used as evidence have no validity and do nothing more than reflect evolutionist prejudices. The Darwinist propaganda put forward by The Discovery Channel, totally ignoring the scientific facts, has utterly collapsed. Neither Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) nor Neanderthal Man is an evolved species. Both are human, whom God created, with such superior abilities as the power of speech and thought.