Dr Michael G Strauss: Adam and Eve: Genetic Evidence

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@T_aquaticus

It is the same misunderstanding of genetics that is rampant in these types of discussions.

Yes very true. I’m writing a whole chapter on the Yadam and Meve problem. @Davidson recently helped me refine some of my thinking on this.

@MStrauss, I just saw your article and wrote you an email. I’m curious how you deal two things.

Yadam and Meve Do Not Imply a Bottleneck

@swamidass

Dr. Rana appeals to Y-Chromosome Adam (y-MRCA) and Mitochondrial Eve (m-MRCA) as where he places Adam and Eve. With all due respect, coalescence does not imply a bottleneck. See the figure below. We see y-MRCA (left panel, dark box) and m-MRCA (middle panel, dark circle) arise much more recently in the genealogy than Adam and Eve. If we arise genetically from a single couple (Story One: Ancient Sole-Genetic Progenitor Adam) or from a single couple followed by interbreeding (Story Two: Genetic-Interbreeding Adam, the current RTB model: Engaging the Zoo of RTB Models), it would be exceeding unlikely for Adam and Eve to be the y-MRCA and m-MRCA. The two concepts are only related in that we should think Adam and Eve are more ancient than Y-Chromosome Adam (y-MRCA) and Mitochondrial Eve (m-MRCA).

This is a common misinterpretation of genetic data being made here, that is not intrinsic to his model. For example, a recent science article (Did All Species Arise about 200,000 Years Ago? ) created a great deal of controversy by mistakenly concluding that coalescence implied a bottleneck. It does not. Coalescence is expected in even a large population. I hope, for this reason, this error can be corrected at RTB.

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Evidence Against a Single Couple Bottleneck More Recent that 500 kya

This was covered in detail here: Heliocentric Certainty Against a Bottleneck of Two? - #12 by swamidass

Also, it appears that Neandertals interbred with Sapiens, which would push a single couple origin to about that time frame too.

Two Theological Questions

1. How do you theologically think about interbreeding between Adam’s lineage and others?

2. Where in Scripture do you derive the importance of genetic inheritance from Adam and Eve? Where does Scripture speak of DNA?