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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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