This article presents genetic evidence against the concept of a recent global Flood. It concerns the problem of how to account for the many different alleles (possible states of a gene) seen in modern populations. For example, genes specifying human eye color involve alleles that can specify brown, blue, green, blue-green, hazel, and other and shades. Many traits (including eye color) are specified by multiple genes, and within the human population, a given gene can have many different alleles--in some cases 20 or more. One gene locus in the human leukocyte antigen complex has 59 different alleles (Ayala, 1993). However, each individual person normally has only two alleles for a given gene locus (one allele from each parent).

According to Genesis 7:7 the eight humans on the Ark consisted of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their sons wives. This means that that the Ark family had among them at most eight different alleles for each gene locus (3 x 2 = 6 for the daughters, plus 2 collectively for the Noah, his wife, and their sons; each son would have received their alleles from their parents). Where did all the alleles in the modern population come from? In mainstream science, such alleles are the result of natural selection acting on mutations and crossing-over events (a form of genetic shuffling) over tens of millions of years. Strict creationsts must account for them in only a few thousand years time.

Even if we allow the possibility that Noah's sons were adopted and that all eight people on the ark were unrelated, each could have carried only 2 different alleles for each gene locus, and the entire ark family would have 2 x 8 = 16 alleles for each gene locus. One might propose that there were more than 8 people on the Ark (one would need at least 30 to supply the necessary alleles), but this contradicts the Biblical account.

The problem becomes far worse when animal life is considered. According to Genesis 7: 2-3 Noah was commanded by God to take on the Ark seven of each kind of clean land animal and bird, and two of every unclean animal. Although this appears to contradict Genesis 7:8 which indicates that "pairs" of each clean and unclean animals entered the Ark, in order to allow the most alleles, let's assume the first version is correct. This means that for clean animals, at most fourteen alleles are represented, and for unclean animals, four alleles. Since each species has tens of thousands of genes, and since many genes involve many alleles (sometimes dozens), the question must be asked again: where did all the alleles come? Some creationists try to explain how the millions of species of land creatures fit aboard the Ark by proposing that the Genesis "kinds" were broader than species, perhaps similar to genera or even families. But this would only exacerbate the problem, as it would require even more alleles be generated (evolve?) after the Flood. Indeed, some genera consist of dozens or even hundreds of modern species, with scores of alleles for gene loci they shared in common. In other words, if a pair of animals representing a genus were taken on the ark, YECs would need to account for vast numbers of new alleles within many new species within a few thousand years.

Mark Vuletic (2007) suggested that YECs have the problem of accounting for all the new alleles, suggests they "could only have come into existence by mutation." This would present a major problem for YECs, who generally assert that beneficial mutations are noneexistent or virtually so. However, new alleles may also arrise from a genetic phenomena known as "cross-overs." The problem is, even considering cross-overs, producing all of the modern species and the genetic alleles in them from representative genera within a few thousand years would involve a burst of evolution more dramatic and rapid than even evolutionists allow. Moreover, YECs have no plausible mechanism for it.

Conclusion

References

Ayala, F.J. et al. 1993. MHC polymorphism and human origins. Scientific American 269(6):78-83.

Morton, Glenn. 1997. Why the Flood is Not Global. Web article at: http://home.entouch.net/dmd/gflood.htm

Vuletic, Mark I., 2007, From "Defenders Guide to Science and Creationism" website at: http://www.vuletic.com/hume/cefec/4- 7.html

For more information on the inheritance of human eye colors, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color

Genesis 7 (NIV):

1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven [a] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." 5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. -------