Sunday, October 16, 2011

Mitochondrial Eve vs. Biblical Eve?

Since the days of alchemists, science and religion have always been in conflict, as science always seems to be uncovering information which threatens a literary interpretation of texts like the Bible. However, the tension between science and religion is somewhat relieved in the mitochondrial Eve and the migration from Africa theory. This article describes how the estimated time line for the existence of "Eve", the first female human, is consistent between estimations from the Bible and the evidence from mtDNA. In addition, the amount of genetic variation and higher rates of linkage disequilibrium that exists in the world, assuming constant mutation, is far less that what one would estimate, which supports the idea of The Great Flood followed by subsequent bottle-necking.

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