Inexplicably complex humans?

[Abbey Marie]

I just read this interesting factoid about human genomes:


There are approx. 30,000 genes discovered in the human genome. By comparison, the rice genome contains 50,000 genes.

"This lack of correlation between genome size and complexity suggests other phenomena contribute to complexity and diversity in humans."
(article from the Lehigh University journal, Kurt Pfitzer)

I say God/creation would explain it. :)

Thoughts?

[Luna Tick]

It's not magic. Science will explain it in time. The rice may contain a lot of obsolete and unnecessary legacy instructions.

[Abbey Marie]

These same scientists expected to find humans with up to 140,000 genes. It's almost funny how often these oh-so-intelligent theories go awry.

[Luna Tick]

DNA is the most reasonable explanation for the way life forms are constructed. We don't know everything about it, but we're discovering more and more every day. It's a much more reasonable explanation than simply saying God zapped everything into existence by magic. That's a cop out.

[Abbey Marie]

DNA is the most reasonable explanation for the way life forms are constructed. We don't know everything about it, but we're discovering more and more every day. It's a much more reasonable explanation than simply saying God zapped everything into existence by magic. That's a cop out.

Because you find it more reasonable, does not make it so. Are you claiming that DNA and creation/intelligent design are mutually exclusive? How so?

[Missileman]

I just read this interesting factoid about human genomes:



I say God/creation would explain it. :)

Thoughts?

I think your conclusion is flawed...consider this info:

from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/faq/compgen.shtml


What are the comparative genome sizes of humans and other organisms being studied?
organism estimated size
(base pairs) estimated
gene number average gene density chromosome
number
Homo sapiens
(human) 3.2 billion ~25,000 1 gene per 100,000 bases 46
Mus musculus
(mouse) 2.6 billion ~25,000 1 gene per 100,000 bases 40
Drosophila melanogaster
(fruit fly) 137 million 13,000 1 gene per 9,000 bases 8
Arabidopsis thaliana
(plant) 100 million 25,000 1 gene per 4000 bases 10
Caenorhabditis elegans
(roundworm) 97 million 19,000 1 gene per 5000 bases 12
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
(yeast) 12.1 million 6000 1 gene per 2000 bases 32
Escherichia coli
(bacteria) 4.6 million 3200 1 gene per 1400 bases 1
H. influenzae
(bacteria) 1.8 million 1700 1 gene per 1000 bases 1

As you can clearly see, the DNA of a human being has 3.2 billion base pairs as compared to a plant with only 100 million. The less complex the organism, the fewer base pairs in its DNA. So much for an inconsistency that needed to be attributed to magic.

[Noir]

I'll just take up the obvious point.

"God/creation would explain it."

No, Gods do not explain anything, infact quite the opposite, they compound the problem.

[Pericles]

I just read this interesting factoid about human genomes:

I say God/creation would explain it. :)

Thoughts?

Hmnh. Given that genes are a measure of complexity, I wonder then how many genes God has?

The 30,000 figure for humans doesn't include what scientists refer to as humans' "junk DNA" - of which we have many more times than 30,000. As it turns out, that extra genetic material is likely not "junk" at all, and will turn out to have medically useful properties in the future.

The french mathematician Laplace was so right - "God" is not only an unnecessary hypothesis; it is also a pernicious one, pointing us always in the exact opposite direction of the truth.