One Human Race

First, we should note that the use of the word "race" in it's modern context isn't Biblical. In the Bible the term "tribes" and "nations" were used to designate between different groups of peoples from different areas of the world. Today we are all aware of what the word racism has come to mean. Sadly, a huge reason there are issues of racism today is due to the theory of evolution. Evolution theory teaches that some groups of people are closer to apes than other groups. These groups relate to skin color, with evolution teaching that dark skinned people are more close to ape ancestors than light colored people. Whether people realize it or not, evolution theory is one main cause of racism.

The Bible does talk about differences between national groups and language, but the Bible doesn't speak specifically about skin color. In truth, (Acts 17:26) states that God made all nations of men "of one blood". The Bible is clear. We are all one race....the human race.

When we start looking for the reasons for the different skin colors of humans, we must realize that none of us were there to witness these changes. Now, many evolutionists will always tell us that if we really believe the Bible, we must always take things by "faith" alone. But realize that the creationist and the evolutionist are in the same boat when it comes to skin color changes. None of us were there to witness the changes. Hence, we must look at the best scientific reasons for the differences in skin color.

Starting with Adam and Eve, humans would have had all the genes necessary for a racially mixed population. This is based on Adam and Eve being created perfect, including physically perfect. The only thing needed for the differences to appear was time and environmental factors. This would have started first with Adam, and then with Noah and his family. As family groups were isolated because of language barriers, the environmental factors would have allowed certain human traits to be expressed more and more. Other genes would be suppressed over time because they were not favored.

The Bible talks about God confusing the languages at the tower of Babel. This took place after the flood and would have caused humans to be isolated because of the language barriers. Keep in mind that the human gene pool is no larger and no different today than it was in the beginning. When people were scattered into certain groups because of the language barriers, certain groups of humans would be isolated together. Over time, this would cause the increase of certain genes to be used more, which would produce a larger population of dark skinned people, light skinned people, etc. The other main differences to appear in certain groups would have been a persons height.

The creation model for explaining the different skin colors actually fits best with what we observe today. If we were to isolate a group of people over many years we would see certain characteristics forming, including skin color. This is exactly what happens when certain genes are suppressed, and other genes are favored.

There is one reason for different skin colors. The substance melanin is the cause of different shades of skin. It all depends on the amount of melanin. The less melanin, the lighter the skin. The more melanin, the darker. If we use racially mixed parents as an example, we can see that the offspring of those parents could be very dark, to very light skinned, and everything in between. All of it is according to the amount of melanin, nothing more.

As for genes, there are at least two genes that will affect skin color. To put it simply, just from two parents with medium skin color, all the differences in skin color we observe today could be produced. There is a 1 in 16 chance that their offspring would have very light skin, a 1 in 16 chance that their offspring would have the darkest skin, and a 1 in 4 chance that their offspring would be a little darker than medium.

When we realize just how small the differences are in skin color, we see just how evil racism really is. Just as God has said in His word, we are all "of one blood".

We are finding that humans have very, very shallow genetic roots which go back very recently to one ancestor...that indicates that there was an origin in a specific location on the globe and then it spread out from there...researchers suggest that virtually all modern men, 99.9% of them, says one scientist--are closely related genetically and share genes with one male ancestor, dubbed Y-chromosome Adam. (U.S. News & World Report, December 4, 1995)