The Mothers of All Living

I realize the title of this blog may sound a little strange because most of us, especially biblical creationists, would normally speak of the singular mother of all living, known in western culture as Eve. Don't let the title throw you off. I do believe in the biblical Eve, but the book I'll be quoting claims to have genetically proven that everyone living on planet earth today has descended from one mother through three maternal lines; thus, the title, Mothers of All Living.

The book I'm referring to is The Search for Eve by Michael H. Brown. This is not a Christian book. It is not based on the Bible in any way. The author merely uses the name, Eve, to draw attention to his book because he knows most people are aware of the biblical passage, Genesis 3:20, that says, "...Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." That's clever advertising. It certainly got my attention.

One Mother of All Living
According to 3 geneticists (Rebecca Cann, Michael Stoneking and Allan C. Wallace), who completed this study,"Mitochondrial DNAs from 147 people, drawn from five geographic populations (Asian, European, African, Australian and New Guinean), have been analyzed by restriction mapping. All these mitochondrial DNAs stem from one woman." (pg 23) Thus, "the geneticists had pinpointed a female who appeared to be the sole common link in our species...a nameless, faceless, great-grandmother..." to us all. (pg 204)

Biblical creationists want to rejoice at these words. Not because they need proof of God's Word, but in hope that the scientific affirmation of God's Word might have an affect on unbelievers. However, evolutionary scientists do not intend to confirm God's Word even when the evidence does. No, the author simply explains that they believe there were many other mothers besides "Eve" but "Eve's" children are the only ones that survived. When the proof is lacking, you can always make up another story-- or should I say theory?

One Race Filled the World
One of my pet peeves is the use of the word races. When asked about my race on a form I write "Human." My skin color may be light because its melanin challenged but I'm definitely human. And so is every single God created human from Adam and Eve's day to ours-- no matter their level of melanin. We are all descended from the same parents and are members of only one race.

From their research, "the geneticists were also saying that there had been no distinct races until after much of the world was settled." (pg. 36) Yes, the world was settled by the descendants of one couple so there were no distinct races in the world. And, still, there are no distinct races. Races are just man made groupings of people based on skull shapes, color and ethnocentric beauty standards. And, because those groupings are used to express superiority and inferiority, such divisions are immoral.

The actual people groups of the world are based on language more than anything else. God separated people by language groups at the tower of Babel and the separation limited the gene pools and led to distinctive ethnic characteristics in skin tones, skull shapes, height, body type, hair textures and colors, etc. No group is innately or inherently superior to the others. We are one species. We all share the same blood and we can mate. Enough said.

All Living People Come from Three Maternal Lineages
Now we finally to get to the reason for my blog title. Another geneticist, Douglas Wallace, said, "What we’re basically finding is that there appear to be three maternal lineages that are giving rise to all the different tribes we’ve looked at so far." (pg 314)
For biblical creationists this confirms another biblical truth. According to Genesis 9:19, "These three (Shem, Ham and Japheth) were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated." We know these three men had three wives who would be the three maternal lines descended from Eve and mothering all future inhabitants of the world.

I hope, if you were not aware of this research, you have found this enlightening. It should encourage believers and hopefully give open minded searchers a reason to look further for the truth about our origins and our destiny. For, if you recognize who your earthly mother is, you may then want to acknowledge your Heavenly Father and find eternal life with Him. That's my prayer for you!

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved..." Acts 16:31