The Eyes Have It!

On our recent vacation to visit my wife’s family in her birthplace of Nova Scotia, we noticed an increased awareness of the Native American Mi’kmaw people’s language, history, and cultural identity throughout the province.

In fact, the Mi’kmaw Language Act (that recognizes Mi’kmaw as the original language of Nova Scotia) was recently passed and officially became law on Sunday, July 17, 2022, at a proclamation ceremony held at Potlotek First Nation in Richmond County.

My wife has long been fascinated with the study of her family history and has discovered through DNA and family research that she actually has Mi’kmaw ancestry. So it was a pleasant surprise when we saw a picture of a distant cousin of her great-great-great-grandmother by the name of Molly Muise on the front cover of a book titled Images of our Past—The Mi’kmaq in Art and Photography in a maritime museum in Bridgewater, NS.

For several years now, I have been using a similar picture of Molly in one of my Answers in Genesis presentations (that I typically do at conferences and church events) which I’ve titled “The Race of Man.” And the reason I do so is to help demonstrate that the entire concept of racism is an anti-biblical one, and something that the Christian church should be at the forefront of speaking against.

Where Did Those Eyes Come From?!

Of course, looking at a picture of my wife, most people would likely never guess that she has Native American ancestry—with her blond hair and blue eyes she looks rather Germanic like myself and is often mistaken for being Dutch (she has, in fact, a lot of Scottish and Irish in her background). And our three children and many of our grandchildren look very similar to us as well.

And yet, when our youngest daughter gave birth to our grandson Ezekiel (we call him Zeke), one of the first features we noticed were his incredibly piercing eyes set overtop his handsome high cheekbones—eyes that were shaped atypically from the rest of our immediate family and that many might describe as more “Asian” looking. “Where did those eyes come from?” we wondered.

And this set my wife off on a journey of discovery and a retrieval of old photographs from a variety of her ancestors that eventually culminated in her finding the picture of Molly, with her stunning eyes looking at us from the past and yet also staring at us in the present from the handsome face of my little grandson.

And this is why I use Molly’s picture alongside one of Zeke’s in my presentation—to help demonstrate that the Bible’s history is true and that we are all ultimately descendants of the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, just as God’s Word teaches.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth . . . . (Acts 17:26, italics added for emphasis

Racism—Unbiblical and Unscientific

The fact is, even though the average news feed often has stories constantly describing racial conflicts all over the world, the undergirding idea that there are different races of humans is not only unbiblical, but also completely unscientific as well—and we’ve known this for quite some time now, with confirmation coming from The Human Genome Project (HGP).

Launched in 1990 (and declared essentially complete on April 14, 2003), HGP was a massive, internationally collaborative effort, with scientists from around the world working together on a research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA.

Because the vast majority of the human genome is the same in all humans, rather than mapping the genome of a specific individual, the project involved sequencing a number of individuals and then assembling to get a complete sequence for each chromosome. The attempt to identify, map, and sequence the entire human genome (from both a physical and a functional standpoint) was indeed a colossal effort.

Ultimately, the HGP’s finished work is a mosaic of all of humanity, not representing any one individual. And as far as the concept of “race” goes, a New York Times web article summarized their findings this way,

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health recently announced that they had put together a draft of the entire sequence of the human genome, and the researchers had unanimously declared, there is only one race—the human race.1

This statement is often a shock to people, as the entire concept of racism is utterly dependent upon the belief that there are in fact supposedly different human “races” (typically thought to be differentiated because of skin color, eye shape, or other external physical characteristics). And yet the article quoted above reported on the HGP’s findings on that as well.

If you ask what percentage of your genes is reflected in your external appearance, the basis by which we talk about race, the answer seems to be in the range of .01 percent.

Isn’t it astonishing that throughout human history, people from around the world have shunned, maligned, persecuted, brought violence, murdered, and committed genocide against other people—all because of such an infinitesimally small difference between those people’s genes and their own?

And even though we live in modern, “progressive” societies, with clear science demonstrating the fact that the entire concept of race is absurd—racist ideas not only persist but are becoming more prominent than ever among certain groups, with ideas like segregation by “race” becoming commonplace and even championed in our institutions of higher learning.

Evolutionary Conditioning

So where are these racist ideas coming from? Well, they certainly don’t come from a plain reading of the Bible! The idea that there are different “races” of humans is in direct conflict with the biblical teaching that we are all descendants of our original grandparents, Adam and Eve.

The Bible makes it clear that we are all related to that original couple God created in the Garden of Eden on the sixth day of the creation week, which aligns exactly with what the HGP research confirmed: there is only one race—the human race.

However, most of us have been conditioned to view people through a “racial” lens that emanates from an evolutionary standpoint. What I mean by that is many generations have been commonly taught in schools that there are supposedly different races of people that evolved (from ape-like ancestors) and that is why we see specific physical differences in people worldwide.

This led people to believe that some human races must have evolved more quickly or slowly than others, leading to the idea of “more primitive” or “advanced” races. And this caused many to believe there was a scientific justification for believing their “race” was superior to others’.

But really, all we are seeing is various combinations of genes that all came from our original parents, combined with several varieties caused from genetic mutations we’ve collected along the way over the last (approximately) 6,000 years of earth’s history—mutations that delete or suppress existing genetic information (which is what you would expect in a sin-cursed world).

Behind Blue Eyes

For example, scientists studying the cause of blue eyes have identified that a mutation to a gene called HERC2 is the reason that trait exists. This alteration to HERC2 switches off the gene OCA2, the gene that determines the amount of a brown pigment (melanin) that we usually make.

Normally if a person produces a lot of eye pigment, they tend to have brown eyes. Lesser amounts produce hazel or green eyes. And people with little or none have blue eyes. Of course, these mutations are no help to the story of evolution.

Evolution would require the creation of brand new, never-before-seen genetic information for forms, functions, and features—not the suppression or deletion of existing genetic information, which is all we’ve ever observed mutations doing.

A consistently logical, biblical, creationist worldview cannot provide the requirements that racist attitudes are based upon (the concept of different human races at different levels of development), but the story of evolution is completely compatible with them.

But Haven’t Christians Been Racist?

To give the short answer, of course Christians have been racists.

But to be honest, when I hear this question coming from people (especially believers), it’s hard for me to suppress an eye roll with a deep sigh at the end because of how shallow the simplistic nature of it is. It’s as if they are implying that because some Christians have been racists then the aforementioned biblical and scientific arguments put forth must somehow be wrong.

However, any worldview needs to be judged based on its consistent application, not on what someone claiming to be a representative of that worldview might have done.

The point is, only Christians that have been logically inconsistent with what the Bible actually teaches about human anthropology and our ultimate origins (even those that would identify as creationists) would act in a racist fashion.

A good example are those who mistakenly believe or teach that the “Curse of Ham” (actually a curse on Ham’s son Canaan) allegedly had to do with skin color, so it justifies oppression of darker-skinned people. Another would be a self-proclaimed Christian group I encountered right here in Canada that claims that verses referencing “the beasts of the field” are actually referring to dark-skinned people in order to justify “white superiority” and racist ideas.

Both would be laughable (in terms of their exegetical credibility, or rather, lack thereof) if it weren’t for the disgusting nature of their claims, and it is important that Christians stand up against these outliers, because Bible skeptics love to reference them as examples of “the Bible teaching racism.”

However, Christians shouldn’t fall all over themselves apologizing on their behalf either, as if perhaps all of Christendom is somehow tainted and needs to “repent” because of a few bad apples, many of whom are likely not even truly Christians. Ultimately the Christian faith is represented by the Word of God, not what a person claiming to be a Christian might or might not have done.

Christians?

Also, many of these “racist Christians” have been Christians in name only so really shouldn’t be classified as such. After all, someone can stand in a garage and say “Vroom! Vroom!” all they want, but that doesn’t make them a car any more than the many people who stand in churches and call themselves Christians but have never repented of their sins and been born again.

More often than not, what we see in examples of supposed “Christian racism” is man’s sin nature manifesting in the form of self-importance and superiority over others—supposedly justified by evolutionary teaching syncretized with God’s Word.

The perfect example of this would be David Duke, the most prominent modern racist of our day who heads up the largest white supremacist organization in the world. Understand that although he was reared in a Methodist church (his father taught Sunday school) and still uses biblical references in his writing, his own autobiography leaves no doubt as to why he holds the racist attitudes he promotes and attempts to foster in others. It is very clearly due to his acceptance of the story of evolution.

In his work My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding, he details why he rejected Genesis creation and the concept of all people being descended from Adam, saying that once he understood

the realities of racial difference . . . by learning about the evolutionary forces that created the different races, we can understand the character and conduct of the various races, our own included.

And even though he often identified with Christianity throughout his upbringing, he vehemently opposed churches that promoted racial equality or what he considered to be “mixed-race” marriages. He openly rejected young-earth creation in favor of a theistic-evolutionary model and used the typical theological maneuvering of mythologizing Genesis 1–11 in order to justify the rejection of a plain reading of Genesis.

Some of the written statements2 Duke has made openly in regard to his racist mentality are as follows:

Each passing day more evidence emerges of the dynamic, genetically-born, physical and physiological differences between the races.

He promotes the classification of both European and Asian races at a

higher level of human evolution than the African race.

And concludes that

the evolution of man from his primitive to his modern state came from Nature.

By the way, should anyone tell you that these racist ideas based on the story of evolution are no longer taught, perhaps we should all be reminded that it was just a little over 20 years ago that (much to Canada’s shame) Professor Philip Rushton from Western University produced a work titled “Race Evolution and Behavior” that openly agreed with much of Duke’s views.

Barry Mehler (professor at Ferris State University), produced a review of Rushton’s work that stated,

Blacks, according to Rushton, have . . . smaller brains, making them less intelligent than whites and Asians. Using 60 different measures, Rushton ranks the races along an evolutionary scale with blacks at the bottom and Asians at the top. 3

So, to sum up the answer to the question as to whether Christians have ever expressed racist views—yes, some have. But not Christians (whether in truth or in name only) that have been logically consistent about what Genesis creation teaches.

A Variety of Traits—One Human Family

There are many different people groups around the world that typically exhibit specific physical characteristics, and yet there are always exceptions where we see traits that are common to one group “pop up” in another—just like little Zeke’s eyes showing up in a family that typically has rounder-shaped eyes.

In my “The Race of Man” presentation, I show the picture of an African woman with eyes which would typically be described by most as looking “Asian,” demonstrating the fact that even though most Africans have a different eye shape than hers, the genes for her eye shape still reside in some Africans due to the shared common ancestry of all people.

I also show examples of twin sisters, one of which has darker skin tones with dark curly hair and the other who has a very light skin shade with straight reddish hair—demonstrating that the color of your skin or hair type cannot possibly be used to justify “racial” characteristics either. How could these twins belong to two different races if they have the same parents?

Before and After Babel

Just as our family asked the question, “Where did Zeke’s eyes come from?” we could also reach back even further and ask, “Where did Molly Muise’s eyes come from?” or “Where did anyone’s [insert preferred physical trait] come from?” And as is usual with the “real world” questions that people ask, the answer is found in Genesis and confirmed by observable science.

Understanding from Genesis 1 that God created animals and man to reproduce “according to their kinds” (not identically to their parents as some clone-like being) and that science tells us each one of us has inherited half of our DNA from our father and the other half from our mother, it’s not difficult to explain human variation.

The Lord must have created Adam and Eve with a tremendous amount of genetic information, and when you consider the incredible amount of potential variation that could be provided by constant recombination of it, you can see why each person is truly a unique creation.

So, understanding where the information for a variety of eye shapes, skin tones, height, body types, etc. come from is not difficult. That’s the source of the original genetic “ingredients,” so to speak.

However, what many people are seeing when they think of different “races” is actually where a majority of people within a certain group/nation/country/continent have a specific combination of those traits—a specific “recipe” derived from those original genetic ingredients we just mentioned (to continue with the cooking analogy).

Language Barriers and Genetic Diversity

The historical account of the tower of Babel (where God caused a division of people according to the separate languages he assigned them) in Genesis 11 is the key event in how the specific groups of people we see around the world ended up with the unique combinations of physical traits more specific to that group than others (but as mentioned earlier—like Zeke’s eyes—that sometimes are expressed in other groups).

With the language barriers in place, there would be a natural separation of people into smaller groups who would begin marrying and having offspring among a much smaller gene pool than was available previously. And over time, many groups developed unique cultural preferences and communicative methods, and their offspring expressed specific physical traits common to that population but more or less so than in others, making a variety of unique people groups around the world.

Trace It All Back to Genesis

The study of genealogy can be quite fascinating as it is truly a trip back in time to when God created the earth and everything in it approximately 6,000 years ago.

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11)

And the study of modern genetics continues to support the Bible’s history of humanity in surprising ways. For a truly faith-affirming experience, I encourage all of you to get Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson’s (PhD Biology—Harvard University) stunning new book Traced (Ken Ham has described Dr. Jeanson’s work as akin to finding “the Rosetta Stone of human history”) to learn more about the people of the world and how ultimately we are all part of one huge human family, just as Scripture describes.

So, the next time you look at someone, think to yourself, “Where did those eyes come from?” No matter the specifics, you can know that, ultimately, they came from our original parents, Adam and Eve, who fell from God’s grace by their disobedience in the Garden and introduced sin and death into the world.

We are all of one race—the human race. All in need of a Savior, and that is why the Lord Jesus came. It will indeed be a momentous day when believers all get to worship him together as it describes in Revelation 7:9:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.