All Children Are of One Race—the Human Race

Sexual humanism, LGBT agendas, and a new “racism” (critical race theory, or CRT) are being taught to children in public and some private schools. These ideas have even infiltrated kids’ shows and music. Rather than helping to heal wounds caused by racist attitudes, CRT actively fosters division, pitting everyone deemed as oppressed or disadvantaged against those labeled as advantaged. Rather than looking for solutions to racial (we would say “ethnic”) violence, hatred, and mistrust, CRT fans the flames of those fires and adds guilt and shaming of young children and teens in the alleged oppressor class.

Some children are being told that all inequality can be boiled down to the actions of people of their skin color (actually shade, since we are all shades of brown). What a burden to lay on the shoulders of a child who just wants to learn, make friends, and enjoy their youth. For other people, they are told that they are victims and are trapped in a “racist” culture that needs to be radically altered. And for those who hear that they are stuck in a “rigged game,” what are the attitudes that this will likely foster? Almost certainly—violence, depression, despair, and mistrust of other ethnic groups.

But in a biblical worldview, all the children of Adam and Eve (which means all of us per Genesis 3:20) are part of the same (human) race. There are no different “races of man.” However, children are being taught, even though genetics denies it, a variation of what appears in chapter 7 of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, where he discusses the so-called different “races” of mankind.

Although Darwin didn’t invent the concept of different races,1 he popularized it and provided reasons for his hypotheses.

Although Darwin didn’t invent the concept of different races,1 he popularized it and provided “reasons” for his hypotheses. Before the advent of modern genetics, his arguments, spurious and superficial as they were, held public sway and still do. Racism is further reinforced by documents and forms which ask what “race” you identify with. Although CRT doesn’t overtly teach biological racism, it has to assume that races are real, or systemic racism does not exist. So it quietly assumes biological races exist, and then folds that into a systemic racism system, which is equally nefarious.

Darwin’s Definition of Race

In The Descent of Man, Darwin looked at and exaggerated many differences between people groups of different ethnicities yet neglected just as many differences among same-ethnicity groups. Additionally, many of his “measured differences” are very subjective and from a limited pool of knowledge and “test” subjects. For example, see Darwin’s quote below:

There is, however, no doubt that the various races, when carefully compared and measured, differ much from each other,—as in the texture of the hair, the relative proportions of all parts of the body, the capacity of the lungs, the form and capacity of the skull, and even in the convolutions of the brain. But it would be an endless task to specify the numerous points of structural difference. The races differ also in constitution, in acclimatisation, and in liability to certain diseases. Their mental characteristics are likewise very distinct; chiefly as it would appear in their emotional, but partly in their intellectual, faculties.2

Darwin did not believe that humans arose from a single pair; rather, he thought races were sorted via natural selection and environment (with later neo-Darwinists adding mutations to the mix). Prior to the knowledge gained through modern genetics, Darwin, along with other evolutionary naturalists and biologists, viewed superficial differences in appearance and mannerisms as “proof” of separate races of man. This contradicts the biblical account, which states that all mankind is descended from Adam and Eve and was specially created by the very hand of God and in his image (Genesis 1:26–27, 2:7, 2:21–22). Darwin also elaborated on this in The Descent of Man:

One other question ought not to be passed over without notice, namely, whether, as is sometimes assumed, each sub-species or race of man has sprung from a single pair of progenitors . . . . but most of our races have been formed, not intentionally from a selected pair, but unconsciously by the preservation of many individuals which have varied, however slightly, in some useful or desired manner . . . . The new sub-breeds in none of these cases are descended from any single pair, but from many individuals which have varied in different degrees, but in the same general manner; and we may conclude that the races of man have been similarly produced, the modifications being either the direct result of exposure to different conditions, or the indirect result of some form of selection.3

While CRT does not embrace the Darwinian definition of race, it is used as a springboard to point to specific past attitudes and events of inequity without repudiating the concept of different races. Yes, there can still be ethnic hatred, as well as distrust and dislike of different nationalities, but hatred has been occurring since the fall and ethnic hatred since Babel, and both are the result of sin.

What Does Genetics Add to the Discussion About Race?

The physical differences among people groups (ethnicities) are minor, and there are more genetic differences within ethnicities.4 One study found that 95.7% of human genetic variation (95.7% of the 0.1% of the variable portion of human DNA) occurs between individuals within their same group.5

Research in the field of modern genetics has shown that there is only one race of people—the human race.

Research in the field of modern genetics has shown that there is only one race of people—the human race. Though it has been shown that the genetic difference between any two people is only about one-tenth of one percent, this trivial difference is still being used to justify ethnic prejudice (what people refer to when they say “racism”). However, it should be noted that CRT now defines racism as any difference in outcome between groups, usually referring to one group as “oppressor” and the other as “oppressed.” The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 confirmed humans are 99.9% identical at the DNA level, and there is no genetic basis for race.6 More recent studies have put the number at 0.4%. But the Bible has claimed all along that we’re all descended from Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:45) and that we’re all of one blood from one man (Acts 17:26).

But what about the 0.1%–0.4% differences mentioned above? If we all came from the same great (and many more great) grandparents, why do certain ethnic groups look so different? The Bible answers that as well. A little over 100 years after Noah’s flood ended, the people decided to disobey God’s command to spread out all over the earth (Genesis 9:7), instead deciding to build a city and a tower at Babel on the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11:1–4). After God confused the language at Babel (creating around 70 languages), the people scattered into groups that could understand each other.

As these newly created linguistic groups spread out, they carried with them a limited genetic pool compared to the extant entire human race. Founder effect and genetic drift played a large part, and then later over time, their genes acquired minor additional variations due to mutations (alterations to a DNA sequence). Additionally, environment and natural selection may have played a small role—but keep in mind that humans tend to defy the elements by wearing temperature-appropriate clothing, building houses, using fires, and so on.

The founder effect can cause dominant genes to become even more dominant in smaller populations (for things like eye color and shape) because recessive genes are likely to be fewer. And while Adam and Eve were created with great heterozygosity,8 these smaller populations leaving Babel had a reduced gene pool from which to draw (founder effect). This reduction in the genetic makeup of the (language-influenced) groups leaving Babel may have been further skewed toward certain traits caused by this bottleneck (and genetic drift), which was subsequently acted upon by environmental conditions and natural selection.

The most-used example of “race” is in relation to skin shade. All humans (except people with true albinism) have two types of melanin in their skin, phaeomelanin and eumelanin. More eumelanin equals darker skin shades (and darker hair color), whereas phaeomelanin adds a reddish hue. Natural selection can work on melanin by making it harder for darker-shaded people to thrive in colder climates (with a lower ability to synthesize vitamin D). Before vitamin D supplements were invented, this environmental factor and “survival of the fittest” natural selection tended to affect people with those characteristics in the general population with sickness, like hypocalcemia (low blood calcium levels), hypophosphatemia (low blood phosphate levels), heart disease, rickets (childhood bone density deficiency)—which can have serious consequences if left untreated, including incorrect growth patterns due to misshapen bones and deformities in joints. For adults, vitamin D deficiency is usually milder, but still may lead to fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, aches, and muscle cramps. However, even with these generalizations, humans who live in colder environments have been able to supplement their vitamin D deficiencies by eating large amounts of seafood and have been able to mitigate the effects of natural selection in inhospitable environments.9

The Bible Says All Men Are Created in the Image of God

Contrary to the Bible, which tells us that all men and women are created in the image of God and are equal in value, Darwinian evolution is an inherently racist philosophy, teaching that different groups (or “races”) of people evolved at different times and rates, so some groups are more like their apelike ancestors (or not as evolved) than others. Darwin even postulated that in the future some races would exterminate the “lower” races:10

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.11

And, again, the Bible had it right all along—there is no such thing as “races” since all humans are of one race—the human race. And there is no common descent from apelike ancestors: only common descent from the first created humans—Adam and Eve around 6,000 years ago.12 Scripture never uses the term race in the same way it’s commonly used today; rather, it uses descriptors like “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). As both Scripture and genetics confirm, there may be different ethnicities (tribes and/or people groups) but only one race.

The Biblical Answer to “Racism”

the Bible tells us not to judge people unfairly, including treating others differently than we would want to be treated ourselves.

Finally, the Bible tells us not to judge people unfairly, including treating others differently than we would want to be treated ourselves. And this type of unfair treatment begins with the attack on children, from classroom bullying to intellectual bullying (shaming kids for being of a certain group), and by telling any “oppressed” people groups that they should fear and mistrust another group simply because of the shade of their skin. Since the outworking of racism always involves treating those who are sinfully thought of as a “lesser race” as being inferior, we should look to Scripture for what it says about this:

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. (Luke 6:31)

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:8–9)

The Bible leaves no room for racism, even though some have tried to justify that position by twisting Scripture. If people truly loved their neighbor as themselves, then racism would instantly disappear from the earth. But humanly speaking, this is impossible and cannot occur without the Holy Spirit changing our hearts (Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 3:16–19; 2 Thessalonians 3:5). And for Christians, we can praise God. Consider this snapshot in heaven when people groups from all over the world join together in worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ:

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)