Monday, September 17, 2007

Thought Experiment


This post--ultraconserved-DNA describes an interesting subset of DNA research. There are sections of human DNA that are identical ("ultra-conserved") with a wide spectrum of animals (e.g. mice, rats). Scientists speculate that these sections are mission critical, and that any mutation in these areas would kill the host or the offspring and hence not pass on the mutation. The first pass attempt to verify this hypothesis failed miserably--mice with these sections deleted appear to do just fine.

I'm sure we will eventually get a good scientific explanation why this DNA is "ultra-conserved".

My thought experiment -- what if scientists discovered that encoded in the DNA of these sections were Hebrew passages from the book of Genesis that matched our best reconstructions of the original text. How would you incorporate that scientific discovery (after verification of course) into your belief system?

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Questions in Genesis...

I've been mulling on these questions recently. Any ideas would be appreciated....


  1. If the serpent was so crafty (Gen 3:1), why didn't he suggest to Adam and Eve that they eat of the tree of life first, then from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
  2. Why did Adam wait to name Eve until after the fall (Gen 3:20)? She was "the woman" before that.
  3. After the fall God cursed the serpent and the ground but not Adam or Eve. Was the fall not a curse for mankind?
  4. In Gen 2:17 God says "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Since the word "day" used here (yowm) was the same as the seven days of creation a literal translation would suggest that God lied because Adam and the woman did not die in the 24 hour period after they ate of the fruit.