Adam and Eve Class Description Report Condensed Report Raw Data Adam and Eve Summary [Updated 2/17/07] The Urantia Book states that Adam and Eve lived on earth approximately 38,000 years ago and that they were biologically superior to everyone else on the planet. Adam and Eve, along with their progeny are said to have created a permanent improvement in the genetic makeup of mankind. The Urantia Book addresses the nature of the biologic differences that Adam and Eve contributed to human genetics and also the spread of these new and superior genetic traits throughout the world. A University of Chicago study first published in 2006 helps develop the corroboration of the information about Adam, Eve, and their progeny based on research techniques that allow scientists to track the history of human genetics based on genetic samples from a cross section of the current human population. This study finds parallels to The Urantia Book’s story of Adam and Eve regarding when the genetic contribution was introduced, how it was introduced, how much it has spread into the human gene pool, and the effect this contribution has had on human development. (Several decades after The Urantia Book’s publication, sonar readings in the eastern Mediterranean basin provided powerful support to The Urantia Book’s description of the location of the Garden of Eden. See Garden of Eden Report.)

Adam and Eve: Class A Topic
[Updated 10/11/07]

This report focuses on genetics research that was published after the year 2000. This research parallels The Urantia Book's story about Adam and Eve in four ways. Additionally, it also correlates with its story about the origins of humanity. (The Urantia Book says that Adam and Eve upgraded human genetics, not that they were the first human beings.) Because this report correlates to two different stories about human history in multiple ways and does so regarding new discoveries in genetics that no one was talking about when The Urantia Book was published in 1955, this is a Class A report.

Adam and Eve Report
Prepared by Halbert Katzen, JD with special thanks to Fred Harris
[Updated 8/2/07]

This report involves material about genetics research that is rather complex. Every effort was made to only use quotes that would be the easiest for people to comprehend who are not familiar with this field of science. However, the material does not lend itself well to this effort. Definitions of terms are provided in the report to assist the reader’s comprehension of quoted material. The intention in writing the report in this fashion is so the reader does not have to trust the writer for interpretations of the original source material. For this reason, original source material is used as much as possible. Because of the complex nature and lengthiness of this topic, a Condensed Report has been written for this Report that allows people to appreciate the substance of the correlations without having to read the entire Report. The Condensed Report does not extensively quote original source material and puts everything in the simplest terms possible. Click here to read the full report.

Adam and Eve Condensed Report
[Updated 8/2/07]

The Adam and Eve Report reveals correlations between recent genetics research and The Urantia Book’s coverage of the role that Adam, Eve, and their progeny have played in human history. The story about Adam and Eve that is found in The Urantia Book differs considerably from the account given in the Bible. Nonetheless, in both accounts Adam and Eve play a pivotal role in human history. What is also similar in both accounts is that they started in the Garden of Eden, had some problems there, and then relocated. (See the Garden of Eden Report to learn about developments in seafloor mapping that corroborate The Urantia Book’s account of the location and fate of the Garden of Eden.)

Reports for UBtheNEWS are prepared with an emphasis on quoting original sources. This allows you to see first hand the scientific developments that are corroborating science and history in The Urantia Book. An appreciation of the genetics research that is behind the Adam and Eve Report requires becoming familiar with the terminology and methods used for this type of research. The length and complexity of the Adam and Eve Report is largely due to the necessity of providing a crash course in genetics research so that the quotes can be sufficiently understood by those of us who are unsophisticated in this area of science. The particular research that is covered in the Report lends itself to four distinct correlations to The Urantia Book’s account of Adam, Eve and their progeny. Though this makes the Report all the more intriguing, it also adds to the length. This Condensed Report is prepared so that people who want to get an appreciation for these correlations can do so without having to read through the entire 8,000-word Adam and Eve Report.

The Urantia Book makes direct statements regarding the varying degrees of quality in genetic endowment that exist throughout humanity. It is also clear about our moral obligation to treat everyone with the love, dignity, and respect based upon our spiritual equality. Because of the way those with racist and elitist agendas are inclined to seek support for their positions through the ongoing development of genetics research, The Urantia Book’s position on these moral issues is covered first and comprehensively in the Report. Please see the Report for a deeper appreciation of The Urantia Book’s statements regarding human relations.

In November of 2006 the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America published online a study (the "Study") done by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago.¹ The Study focuses on a particular part of a gene that effects brain development in a positive way. The results of the research indicate that with respect to human genetic history an upgrade to this gene occurred relatively recently and spread rapidly. The Study’s research results correlate to The Urantia Book’s account of Adam, Eve, and their progeny in four different ways:

1. the nature of this genetic upgrade,
2. when it occurred,
3. how it occurred, and
4. how much and where it has spread into humanity.

The research performed for the Study involved taking a proportionally representative sample of the current human population and then using certain scientific methodologies that allow geneticists to trace the origins of the genetic material in question. Because of the way that genes get passed on from generation to generation, geneticists are able to extrapolate historical information. Even though a more sophisticated understanding of these techniques is important for appreciating the credibility of the results that this type of research provides, the results of the research yield conclusions that are easily appreciated and do require any background in this field of science.

What Happened?

The Study focuses on a specific segment of a particular gene that is responsible for controlling microcephalin. Microcephalin is important for proper function and development of the brain, particularly brain size. "Primary microcephaly" is a condition caused by improper function of this gene and results in a dramatic reduction in brain size. A distinct change occurred in the development of this gene. According to The Urantia Book, Adam and Eve are responsible for the introduction of a genetic upgrade that affects a variety of our biological systems, including brain function and resistance to disease. Specifically, The Urantia Book states that this upgrade "improved the brain power of the races, thereby greatly hastening the processes of natural evolution."² The Urantia Book does not get into more specific details regarding this improvement to brain power. Notwithstanding our current scientific appreciation for what happens when microcephalin does not function properly, exactly what it contributes to brain function when it is functioning properly is not well understood at this point.

When and How Did This Genetic Upgrade Occur?

The Urantia Book says, "Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia [Earth], from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago."³ The findings of the Study indicate that the gene in question made its appearance in the human gene pool approximately 37,000 years ago.

Additionally, the findings indicate that a single source was responsible for the introduction of this genetic upgrade. "Single source" in this context is in contrast to the introduction having occurred through the multiple interbreeding of two divergent populations. While the Study speculates that a human might have interbred with a Neanderthal that carried this gene (perhaps as an anomaly within Neanderthal man), the research indicates that the introduction of this new genetic material did not come from multiple occurrences of interbreeding between one humanoid group and another humanoid or pre-humanoid group. The Study also indicates that interbreeding with a Neanderthal is merely speculative.

The methodologies of the Study are not sufficiently precise to give any more than an approximate time period for the introduction of this genetic upgrade nor to distinguish between whether it occurred because of one person or two. Therefore, both with respect to the timing and the source of the genetic upgrade the Study and The Urantia Book’s account of Adam and Eve are essentially aligned.

Where and How Much Has the Genetic Upgrade Spread?

The Study suggests that introduction of the genetic upgrade occurred somewhere in Eurasia. It reveals that this genetic upgrade has spread to approximately 70% of the population. The results of the Study also indicate that the spread of this gene is "exceptionally high outside of Africa but low in sub-Saharan Africa." The Urantia Book says that, after Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, they moved to a new location situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and essentially started a new race of humanity. From this location they established a civilization in which their descendants to a large degree preserved the purity of their genetic contribution for many thousands of years, while at the same time migrating out and interbreeding with the rest of humanity as their numbers grew. Eventually, surrounding tribes overran this peaceful civilization resulting in a more thorough genetic dilution of this race until it no longer became distinguishable as a separate race of humanity. According to The Urantia Book, "only a few" direct descendants of Adam and Eve ventured into sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusion

In every respect the Study and The Urantia Book are harmonious. The correlations include when the genetic upgrade occurred, how it occurred, where and how much it spread, and the nature of the genetic upgrade. Additionally, analysis of the data also supports The Urantia Book's assertion that the first human beings evolved 990,000 years ago.

The information in The Urantia Book was first published in 1955. The research in the Study that correlates with The Urantia Book's history of humanity has developed nearly fifty years after its publication and involves advanced techniques in genetics research that had not been invented at the time of The Urantia Book's publication.

Footnotes

1. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/103/48/18178?maxtoshow= &HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=lahn &searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
2. Urantia Book 81:5.1
3. Urantia Book 74:0.1

Adam and Eve Raw Data

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_and_Eve

From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute:

NOVEMBER 06, 2006

Could Interbreeding Between Humans and Neanderthals Have Led to an Enhanced Human Brain?

Might mating between an ancient human and a Neanderthal - perhaps occurring in only a single instance - have introduced a gene variant into the human population that enhanced human brain function? That question is at the heart of a new study by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Chicago.

The new research, which was published online during the week of November 6, 2006, in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggests that human evolution was not just a matter of spontaneous advantageous mutations arising within the human lineage. Human evolution may also have been influenced by interbreeding with other Homo species, which introduced gene variants, known as alleles, that are beneficial to human reproductive fitness, said the study's senior author Bruce T. Lahn, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at the University of Chicago.

By no means do these findings constitute definitive proof that a Neanderthal was the source of the original copy of the D allele. However, our evidence shows that it is one of the best candidates.
Bruce T. Lahn

The scientists said they have developed the most robust genetic evidence to date that suggests humans and Neanderthals interbred when they existed together thousands of years ago. The interbreeding hypothesis contrasts with at least one prominent theory that posits that no interbreeding occurred when the two species encountered one another.

Lahn collaborated on the studies with Patrick D. Evans, Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, Eric J. Vallender and Richard R. Hudson, all of the University of Chicago.

In their studies, Lahn and his colleagues performed a detailed statistical analysis of the DNA sequence structure of the gene microcephalin, which is known to play a role in regulating brain size in humans. Mutations in the human gene cause development of a much smaller brain, a condition called microcephaly.

Earlier studies by Lahn's group yielded evidence that the microcephalin gene has two distinct classes of alleles. One class, called the D alleles, is comprised of a group of alleles with rather similar DNA sequences. The other class is called the non-D alleles. Lahn and colleagues previously showed that all modern copies of the D alleles arose from a single progenitor copy about 37,000 years ago, which then increased in frequency rapidly and are now present in about 70 percent of the world's population. This rapid rise in frequency indicates that the D alleles underwent positive selection in the recent history of humans. This means that these alleles conferred a fitness advantage on those who possessed one of them such that these people had slightly higher reproductive success than people who didn't possess the alleles, said Lahn.

The estimate that all modern copies of the D alleles descended from a single progenitor copy about 37,000 years ago is based on the measurement of sequence difference between different copies of the D alleles. As a copy of a gene is passed from one generation to the next, mutations are introduced at a steady rate, such that a certain number of generations later, the descendent copies of the gene would on average vary from one another in DNA sequence by a certain amount. The greater the number of the generations, the more DNA sequence difference there would be between two descendent copies, said Lahn. The amount of sequence difference between different copies of a gene can therefore be used to estimate the amount of evolutionary time that has elapsed since the two copies descended from their common progenitor.

In the new studies reported in PNAS, the researchers performed detailed sequence comparisons between the D alleles and the non-D alleles of microcephalin. The scientists determined that these two classes of alleles have likely evolved in two separate lineages for about 1.1 million years with the non-D alleles having evolved in the Homo sapiens lineage and the D alleles having evolved in an archaic, and now extinct, Homo lineage. Then, about 37,000 years ago, a copy of the D allele crossed from the archaic Homo lineage into humans, possibly by interbreeding between members of the two populations. This copy subsequently spread in humans from a single copy when it first crossed into humans to an allele that is now present in an estimated 70 percent of the population worldwide today.

The estimate of 1.1 million years that separates the two lineages is based on the amount of sequence difference between the D and the non-D alleles. Although the identity of this archaic Homo lineage is yet to be determined, the researchers argue that a likely candidate is the Neanderthals. The 1.1 million year separation between humans and this archaic Homo species is roughly consistent with previous estimates of the amount of evolutionary time separating the Homo sapiens lineage and the Neanderthal lineage, said Lahn. Furthermore, the time of introgression of the D allele into humans about 37,000 years ago is when humans and Neanderthals coexisted in many parts of the world.

Lahn said the group's data suggest that the interbreeding was unlikely to be a thorough genetic mixing, but rather a rare - and perhaps even a single event that introduced the ancestral D allele previously present in this other Homo species into the human line.

By no means do these findings constitute definitive proof that a Neanderthal was the source of the original copy of the D allele, said Lahn. However, our evidence shows that it is one of the best candidates. The timeline - including the introgression of the allele into humans 37,000 years ago and its origin in a lineage that separated with the human line 1.1 million years ago agrees with the contact between, and the evolutionary history of, Neanderthals and humans.

And a third line of evidence, albeit weaker, is that the D alleles are much more prevalent in Eurasia and lower in sub-Saharan Africa, which is consistent with an origin in the former area. And we know that Neanderthals evolved outside of Africa, said Lahn.

Lahn also said that although the disruption of the microcephalin gene in humans leads to smaller brains, the role of the D alleles in brain evolution remains unknown. The D alleles may not even change brain size; they may only make the brain a bit more efficient if it indeed affects brain function, he said. For example, someone inheriting the D allele may have only a slightly more efficient brain on average. While that enhancement might confer only a subtle evolutionary advantage on that person, when that effect is propagated over a thousand generations of natural selection, the result will be to drive the D alleles to a very high prevalence.

Lahn and his colleagues believe that other genes might well show similar telltale signs of an origin in archaic Homo lineages such as Neanderthals. They are currently using their analytical tool to search for evidence of that origin for other genes in the human genome.

Such findings may have broader implications for understanding human evolution than just revealing the possibility of human-Neanderthal interbreeding, he said. In addition to being perhaps the most robust genetic evidence for introgression of genes from archaic Homo species into humans, I think this finding demonstrates that the evolution of our species has been profoundly impacted by gene flow from our relative species, said Lahn.

Finding evidence of mixing is not all that surprising. But our study demonstrates the possibility that interbreeding contributed advantageous variants into the human gene pool that subsequently spread. This implies that the evolution of human biology has been affected by the contribution of advantageous genetic variants from archaic relatives that we have replaced or even killed off, he said.

Until now, said Lahn, the scientific debate over genetic exchange between humans and other Homo species has led to two prominent competing theories. One holds that anatomically modern humans replaced archaic species, with no interbreeding. And the other states that extensive interbreeding did take place and that modern humans evolved from that interbreeding in many regions of the world.

Genetic and fossil evidence for the latter multiregional theory has been inconclusive, said Lahn, so that theory has been largely discredited. However, he said, the newer evidence of gene exchange as well as other genetic evidence that might follow could give rise to a more moderate version holding that some genetic exchange did take place. Furthermore, it will become increasingly appreciated that such genetic exchange might have made our species much more fit.