Pro-Life

Humans Are Not 98% Genetically Identical to Chimpanzees

August 14th, 2008 by Wesley J. Smith Print This Article Print This Article ·

 I have been researching the purported genetic near-identity between humans and chimps – asserted as the “scientific” basis for the Great Ape Project – and found (unsurprisingly) that the entire advocacy line that “humans and chimps share 98% of our genes” is plain false. This gets a little complicated, so stick with me.First, the 98% figure is probably overstated. An article in Science puts the actual figure at 94%. (Jon Cohen, “Relative Differences: The Myth of 1%, June 29, 2007). But even these figures are only measuring about 2% of our total genetic makeup – that is, those genes that code for proteins, the building blocks of our physical bodies and functions.

The vast majority of our DNA, known as “non-coding DNA” – sometimes called “junk DNA” because it was once thought not to have function – is very different in humans from most non-coding genes found in chimps and other apes. However, recent research has found that, contrary to previous belief, this repetitive DNA isn’t “junk” after all, but has distinct purposes.

Research continues as to the exact nature and functions of non-coding genes, but given the wide differences between human and ape non-coding DNA, even if the purported 98% genetic similarity to coding DNA is true, it is actually only 98% of a much smaller percentage of our total genetic makeup, perhaps as low as 98% of 2%!

Proponents of the Great Ape Project might reply in defense that the coding genes are the ones that really count, but that is not scientifically supported anymore. And even if true, as we have discussed previously here at SHS, the 2-6% difference constitutes tens of millions of biological differences.

So this is the bottom line: Creating a human/chimp moral equivalency is not scientifically justified based on a close biological relationship between us that is actually quite vast. Rather, as one scientist quoted in the Science article referenced above put it about this issue:

“I don’t think there is any way to calculate a number [percentage of similarity]. In the end, it’s a political and social and cultural thing about how we see our differences.”

Exactly. This is about politics and ideology, pure and simple.

(Note: This article originally appeared on Smith’s blog, www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog)

This article is courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.




  • Bruce Roeder

    Very interesting. I hadn’t heard this.

  • Warren Jewell

    Science – an answer followed by a parade of questions – some of which only God can answer.

    The die-hard evolutionists erect walls of mendacity to further their delusions of importance of idea and self-importance – as if in peeking at God’s (perhaps) evolutionary ways, they have found themselves gods.

    Science can only represent God’s creative ways as they find them – not wish them to be.

    And, they must never lose that awe, splendor and wonder that is embodied in the very miracle of the newborn baby, whose every new presence is nearly as mysterious as the Presence of God Himself. In that creative measure, by Mom and Dad, gracious God lets us have a just delightful and warming peek at His ways.

  • plowshare

    I’ve always wondered what the “genes” were which we share with the chimpanzees. Does it refer to alleles, or just loci where there can be many alleles, both dominant
    and recessive? I’d like to know more specifically which alleles humans have in common with chimps.

    One allele can make a huge difference–consider sickle cell anemia, for instance: it is due to a different allele of a gene we all have in common.