The Origin of People Groups: Only One Race

Joseph Kezele, M.D.

In the last issue we discussed speciation and natural selection in animals as a result of the Genesis Flood and the subsequent Ice Age. Let’s turn to what happened with people after the Flood.

Genesis 11 tells us that instead of obeying God’s command to spread out and multiply and fill the earth, as the animals did, people clustered at Babel, built a city, and built a tower to make a name for themselves. God saw that since they spoke one language, nothing that they set out to do would be impossible. So He confused their language, most likely by family groups, so that they would be frustrated with their inability to communicate and separate from all the other groups. This brought a halt to the building projects about 100 to 110 years after the Flood. It is striking to realize that God had to judge people again so soon after the Flood.

In this way God forced people to spread out and fill the earth. As people groups spread out and multiplied, those groups became isolated from each other. This occurred not only in terms of geography, but also in terms of genetics, and people developed superficial differences in appearance, in exactly the same manner as the animals, as discussed in the last issue (hyperlink).

That explains why the genes of people settling near the equator were selected to a greater extent to produce more skin pigment, called melanin, to be protected from the more intense solar radiation present there. This is why people like myself whose genes demonstrate to a great extent the Irish portion of their ancestry and who live in Arizona develop skin cancer.

In contrast, people settling further north needed to have the least amount of pigment, so that the decreased amount of solar radiation could be absorbed by the skin to the maximum. Why? Because ultraviolet light penetrating through the superficial layers of skin, striking the superficial capillaries, converts the precursor of Vitamin D into its active form. Today people with darker skin living further away from the equator suffer from Vitamin D deficiency unless they receive supplementation in their diet. Vitamin D is essential for proper bone formation, which is why milk is fortified with it.

Differences in hair color, curliness or straightness of hair, height, fat pad under the eyelid (altering the appearance of the eye), and other characteristics also developed among people groups with migration and isolation. Human genetic studies show that the greatest difference between any two people on the planet is 0.2% of their total genetic makeup, which is called the genome. Analysis of genetic characteristics that are considered to be “racial” in nature constitute only 0.012% of the genome.

There is truly only one race: the human race. This is confirmed in Acts 17: 26 “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”

There is no place for racism in the church, as there never has been a place for it in Scripture. Evolutionary assumptions about certain people groups supposedly being less advanced in the process of evolution than others was used to justify genocide . This occurred against dark-skinned peoples: the aborigines of Australia, the Herero and the Nama in what was then German Southwest Africa, or light-skinned Jews in Europe, committed by nominally Christian nations.

Where was the church then? Compromised by evolution and old-earth beliefs. Where is the church today? Compromised by evolution and old-earth beliefs. Why? To attempt to gain the respect of the world that assumes that evolution is supported by science—which is not the case since evolution is anti-science—while having salvation through the blood of Christ. In reality, they gain the contempt of the world and risk the contempt of the Lord.

The Church must get back to the truth in Genesis in order to get its own house in order. Then the Church can become effective and change the direction of the culture back toward Christ.

The next issue will discuss the origin of languages in the context of the Tower of Babel.

Joseph Kezele, M.D., President, Arizona Origin Science Association.