The "Eve gene" - another creationist fail

[tas8831]

no really....as per list post #153

the garden event has all the earmarks of a science experiment

Not at all.

Well, maybe 3rd grade science.

 

[Thief]

yeah, like magical fruits and talking snakes

no magic
a simple test
would the couple be curious?
even if death is a possible consequence

and the notation of snake is a notation of character
more so than form

 

[tas8831]

Anyone ever heard of the "Eve gene"?

Me neither. Not until yesterday, when I read that a thing called the "Eve gene" is a "flag" and a "marker" that only humans have and thus humans are separate from other Primates.

I have been a professional biologist for 20 years. Prior to that, I was a graduate student, doing research on mammalian evolution for 5 years, and prior to that an undergraduate working full time for about 6 years.
I have taken classes on general biology, cell biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, microbiology, etc. I have taught genetics, evolution, biological anthropology, anatomy, comparative anatomy, etc., and not once in all that time in any of those classes did I ever hear or read the phrase "Eve gene."

I read my first creationist book (I was shocked to discover there were such people) 30 years ago. I came across it in the library while I was looking for a Carl Sagan book. I have since read 15 or 20 creationist books, read hundreds of 'technical' articles written by creationists (spoiler - most claimed to be technical are not, and none actually present evidence FOR creation), thousands of online screeds, and probably 100s of thousands of discussion forum/listserv posts by creationists, and not until yesterday did I even see a creationist use the phrase "Eve gene."

Why? Because it is a ridiulous phrase that nobody with any actual relevant understanding would use.

Googling the phrase turns up, shockingly, about 47,000 returns (compare to "mitochondrial Eve" - 133,000).
Caveat - even when the phrase "Eve gene" is put in quotation marks, returns with just the two words anywhere in their search space show up, such as this return to a Discovery blog post titled:

"Y, mtDNA, Adam, & Eve - Gene Expression - Discover Magazine Blogs"

In fact, nearly all of the returns on the first 5 pages (didn't bother going beyond that) were to either actual scientific papers that merely mentioned 'Mitochondrial Eve', or to papers that were about the 'even skipped' or 'eve' gene in Drosophila (not on their mitochondrial genome).
So, I infer that actual mentions of this "Eve gene" are very very low, possibly even only to the first couple of hits on the first page.
In fact, the first return is to the 'Bradshaw Foundation", whatever that is, which indicates that "Eve gene" is just a "popular" reference to the mitochondrial DNA, not a specific gene.


Of note, returns not to mitochondrial Eve or 'even skipped' in Drosophila appeared to be are to religious sites or sites like Quora, where, disturbingly, there seems to be a cultish-understanding that "Eve gene" refers to black people:

The Eve Gene is only found in African women and essentially has all the variations possible for the entire human mitrochondrial genome. This means that when an African women posseses a mutation in this gene, mitochondrial DNA of all other skin types come about (caucasian, albino, middle eastern, etc.).

From this special gene, we can trace ourselves back to one woman, the first woman, who lived in Africa.​

You really do learn something every day.

Interesting - the google machine informed me that usfan tried the "eve gene" thing on another forum about 3 months before he tried it here. That was on a rather hardcore right-wing site, to boot. And even there, there were some science minded folks that cut his claims down. Then he monologued about how disappointed he was that a righty religious site would not embrace his assertions. Then he ran off... to here... That is what so many creationists do.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Interesting - the google machine informed me that usfan tried the "eve gene" thing on another forum about 3 months before he tried it here. That was on a rather hardcore right-wing site, to boot. And even there, there were some science minded folks that cut his claims down. Then he monologued about how disappointed he was that a righty religious site would not embrace his assertions. Then he ran off... to here... That is what so many creationists do.

That is unsurprisingly brilliant.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Interesting - the google machine informed me that usfan tried the "eve gene" thing on another forum about 3 months before he tried it here. That was on a rather hardcore right-wing site, to boot. And even there, there were some science minded folks that cut his claims down. Then he monologued about how disappointed he was that a righty religious site would not embrace his assertions. Then he ran off... to here... That is what so many creationists do.

That's priceless.

I think I found it. Remarkably similar all the way down to the ad hominem attacks on other posters.

 

[Subduction Zone]

That's priceless.

I think I found it. Remarkably similar all the way down to the ad hominem attacks on other posters.

I think that like so many creationists he himself used ad hominems far too often and was accused of that. It seemed to work against him so he added it to his limited repertoire.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I think that like so many creationists he himself used ad hominems far too often and was accused of that. It seemed to work against him so he added it to his limited repertoire.

I think that you may be right.

 

[tas8831]

Anyone ever heard of the "Eve gene"?

Me neither. Not until yesterday, when I read that a thing called the "Eve gene" is a "flag" and a "marker" that only humans have and thus humans are separate from other Primates.

I have been a professional biologist for 20 years. Prior to that, I was a graduate student, doing research on mammalian evolution for 5 years, and prior to that an undergraduate working full time for about 6 years.
I have taken classes on general biology, cell biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, microbiology, etc. I have taught genetics, evolution, biological anthropology, anatomy, comparative anatomy, etc., and not once in all that time in any of those classes did I ever hear or read the phrase "Eve gene."

I read my first creationist book (I was shocked to discover there were such people) 30 years ago. I came across it in the library while I was looking for a Carl Sagan book. I have since read 15 or 20 creationist books, read hundreds of 'technical' articles written by creationists (spoiler - most claimed to be technical are not, and none actually present evidence FOR creation), thousands of online screeds, and probably 100s of thousands of discussion forum/listserv posts by creationists, and not until yesterday did I even see a creationist use the phrase "Eve gene."

Why? Because it is a ridiulous phrase that nobody with any actual relevant understanding would use.

Googling the phrase turns up, shockingly, about 47,000 returns (compare to "mitochondrial Eve" - 133,000).
Caveat - even when the phrase "Eve gene" is put in quotation marks, returns with just the two words anywhere in their search space show up, such as this return to a Discovery blog post titled:

"Y, mtDNA, Adam, & Eve - Gene Expression - Discover Magazine Blogs"

In fact, nearly all of the returns on the first 5 pages (didn't bother going beyond that) were to either actual scientific papers that merely mentioned 'Mitochondrial Eve', or to papers that were about the 'even skipped' or 'eve' gene in Drosophila (not on their mitochondrial genome).
So, I infer that actual mentions of this "Eve gene" are very very low, possibly even only to the first couple of hits on the first page.
In fact, the first return is to the 'Bradshaw Foundation", whatever that is, which indicates that "Eve gene" is just a "popular" reference to the mitochondrial DNA, not a specific gene.


Of note, returns not to mitochondrial Eve or 'even skipped' in Drosophila appeared to be are to religious sites or sites like Quora, where, disturbingly, there seems to be a cultish-understanding that "Eve gene" refers to black people:

The Eve Gene is only found in African women and essentially has all the variations possible for the entire human mitrochondrial genome. This means that when an African women posseses a mutation in this gene, mitochondrial DNA of all other skin types come about (caucasian, albino, middle eastern, etc.).

From this special gene, we can trace ourselves back to one woman, the first woman, who lived in Africa.​

You really do learn something every day.

Isn't it amazing how confident some people can be even after the things they have been promoting and pontificating on for years have been shown to be totally false?

I don't get it...