H.E.A.L's Love for Mankind

H.E.A.L’s Limb 4

Love for Mankind

With H.E.A.L, the human factor is important. Man and all other living things share this world, this environment. We consider ourselves as the supreme masterpiece of creation, the perfection of biological achievement, the ‘chosen’ being that was created separately and not as a descendant of animals.

Evolutionists have used molecular biology techniques to show the degree of similarity between animals and humans. They want to prove that humans and monkeys have a common descent. Creationists, on the other hand believe in the account of Creation given in the Book of Genesis; generally speaking, they are anti-evolutionists. They do not want to believe that humans and animals have anything in common, evolutionary or otherwise. Indeed, we are the one species among all animals that is offended when called ‘animal’. Yet we share so many features- selfishness, violence and communal protection among others- with it.

H.E.A.L will not participate in the evolution debate because it is not considered important for its mission. Furthermore, when evolutionists claim that there is 94 or 98% similarity between the human and the monkey’s genetic make-up, creationists can always say that since the designer (God) is the same for both, he could use the same materials or design for two different species. They could also argue that God is the master Bio-logician and actually ‘used’ evolution to do his ‘Job’. Biologists now are simply unlocking the ‘Biologic’ from his work and wisdom. Biology is simply the study (logos) of the ‘Bio’. Bio is the word I like; this is truth. The ‘study’ or ‘logy’ part could be erroneous but not the ‘Bio’ part. I will stick to the Bio-truth.
Mankind and Bio-truth

In his book, ‘Life as It Is: Biology for the Public Sphere’ William F. Loomis says, ‘each of us was once a fertilized egg’. This is plain Bio-truth. No one can contest that. This is how your life, my life and everybody else’s started. This fertilized egg is a complete cell with 46 chromosomes- the full set needed for human life- 23 from mother’s egg and 23 from father’s spermatozoon.

Chromosomes, like the cell, are structures one can see under a microscope. They are real. Chromosomes are made up principally of DNA material- the thing medical biologists use for genetic finger printing and for checking genetic defects. The DNA molecule-the molecule of life- for all the living things on the planet consists of the same building blocks (bases). These are organised into small units called genes. All the genes ‘attached’ in series makes the DNA molecule.

Genes make proteins (using the proteins you consume in your food). Some of these proteins are used to make the structures needed for growth. The fertilized egg cell then divides into two cells, then four, then eight until there are millions of cells. A human body consists of millions of cells. How does that first cell divide into these millions of cells? Is it a simple multiplication? How comes there are different types of cells? Cells in the stomach, in the nerves or in the brain are different from each other. That is the magic!

Appreciation of mankind

H.E.A.L intends to show the details of pregnancy to show the magic, the wonder behind the development of a baby and what the mother endures during all this. The aim is to nurture respect for children and women.

We also want to show that there is only one species of mankind, Homo sapiens. Yet, man has found way to divide this species into races. These so-called races are based only on some external features like skin color, cranial or facial shape and hair texture. These features are in fact adaptations to prevailing climate that are actually quite recent. Biologically, however, races do not exist. Our DNA is the same. Consider this extract from Nature Genetics, a leading scientific journal, ‘Consider an apportionment of Old World populations into three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe), a grouping that corresponds to a common view of three of the 'major races'. Approximately 85−90% of genetic variation is found within these continental groups, and only an additional 10−15% of variation is found between them.’ In simple terms, this means that there can be much more genetic difference between two European individuals than between a European and an African.

As we have seen, it is our genes that direct the formation of our physical body. If there is a defect in the gene, then there is the possibility of a defect in the physical body. Our genes therefore are a reflection of what we are. The genes of mankind are in a generalized way quite similar irrespective of the so-called ’race’. So with this new knowledge, it would be primitive and mean to keep on dividing the human race according to minor physical characteristics. In his famous book, ‘Genes, Peoples and Languages’ L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, a prominent population geneticist writes, ‘it is because they are external that these racial differences strike us so forcibly, and we automatically assume that differences of similar magnitude exist below the surface, in the rest of our genetic makeup. This is simply not so: the remainder of our genetic makeup hardly differ at all.’ This is now Bio-truth, whatever the superficial visible differences are, the inside of the body is the same, the physiology, body chemistry and everything else is the same. That is why there is only one ‘Biology’, one ‘Medicine’ for everybody.

Skin color

Let us consider just ‘skin color’. The actual number of genes that control skin color is not know but scientists believe it is somewhere between 4 and 500. Now humans have around 30,000 genes. So skin color genes expressed as a fraction of the total is between 0.00013 and 0.0016. Now, let us forget genes for a while and consider more tangible measurements like weight. For a man weighing about 50 kg, the whole skin alone could weigh 2.5 kg. So skin weight expressed as a fraction of whole body weight is 0.05. What about the thickness of the skin- about 2mm. The difference indeed is skin deep and people who believe it is substantial are also skin-deep. Do you really consider these figures substantial enough to talk about a different race, when differences in other features like blood group or sex, within a particular ‘race’ are bigger?

Now, that is not all. What causes the differences in skin color? To really understand this we have to study the structure of the skin (to be explained in my presentation). In very simple terms, it is a pigment in the skin called melanin (eumelanin) that determines its color. The more you have of it, the darker is the skin. Eumelanin filters uv light and therefore DNA inside the cells below the eumelanin layer is protected. DNA is susceptible to uv light and UV-caused damage in DNA results in skin cancer. Black people simply do not get skin cancers. White people who are constantly exposed to excessive sunlight or who live in regions where the ozone layer has thinned (New Zealand, for example) have a higher liability towards skin cancer. On the other hand, white skin can make more Vitamin D in sunlight than can black people because their skin receives more UV light. It is clear therefore that skin color really is an adaptation to climate according to the location- adaptation for better survival. It is about survival...of Mankind!

Origin of Mankind

Whatever you believe in, Evolution or Creation, does not really matter. The book of Genesis talks about Adam (man) and Eve (woman); Rig-Veda talks about Svayambhuva Manu (man) and Satarupa (woman); evolution hypothesis talks about mutated male and female apes. They are all saying that a man and a woman populated the whole planet.
Now the truth I want to mention is that we are somehow all brothers and sisters. We have changed slightly (I stress slightly) over time due to biological adaptation to our environment to increase our survival. But why is there this fuss about the differences?

Biodiversity and the food chain

Differences, Diversity, Discrimination are interchangeable words. The word difference, however, is pejorative; diversity is more appealing. Diversity is an important aspect of life. Diversity forms the basis of food chains. Animals eat each other in the wild. But it is one species eating another. A lion does not eat another lion but will eat an antelope. Now the lion does not eat only antelopes. Could you eat the same food every day? Each of the animals or plant we eat contains nutrients in different quantities. So we need a variety in order to have all we need.

Natural cycles and recycling

When we die, we can become the food for soil organisms and plants. And the nutrients are recycled. All living things on the planet are composed basically of the same biological components that become nutrients when broken down. Thus we can all be recycled as we are biogenic and biodegradable. An atom that is now in a rat could end up in the DNA or protein of a person who does not eat rats. Recycling is the inexorable law of natural dynamics.

Recycling is also proof that there is no real chemical difference. There is some biochemical difference and slightly more genetic difference. For example there is 50% genetic difference between a banana and a human (and we could also say there is 50% similarity) but there is no great difference chemically, that is in terms of atoms or elements. So difference depends on what we are comparing. In a generalized way, therefore there should not be much difference across the spectrum of living things so that recycling is possible. Yet there must be differences biochemically (for different taste and smell of what we eat) and structurally (different shapes of what we eat).

Food diversity and racial discrimination

What we choose to eat depends mostly on three of our five senses; sight, smell and taste. We discriminate our food according to these senses but we do not use these to claim which food is superior to which. Now when we come to racial discrimination, we certainly do not use taste or smell because we are not choosing our food. We depend more on what we see. We do observe some difference but the observable differences are negligible genetically and we can hardly talk about diversity here. We have bio-diversity among the living things in the food chains but very in Homo sapiens. People talk about unity in diversity. That is wonderful but the differences are too minor to be referred to as diversity, at least genetically speaking. So it is inappropriate to even talk about unity; all we need to do is to focus on the many similarities rather than the few differences. We can learn to appreciate and care about mankind and indeed all living things because we all have meaning and need each other as food or otherwise.

Molecular Biology, genetics and Genomics

These three fields of study are related. They all have something to do with the DNA molecule. Remember that this is the molecule that regulates how the fertilized egg develops into the baby, controls the formation of proteins in your body, determines how different you are from another individual and unfortunately is responsible for the predisposition for a particular disease.

While Molecular Biology and Genetics investigates the role and functions of single genes, Genomics is the study of composition of the total DNA content of a species (the Genome). Reading the genome (DNA sequencing) is a bit like breaking a code. It is now possible to read the genome of an individual using a machine as small as a computer printer. Life Technologies Corp can now sequence a patient's whole DNA code. It only takes a few weeks and costs around Rs150, 000. 00.

Genome sequencing or mapping can, besides comparing different people’s DNA, spot genetic diseases. Cancer, for example is the result of a change in the DNA sequence. After cancer surgery, the cancer can grow back. The doctor will monitor this using an imaging machine. However the machine can only detect the cancer if it is big enough. You may have to wait a while for this to happen and with possible complications. In the near future, it will be possible to spot in the patient’s blood, small sequences of DNA from the tumor to check if the doctor had successfully removed the whole cancer almost immediately after surgery.

This is just one way that genomics will help mankind medically. I will enumerate many more of these in future articles. Many tests are already using molecular biology techniques; DNA finger printing, some pregnancy tests, test for AIDS or swine flu. The tests are reliable but above all credible.

Knowledgeable but slow to change

The point I wish to make is that people tend to choose what they want to believe in. They believe biologists when it comes to health, environment and even genomics. Concerning genomics, the proof is there- around 450,000 British have already registered to get their DNA mapped through the National Health Service as a medical check up. So why are people reluctant to believe the Bio-truth that there is really no race difference among Homo sapiens.

It is also possible that they believe but cannot change because it has become a habit that is hard to break. That is acceptable as it implies that they have understood but are slow to change. Or is it that protection of our kind is an instinct in humans as much as it is among animals?

Difference, Ignorance and violence

Animals, in the wild, fight for their food, sex or shelter. Normally in these fierce fights, the strongest will get the food, sexual partner or territory. This behavior is certainly selfish but is driven by instinct, the instinct to protect and perpetuate its kind. An instinct is not learned but is fixed and inherited. No intelligence is involved. Psychologist Abraham Maslow argues that humans do not have instincts. Other psychologists consider sleeping, altruism, disgust, face perception. Language acquisition, fight or flight’ as human instincts. However, Maslow says that what we take as instinct in humans are actually strong drives. An instinct according to him is behavior that cannot be overridden. So if we can learn to override an ‘instinctive’ behavior, then we do not have an instinct. Education can override strong drives. If education does not remove the drive, then it is an instinct. Humans experience the need to be violent. In his history, this violence may have served a purpose; that was to manage to get his share of food or to protect his kind in a wild and violent surrounding. Is violence or discrimination in mankind an instinct? It could have been in the past when we were living among animals. Behaving like them instinctively or calculatedly was about survival. How ‘animalistic’ are we today? This is difficult to answer but is food for thought. But one thing is for sure; in the wild jungle where violence reigns, the fittest always survives.

Survival of the fittest and Civilization

I think that the more animal instinct we have or opt to have, the closer we are to animals. We may enjoy our instincts and act like an animal. But if we believe we are not animals, then we have to behave differently. Even if we believe that we share a common animal ancestor, it is not a good reason to act like animals and bully the weak. Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle. An educated and civilized being should override or suppress strong drives- this strong urge to repress the weak. Thus it is important that everyone learns how to take care of the weak. The weak is the child, the physically and mentally handicapped, the elderly, the diseased, the oppressed, the less educated, the less intelligent, the minority and the poor. In fact the test of a civilized nation is in the way it treats its weaker members. Fairness should be the game.

According to some experiments, ‘fairness’ seems to be an instinct in humans and in some of the monkey families. Apes can harm their own interests and protest against unfair treatment of others. This is an instinct and it may have been so in humans in the past. Today, in humans fairness seems to be a ‘strong drive’. Let’s not override it using the wrong education, communal or sectarian thinking and cultural agglutination. All species are selfish and this selfishness is natural for self-preservation and perhaps for the preservation of the species.

Man too has this selfish tendency. We see it everywhere. It is natural to fight for self-preservation. Then so be it. Let us be selfish and preserve our species. Let us not base ourselves on this pseudo-diversity, which is only visual and superficial. Let us perceive every human being as a member of this species- the Homo sapiens.
We all started as a fertilized egg and became a baby. During that entire period we were pure ‘Bio’. We got our religion, nationality and culture after birth. So, first we are mankind, then anything else. There is no big genetic difference; there are only religious and cultural differences. But even here we could focus on the many similarities rather than the few differences. I do not deny the existence of the apparent diversity and its alleged importance but it has not been proved useful to live on this planet. Anyway, no one can be blamed for adopting a particular religion or culture as this is related to the country of origin where there really was not a choice.

The age-old wisdom here that many thinkers and philosophers have moaned is ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Respect’. Tolerate and respect his and he will tolerate and respect yours. You simply do not have to criticize his in an attempt to show that yours is better. If he turns out to be wrong, that is his problem-not yours. I know; the instinct of self-protection, the belief that ours is better is widespread in the animal kingdom. But correct me if I am wrong; you do not want to form part of the animal kingdom. Even if you believe we are descendants of animals, you should agree that humans have not only more intelligence but more conscience than other animals. In his book, ‘What is man?’ Mark Twain says, ’Man is the only animal that blushes...or ought to.’ The answer to a peaceful world, a universal brotherhood lies in understanding and practicing ‘Respect’ and ‘Tolerance’.