Part I: A Critique of River Out of Eden: Out of Africa

Abstract

The linear logic of Darwinist thinking attempts to trace the ever branching tree of evolution back to a single cell. This would be consistent with tracing the evolution of the universe back to an infinitely small bubble of spacetime in the Big Bang. Accordingly a chapter of Dawkins book is devoted to tracing the evolution of all humanity back to an African Eve, one woman from whom we all evolved. The idea is based on evidence that mitochondrial DNA is passed on only down the female line and can be assigned a constant mutation rate. There is a theory that mitochondria were once free living bacteria when prokaryotic cells were evolving into eukaryotic cells that constitute all plants and animals. The mechanism by which it could have happened to create the unique structure and energy producing role of mitochondria is lacking along with evidence that the mitochondrial clock is not accurate.