Why did God create the different races?

[Theban]

You are misunderstanding the definition of race. Look it up in the dictionary.

Race is an old construct which attempted to classify different ethnic groups into three larger categories of shared origin. This is not a problematic thing in itself, but modern DNA analysis found that we had missed the mark completely.

The old way of classifying races was by looking at shared traits, but it turns out that the same traits can evolve in different peoples independently. Thus it was discovered that the Sami were not Mongoloids, the Aboriginals were not Negroids, and certain European natives were not Caucasoids. In the end the model was thrown out completely, and Anthropologists only talk about Ethnicities these days.

Practically it is the same thing, though. Anthropology has unfortunately become a controversial field of science, and so it is important to pay attention to the terms used.

 

[Theban]

As for your original question, I don’t know. As far as I know the Church has no teaching on this subject, and I am no Apostle that can speak for God. The tower of Babel offers a clue, in that Man would become too powerful and too wicked should they all unite.

Considering that God also considered the four pagan Empires mentioned in Daniel as abominable Beasts, and that human nature is tribalistic, it seems God prefers us to form small societies. There are a number of clues that seem to suggest this in the Bible, but I don’t think the Church has a teaching regarding this.

An advantage of having different ethnicities that I can think of is probably also a bit controversial, but it is that it gives you an identity. With your DNA you have a map which tells the story of all your ancestors and, consequently, the story of you.

The different features and traits that decorate your person are all derived from the lives of your ancestors and the history of your people. It is a badge of honor far exceeding anything given by man. It is proof that you are the product and the legacy of some of the best people to have lived in your part of the world.

 

[PetraG]

It is also a scientific fact that humans have several different skin colours and other genetic features. The reality of biological, genetic variety across the human population cannot be denied. Races exist.

Well, no, the point is that the visible differences actually reflect very slight genetic differences compared to the genetic variability within the populations. This is why race is said to be a social construct. It isn’t that there is nothing there, since there obviously is, but that there is nothing like enough difference between entire populations to make sweeping generalizations about capacities, for instance. There is still far more genetic variation within a population that there is between races, and the differences really are primarily in visible accidents such as height or color and somewhat enhanced capacity to withstand environmental pressures such as the prevalence of malaria.

Anthropologists have been clear, for instance, that any normal human being is capable of learning and acting according to the cultural expectations of any culture. The genetic pressures that lead us to be able to do what makes us uniquely human have been close enough to the same that there aren’t any identifiable differences between populations. The pressures have had more effect on physical features because presumably it is the physical climates that have been different. The differences in looks from one population to the next don’t have parallel differences in social capacity, intelligence, language ability and so on. If you take a child of one heritage and plunk them into a population of a different heritage, the child might be slimmer or stockier or taller or shorter or darker or lighter than any of their peers, but the transplanted child will be equally capable of picking up the language, customs, skill set, cultural expectations, and so on of the society that raises them.

 

[ZMystiCat]

You are misunderstanding the definition of race. Look it up in the dictionary.

Language development isn’t really the result of fine-tuned science. Even the term “race” can mean different things across different English-speaking countries, sometimes simultaneously. For instance, in the United States, it is frequent to use “race” to refer to both skin color and the human race in general, not counting other uses like “horse race”. Elsewhere, the former definition may go beyond skin color to include ethnicity. Even the already-used and seemingly-clear term “horse race”, when taking the various uses of the term “race”, could mean horses racing around a track, the horse species, or some biological subdivision of horses. Our minds just go to the first because that’s what we generally mean when we say “horse race”.

This phenomenon isn’t just limited to “race”. One humorous alternative to the debate in this thread is whether or not “piracy” is a suitable term when referring to illegally distributing movies. To make matters more fun, make the movie a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Yeah, I get the desire for a scientific exactness, but that’s really not how language works.

 

[Saxum]

An advantage of having different ethnicities that I can think of is probably also a bit controversial, but it is that it gives you an identity. With your DNA you have a map which tells the story of all your ancestors and, consequently, the story of you.

The different features and traits that decorate your person are all derived from the lives of your ancestors and the history of your people. It is a badge of honor far exceeding anything given by man. It is proof that you are the product and the legacy of some of the best people to have lived in your part of the world.

It seems to me that God divided humanity into families, nations and tribes. These groups are distinguished by racial features and language. And reading Genesis leads me to conclude that God prefers some races more than others because he chose the Jews to be his own people. God did not choose my European ancestors. But I’m very grateful to Jesus for allowing me to become a spiritual child of Abraham.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Not so, there are real biological differences (obviously, none that rise to the level of being a different species ), for instance, different races are more prone to different disease states.

 

[Saxum]

Not so, there are real biological differences

Indeed. There also seems to be different abilities; for example, East Africans dominate long-distance running. Science has proven that these runners have superior genetics for running.

 

[Saxum]

I see where you’re coming from I don’t think I can agree with your statement. It could be interpreted to suggest that the races should preserve their unique characteristics by not mixing with each other. I don’t think this was the will of God but I could be wrong.

 

[Theban]

I don’t think God prefers some races above others. God loves all of us to the full extent we can possibly be loved. As for the Hebrews, Jesus himself said something along the lines of that if the people of Tyre had received as much grace and as many signs as the Hebrews, they would not have rejected Him.

 

[Saxum]

I don’t think God prefers some races above others. God loves all of us to the full extent we can possibly be loved.

But the Jews are the chosen people. Jesus himself said that his main mission was to the lost sheep of Israel. God preferred the Jews more than all others. And it could be argued that God still prefers the Jews. Europeans like me are a wild olive that has been grafted on to the tree of Abraham. Jesus enables us to receive the blessings promised to Abraham.

 

[Saxum]

And if God loves all races equally, why didn’t he reveal himself to all peoples? The people of the Americas had to wait until the 1500s to hear the Gospel. Before the missionaries came, the tribes had only the natural law to guide them.

 

[Seagull]

I obviously - highly prefer my ocean seagull chirp song -
But then you have the forest owl…the birdbath sparrow…
all these other somewhat inferior song chimers

 

[Theban]

Again, I cannot speak for why God does things. However, a plausible explanation for why the Hebrews alone were chosen is this: The world at that time was brutal beyond recognition. The people of that time were not ready to receive the fullness of God’s Message.

Therefore, God picked one man, Abram, who was a just man in a world of sinners, and made covenant with him. Abraham would give his sons to the service of the Lord, and in return God would use them to save the world.

Over many generations God gradually revealed his Truth to the Hebrews, and by keeping them isolated from other barbaric peoples, he made them sufficiently civilized to receive his Word. And as soon as the covenant with Abraham was fulfilled, with Jesus rising from the dead, the Church immediately began converting those who could be converted among the Gentiles.

Thanks to the stable ground of the Jewish civilization, the entire Roman Empire was in time converted, and from there Europe and the rest of the world.

Now, that some people have had to wait a while to be evangelized does not mean God doesn’t love them as much. There could be any number of reasons as to why God waited to reveal Himself until then. And I don’t see the logic behind the argument that loving someone less means God would wait a few years to reveal Himself to them.

 

[Sarcelle]

The human races are a fluid concept. People move, intermarry with each other, nations come and go. It’s been like that for much of human history.

 

[Sarcelle]

People have this pesky habit of traveling all over the place for business or conquest.

From ancient Africans coming out of Africa to settle in Europe and Asia, to the Scythians and Phoenicians, and to the trade activities on the Silk Road.

It’s not like people stayed in their own corner of the world and stayed put. Remember the Mongols or the European explorers?

 

[guanophore]

Dividing people by skin color is just nonsensical. It’s superficial and useless.

Perhaps God allowed this diversity to happen so that we could get this point!

We also see in the Bible that God did not want the Jews to marry the Canaanite people.

This was much more related to their spirituality than their phenotype.

All human beings on earth today can be traced back to one mitochondrial Eve and one y male. We all came from the same origin.

This is what I don’t understand. It seems to me that everything would be better if there was a single race with the same colour skin and the same genetic features etc.

Easier how? What would be the motivation for learning to love your neighbor if we were all so much alike? God has demonstrated diversity in all of creation.

Perhaps evolution provides the true answer to this question. For example, maybe black skin developed in response to the hot climate in which the peoples lived.

Since our Genetic ancestors came from Africa, and were presumably dark skinned, this makes most sense. Those who went furthest North ended up with lighter pigmentation. The Neanderthals, who lived right next to the glaciers in Northern Europe, were light skinned and had lighter eyes.

Then there is one human genome they have identified that causes blue eyes in dark skinned people. They have not found any bones/DNA of this ancestor, but the remnants are visible.

I don’t understand how a variety of ethnic groups makes us stronger. If anything, it makes us weaker because it divides us along superficial lines.

If people can learn to recognize and accept that we are all the same race (human) and learn to love one another for our diversity, we would be stronger.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Ethnic features, not racial features. We are all on scientifically determined race

 

[Roseeurekacross]

The scientific definition of race is constant across all languages . And this discussion stared with why did God create different races. God didn’t. We are all one race.

Our ethnicity led us to develop different characteristics for different conditions

 

[Sarcelle]

Well God destroyed the earth and it’s living creatures that were not safe in the ark via flood.

If we take this part of the Bible literally, all the races originated from one family right? This means that humans in spite of all the variety are one family. God’s family.

 

[wiggbuggie1]

no such thing as different races we are all one race human race also we are able to procreate and have children together