© 2009 André Chappuis
© 2009 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
The appearance of human blue eyes on Urantia
Eye color is coded by a gene present in two copies in all individuals (from the father and the mother). This gene exists in different versions (alleles). To have the phenotype (the visible characteristic) “BLUE EYES”, a person must have the 2 copies of the eye color gene of the same allele, in this case 2 “BLUE EYES” alleles:
Indeed, the “blue” allele is recessive while the “brown” allele is dominant; that is to say that if we only have one of each, we do not have the “blue” characteristic but “brown”. Thus parents with “BLUE EYES” necessarily have two “blue” alleles as their genotype. Each of them can therefore only produce children with blue eyes.
During the month of April 2008, the media published information according to which the first human being who had blue eyes lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Here is an explanation of how this mutation appeared:
Protein P is essential for pigmentation. Which one to choose? Although its function is not known exactly, it is a key factor in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives skin, hair and eyes their color. The more melanin the eyes contain, the darker their shade will be. Conversely, a serious defect in the synthesis of the pigment results in discoloration of the skin, hair and eyes. This is albinism. Around forty mutations have been identified in the protein P gene, all of which cause one of the major forms of the disease.
Blue eyes are also depleted of melanin. Convinced that protein P had something to do with it, researchers conducted a large-scale study in the hope of isolating what makes the difference between brown eyes and blue eyes. How surprised they were when they found a single mutation, not in the protein P gene but in a gene attached to it! The mutation, isolated in the HERC2 gene, directly slows down the reading of the protein P gene and reduces the production of said protein. The mutation thus discovered acts like a switch. In its absence, protein P will be produced normally and the eyes will be brown. In its presence, protein P will be synthesized in smaller quantities and the eyes will be blue.
In other words, all individuals with blue eyes carry the same and unique mutation. Before, all individuals had brown eyes. The azure gaze would have landed for the first time on our world in the Neolithic era when our ancestors migrated from the Black Sea to Northern Europe.
Blue eyes have stood the test of time and spanned millennia. Why has evolution preserved them? Light skin, typical of Nordic countries, is recognized as an adaptation to low sunlight by promoting the formation of vitamin D. And blue eyes? Researchers have put forward the hypothesis of sexual selection. Why not? Who has never abandoned themselves to an azure gaze?
Relevant passages from The Urantia Book:
Adam and Eve were the founders of the violet race of men, the ninth human race to appear on Urantia. Adam and his offspring had blue eyes, and the violet peoples were characterized by fair complexions and light hair color—yellow, red, and brown. (UB 76:4.1)
The association of eyes and blue does not appear elsewhere in The Urantia Book. It would therefore appear that Adam and Eve were the first human beings on our planet to have blue eyes. In this case, it is not a mutation, as stated above, but a characteristic of the violet race founded by Adam and Eve.
As Adam and Eve arrived 37,923 years ago (828.1), the presence of humans with blue eyes is therefore 3.8 to 6.3 times older than what official science tells us. Then, it was not between the Black Sea and Northern Europe that the first human being with blue eyes appeared, but on a peninsula, now disappeared, in the eastern Mediterranean (823 - 1 and 2). Why is there mention of “disease” at the end of the fourth paragraph? Quite simply because albinism is, according to medicine, a disease.
Following these press releases one could sometimes read: The “blue eyes” trait being recessive, in a few centuries or millennia there will no longer be human beings with blue eyes. Science being wrong about the number of years and the place concerning the appearance of blue eyes, it is probably also wrong regarding the announcement of their disappearance.
* http://www.expasy.ch/prolune/instantanes/index.shtml then in “Summary of previous chronicles”, click on “03.2008: Protein P”
André Chappuis