Reply To: Circumstantial Evidence and Science in Jewish Law

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WolfishMusings
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Wolf: You agree that science admits dna evidence is not 100% proof it is the person it matched, correct?

If you have a clone or an identical twin, then certainly it’s not (although it could be argued that if you find a leg and the person has an identical twin, and the twin is standing right in front of you with two legs, that you could probably consider it a match).

According to the FBI, the odds of an unrelated person having the same DNA as you is 1 in 100 billion — which is currently about 15 times the population of the Earth — and that number depends on the number of sites on the DNA strand you inspect. If you inspect more sites, the odds of finding a match drop even more.

Granted, it’s not 100% — but then again, neither are the traditionally accepted methods either. The odds of a mistaken identification by an eyewitness (which *is* universally regarded as acceptable) are far greater than 1 in 100 billion.

The Wolf