Mutations

© H. Danke

If Darwin’s evolution theory is to be taken seriously, that would mean an animal kingdom hummer and a plant kingdom flower descended from a common ancestor, courtesy of rare mutations.

“When a single mutation occurs in a single newborn, even if it is a favorable mutation, there is a fair probability that it will not be presented in the next generation because its single carrier may not, by chance, pass it on to its few offspring.”²

Change in a single nucleotide would be the smallest possible modification of a genome.  One evolutionist guesstimated that as few as 500 mutations could evolve a new species. No matter how many billions of chances and multi-millions of years allocated, the chance of those 500 mutations evolving a new and different species continues beyond the impossible—ad infinitum.

“It’s a matter of chance that a mutant survives.  It might spread through the population and take it over, but more likely it will just vanish…even good mutations are likely to disappear from the population.

“The chance of 500 of these steps succeeding is 1/300,000 multiplied by itself 500 times. The odds against that happening are about 3.6 x 10^2,738 to one, or the chance of it happening is about 2.7 x 10^-2,739…It’s more than 2,000 orders of magnitude smaller than…impossible.” ³ Computations of the likelihood for any single event beyond 10⁵⁰ chances qualifies as impossible, unless absolutism is willing to concede the intrusion of a miracle.

Impossible trumps improbable!

What are the odds of seven billion human dice throwers coming up with identical number sets at the precise nanosecond of time in 4.6 billion years, assuming each player could live so long?

The odds overwhelm plausibility.

Reinventing evolution by reliance on mutations as the theory’s “raw material” is fanciful. Genetic code corruption by mutation doesn’t provide evolution’s “raw material” but does contribute to deterioration of the genome.

“The genome is fragile, subject to environmental insults (radiation, oxidation etc.) Extensive repair systems are guarding the integrity of the genome second-by-second. Without their work, life would become extinct.”⁴

Desert mirages don’t deliver sparkling water. A single mathematical miscalculation can disrupt a rocket’s moon shot. Mistakes in manufacturing or administering pharmaceutical products can kill.

Beautiful, vivacious, four-year-old Kylie McPeak appeared to be every parent’s dream of an ideal daughter. But then, her mom sensed a “feeling” that something was wrong. The vigilant mom had reasons to worry.

By the time Kylie was six, the twitching became an uncontrollable writhing and her sweet child’s voice began to quaver. Stumped local doctors encouraged the parents to present Kylie’s case to the National Institute of Health’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program. ⁵ Baffled for a time, UDH eventually spotted the culprit–a mutated gene present on human chromosome 6 that codes for the protein laforin, usually a heart-wrenching death sentence for the child victim.

The genetic mutation that triggers Lafora disease in kids is a poor candidate as evidence that mutations provide evolution’s “raw material.”

A growing roster of serious mutation-caused genetic disorders, including the HIV curse, had been identified by the close of the twentieth century. So what’s going on? Where is the new genetic information essential for natural selection to select in order to do its thing?

Ultraviolet light, nuclear radiation, and those pesky virus parasites rank as prime candidates for mutating genetic codes. The virus culprit lurks as a prime villain.

Gettimage

To suggest a cat and a mouse could have shared a common ancestor falls short of serious science. Mutated DNA does not account for the difference!

Just as electronic viruses wreak computer havoc, organic viruses lead a parade of enemies inflicting devastating damage to a genome. Evidence that virus parasites appear to be anything but life-friendly continues to pile up.

In recent years, millions of honeybees in the United States have died, mystifying science until 2010. It is now believed the twin culprits may be the insect iridescent virus attacking bees inflicted with the Nosema ceranae fungus.⁶ The havoc wreaking CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) contributes nothing positive in support of evolutionary change.

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, is a retrovirus. Retroviruses are viruses composed of RNA. They contain an enzyme that gives them the unique property of transcribing RNA (their RNA) into DNA. The retroviral DNA can then integrate into the chromosomal DNA of the host cell to be expressed there.

Its axiomatic: a living cell is needed to host a parasite virus. Lacking ability to reproduce itself without access to a living cell, a virus doesn’t qualify as a candidate for first life since the parasite cannot reproduce without latching onto a pre-existing “host cell.” The how, when, and where the insidious “mini-monster” (a fraction of a bacteria’s size) first intruded on already-existing life confounds. Science lacks the answer. 

Some may speculate the virus villain might have been hatched in the brain of Satan, the one-time angel light-bearer, now the fallen adversary of God. Did this monster highjack knowledge of the creation miracle and design the insidious virus as a weapon to sabotage pristine life on Earth in his war against God? Could Satan have infected human DNA with a virus so debilitating that it would degrade the genome while setting in motion the human death spiral? Thought provoking questions that no serious theologian or knowledgeable scientist can begin to answer!

The origin of a virus mystifies. The havoc it inflicts is apparent. The pesky parasite can mutate both DNA and RNA with dire consequences.

“The viral DNA or RNA then takes control of the cell’s functions, including reproduction. The host cell has no choice but to make copies of the virus until the cell explodes, sending hundreds of viruses out to other healthy cells.”⁷

“The modification of epigenetic features associated with a region of DNA allows organisms, on a multigenerational time scale, to switch between phenotypes that express and repress that particular gene…

“…Most of these multigenerational epigenetic traits are gradually lost over several generations…When the DNA sequence of the region is not mutated, this change is reversible.” ⁸

Reversible modifications of gene expression do not change the underlying DNA sequence of an organism.

As to the tired cliché that mutations benefit bacteria by building immunity to antibiotics such as streptomycin, reality indicates “the mutation reduces the specificity of the ribosome protein, and that means losing genetic information” with “a loss of sensitivity.” Despite any “selective value,” this mutation “decreases rather than increases genetic information.” ⁹

“…Antibiotic resistance is the result of loss of a protein, loss of the binding capacity of a protein, or the loss of a transporting system…It’s a loss of something…If you’re removing a transport protein to eliminate the bacteria’s sensitivity to antibiotics, then how is that explaining common descent by modification…?”¹⁰

“There aren’t any known, clear, examples of a mutation that has added information.” Rather, mutations lead “to a loss of sensitivity to the drug… the effect is heritable, and a whole strain of resistant bacteria can arise from the mutation…A change in one of its proteins is then likely to degrade the organism…Information cannot be built up by mutations that lose it.” ¹¹

“For information to build up in living organisms, it must be created somewhere…Although in some special cases a loss of information can lead to an advantage for the organism, the large-scale evolution for which the NDT [neo-Darwinian Theory] is supposed to account cannot be based on such mutations.”¹²

“Most mutations which cause changes in the amino acid sequence of proteins tend to damage function to a greater or lesser degree…most of the amino acids in the centre of the protein cannot be changed without having drastic deleterious effects on the stability and function of the molecule.”¹³

“There are all kinds of mutations that eliminate proteins. They may eliminate transport protein, an enzyme, the action of an enzyme, or regulatory systems.”¹⁴

Mutations are “not making new transport proteins. They’re not making new regulatory systems! >Antibiotic resistance is an example.

“Every time you read about antibiotic resistance…they’re going to talk about this as…an absolute example of evolution. There’s no mutation that gives them [evolutionists] what is necessary for common descent with modifications.” ¹⁴

One of Darwin’s false assumptions “was that natural selection had a building or creating capacity, and it doesn’t.” It removes information. “Every molecular example of a mutation we currently have fails to provide a mechanism that can account for the origin of any genetic activity or function.”¹⁴

Crippling mutations respect no human. Mutations unload a bleak litany of physical flaws and debilitating diseases on the genome. Harmful gene mutations have plagued humans with a list of 4,500 already identified bad results—and still counting.

Since 1990, “discoveries of heart-handicapping mutations have been pouring out of numerous labs at an ever-increasing rate, yielding more than 100 mutations in more than a dozen genes.” ¹⁵

“A genetic polymorphism called 11307K in either of…two APC genes doubles the risk of colon cancer.”¹⁶

A monster of a man, twisted and bent almost in half before his premature death, tottered feebly, aided by a walker. Parkinson’s disease, an insidious scourge, laid low the robust physique of the former football star. A mutated gene stands accused as the culprit.¹⁷

Progressive myoclonus epilepsy is caused by a gene mutation on chromosome 21. Treacher Callins Syndrome, hemochromatosis, is linked to a defective gene on chromosome 6.

A caring, elementary schoolteacher was forced to cope with Acromegaly’s brutal disfigurement and the bullying taunts of the mean spirited; the disease came from an acquired, genetic mutation.

A gene mutation on chromosome 5 generates deformities of the face, ears, down-slanting eyes, and deafness.

A chromosome 9-gene mutation causes skin cancer.

A mutated gene on chromosome 16 is tied to fanconi anemia, affecting children who rarely live past their sixteenth birthday.

A gene missing from chromosome 7 causes Williams Syndrome.

Anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, caused by a mutation on the X chromosome, can afflict victims with baldness, loss of teeth, or deprive them of the ability to sweat. ¹⁸

“…Not one mutation that increased the efficiency of a genetically coded human protein has been found.

“Instead of a ‘blind watchmaker,’ the mutations behave like a ‘blind gunman,’ a destroyer who shoots his deadly ‘bullets’ randomly into beautifully designed models of living molecular machinery. Sometimes the ‘bullets’ only cause minor damage; sometimes they maim and cripple; sometimes they kill.” ¹⁹ 

There are “genetic flaws that make people fat…” ²⁰  Werner’s syndrome results from a mutated site on human chromosome 8 causing victims to “age prematurely fast and usually die before they reach 50.” ²¹

Yet another genetic mutation “…causes children to die of old age… Children with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome age at a rate five to 10 times faster than normal.  They lose their hair, their skin wrinkles, and they die of arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, by their early teens.”  The defect is in “…a gene that controls the structure of the nucleus…” ²² 

Progressive blindness, described as retinitis pigmentosa, is a disorder linked to a gene from the X chromosome. “Best’s macular dystrophy… destroys the part of the retina responsible for the sharpest vision ‘has been linked to mutations’ in the gene now called bestrophin.” ²³  Blood clots can form with the power to cause sudden death where a “patient with the disorder has inherited at least one defective gene encoding protein C.” ²⁴

A mutated gene on chromosome 11 contributes to inherited hearing impairment. ²⁵ Leukemia may result when a piece of chromosome moves to another chromosome in the midst of cell division.

Then there’s the smorgasbord of birth defects caused by mutated genes: muscular dystrophy, spinabifida, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s Disease, hermachromatosis, and Down’s Syndrome. The recently identified Zika virus can inflict malformed heads on babies of mothers bitten by a mosquito.

Regarding humans, researchers “calculated an unusually high rate of 4.2 mutations per generation, of which 1.6 diminish the fitness of the species… the species must survive in part because people who have accumulated dangerous mutations are least likely to successfully have children…

“The human reproductive strategy helps purge harmful mutations in batches…they mix their genes with another’s, and presumably some of the worst defects aren’t passed along. That wouldn’t happen if humans reproduced asexually.” ²⁶

Mutated human genes labeled APOE, CLU, and PICALM have been targeted as likely culprits inflicting Alzheimer’s disease on the lives of five million Americans. ²⁷

“Meat contaminated by a virus that can be lethal is being sold to consumers — creating a public health threat that has largely flown under the radar due to powerful industry interests and lax accountability at the federal agency in charge of ensuring food safety, according to recent studies and a prominent investigative journalist.

“’It makes salmonella look like a picnic,’ is how David Kirby, an investigative journalist who has written about MRSA, a life-threatening pathogen, described it in an interview with Consumer Ally.

“MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection that kills about 20,000 Americans — more than the number of people who die from AIDS — each year.”  ²⁸

DNA is so delicate that one report suggests: “Every exposure to tobacco, from occasional smoking or secondhand smoke, can damage DNA in ways that lead to cancer.” ²⁹

Inevitably, evolution’s mutation “cure-all” itself will suffer further from still-to-come discoveries, certain to expose virus-caused-mutations for the culprits they are–debilitating genetic mistakes. 

The glaring exception to the universal commonality of the science of order and the mathematically real is evolution’s mutant “science” where the logic of the measurable equation is discarded in favor of mutation’s assumptive myth. Evolution ignores the real and postulates the imaginary. 

Suggesting mutations evolve new life kinds makes no more sense than claiming disease promotes good health. Empty rhetoric lacks the mantle of substance once all cosmetic hype, bells, and whistles are taken off the table. Slick diagrams, catchy slogans and colorful imagination doesn’t guarantee scientific respectability. Against impossible odds, evolution attracts minds to the obscenity that some ancient, ancestral, grand pappy fish spawned descendant humanity using mutations harnessed to natural selection.

Truth stands tall in three dimension; it needs no defense.

Falsehood collapses on itself, melting to abstract nothingness when exposed to the scrutiny of hard evidence under the penetrating rays of discovery’s enlightening sun. 

Physician Sean Pitman articulates the reality that fossils don’t rank with Mendel’s Law of Genetics in evaluating evolution. “…Interpretations of fossils and the geologic column is not as definitively precise and conclusive as dealing with genetics and the Darwinian mechanism…” ³⁰

Pitman charges that “if Darwinian-style evolution happens or doesn’t happen, it happens or doesn’t happen genetically…The Darwinian mechanism of random mutations combined with natural selection was statistically untenable – dramatically so.  Given billions or even trillions of years of time, it was hopelessly inadequate to explain the origin of novel functional biological information…” ³⁰

One scientist endorsing evolution admits, “Various mutations are known to debilitate the nervous system, liver, pancreas, bones, eyes, ears, skin, urinary and reproductive tracts, endocrine system, blood and other features of the circulatory system, muscles, joints, dentition, immune system, digestive tract, limbs, lungs, and almost any other body part you can name.” ³¹

Louis Bounoure’s blunt analysis indicts evolution as nothing but“a fairy tale for grown-ups. This theory has helped nothing in the progress of science.  It is useless.” ³²

Ongoing discoveries in the molecular world suggest mutations may prove to be evolution’s monkey wrench, compliments of Gregor Mendel, undermining evolution theory by spilling sand into flawed perceptions of genetic gears.

The late Stephen J. Gould, articulate Harvard biologist, seemed to undercut the core essence of evolution’s synthetic theory with cold-eyed logic:  “You don’t,” he advised, “make new species by mutating the species…

“A mutation is not the cause of evolutionary change.” ³³

So much for evolution’s iconic lynchpin.

WLJ