Evolution
Encyclopedia Vol. 1
Chapter 14 Appendix Part 1
Supplementary Material
M U T A T I O N S
1 - What the Public is Told
There is a dramatic difference between what the public is told by
evolutionary advocates, and what careful scientists write in books and
scientific papers. The subject of mutations is no exception.
First, neo-Darwinists maintain that only mutations could possibly be the
cause of evolution. Life originated and life evolved into its present state by
means of mutations; at least so say the experts:
"Mutations . . provide the raw material of evolution."
—*Carl
Sagan, Cosmos, p. 27.
"Mutations . . are the basis of evolution." —*World Book
Encyclopedia, Vol. 13, p. 809 (1982 edition).
"Ultimately, all variation is, of course, due to mutations."
—*Ernst Mayr, quoted in 'P. S. Moorhead and *M. M. Kaplan (eds.),
Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution
(1967), p. 50.
"We know of no way other than random mutation by which new hereditary
variation comes into being." —*P. Hanawalt and *R. Haynes, "The
Repair of DNA," in Scientific-American, February 1967, p. 36.
"[Mutations] are necessary for evolutionary progress."
—*Peo
C. Koller, Chromosomes and Genes (1971), p. 127.
"Mutation provides the raw material of evolution . . mutation is the
ultimate source of all . . heritable variation." —*Julian Huxley,
Evolution in Action, p. 38.
"It remains true to say that we know of no way other than random
mutation by which new hereditary variation comes into being." —*C.
H. Waddington, The Nature of Life (1962), p. 98.
"The process of mutation ultimately furnishes the materials for
adaptation to changing environments. Genetic variations which increase the
reproductive fitness of a population to its environment are preserved and
multiplied by natural selection" —*Francisco J. Ayala,
"Genotype, Environment and Population Numbers," Science, Vol, 162,
December 27, 1968, p. 456.
"It is through the rare instances of favorable mutations, of
innumerable kinds and in countless
numbers, occurring successively over very extended period, that the whole
process of evolution may now be explained." —*Amram Scheinfeld, The
New You and Heredity, p. 476.
"Most mutations are for the worse . . [but] in the long run, to be
sure, mutations make the course of evolution move onward and upward." —*Isaac
Asimov, The Wellspring of Life, p. 139.
Second, the public is told that all or nearly all scientists
believe this to be so:
"An overwhelming majority of [biologists] believe that evolution
proceeds by mutations and natural selection." —*C.P. McGill, in
American Scientist, January 1953, p. 100. (Professor at McGill University.)
"Natural selection can only operate when there is
something to be selected" as the result of beneficial mutations.
"Early in the present century there was a heated discussion as to
whether evolution was the result of natural selection or of mutation. As more
was teamed about heredity, it became clear that natural selection can operate
only when there is something to be selected, that is, when mutations present
alternate ways of coping with the environment. The environment of new species,
then involves both mutation and natural selection." —*A. W. Haup, An
Introduction to Botany (1956) p. 258.
This wonderful "bungling process."
"Accidental alterations in the mechanism of his heredity slowly—by
trial and error—made man better adapted to his environment than are his
rivals. That's the accepted scientific view today, and scientists call this
long, frequently bungling process 'evolution.' "—'Oklahoma City Times,
August 10, 1968, p. 25.
"Detrimental. . diversely altered.. disadvantageous. .
impairment."
"It is entirely in line with the accidental nature of natural
mutations that extensive tests have agreed in showing the vast majority of
them to be detrimental to the organism in their job of surviving and
reproducing, just as changes accidentally introduced into any artificial
mechanism are predominantly harmful to its useful operation.
"According to the conception of evolution based on the studies of
modern genetics, the whole organism has its basis in its genes. Of these,
there are thousands of different kinds interacting with great nicety in the
production and maintenance of the complicated mechanism of the given type of
organism. Accordingly, by the mutation of one of these genes or another, any
component structure a function, and in many cases combinations of these
components, may become diversely altered. Yet in all except very rare cases
the change will be disadvantageous, involving an impairment of function."
—*H.H. Muller, "How Radiation Changes the Genetic Construction, "
in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, paper prepared for the U. N. Conference
on Peacetime Uses of Atomic Energy, at Geneva (1955).
"Harmful . . disadvantageous."
"Mutations occur at random, not because it would be convenient to have
one occur. Any chance alteration in the composition and properties of a highly
complex operation is harmful to the organism, and most mutations are
disadvantageous for this reason. There is a delicate balance between an
organism and its environment which a mutation can easily upset. One could as
well expect that altering the position of the foot brake or the gas pedal at
random would improve the operation of an automobile." —*F.S. Hulse,
The Human Species (1963), p. 53.
"Detrimental . . lethal . . die out. . leave fewer
descendants.. illness and suffering.. [cause of] more than 1,600 human
diseases."
[This paragraph tells it all:] "As it happens, [Hermann J.J Muller's
researches [into using radiation to increase mutations] have given rise to
some rather disquieting thoughts concerning the future of the human species.
While mutations are an important driving force in evolution, occasionally
producing an improvement that enables a species to cope better with its
environment, the beneficial mutation is very much the exception. Most
mutations—at least 99 percent of them are detrimental, some even lethal.
Eventually, even those that are only slightly harmful die out, because their
bearers do not get along as well and leave fewer descendants than healthy
individuals do. But in the meantime a mutation may cause illness and suffering
for many generations. Furthermore, new mutations keep cropping up continually,
and every species carries a constant load of defective genes. Thus, more than
1,600 human diseases are thought to be the result of genetic defects . . The
number of deleterious genes (the genetic loam gives rise to fears and
justified anxiety."—*Isaac Asimov, Asimov's New Guide to Science
(1984), p. 812.
"Harmful."
"The great majority of mutant genes are harmful in their effects on the
organism." —*Sir Julian Huxley, Evolution in Action (1953), p. 39.
"Detrimental."
"We have to face one particular fact, one so peculiar that in the
opinion of some people it makes nonsense of the whole theory of evolution:
Although the biological theory calls for incorporating beneficial variants in
the living populations, a vast majority of mutants observed in any organism
are detrimental to its welfare." —*John J. Fried, The Mystery of
Heredity (1971), p. 135.
"Deteriorations. . hereditary disease and
monstrosities."
"A majority of mutations, both those arising in laboratories and those
stored in natural populations, produce deteriorations of the viability,
hereditary diseases, and monstrosities. Such changes, it would seem, can
hardly serve as evolutionary building blocks." —*Theodosius
Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of the Species (1951), p. 73.
"Mutations . . invariably affect it adversely."
"Accordingly, mutations are more than just sudden changes in heredity;
they also affect viability, and, to the best of our knowledge, invariably
affect it adversely." —*C.P. Martin, "A Non-Geneticist Looks at
Evolution, " American Scientist, January 1953, p. 102.
"Unmistakably pathological . . [or] highly suspect."
"Mutation does produce hereditary changes but the mass of evidence shows
that all, or almost all, known mutations are unmistakably pathological and the
few remaining ones are highly suspect." —*C.P. Martin, "A
Non-Geneticist Looks at Evolution, " American Scientist, January 1953, p.
103.
"All mutations seem to be. . injuries that. .
impair."
"All mutations seem to be in the nature of injuries that, to some
extent, impair the fertility and viability of the affected organisms. I doubt if
among the many thousands of known mutant types one can be found which is
superior to the wild type in its normal environment. Only very few can be named
which are superior to the wild type in a strange environment." —*C.P.
Martin, "A Non-Geneticist Looks at Evolution, "American Scientist,
January 1953, p. 100.
"A single amino acid change . . [seriously affects blood
cells]."
" . . I took a little trouble to find whether a single amino acid
change in a hemoglobin mutation is known that doesn't affect seriously the
function of that hemoglobin. One is hard put to find such an instance."
—*George World, in *Paul S. Moorehead and *Martin M. Kaplan (Eds.)
Mathematical Challenges to the Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, pp.
18-19.
"A random change . . is almost certain to impair it."
"Even if we didn't have a great deal of data on this point, we could
still be quite sure on theoretical grounds that mutants would usually be
detrimental. For a mutation is a random change of a highly organized,
reasonably smoothly functioning living body. A random change in the highly
integrated system of chemical processes which constitute life is almost
certain to impair it just as a random interchange of connections in a
television set is not likely to improve the picture." —*James F. Crow,
" Genetic Effects of Radiation, " Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Vol. 14 (1958), pp. 19-20.
One definite result of mutations: "a tendency towards
degeneration."
"The one systematic effect of mutation seems to be a tendency towards
degeneration." —*Sewall Wright, in Julian Huxley (Ed.) "The
Statistical Consequences of Mendelian Heredity in Relation to goedation,
"The New Systematics (1949), p. 174.
Here is a sentence to memorize: "The process of mutation is the
only known source of the raw materials of genetic variability, and hence of
evolution."
"The process of mutation is the only known source of the raw materials
of genetic variability, and hence of evolution.. The mutants which arise are,
with rare exceptions, deleterious to their carriers, at least in the
environments which the species normally encounters." —*Theodosious
Dobzhansky, "On Methods of Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology, "
American Scientist, Winter, December 1957, p. 385.
-2 MUTATIONS ARE VERY HARMFUL
Over and over again, teamed scientists have declared that mutations
are harmful. In this section we will consider some of their statements In regard
to this matter.
How can mutations have produced all the marvels of nature, when they are so
very harmful? Evolutionists have no answer to that question. They merely counter
by saying, "Well, mutations did it anyway." That may be their opinion,
but it is neither scientific nor logical.
When scientists do speak out on this subject, they generally modify their
remarks to include "almost all" mutations are harmful. They do that
(1) because it is scientific not to say 100 percent, since someday a useful
mutation might be discovered, and (2) to say that all mutations are harmful
would be to admit that they could not possibly be the mechanism for evolution.
But, in reality, there is not one known instance of a non-weakening
mutation—anywhere!
The classic example is sickle-cell anemia: it is said to be
"beneficial," because it helps Africans resist malaria. Which
scientist is willing to acquire sickle-cell anemia in order to lessen his
chances of getting malaria? There are none, for, all aside from malaria,
sickle-cell anemia itself terribly weakens the system and shortens life.
Here is what the scientists tell us about the dangers of mutations:
"Harmful."
"Like radiation-induced mutations, nearly all spontaneous mutations
with detectable effects are harmful."— Arthur Custance, Longevity in Antiquity
(1957), p. 1160.
"Useless, detrimental or lethal."
"If we say that it is only by chance that they [mutations] are useful,
we are still speaking too leniently. In general, they are useless, detrimental
or lethal." —*W. R. Thompson, Introduction, Charles Darwin, Origin
of Species (1956 edition).
"Deleterious . . harmful."
"The greatest proportion of mutations are deleterious to the
individual who carries the mutated gene. It was found in experiments that, for
every successful or useful mutation, there are many thousands which are
harmful." —*Peo C. Koller, Chromosomes and Genes (1971), p. 127.
"Bad."
"Most of the mutations are bad. In fact the good ones are so rare that
we can consider them all as bad."— -*H.J. Muller, Time, November 11,
1946, p. 38.
"Poor material for evolutionary progress."
"'Creatures with shrivelled-up wings and defective vision, or no eyes,
offer poor material for evolutionary progress.' "—"E.W. MacBride,
quoted in H. Epoch, Evolution or Creation (1966), p. 75.
"Damaging . . freaks and monstrosities . . destructive."
"The fact that most mutations are damaging to the organism seems hard
to reconcile with the view that mutation is the source of raw materials for
evolution. Indeed, mutants illustrated in biology textbooks are a collection
of freaks and monstrosities, and mutation seems to be a destructive rather
than a constructive process."'Encydopedia Americana Vol. 10, p.
742 (1677 edition).
"For the worse."
"Most mutations are for the worse . . In the long run, to be sure,
mutations make the course of evolution move onward and upward." —*Isaac
Asimov, The Wellsprings of Life (1960), p. 139.
"Harmful."
"The great majority of mutant genes are harmful in their effects on
the organism." —*Animal Species end Evolution, pp. 170, 39.
Degenerative.
"The one systematic effect of mutations seems to be a tendency towards
degeneration." —*Sewall Wright, in *Julian Huxley (ed.), The New
Systematics (1949), p. 174.
No utilitarian function known.
"'It must be admitted that the direct and complete proof of the
utilization of mutations in evolution under natural conditions has not yet
been given." —*Julian Huxley, quoted in H. Epoch, Evolution or
Creation (1966), p. 78.
"Harmful.. eventually die out [along with those having
them]."
"According to this conception, all the adaptations of living things
must have arisen through the survival and reproductions of those mutations
which happened to give by-products favorable for gene continuance, or, as we
say, for life. But mutations are found to be of a random nature, so far as
their utility is concerned. Accordingly, the great majority of mutations,
certainly well over 99 percent are harmful in some way, as is to be expected
of the effects of accidental occurrence. These harmful mutations, however,
eventually die out naturally, because of the lower ability to live, or the
lower viability, of the individuals containing these mutated genes." —*H.
J. Muller, "Radiation Damage to the Genetic Material," in American
Scientist, January 1950, p. 38.
"Disastrous results."
"The problems of tailoring a gene and inserting it in human sperm or
egg, making it hereditary, are so many and so little understood at present
that reasonable prediction would place that in a future very remote indeed.
Moreover, the human (or any other viable and natural) gene system is so
intricately balanced that insertion of a foreign element, however well
specified in itself, would probably have disastrous effects.."——-*G.
G. Simpson, Biology and Man (1969), p. 129. "Inferior. . in viability and
competitive power."
"Mutations, even if they can surpass the mother species in certain
respects, are nevertheless inferior in respect of total viability and
therefore in competitive power." —*H. Nilsson American Nature, Vol. 57.
"Deleterious . . degeneration and extinction."
"The mutants which arise are, with rare exception, deleterious to
their carriers, at least in the environments which the species normally
encounters. Some of them are deleterious apparently in all environments.
Therefore the mutation process alone, not corrected and guided by natural
selection, would result in degeneration and extinction." —*Theodore
Dobzhansky, "On Methods of Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology, "
in American Scientist, Vol. 45, December 1957, p. 385.
"Detrimental . . disadvantageous . . impairment."
"It is entirely in line with the accidental nature of natural
mutations that extensive tests have agreed in showing the vast majority of
them to be detrimental to the organism in its job of surviving and
reproducing, just as changes accidentally introduced into any artificial
mechanism are predominantly harmful to its useful operation. According to the
conception of evolution based on the studies of modern genetics, the whole
organism has its basis in its genes. Of these, there are thousands of
different kinds, interacting with great nicety in the production and
maintenance of the complicated mechanism of the given type of organism.
Accordingly, by the mutation of one of these genes or another, any component
structure or function, and in many cases combinations of these components, may
become diversely altered. Yet in all except very rare cases the change will be
disadvantageous, involving an impairment of function." —*H.J.
Muller, "How Radiation Changes the Genetic Constitution, " Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists, November 1955, p.331.
"Lethal . . killed . . pathological."
"Many of them had lethal results and killed the organisms that carried
them... tar from conferring improvement in adaptation, the mutations seemed to
be pathological, and provided no explanation of how adaptations arose and
became perfected. The result. . was that during the first twenty years of the
twentieth century, evolutionary studies and theories were in a state of chaos
and confusion." —*Sir Gavin de Beer, Charles Darwin (1965), p. 182.
"Harmful . . kill . . impairment . . detrimental
"Mutation and mutation rates have been studied in a wide variety of
experimental plants and animals, and in man. There is one general result that
dearly emerges: almost all mutations are harmful. The degree of harm ranges from
mutant genes that kill their carrier, to those that cause only minor impairment.
"Even if we didn't have a great deal of data on this point, we could
still be quite sure on theoretical grounds that mutations would usually be
detrimental. For a mutation is a random change of a highly organized, reasonably
smoothly functioning body. A random change in the highly integrated system of
chemical processes which constitute life is almost certain to impair ft." —*James
Crow, "Genetic Effects of Radiation" in Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientist.
"Deleterious . . functioning less efficiently
"Certainly the vast majority of mutations must be deleterious, so if
the organs of older animals contain appreciable numbers of cells which are
carrying mutations, it is a virtual certainty that the organs are functioning
less efficiently than they otherwise would." —*Biological Mechanisms
Underlying the Aging Process" in Science 141, August 23, 1963, p. 686.
"Lethal or harmful . . damage . . pathological
aberrations."
"Most mutations are lethal or harmful; some appear neutral and a few
(less than 0.1 percent) can be interpreted as favourable [such as sickle cell
anemia]. If the genetic blueprint for an organism is initially
optional—like, say, the design for a new TV set—then mutations appear as
damage incurred by wear and tear or misuse. Kicking a damaged TV set might
improve its performance but the treatment is not generally recommended. In no
way could random—or even well-directed—kicking have been responsible for
the origin of the TV in the first place. But the neo-Darwinian, who asserts
that mutations are the raw material of evolution, and the only source of
novelty for natural selection to work on, is both denying the existence of an
optimal genetic blueprint (or archetype) for a life-form, and accepting
'kicking' as a rational means of improving it out of recognition.
"Mutations are pathological aberrations: who would risk exposure to
radioactivity to generate a superhuman child?. . the probability of
simultaneous good mutations in all the genes which control a given character
must lie very close to zero. For evolution to occur through mutation,
countless sequential good mutations would be required; at each step all would
have to cooperate harmoniously and each mutation would have to be selected
for. This simply could not happen." —*Michael Pitman, Adam and
Evolution (1984), p. 66-67.
"Degeneration."
"The one systematic effect of mutation seems to be a tendency towards
degeneration (as may be seen from a casual survey of the effects of most of
the Drosophila mutations)." —H. R. Siegler, Evolution or
Degeneration (1972), 22.
"Decay mechanism . . mistake . . harmful or even lethal
. ."
"The chief mechanism of permanent and innovative change in organisms
(as distinct from normal Mendelian variations) is that of mutations. However,
in perfect accordance with the creationist observation that a universal decay
principle pervades all processes, it is significant that mutations are
themselves basically decay mechanisms. A mutation represents a so-called
'mistake' in the transmission of genetic information from parent to progeny
via the genetic code.
"It could also be described as a random change in the highly-ordered
and complex structure of the germ cell, brought about by a powerful radiation
or chemical penetrating the cell. Statistically and thermodynamically (as well
as intuitively) a random change in an ordered system will, to a very high
degree of probability, decrease the order of that system.
"This is why practically all known true mutations are harmful, or even
lethal, mutations, and why genuine observed biologic changes are always either
conservative (adaptational variations within the limits of the created
'kinds') or else disintegrative (e.g. vestigial organs, species extinctions,
decreased viability due to the accumulated 'genetic load' of mutations,
decreased longevity or fertility, etc.)." —H. M. Morris, W. W. Board
man and R. F. Koontz, Science and Creation 1971), p.14.
-3 MATH ON MUTATIONS
What are the mathematical probabilities that mutations could
possibly produce the origin and evolution of all the life forms in the world
,with all their millions of interior systemic parts and organs? Here is some
Information:
It is a lunatic sort of logic.
"This is really the theory that [says] if you start with any fourteen
lines of coherent English and change it one letter at a time, keeping only
those things that still make sense, you will eventually finish up with one of
the sonnets of Shakespeare . . it strikes me as a lunatic sort of logic, and I
think we should be able to do better." —*C.H. Waddington,
"Evolution," in Science Today, p. 38. [Waddington is a geneticist.]
Slips cannot do the job.
"No, decidedly, I cannot make myself think that these 'slips' of
heredity [mutations] have been able, even with the cooperation of natural
selection, even with the advantage of the immense periods of time in which
evolution works on life, to build the entire world,—with its structural
prodigality and refinements, its astounding adaptations." —*Jean
Rostand, The Orion Book of Evolution, p. 79.
An utterance of a myth.
"Upon rigorous examination and analysis, any dogmatic assertion . .
that gene mutations are the raw material for any evolutionary process
involving natural selection is an utterance of a myth." —*John N.
Moors, On Chromosomes, Mutations, and Phylogeny, p. 5.
Nobody in their senses considers such a possibility.
"All biologists are not equally satisfied. Some feel that the argument
gets uncomfortably close to a point when an adequate number of monkeys,
tapping typewriters for an adequate length of time will inevitably produce an
encyclopedia. Such a thing, of course, is conceivably possible but nobody in
their senses takes such things into consideration in everyday life.
"We either have to accept natural selection as the only available
guide to the mechanism of evolution, and be prepared to admit that it involves
a considerable element of speculation, or feel in our bones that natural
selection, operating on the random mutations, leaves too much to chance . . If
we look on organic evolution as one of Nature's games of chance, it seems just
a little strange that she should have dean quite so many winning hands. But,
your guess is as good as mine." —*Sir James Gray, Science
today, pp. 2930.
Scientists tell us that there may be one favorable mutation out of
every thousand harmful ones. Huxley, a dedicated evolutionist, takes that
estimate and figures the odds, assuming only a million mutational steps to lead
from one species to another. After showing that it cannot happen, he then says
it did it anyway!
"A proportion of favorable mutations of one in a thousand does not sound
much, but is probably generous . . And a total of a million mutational steps
sounds a great deal but is probably an understatement.. However, let us take
these figures as being reasonable estimates. With this proportion, but without
any selection, we should clearly have to breed a million strains (a thousand
squared) to get one containing two favorable mutations; and so on, up to a
thousand to the millionth power to get one containing a million. Of course this
could not really happen, but it is a useful way of visualizing the fantastic
odds against getting a number of favorable mutations in one strain through pure
chance alone. A thousand to the millionth power, when written out, becomes the
figure 1 with three million noughts after it; and that would take three large
volumes of about 500 pages each, just to print) . . No one would bet on anything
so improbable happening. And yet it has happened) It has happened, thanks to the
working of natural selection and the properties of living substance which make
natural selection inevitable)" —*Julian Huxley, Evolution in Action
(1953), p. 41.
Five favorable mutations could never occur within the lifetime of an
individual—yet billions would have had to occur within a few minutes in order
for it to survive!
"The frequency with which a single nonharmful mutation is known to
once mutate is about 1 in 1000. The probability that two favorable mutations
would occur is 1 in 103 X 10', in a million. Studies of Drosophila have
revealed that large numbers of genes are involved in the formation of the
separate structural elements. There may be 30,E involved in a single wing
structure. It is moat unlikely that fewer than five genders could ever be
involved in the formation of even the simplest new structure, previously
unknown in the organism. The probability now becomes one in one thousand
million million. We already know that mutations in living cells appear once in
ten million to once in one hundred thousand million. It is evident that the
probability of five favorable mutations occurring within a single life cycle
of an organism is effectively zero." —*E. Ambrose, The Nature and
Origin of the Biological World (1982), p. 120.
Random mutations could not produce five effective, beneficial changed genes.
"The difficulties in explaining the origin of increased complexity as
a result of bringing a 'cluster' of genes together within the nuclei of a
single organism in terms of probabilities, fade into insignificance when we
recognize that there must be a close integration of functions between the
individual genes of the cluster, which must also be integrated into the
development of the entire organism.
"The improbability increases at an enormous rate as the number of
genes increases from one to five . . The problem of bringing together the eve
mutated genes we are considering, within a single nucleus, and for them to
'fit' immediately into this vast complex of interacting units, is indeed
difficult. When it is remembered that they must give some selective advantage,
or else become scattered once more within the population at large. Due to
interbreeding, it seems impossible to explain these events in terms of random
mutation alone." —*E. Ambrose, The Nature and Origin of the
Biological World, (1982), pp. 123-124.
It takes 10 million years just to establish one mutation as a
regular characteristic of a gene.
"Something of the order of 10 million years is needed to establish a
mutation. That is, each of these single amino acid changes appears relatively
frequently in individuals as pathology; but to establish one such change as a
regular characteristic in a species seems to take something of the order of 10
million years." —*G. World, "The Problems of Vicarious
Selection" in Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation
of Evolution (196, p. 59.
*Dodson says it would take 20 million years.
"If you make a rough estimate, it looks as if something of the order
of 10 million years is needed to establish a mutation. That is, each of these
single amino acid changes appears relatively frequently in individuals as
pathology; but to establish such change as a regular characteristic in a
species seems to take something of the order of 20 million years."
—*E. Dodson, Evolution: Process and Product (1960), p. 225.
-4 FRUIT FLIES SPEAK UP
Well, they may not say much, but at least those who have spent years
observing them surely have something to say. The humble fruit fly will speak to
us through the researchers who have spent countless hours studying the varied
ways in which mutations have damaged those flies:
In 1904, Walter S. Sutton, an American cytologist, decided there might
be some connection between Gregor Mendel's 1860s research and the
newly-discovered chromosomes with their genes. A major breakthrough came in
1906, when Thomas Hunt Morgan, a Columbia University zoologist, conceived the
idea of using fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) for genetic research. This
was due to the fact that they breed so very rapidly, require little food, have
scores of easily observed characteristics, and only a few chromosomes per cell.
"The fly could be bred by the thousands in milk bottles. It coat
nothing but a few bananas to feed all the experimental animals; their entire
life cycle lasts 10 days and they have only four chromosomes." —*R. Milner,
Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 169.
Later still, fruit flies began to be used in mutational research. What that
research revealed settled the question for all time as to whether evolution
could successfully result from mutations. And those little creatures should be
able to settle the matter, for it takes only 12 days for a fruit fly to reach
maturity; after that it steadily reproduces young. Each of its offspring matures
in 12 days, and the generations multiply rapidly. What it would take mammals
tens of thousands of years to accomplish, the humble fruit flies can do within a
very short time.
We have heard about "the rocks crying out" (Luke 19:40). The fossil
rocks surely are. Well, the little fruit flies have a testimony to give also.
Pitman says the experiments have only produced geneticists'
monsters.
"Take the example of fruit flies (Drosophila). Morgan, Goldschmidt,
Muller and other geneticists have subjected generations of fruit flies to
extreme conditions of heat, cold, light, dark and treatment by chemicals and
radiation. All sorts of mutations, practically all trivial or positively
deleterious, have been produced. Man-made evolution? Not really: few of the
geneticists' monsters could have survived outside the bottles they were bred
in. In practice mutants die, are sterile or tend to revert to the
wild-type." —*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 70.
*Richard Goldschmidt spent a lifetime studying mutated fruit flies,
and as a result totally gave up classical evolutionary theory.
"After observing mutations in fruit flies for many years, Professor
Goldschmidt fell into despair. The changes, he lamented, were so hopelessly
micro [insignificant] that if a thousand mutations were combined in one
specimen, there would still be no new species." —*Norman Macbeth,
Darwin Retried (1971), p. 33.
Fruit flies which receive mutations are always weakened in one way
or another.
"The clear-cut mutants of Drosophila, with which so much of the
classical research in genetics was done, are almost without exception inferior
to wild-type flies in viability, fertility, longevity." — *Theodosius
Dobzansky, Heredity and the Nature of Man (1964), p. 126.
According to evolution, man has lived on the earth for a little over
a million years. Yet experiments on fruit flies have already exceeded the
equivalent of a million years of people living on earth. Here is a clear
statement of the problem:
"The fruit fly has long been the favorite object of mutation
experiments because of its fast gestation period (twelve days). X rays have
been used to increase the mutation rate in the fruit fly by 15,000 percent.
All in all, scientists have been able to "catalyze the fruit fly
evolutionary process such that what has been seen to occur in Drosophila is
the equivalent of many millions of years of normal mutations and
evolution."
"Even with this tremendous speedup of mutations, scientists have never
been able to come up with anything other than another fruit fly. Most
important, what all these experiments demonstrate is that the fruit fly can
vary within certain upper and lower limits but will never go beyond them. For
example, Ernst Mayr reported on two experiments performed on the fruit fly
back in 1948.
"In the first experiment, the fly was selected for a decrease in
bristles and, in the second experiment, for an increase in bristles. Starting
with a parent stock averaging 36 bristles, it is possible after thirty
generations to lower the average to 25 bristles, "but then the line
became sterile and died out." In the second experiment, the average
number of bristles was increased from 36 to 56; then sterility set in. Mayr
concluded with the following observation: Obviously any drastic improvement
under selection must seriously deplete the store of genetic variability . .
The most frequent correlated response of one-sided selection is a drop in
general fitness. This plagues virtually every breeding experiment." —*Jeremy
Rifkin, Algeny (1983), p. 134.
The mutated creatures die out, when placed out in nature with
normal, hardy specimens.
"A review of known facts about their ability to survive has led to no
other conclusion than that they [the mutated offspring] are always
constitutionally weaker than their parent form or species, and in a population
with free competition they are eliminated . . Therefore they are never found
in nature (e.g. not a single one of the several hundred [types] of Drosophila
mutations), and therefore, they are able to appear only in the favorable
environment of the experimental field or laboratory." —*H. Nilsson,
Synthetische Artbildng (1954), p. 1186.
After decades of study, without immediately killing or sterilizing
them, 400 different mutational features have been identified in fruit flies. But
none of these changes the fruit fly to a different species.
"Out of 400 mutations that have been provided by Drosophila
melanogaster, there is not one that can be called a new species. It does
not seem, therefore, that the central problem of evolution can be solved by
mutations."— *Maurice Caullevy, Genetics and Heredity (1964), p.
119.
The following news article sums it all up. Notice the fact that, in
those instances in which damaged fruit flies survive long enough, they change
back into regular fruit flies—even those without eyes!
"For 80 years scientists have been experimenting with the lowly fruit
fly (Drosophila), trying to prove that all life on planet earth is the
result of a series of 'good accidents.'
"Evolutionists, through a marvelous leap of faith, believe that the
almost endless variety and complexity of plants and animals 'evolved' from an
ancient pool of 'primordial soup.'
"How do they believe this is possible? By millions and billions of accidents.
For example, an early fish might accidentally grow a new kind of fin which
helped him swim faster and escape his enemies. Then his fins might
accidentally turn to legs he could use to walk on land, and so on.
"All this is based on a faith by the evolutionist that somehow,
somewhere a gene changed to give this higher life form. It has to be faith,
because there is yet no evidence that when genes have accidents (called
mutations), that it is for the better.
"The evidence is overwhelming that such accidents either make the gene
worse, or at best, no better than the original.
"After all, how often do you see a car run faster and more smoothly
after a head-on collision?
"Well, back to fruit flies. Because fruit flies reproduce many
generations in a very short time, scientists picked them for the experiment
hoping to compress thousands of eyes of 'evolution' into a few years of lab
work.
"After 80 years and millions of generations of fruit flies subjected
to X-rays and chemicals which cause mutations, all they have been able to
produce are more of the same: fruit flies.
"And, more importantly, they have all been no better or stronger and
many have been weaker. All the changes eventually reached limits that, when
approached, the strains of the fruit flies grew progressively weaker and died.
"And when the mutated strains were allowed to breed for several
generations, they gradually changed back to the original form.
"One experiment produced fruit flies without eyes. Yet, after a few
life cycles, flies with eyes began to appear. Some kind of genetic repair
mechanism took over and blocked any possibility of evolution.
"God was very careful in Genesis to state that each of the animals
were created 'after his kind.' After 80 years and millions of generations, God
was proven right: a fruit fly will always be a fruit fly. " —"Evolutionists
Still Looking for a `Good Accident,' " Battle Cry, July-August, 1990.
The classical example of the damaging effects of mutations is to be
found in what scientists have done to fruit flies by inducing mutations in them.
"Most mutants which arise in any organism are more a less
disadvantageous to their possessors. The classical mutants obtained in Drosophila
usually show deterioration, breakdown, or disappearance of some organs.
Mutants are known which diminish the quantity or destroy the pigment in the
eyes, and in the body reduce the wings, eyes, bristles, legs. Many mutants
are, in fact lethal to their possessors. Mutants which equal the normal fly in
vigor are a minority, and mutants that would make a major improvement of the
normal organization in the normal environments are unknown." —*Theodosius
Dobzhansky, Evolution, Genetics, and Man (1955), p. 105.
Offspring of mutated parents are always weaker.
"A review of known facts about their [mutated fruit flies] ability to
survive has led to no other conclusion than that they are always
constitutionally weaker than their parent form or species, and in a population
with free competition they are eliminated. Therefore they are never found in
nature (e.g. not a single one of the several hundreds of Drosophila mutations),
and therefore they are able to appear only in the favourable environment of
the experimental field a laboratory . . " —*N. Herbert Nilsson, Synthetische
Artbildung (1953), p. 1186.
No new—species fruit flies have ever resulted from sixty years of
irradiating the poor creatures.
"It is a striking, but not much mentioned fact that, though
geneticists have been breeding fruit flies for sixty years or more in labs all
round the world—flies which produce new generation every eleven days—they
have never yet seen the emergence of a new species or even a new enzyme."
—*Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery (1983),
p. 48.
The final word: A thousand known fruit-fly mutations placed in one
individual—would still not produce a new species!
"In the best-known organisms, like Drosophila, innumerable mutants are
known. If we were able to combine a thousand or more of such mutants in a
single individual, this still would have no resemblance whatsoever to any type
known as a [new] species in nature." —*Richard B. Goldschmidt,
"Evolution, As Viewed by One Geneticist, "American Scientist,
January 1952, p. 94.
The obstinate, stubborn little creatures!
"Fruit flies refuse to become anything but fruit flies under any
circumstances yet devised." —*Francis Hitching, The Neck of the
Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong (1982), p. 61.
-5 AN EVOLUTIONIST'S PARADISE
Look the world over, and you will find only one location where the
evolutionist's goal can be achieved. That is a place where large amounts of
mutations have occurred. Such places are evolutionary paradises, for these are
the locations where the evolutionists can prove their theory that mutations are
able to produce wonderfully beneficial, totally new species.
Only in the 20th century have we had the opportunity to investigate such
paradises, for, outside of the fruit fly laboratories, It has only been since
1945 that we have produced them. Some might say that there has not been enough
time for such paradises to propagate new species, but it is well known among
thinking scientists that new species would have to be rapidly produced or they
would die. Living organisms are far too complicated to live long with only part
of their revised organs in place.
On November 5, 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen accidentally
discovered X-rays. That occurrence revolutionized physics, and within a few
weeks radioactivity was discovered.
"What was also discovered—the hard way—was that high-energy
radiation could cause cancer. At least one hundred of the early workers with
X-rays and radioactive materials died of cancer, the first death taking place
in 1902. As a matter of fact, both Marie Curie and her daughter, Irene
Joliot-Curie, died of leukemia. .
"What can all the various carcinogens—chemical, radiation, and so
on—possibly have in common? One reasonable thought is that all of them may
cause genetic mutations, and that cancer may be the result of mutations in
body calls.. That energetic radiation can produce mutations is well
established. What about the chemical carcinogens? Well, mutation by chemicals
also has been demonstrated. The nitrogen mustards are a clear example . .
"The chemicals that cause mutations are called mutagens."
—*Isaac Asimov, Asimov's New Guide to Science (1984), p. 691-692.
The leading science writer of our time tells us to avoid anything
which might cause mutations in our bodies:
"Most mutations—at least 99 percent of them—are detrimental, some
even lethal. Eventually, even those that are only slightly harmful die out,
because their bearers do not get along as well and leave fewer descendants
than healthy individuals do . .
"Genetic research shows incontrovertibly that, for the population as a
whole, even a slight increase in general exposure to radiation means a
corresponding slight increase in the mutation rate . . There is, however, a
strong recommendation that the danger be recognized and that exposure to
radiation be minimized: that, for instance, X-rays be used with discrimination
and care, and that the sexual organs be routinely shielded during all such
use." —*Op. cit., pp. 612-613.
(We will not take time to discuss budding eyes, which is also an
evolutionist's paradise. The budding eyes on roses react to radiation by
producing far more mutated forms than most other plants. Yet the result never
produces new species, and only weakens the offspring of the specimens receiving
it.)
"More mutations were obtained by the irradiation of 50 rose 'budding
eyes' than one could find in a field of a million rose plants in a lifetime of
patient searching." -W. E. Lammerts, Why Not Creation? (1970), p. 301.
There is nothing else that can produce classical evolutionary effects. The
evolution results hesitantly postulated by *Charles Darwin, and triumphantly
declared by later evolutionists to be a positive fact—have only had the
slightest possibility of ever occurring anywhere—except in one place: a
location subject to high nuclear bombardment of some kind (X-rays, atomic
radiation, etc.).
Only then could enough mutations be produced to accomplish the glorious
effects of evolution.
Here are three evolutionists' paradises, where massive amounts of mutations
can be studied, all their wholesome, beneficial results can be observed, and the
interrelation of natural selection in using them to produce new species can be
measured:
1- Irradiated Jars of Fruit Files. In miniature, such a
place is the fruit fly jar in the laboratory of the geneticist. Millions of such
jars have been heavily irradiated for nearly half a century. Within those jars
we should find NEW species! Not fruit flies, but something new! This is because
radiation increases the number of mutations a million-fold more than could ever
occur out in nature to fruit flies in a million years of time! Earlier in this
chapter we mentioned the damage that mutations produce in fruit flies. We will
not repeat it here.
Needless to say, irradiated fruit flies have never transmuted through their
offspring into some different type of creature.
2 - Chernobyl. Chernobyl is a second evolutionist's paradise.
Here we have not jars of flies, but everything in s very large area of rural
countryside heavily irradiated! Just think of all the wonderful evolutionary
results that can arise from such a situation) Wonderful new species of plants
and animals, advanced humanoids, as far beyond human beings, as people are
beyond apes; this, according to evolutionary mutation theory, is the inevitable
result. The possibilities are terrific, and the effects are taking place before
us right now over in southwestern Russia. No expensive scientific funding was
necessary to start this project; in fact, it is already in process—whether we
like it or not.
In the case of the fruit flies, we have already mentioned the results of that
paradise: Only abnormal flies are produced, and they and their descendants are
only weakened, if not dead within a generation or two. Never—not once—has a
new species been produced in those irradiated jars! Fruit flies produce
thousands of generations within a comparatively short time, so the effects of
mutations can be studied on down through great lengths of abbreviated time. And
the result: nothing in the way of evolution.
In the case of Chernobyl, we have an exceedingly broad area that was
irradiated. This paradise is much larger)
News report dated April 27, 1990: Three years and one day after
the nuclear meltdown of Chernobyl, 800,000 children in the Byelorussian Province
of the Soviet Union, located north of Chernobyl, urgently need
medical treatment as a result of the radiation received from that accident:
With four working reactors and two more being built, Chernobyl was destined
to be one of the most Powerful nuclear power stations in the Soviet Union.
Located in the heart of some of the best agricultural regions of the nation, a
sizable population lived in towns, cities, and communes on all sides of it.
At 1:24 a.m., local time, on April 26, 1986, one or two explosions rocked the
plant and blew apart reactor No. 4—and produced the worst nuclear plant
accident in modern history. The blasts) tore off a thousand—ton lid resting on
the reactor core and tore a hole in the building's side and roof. Several tons
of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products such as cesium 137 and iodine 131
were hurled into the air. The explosion and heat sent up a 3 mile (5 km) plume
of smoke laden with contaminants.
Within ten days, clouds of deadly irradiated dust traveled northwest over
Poland and into Scandinavia, and thence south to Greece, spreading contaminates
throughout eastern Europe. Then it blew westward over the length of the Soviet
Union, and a small amount of it even reached California.
By Soviet accounts, 50 megacuries of the most dangerous radio nuclides were
released into the atmosphere, plus 50 megacuries of chemically inert radioactive
gases. (In comparison, 17 curies were released in the Three Mile Island accident
in Pennsylvania in 1979.)
Soon after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, Soviet officials ordered the
permanent evacuation of all villages within 19 miles of the power plant. What
they did not immediately recognize was that heavy nuclear fallout covered a much
broader area. In some parts of Narodichi, a Ukrainian agricultural distract
whose boundaries lie some 37 miles from the reactor, levels of radioactivity are
still nine times as high as the acceptable limits.
What about the plants and animals? A Spring 1990 study, done 3 years after
the meltdown by the chief economist of a Soviet government institute, calculates
that the cost of Chernobyl including the price of the cleanup and the value of
lost farmland and production, could run as high as $358 billion—20 times as
much as earlier official estimates.
Did this mutational paradise help the plants? No fabulously new crops have
been produced. Instead, the entire farm crop situation has been terribly
worsened. Plants sickened and died. Plants continue to sicken and die.
Did this mutational paradise help the livestock? Because the radiation cloud
from the 1987 meltdown went into the very soil, every passing year brings
more and more birth defects among farm animals. Colts with eight limbs, deformed
lower jaws, and disjointed spinal columns have been born. The Yuri Gagarin
collective farm in Vyazovka has produced 197 freak calves. Some of the animals
had no eyes, deformed skulls, and distorted mouths. At a farm in Malinovka,
about 200 pigs, damaged in one way or another, have been born since the
accident. We are viewing an evolutionist's paradise in action!
But not only externally observed changes have occurred, internal
organs are, on an ongoing basis, being damaged also. This is regularly producing
fetal abortions, stillbirths, and infant deaths among the animals.
What about the people? From Fall 1988 to Spring 1999, there has begun a
dramatic rise in thyroid disease, anemia, and cancer. Residents are complaining
of fatigue, as well as loss of vision and appetite. An astounding drop in the
immunity level of the entire population in that region has occurred. People have
a difficult time recovering from the simplest infection, and children are
affected even more than grownups.
The poisoning of the land by radiation has caused dire health problems. The
radiation affects non-genetic tissue, and within reproductive cells it causes
mutations in the DNA which produce deformed or dead offspring.
And what about those new species? Not one has occurred. No new species have
come into existence. The species there are the same ones that have always been
there; only now they are damaged and dying. This is because massive and totally
beneficial mutations would have to occur to produce unique new species. But that
cannot occur and will never occur, because random mutations only sporadically
occur—even in a place like Chernobyl—and they are always—always harmful
and weakening.
Ironically, we know so much about this because of the dedicated efforts of
Igor Kostin, the first man to photograph the Chernobyl accident from the air.
Since 1987, he has returned to the reactor six times and has spent hundreds of
hours in the Chernobyl area, and traveled extensively throughout the regions
surrounding it, documenting the ongoing tragedy on film for the world. But his
heroic effects to make that information available have damaged his own body.
Exposed to 5 times the acceptable level of radiation, he is now constantly tired
and sometimes has trouble walking. But he keeps leaving his home in Kiev, and
journeying to Chernobyl so the world can know what is happening there.
News report, April 1991: A Soviet government Ministry has announced
that instead of an official " 37 people" who have died as a result of the Chernobyl
accident, the figure approximates 10,000 deaths to date.
3 - Hiroshima. This paradise carries us still farther back into
the past, and in so doing provides us with a far longer span of time in which to
examine the noble consequences of radiation on human genetic tissue.
It was a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. The date was August
6, 1945, the time 8:00 a.m. A single plane was in the sky. Then its bomb-bay
doors opened.
When the bomb reached 1,850 feet, a radar echo set off an ordinary explosion
inside. This drove a wedge of U-235 into a larger piece of U235, setting off
a blast with the force of 13,000 tons of TNT. As a result, more than 41/z
square miles of the city were destroyed. The "Little Boy" atomic
bomb exploded only 800 feet from on target, and essentially destroyed the city.
Over 92,000 persons were dead or missing.
The living were worse off than the dead, for radiation poured into their
bodies from the explosion and the after—radiation cloud. The name the Japanese
gave to the miserable survivors was hibakusha. These poor creatures have
struggled with radiation-damaged bodies through the remainder of their shortened
lives. Not one of them evolved into a different species or a new super-race.
Would you care to go to any one of those larger evolutionists'
paradises—Chernobyl now or Heroshima in the fall of 1945? No, you would not.
This is because radiation, X-rays, mutational damage of body and chromosome is
not a pleasant matter. Everyone fears radiation, even the evolutionists. They
would not want to go there either. Yet these same men calmly tell us that all
the good in our world today: the beautiful plants, trees, animals, and people,
and all the hope of our future progress—is but the result of mutational damage
to DNA, such as occurred at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl.
Yet, as the geneticists have discovered, most such mutations primarily come
from radiation of one type or another, rather than from other sources. And the
other sources, such as mustard gas, are not pleasant either.
Here is a brief overview of some of the things that can cause
mutational damage to your body:
"Put in the fewest possible words, Darwinism today is seen as
espousing the process of organic evolution resulting from the natural
selection of accidental gene mutations.
"What is thought to be the cause of these spontaneous changes which
take place in genes and which are alleged to cause either an improved or a
diminished state of the body? The basic source is considered to be the impact
of ionizing radiations, or the effects of a wide assortment of unusually
reactive chemicals called mutagens.
"Radiations capable of altering the physical or chemical makeup of
genes come from a variety of sources. They may come from the surrounding
environment, in which the immediate natural minerals in some locations emit
penetrating radiations. Radiations may also originate in outer space. These
cosmic rays constantly bombard our bodies day and night. Ultra-violet light
and X-rays are also capable of mutagenic effects.
"Adding to this, there are a great many very reactive chemicals which
are capable of chemically altering crucial genes, should these chemicals
manage to reach the sex cells. Examples of chemical mutagens are epoxides,
peroxides, mustard pounds of some types, and even the common preservative,
formaldehyde [a constituent of plastics]." —Lester J. McCann,
Blowing the Whistle on Darwinism (1986), pp. 45-46.
Not once has any serious biologist or geneticist declared that
radiation is helpful to humanity. Yet radiation is the stuff that mutations are
made of, and mutations are supposed to have produced all the amazing life forms
in our world.
"Biologists have found that they can produce mutations in the
laboratory by using X-rays, but they have given no clear evidence that
mutations beneficial to the organism can be produced in this way."
—Howard B. Holhoyd, "Darwinism is Physical and Mathematical
Nonsense," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1972, p. 12.
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APPENDIX 14-A
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APPENDIX
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