Page 200 - The Cambrian Evidence that Darwin Failed to Comprehend

The Cambrian Evidence That Darwin Failed to Comprehend

Control genes like homeotic genes may be the target of mutations that
would conceivably change phenotypes*, but one must remember that,
the more central one makes changes in a complex system, the more se-
vere the peripheral consequences become. . . . Homeotic changes in-
duced in Drosophila [fruitfly] genes have led only to monstrosities, and
most experimenters do not expect to see a bee arise from their
Drosophila constructs. 146
As you have seen, the development of any living thing is an ex-
ceedingly complex process. The Hox genes that regulate such proc-
esses definitively refute scenarios based on random change. Even
so, some evolutionists still ignore this scientifically demonstrated
fact and continue to defend evolutionary scenarios concerning Hox
genes.
James Valentine of University of California at Berkeley, David
Jablonski from University of Chicago and Douglas Erwin of the
National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. relate Hox
genes to the sudden emergence of Cambrian life forms, suggesting
that many phyla that arose in that period differentiated from anoth-
er as a result of mutations taking place in these Hox genes. In order
to protect their scenario from the known harmful effects of Hox mu-
tations, they resort to the entirely artificial claim, based on no scien-
tific observation, that the Hox genes at that time were highly flexi-
ble and permitted change.
Simon Conway-Morris of Cambridge University says that this
hypothetical “flexibility” rests on no scientific grounds:

Just as spoken language (also modular) is flexible enough to support
the whole of human culture, says Valentine, this genetic language is so
basic, so powerful, and so adaptable that it could underlie the whole
amazing diversity of animal life.

* Phenotype is the set of observable characteristics of an organism.

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