Page 36 - The Evolution Impasse 2

34 Macro-Mutation Myth, The

any of the in ter me di ate forms that dam ag ing ef fects of mu ta tion:
they claim must once have ex ist ed Being bom bard ed by mu ta tion-caus ing
led them to come up with new the - ra di a tion, would be like shoot ing a new
ses. One of these is the the o ry of car with a 30-cal i ber ri fle . . .
punc tu at ed ev o lu tion, which hy - Similarly, it would be high ly un like ly
poth e siz es that the mu ta tions nec es - that mu ta tions would do any thing oth -
sa ry to form a new spe cies took er than dam age you or an an i mal.
Mutations caused by DNA cop y ing er -
place, or that some in di vid u als were
rors would have a sim i lar re sult . . .
ex posed to in tense, con sec u tive mu -
Mutations are harm ful by a ra tio of at
ta tions.
least 10,000 to one. Radiation and cop -
One law re vealed by Fisher, one
y ing er rors do not pro duce new fea -
of the cen tu ry's best known ge net i -
tures that are ben e fi cial. , 26
cists, on the ba sis of ex per i ment and
Clearly, mu ta tions es tab lish no
ob ser va tion clear ly in val i dates that
ev o lu tion a ry progress, and this
hy poth e sis. In his book, The Genetical
fact rep re sents a ma jor di lem ma
Theory of Natural Selection, Fisher
for both neo-Darwinism and for
states that "the like li hood that a par -
the the o ry of punc tu at ed ev o lu -
tic u lar mu ta tion will be come fixed in
tion. Since mu ta tion is a de struc -
a pop u la tion is in verse ly pro por tion -
tive mech a nism, the ma cro-mu ta -
al to its ef fect on the phe no type." In
25
tions that are the pro po nents of
oth er words, the great er the ef fect of punc tu at ed ev o lu tion must have
a mu ta tion, the less chance it has of a ma cro-de struc tive ef fect on liv -
be com ing per ma nent in a pop u la - ing in di vid u als.
tion. The ge net i cist Lane Lester and
In ad di tion, mu ta tions cause ran - the pop u la tion ge net i cist Raymond
dom chan ges in liv ing things' ge net - Bohlin de scribe the mu ta tion im -
ic da ta, and do not im prove it. On the passe as fol lows:
con tra ry, in di vid u als ex posed to
The over all fac tor that has come up
mu ta tions typ i cal ly suf fer se ri ous
again and again is that mu ta tion re -
dis eas es and de form i ties. Therefore, mains the ul ti mate source of all ge net -
the more an in di vid u al is af fect ed by ic var i a tion in any ev o lu tion a ry mod el.
a mu ta tion, the less that in di vid u al's Being un sat is fied with the prospects of
chan ces of sur viv al. ac cu mu lat ing small point mu ta tions,
Professor Walter L. Starkey of many are turn ing to ma crom u ta tions
Ohio University writes about these to ex plain the or i gin of ev o lu tion a ry

The Evolution Impasse II