Page 68 - The Evolution Impasse 2

66 Mutation: An Imaginary Mechanism

dromes char ac ter ized clin i cal ly in the aged or car ried to oth er lo ca tions in
days be fore mo lec u lar ge net ic anal y sis the DNA. Yet mu ta tions can nev er
(such as Marfan's syn drome) are now cause a liv ing thing to ac quire a new
be ing shown to be het er o ge ne ous; that or gan or at trib ute.
is, as so ci at ed with many dif fer ent mu -
3. For a mu ta tion to be trans mit ted
ta tions.
to a sub se quent gen er a tion, it must take
With this ar ray of hu man dis eas es that place in the re pro duc tive germ cells. No
are caused by mu ta tions, what of pos i - change aris ing in any oth er cell of
tive ef fects? With thou sands of ex am - the body can be passed along to lat -
ples of harm ful mu ta tions read i ly er gen er a tions. For ex am ple, an em -
avail a ble, sure ly it should be pos si ble
bry o's eye may de part from its orig i -
to de scribe some pos i tive mu ta tions if
nal form by be ing sub ject ed to ra di a -
ma cro ev o lu tion is true. These would be
tion and oth er sim i lar ef fects, but
need ed not on ly for ev o lu tion to great -
this mu ta tion will not man i fest it self
er com plex i ty, but al so to off set the
in sub se quent gen er a tions.
down ward pull of the many harm ful
mu ta tions. But, when it comes to iden -
ti fy ing pos i tive mu ta tions, ev o lu tion a -
ry sci en tists are strange ly si lent. 66
The rea sons why mu ta tions can -
not sup port ev o lu tion ist claims may
be sum ma rized un der three main
head ings:
1. Mutations are al ways harm ful.
Since they oc cur at ran dom, they al -
ways damage living things.
Logically, any un con scious in ter ven -
tion in a per fect and com plex struc -
ture will dam age it, rath er than caus -
ing it to de vel op. Indeed, no use ful
mu ta tions have ev er been ob served.
2. No in for ma tion can be add ed to
DNA as a re sult of mu ta tion. The com -
po nents of the ge net ic in for ma tion
are re moved and dis man tled, dam -

The Evolution Impasse II