Page 173 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The NAS's Error in Portraying Molecular Biology as
Evidence of Evolution

he Molecular Clock Error and
h
T Th e M o l l e c u l l a r C l l o c k E r r r r o r r a n d
e
c
o
T The Molecular Clock Error and
e
M
u
o
E
a
d
n
k
r
a
C
c
o
a
e

i
C
o
M
n
o
r
a
e
r

R
s
r
c
l
u
g
n
l
i
l
t S St till More Circular Reasoning
i

e
r
c
a
g
R

r
a
u
S Still More Circular Reasoning
l
n
i
o
l
r
o

M
n
C

i
s
e
l
i
Another phenomenon that the NAS puts forward as proof of
evolution is the so-called "molecular clock" (Science and Creationism, p.
19), which was first suggested in the mid-1960s. This hypothesis as-
sumed that a comparison of genetic differences between living
species regarded as being close evolutionary relatives, together with
the "divergence" periods among living things identified from the fos-
sil record, could be used to calculate a definite "rate of evolution." For
example, assuming that all mammals descended from a common an-
cestor, as well as that the common ancestor of the horse and the kan-
garoo lived some 70 million years ago, the "rate of evolution" could be
calculated by dividing the genetic difference
between the two species by 70 million years.
In this way, the average speed of the evolu-
tionary change in a gene or protein became known
as the "molecular clock."
Evolutionists maintain
that the molecular
clock reveals
when living things
began to diverge from
one another, thus help-
ing to establish a time
frame for such events, as
well as evolutionary rela-
tionships.
When it was first pro-
171