Page 61 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The NAS's Errors Regarding Mutations

area. Professor Spetner explains how this resistance comes about by
means of two separate mechanisms, neither of which makes any con-
tribution to evolution. The two mechanisms in question are:
1) The transmission of already existing immunity genes in the
bacteria and
2) The building of resistance as a result of losing genetic data be-
cause of mutation.

The first mechanism is no evidence for evolution:

In a 2001 article Professor Spetner describes the first mechanism
in this way:
Some microorganisms are endowed with genes that grant resistance
to these antibiotics. This resistance can take the form of degrading the
antibiotic molecule or of ejecting it from the cell... [T]he organisms
having these genes can transfer them to other bacteria making them
resistant as well. Although the resistance mechanisms are specific to a
particular antibiotic, most pathogenic bacteria have... succeeded in ac-
cumulating several sets of genes granting them resistance to a variety
of antibiotics. 12

This is no proof of evolu-
tion, as Professor Spetner de-
scribes:
The acquisition of antibiotic
resistance in this manner... is
not the kind that can serve as
a prototype for the mutations
needed to account for
Evolution… The genetic

Right; Bacterial DNA. Bacteria that suffer a
loss of genetic information as a result of mu-
tation become resistant to antibiotics. Yet,
that mutation does not add any information to
or develop the DNA. For that reason, it is no
proof of evolution.

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