Page 218 - If Darwin Had Known about DNA
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Harun Yahya
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in question have no purpose and consist merely of nonsensical or
"junk" sequences. They claim that these genes have lost their functions
over the course of an evolutionary process lasting millions of years. In
fact, this preconception has been refuted by new scientific discoveries.
Until five or six years ago, scientists gave the name "junk DNA" to large
strings of genes whose functions were unknown-thus they couldn't de-
scribe them as genes.
Contrary to their claims, however, it has emerged that these actu-
ally direct vital functions are of critical importance in the repair of func-
tioning gene segments. 145
In an article in the journal Nature Genetics on 13 May, 2002, Dr. John
V. Moran and his team reported that the active parts of junk DNA were
sections carrying out repair services for the genome. 146 These can pro-
duce copies of themselves in a manner similar to copying and pasting
a section of text-an exceedingly useful function when the DNA's dou-
ble helix begins to separate. The double helix can be damaged when
chemicals reach the cell or when there is any outside pressure, which
can lead to cell death. Those parts of DNA formerly claimed to be junk
travel around inside the genome and identify such faulty separations;
when they encounter such a phenomenon, they go into action and
bring that region back together into alignment. 147
From time to time, evolutionist sources suggest that some organs
in living things no longer have any function, having been inherited
from these species' ancestors. For example, the appendix or the coccyx
in the human body were for years regarded as vestigial organs, no longer
of any use. However, recent scientific research has revealed that all
these organs do actually have important functions. The list of organs
that evolutionists at the beginning of the 20 th century described as "ves-
tigial" is now totally discredited.
In the words of the evolutionist writer S. R. Scadding, "As our
knowledge has increased, the list of vestigial structures has de-