385
edits
Mutation: Difference between revisions
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Jump to navigationJump to search
→Mathematical challenges
| Line 72: | Line 72: | ||
There is almost certainly no physiological barrier to such an effect in most organisms: the genomic mutation rate in organisms from viruses to eukaryotes is a quantitative trait affected by many mutations whose effects can readily cumulate to intolerable levels of error. In what follows, we show that there need not be a selective barrier to this process either: because the full fitness effect of increased deleterious mutation takes some time to accumulate after a higher mutation rate has evolved, it is theoretically possible for a population to evolve a critically high mutation rate and subsequently go extinct.}} | There is almost certainly no physiological barrier to such an effect in most organisms: the genomic mutation rate in organisms from viruses to eukaryotes is a quantitative trait affected by many mutations whose effects can readily cumulate to intolerable levels of error. In what follows, we show that there need not be a selective barrier to this process either: because the full fitness effect of increased deleterious mutation takes some time to accumulate after a higher mutation rate has evolved, it is theoretically possible for a population to evolve a critically high mutation rate and subsequently go extinct.}} | ||
=== | === Mathematical challenges === | ||
What has been known for years by the evolution and creation science communities is the severe lack of mathematical probability of mutational change to produce the molecule-to-man type of scale that Darwinian evolution | What has been known for years by the evolution and creation science communities is the severe lack of mathematical probability of mutational change to produce the molecule-to-man type of scale that Darwinian evolution proposes. | ||
First and foremost, mutations either beneficial, negative or neutral are rare instances. They happen on average about once in every 10 million duplications of the DNA molecule (10<sup>7</sup>, a one followed by 7 zeroes). The problem comes when following the evolutionary | First and foremost, mutations either beneficial, negative or neutral are rare instances. They happen on average about once in every 10 million duplications of the DNA molecule (10<sup>7</sup>, a one followed by 7 zeroes). The problem comes when following the evolutionary paradigm and ultimately having to rely on hundreds if not thousands of related mutations. | ||
This is patently impossible as science coupled with mathematics has shown us. Simply put the odds of getting two mutations that are related to one another is the product of their separate probabilities. If every 10<sup>7</sup> duplications of DNA a mutation occurs the equation would start to look like this. 10<sup>7</sup> x 10<sup>7</sup> or 10<sup>14</sup>, that is a one followed by 14 zeroes, a hundred trillion! Two mutations, related or not would barely change finch beak sizes due to drought, or change the shape of a fly wing. | This is patently impossible as science coupled with mathematics has shown us. Simply put the odds of getting two mutations that are related to one another is the product of their separate probabilities. If every 10<sup>7</sup> duplications of DNA a mutation occurs the equation would start to look like this. 10<sup>7</sup> x 10<sup>7</sup> or 10<sup>14</sup>, that is a one followed by 14 zeroes, a hundred trillion! Two mutations, related or not would barely change finch beak sizes due to drought, or change the shape of a fly wing. | ||
