Several theists here "knowledgeably dispute" whether mutations can result in positive changes. Here's the Wiki explanation, which as I read it pretty much jives with accepted theory. It's good enough to give the disbelievers, the awe-struck or those who can't imagine
"how on Earth this could possibly happen!" an insight into the basics.
Mutation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article correctly notes that in
Drosophila spp., (the ubiquitous fruit fly, and that
lucky recipient of so much genetic research) only 70% of the chance mutations are lethal. 30% are mildly beneficial or neutral. In addition, the article goes on to elucidate that there is great
redundancy in most organism's genomes, and a lot of that is used to "correct" bad mutations by comparing them to the correct original. But some mutations are allowed through as they provide the obvious benefit of allowing long-term evolution/improvement. The mechanisms are explained and are documented and credible because they have been studied and reproduced by legions of PhD students, researchers and the biomedical community.
Please read this before you re-enter the fray with unsupportable statements about how it all can't happen, no-how, no-way!! Also realize that you're reading the veritable teensy-tiny tip of a VERY LARGE information iceburg, and that to really criticize this stuff, you'd have to put in your time to "earn your wings", as it were. I'd say that would be about 15 - 20 years of directed study.
Otherwise, to criticize it
simply because you don't like where it's going is, well...... not a very intellectually strong position, is it?
A far more detailed discussion on a specific marker follows in the two citations provided, but is presented to provide a sample of the depth and scope of modern genetic research. Again, it's far more than a bunch of obtuse morons flailing about down in the basement, and making this stuff up.
DNA Mutation Rates - An Overview and Discussion
Genome-wide Study Shed Lights On Factors That Contribute To DNA Mutations
Finally, as to
doeable's thoughtful inquiry:
Quote:
"how many different living species are out there now-millions-so all their genes must have mutated to become what they are now-and not only one or two species but every species-thats alot of mutation's that dosent sound like a few every few thousand years"
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Well....it doesn't happen serially (one after the other, like a freight train), and only once every thousand years. It builds, like tree branches off the main stem, one new species branches off to two, which branch to four, etc. Exponential growth, it's called.
A quick story to clarify:
A gamester offered to try to beat the king at chess, and if he won, the king had to fill the chessboard with
one grain of wheat on the first square,
two on the second,
four on the third,
eight on the fourth, etc. Doubling each time. There's what; 64 squares on a chessboard?
The king thought for a moment and quickly concluded, without too much thought
"Hey; so what if I lose. A few grains of wheat; hah! Besides, I've got God on my side, and this guy's just an obtuse, assumptive scientist-type anyhow, so what the heck; I'll play him!" He did, he lost, and the gamester ended up with the entire kingdom. Q: how many grains of wheat did the king have to provide? I'll ask the more mathematically oriented to tell us, but as a starting point, it's 2 to the 64th power. 2 X 2 X 2, 64 times.*
Even at "once every thousand years", which is
far too
low a number, that still allows for 14,000 generations
(14 M yrs / 1000 yrs per cycle). Two to the 14,000 power? You wanna take that one on,
doeable? Will it account for the necessarily number of genetic variables needed to create the millions of species we see? I'd say so. Many many
many times over!
( I don't even think my scientific calculator will provide a number that large...)
(*Well OK: the chess-board answer is 1.009 X 10-219th power. The number "one
point oh oh nine" with 219 zeros after the decimal!
Holy Evolution Theory, Batman! More than all the stars in the universe! Oooopps. Ignore science at your peril, king!
Oh, and, BTW,
doeable: that's
exactly how so many different species arose in the allotted millions and millions of years, their sperm cranking out hundreds of thousands of error-possible reproductions each day, and the resulting species branching away exponentially! It's positively
Wild, huh, when logic explains things so nicely?