It's actually fairly straightforward from a natural selection perspective why mutations occur and how they are perpetuated. Random mutations occur during cell devision. We know that from simple observation. What are random mutations? Errors in replication, where a piece of DNA is improperly copied during cell division. Random mutations also occur during reproduction, e.g. during egg fertilization in humans. In that case, mutations happen because the sperm and egg each contribute genetic material, and sometimes the process results in errors.
Why do some genetic mutations perpetuate and others do not? Sickle-cell anemia, for example, is a genetic mutation in some people of African descent. Affected people have a lower oxygen-carrying capacity than other people. How the mutation occurred, I'm not sure, but how it was perpetuated is easily understandable. Malaria. Mosquitoes spread malaria, and they are attracted to humans by the "scent" of carbon-dioxide. People who have a higher oxygen capacity, with normal cells, give off greater CO2 levels, and are juicier targets for the malaria-bearing mosquitoes. Enough greater numbers of healthy people than people with sickle-cell anemia died of malaria over the centuries that the sickle-cell gene became fairly widespread. When we talk about evolution and adaptation, we are talking about a totally random process of mutation that favors some animals over others over a period of many, many generations. There is no "thought" behind it, nothing like an animal thinking, "Man, I'd better evolve or I am going to be dead." Call it the luck of the genetic lottery, if you like. That's basically how it works. In creationist terms, this explanation leaves a huge and obvious gap- why? Why did it happen? The "why" that geneticists theorize is that the process of random mutation during replication arose from an inborn biological imperative of species to perpetuate themselves, and that random mutation has ended up being the way that works best to ensure that some members of a given species survive. And it doesn't always work. Sometimes a species ends up at an evolutionary dead-end. That still doesn't answer the creationist "why", which leads to larger philosophical and metaphysical questions about the meaning of life, etc. Science is not intended to answer those questions. On 5/8/07, G Money wrote: > > On 5/8/07, Nick wrote: > > > > That is side stepping the question, the general problem creationist have > > with evolution is the creation of new species via adaptation. How does > > mutation become encoded in the genetics? How can man have evolved from a > > single celled organism to what we are today. Evolution does not, and > > cannot > > answer those questions. > > > Mutations occur for all sorts of natural reasons. If they work, over time, > they can become part of the genetic makeup of a species. If you want to > call > a mutation "God", OK, but science won't have anything to say about > that....only that it occurs, and it helps stir adaptation and evolution. > > How can a man have evolved from a single cell organism? Um, isn't that > just > simple science? How does an oak tree grow from a single acorn? > > Evolution DOES answer the question that those things occur, they are true, > the exist, they happen. Science is telling you the WHAT, and you are > discounting it because you cannot reconcile the WHY. > -- --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion MX7 and Flex 2 Build sales & marketing dashboard RIAâs for your business. Upgrade now http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2?sdid=RVJT Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234178 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
