Lack of Beneficial DNA Mutations Refutes Darwinian Evolution

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article #292

by Bill Nugent

There are over seven billion people alive on earth today. The DNA of all people is well over 99% similar. The less than one percent difference is in minor details including skin color and facial features. The “races” are each fully human and there is no subspecies of humans possessing markedly different DNA.

 

Darwinian evolutionists claim that humans evolved from an ape-like common ancestor that lived 5 to 7 million years ago and they claim that the chimpanzee is our nearest animal relative. Evolutionists claim that evolution is still occurring today among humans. They claim that human evolution is driven by beneficial DNA mutations. Where are all the beneficial mutations?

 

I did several web searches, including “beneficial human mutations” and “genetic mutation disease.” What I found was extremely revealing and it served to severely undermine the theory of Darwinian evolution.

 

Let’s start with an article from an evolutionist. I read an article titled: “Evolution is Still Happening: Beneficial Mutations in Humans” by Adam Lee which is posted on an evolutionist blog. He describes a total of five beneficial human mutations:

 

1) The mutation, Apolipoprotein AI-Milano gives resistance to heart disease.

2) Mutation to the LRP5 gene gives greater bone density and resistance to osteoporosis and fractures.

3) Mutation to Hbs gene gives resistance to malaria but two copies gives the dreaded sickle cell anemia. (Why is this on a list of beneficial mutations?)

4) Mutation to HbC gene gives resistance to malaria and two copies gives greater resistance to malaria but also gives mild anemia.

5) His fifth example is the rare Tetrachromatic vision mutation for which he mentions one study in which at least one woman had a mutation giving her four color discriminating cones in her eyes which gives her greater color discrimination.

 

Adam Lee includes the following absurd claim that these “beneficial mutations are the raw material that may, in time, be taken up by natural selection and spread through the population.” One could argue that the above mutations do confer a limited degree of advantage and survivability of offspring. To claim that such mutations “spread through the population” is to give the impression that mutations simply spread through a gene pool like an infectious disease!

 

Mutations to DNA are transmitted to other humans by only one mechanism, namely, reproduction. Those with a beneficial mutation will enjoy a slightly higher degree of survival and produce more offspring that survive. For any beneficial mutation to predominate in the human gene pool and advance humans one small step in evolution would require hundreds of generations. During these hundreds of generations, the unfortunate humans without the beneficial mutation would gradually die off and gradually be replaced by the humans with the slightly higher survivability rate. The gene pool would then have the beneficial mutation as a feature in the genes of all humans.

 

Why do I insist that the beneficial mutation be substituted into the DNA of all humans? That’s because, as mentioned above, the DNA of all of the human race is over 99% similar and there is no subspecies of humans with DNA containing significant beneficial mutations that would set them apart. This scientifically verified uniformity of the gene pool shows that any alleged evolution in the past must have resulted in substitution of genetic mutations into the entire gene pool of 7 billion humans spread across six continents.

 

All humans have the same brain structure; all have thumbs as opposing finger digits; all have the same knee structure that facilitates walking upright; all have hair on the head but little on the body. All people are remarkably similar whether from northern Sweden or central Africa. All people groups can intermarry and reproduce.

 

The long complex process of a beneficial mutation being substituted into a gene pool is a feature of population genetics. The fact that it takes hundreds of generations to fully substitute a mutation into a population has been calculated by Haldane and others. The fact that 7 million years is not enough time to substitute the millions of mutations needed to change an ape into a human is called Haldane’s Dilemma after evolution researcher, J. B. S. Haldane. I wrote about Haldane’s dilemma in article #256, which is in the archive on my website at ww.bnugent.org.

 

Let’s look at Adam Lee’s list of beneficial mutations. I find the mutation that causes greater bone density to be especially intriguing. Let’s look at what’s really going on in the human gene pool of 7 billion individuals. Do people with this bone density mutation reproduce at a higher rate than others? Are they having ten or twelve children in their families? Adam Lee’s article mentions only one family in the Midwestern United States with this mutation and he says nothing about their reproduction rate. Does a guy say “Give me a gal with dense bones and I’ll marry her and we’ll have twelve kids!”?

 

What about the mutation that gives resistance to heart disease? It benefits middle aged people. People die of heart disease in their fifties and later and that’s long after they have kids. How would that mutation influence their rate of reproduction?

 

Does observational science see any of these or other beneficial mutations gradually being substituted into the human gene pool? Is there a subspecies of humans developing with beneficial mutations and becoming a master race? (Don’t ask the Germans!) The answer is a resounding no! Beneficial mutations are few, isolated and not much more than curiosities.

 

I also did a web search on genetic mutation diseases. I had read in an article that there are thousands of diseases caused by bad mutations. I thought surely “thousands” of such diseases was an exaggeration. That is until I web searched such diseases. I found a Wikipedia site that  gave an extremely long list of genetic mutation related diseases.

 

I’ve heard of Down syndrome and cystic Fibrosis but what about Noack syndrome, Neurofibromatosis type II, Menkes disease and Menkea syndrome? The list, tragically, goes on and on! It shows that bad mutations overwhelmingly outnumber the good. This is just further evidence that mutations are no mechanism for uphill evolutionary change.

 

The bottom line is that observational science clearly shows that beneficial mutations are rare, only slightly advantageous to reproduction rates and can’t dominate in the human gene pool due to Haldane’s dilemma even if millions of years are claimed.

 

The more the science of genetics progresses, the more it reveals the mind boggling complexity of human DNA as an information storage and retrieval system. Science shows that such a complex system as DNA is seldom improved by tweaks caused by mutations. Studies overwhelmingly show that genetic mutations are destructive errors that scramble or delete pre-existing information in the DNA. Most importantly, researchers have discovered that mutations, whether good or bad, almost never add new information to the DNA. Many researchers say that mutations never add new information to DNA.

 

The best scientific evidence shows that complex, interdependant biological systems are evidence of deliberate intelligent design. This design argument is called the teleological argument for the existence of a designer. I maintain that life was designed and built by an intelligent designer who is the Creator God. God created sentient beings, called humans, for a purpose. That purpose is to love God and to enjoy Him forever.

 

Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 prophecies that were written in the Old Testament hundreds of years before His birth. No other person in all of world history can make this claim. The prophecies foretold that Christ would suffer and die, taking the penalty of our sins upon Himself, thus making atonement. The prophecies foretold that He would rise from the dead and that He would offer forgiveness of sins to all who repent and call upon Him. Turn to Jesus Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!

Steps to salvation:

Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

  • 1) Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
  • 2) Believe that Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you, to take upon Himself the penalty of your sins (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18).
  • 3) Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins (Romans 10:13).
  • 4) Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth (John 1:12, Acts 2:38).
  • 5) Follow Jesus Christ as Lord (John 14:21).

Prayer to receive salvation:

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!



(C) 2016 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish for Christian outreach.

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