Mutations are breaks and shifts that occur as a result of radioactive or chemical damage to the DNA molecule that carries genetic data. Mutations damage the nucleotides that make up DNA, or else cause them to change places, causing changes that are usually too severe for the cell to repair.
Therefore, contrary to what many people imagine, the mutations that evolutionists depend on are not, magic wands that lead living things to progress and perfection. Mutations' net effects are harmful. The only changes brought about by mutations are of the kind suffered by the offspring born to inhabitants of Hiroshima, Nagasaki or Chernobyl; in other words, death or deformity. The reason for this is elementary: Any random impact on the very complex structure of the DNA molecule can only harm it.
The American geneticist B.G. Ranganathan explains:
First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly, most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random change in a highly ordered system will be for the worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building, there would be a random change in the framework of the building, which, in all probability, would not be an improvement.64
No examples of beneficial mutations have ever been observed. The evolutionist scientist Warren Weaver said the following about a report prepared by the Committee on Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation, set up to examine the mutations arising as a result of nuclear weapons in the wake of the Second World War:
Many will be puzzled about the statement that practically all known mutant genes are harmful. For mutations are a necessary part of the process of evolution. How can a good effect - evolution to higher forms of life - result from mutations, practically all of which are harmful?65
All the mutations observed in human beings are harmful. Medical textbooks describe physical or mental defects such as mongolism, Down Syndrome, albinism, dwarfism and sickle cell anemia, or diseases such as cancer as examples of mutation. A process that cripples or sickens cannot, of course, be any evolutionary mechanism.
These photographs show some of the damaging effects of mutation on the human body.
A process that cripples individuals or leaves them ill cannot, of course, give rise to any progress. |
In a scientific paper, David Demick, an American pathologist, wrote this to say about mutations:
Literally thousands of human diseases associated with genetic mutations have been catalogued in recent years, with more being described continually. A recent reference book of medical genetics listed some 4,500 different genetic diseases. Some of the inherited syndromes characterized clinically in the days before molecular genetic analysis (such as Marfan's syndrome) are now being shown to be heterogeneous; that is, associated with many different mutations.
With this array of human diseases that are caused by mutations, what of positive effects? With thousands of examples of harmful mutations readily available, surely it should be possible to describe some positive mutations if macroevolution is true. These would be needed not only for evolution to greater complexity, but also to offset the downward pull of the many harmful mutations. But, when it comes to identifying positive mutations, evolutionary scientists are strangely silent.66
The reasons why mutations cannot support evolutionist claims may be summarized under three main headings:
1. Mutations are always harmful. Since they occur at random, they always damage living things. Logically, any unconscious intervention in a perfect and complex structure will damage it, rather than causing it to develop. Indeed, no useful mutations have ever been observed.
2. No information can be added to DNA as a result of mutation. The components of the genetic information are removed and dismantled, damaged or carried to other locations in the DNA. Yet mutations can never cause a living thing to acquire a new organ or attribute.
3. For a mutation to be transmitted to a subsequent generation, it must take place in the reproductive germ cells.No change arising in any other cell of the body can be passed along to later generations. For example, an embryo's eye may depart from its original form by being subjected to radiation and other similar effects, but this mutation will not manifest itself in subsequent generations.
64. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?, Pennsylvania: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 1988.
65. Warren Weaver, "Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation," Science, Vol. 123, June 29, 1956, p. 1159.
66. David Demick, "The Blind Gunman," Impact, No. 308, February 1999.
