1

Origins:

F   All facts stated in

Table 2- Origin Facts Check

support creation by a Master Designer.

C   ‘Creationists, starting from the Bible, believe that God created different kinds of organisms, which reproduced “after their kinds” (Gen. 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25). Thus, the biblical kinds would have originally been distinct biological species, i.e., a population of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring but that cannot so breed with a different biological species.’ [4]

E   1.  The General Theory of Evolution (GTE) says that, "all the living forms in the world have arisen from a single source which itself came from an inorganic form.” - G.A. Kerkut, evolutionist. He continues to state that “the evidence which supports this is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it as anything more than a working hypothesis.” [5]

E   2.  “Every genetic feature in every organism was, initially, the result of mutation.” [6]

2

F   “A mutation is a change in the sequence of DNA” [7]

“In biology, a mutation is the permanent alternation of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism...” [8]

C   There needs to be a distinction made between mutation and designed variation. [9]

3

The human genome:

F   Almost every nucleotide (in the human genome) is associated with some sort of (biochemical) function. [10]

Nucleotides are the organic molecular units that form DNA, and RNA “both of which are essential biomolecules within all life-forms on Earth.” [11]

Genome is the genetic material of an organism. [12] The human genome sequence contains around 2.69 to 2.91 billion nucleotides of human euchromatin. [13]

C   According to Genesis 1:31, God made everything “very good.” His whole creation demonstrated His attributes of goodness, wisdom and power. There is no reason to assume that God made the genomes for the various kinds of plants and animals anything less than perfect.

E   “Traditionally, biochemists thought a vast proportion of most organisms’ genomes consisted of DNA sequences that once had value but eventually decayed into nonfunctional DNA elements.”  These supposed nonfunctional DNA elements were considered “junk” and were supposedly evidence of biological evolution. [14]

4

Homologous recombination and variation:

F   1.  “Homologous chromosomes are recombined from one generation to the next through a process called ‘crossing over’... Thus, new traits... can arise through homologous recombination. But this is not mutation.” [15]

F   2.  “A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity.” [16] Also, known as a trait.

F   3.  “Each characteristic is influenced by at least two genes.  The genes of this gene pair are called alleles.  One such gene is inherited from each of the parents. Thus, the egg and sperm each have a single set of genes.  When fertilization occurs, these two sets of genes combine.  The segregation and recombination of the genes which occur during production of the germ cells produce sperm and eggs with a tremendous variety of different gene combinations. These sperm and egg cells in turn, via random mating, can be combined in a great variety of ways.  The result is the tremendous variability that we see within each species.” [17]

F   4.  “Most genes are the same in all people, but a small number of genes (less than 1 percent of the total) are slightly different between people... These small differences contribute to each person’s unique physical features.” [18]

F   5.  There are limits to variability within a kind that cannot be overcome as animal breeders are well aware.

C   1.  “Recombination is part of the intelligently-designed genome and usually only reveals information that was previously packed into the genome by the Master Designer (it can also reveal new combinations of mutations and designed diversity).” [19]

C   2.  The Creator designed tremendous variation within a kind.  This makes every or almost every creature in a kind unique, except for identical twins, and also provides for adaptability to different environments. Variability in appearance also allows for identification necessary for relationships.

E   1.  “Mutations are essential to evolution; they are the raw material of genetic variation.  Without mutation, evolution could not occur.” [20]

E   2.  “The ultimate source of all genetic variation is mutation.” [21]

5

Reproductive cells:

F   “Our reproductive cells... are just as prone to damage as our body cells.” [22]

For a mutation to be passed on from one generation to the next, it must be in the germ (reproductive) cells.

6

Harmful versus beneficial mutations:

F   1.  “For any conceivable favorable mutation, a species must pay the price or bear the burden of more than 1000 harmful mutations of the gene... As mutational load increases with time, the survival of the species will be threatened as matings produce a greater percentage of offspring carrying serious genetic defects.” [23]

F   2.  “To date over 10,000 specific disease-causing mutations of the human genome have been identified. In contrast, only a handful of beneficial mutations have been discovered, none of which involve an increase in genetic information as required by evolution.” [24]

C   Due to man’s sin (Genesis 3), the perfect (very good) creation became corrupted producing deleterious mutations that cause sickness, aging and death.

E   At its core, Neo-Darwinism requires beneficial information gaining mutations in the genome [25] to take place as organisms evolve towards perfection.

7

Cancers:

F   “DNA copying errors are responsible for two-thirds of the mutations in human cancers!”  [26]

C   “These data not only show the futility of invoking mutation as an engine of evolution, but also add support to the fact the human genome is degrading-devolving-not evolving and improving over time” [27]

E   Mutations are an engine of evolution headed to perfection.

8

Source of mutations:

F   1.  “Mutation is the purely physical result of the all-pervading mechanical damage that accompanies all molecular machinery.” [28]

F   2.  “A mutagen is a physical or chemical substance that disrupts DNA, causing a permanent change in the nucleotide sequence. Ultraviolet radiation is a common physical mutagen.” [29]

9

DNA repair: 

F   “... DNA undergoes up to a million damage and repair events per cell per day.” [30]

“Due to the damaging effects that mutations can have on genes, organisms have mechanisms such as DNA repair to prevent or correct mutations by reverting the mutated sequence back to its original state.” [31]

Note: Errors that have been corrected are not mutations. 

C   Mechanisms (e.g. mismatch repair and nucleotide excision repair) to reverse the damaging effects of errors reflect the magnificent wisdom of the Master Designer.

E   Evolutionists acknowledge the importance of DNA repair but tend to ignore how such a complex necessary function requiring foresight could have arisen.

10

Recessive genes:

F   1.   “Most mutations are recessive... the mutant can be carried, undetected by selection, in a person (or plant or animal) with a dominant gene that masks the mutant’s effect.” [32]

F  2.  “In order for a mutation to be subject to natural selection, it must be expressed in the phenotypes of individuals.  [33]

F   3.  ‘Most mutations “hide” as recessives, “invisible” to selection, and continue to build up in secret at multiple loci, somewhat like a “genetic cancer” slowly but steadily eating away at genetic quality.’ [34]

E   “Even when mutations produce recessive alleles that are seldom expressed in phenotypes, they become part of a vast reservoir of hidden variability that can show up in future generations.” [35] 

11

Most mutations damage function:

F   “...most mutations which cause changes in the amino acid sequence of proteins tend to damage function to a greater or lesser degree.” [36]

11

a

Hemoglobin:

F   Hemoglobin has 40 plus variations that are less effective oxygen carriers than normal. [37]

C   That fact that normal hemoglobin is the most effective oxygen carrier points back to the corruption of creation by mutations. [38]

11

b

Sickle-cell mutation:

Some of the negatives and benefits of the sickle-cell mutation are as follows:

F   1.  Sickle-cell trait:

(One sickle-cell gene and one normal hemoglobin gene)

Negatives:

In athletes, it has the potential for microcirculatory disorders during exercise leading to death.   [39]

If both biological parents have the sickle-cell trait, some of their children may have sickle-cell anemia.

Benefits:

Is only beneficial in areas prone to malaria.

“(P)rovides 60% protection against overall mortality. Most of this protection occurs between 2-16 months of life, before the onset of clinical immunity in areas with intense transmission of malaria.” [40]

F   2.  Sickle-cell anemia:

(Two sickle-cell genes)

Negatives:

Increases risk of severe bacterial infections, stroke, silent stroke, gallstones, aseptic bone necrosis of the hip and other major joints, decreased immune reactions, bacterial bone infection, acute papillary necrosis in the kidneys, leg ulcers, retinal detachments, chronic pain, pulmonary hypertension, and chronic kidney failure. [41] People with “sickle cell anaemia (SCA) are highly susceptible to the lethal effects of malaria.” [42]

Benefits:

None

C   This mutation results from a substitution that corrupts the hemoglobin gene. ‘(W)hen the frequency of the sickle-cell gene reaches 18 percent, natural selection for it “stops.” That’s the point at which the death rates from sickle-cell anemia and malaria balance, demonstrating conclusively that sickle-cell anemia is not a suitable model for the continuous genetic expansion that evolutionists seek.’ [43]

E   The sickle-cell mutation has been used by evolutionists to support the idea of a naturally selected beneficial mutation because those with one sickle-cell gene are resistant to malaria.

11

c

Hemophilia:

F  1.  “Haemophilia is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body’s ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding”... The two main types of haemophilia, A and B, “are typically inherited from one’s parents through an X chromosome with a nonfunctional gene.”  [44]

F   2.  The blood coagulation cascade is very complex involving the production, prevention, localization and removal of clots. [45] All this is irreducibly complex and needed from the beginning in the event of injury and points to intelligent design.

11

d

Fruit flies:

F   1.  Mutations in fruit flies are generally either neutral or harmful.

Neutral examples: eye color, body color

[46][47]

Harmful examples: no eyes, curly wings versus the ideal flat wings, wings too short to fly, antennas to become legs. [48][49]

Beneficial examples:  none

F   2.  In research work that received a Nobel Prize in 1995, researchers painstakingly through “experiments proved that mutation of any these core developmental genes – mutations that would be essential for the fruit fly to evolve into any other creature – merely resulted in dead or deformed fruit flies.  This therefore showed that fruit flies could not evolve.” [50]

C   Fruit flies are still fruit flies even with these mutations.

E   1.  Some evolutionists have claimed that fruit fly mutations support macroevolution.

Macroevolution generally refers to evolution advancing beyond the species level.

E   2.  “In fact, mutations are the basis for evolution because beneficial mutations are passed along to offspring so they can be better suited to their environment.” [51]

E   3.  “Mutations are neither good nor bad: some may be beneficial for an organism; others may be lethal. By creating new gene versions, mutations are a driving force for changes in evolution, sometimes leading to new species.” [52] 

11

e

TRIM5-CypA protein:

F   “The TRIM5 gene encodes TRIM5alpha, a protein that blocks infection of the cell by retroviruses.” In certain species of monkeys, there is a substitution that causes the TRIM5 gene to splice with a CypA pseudogene creating the novel TRIM5-CypA protein. [53]

“(T)he macaque TRIM5-CypA isoform does not result in increased restriction of HIV-1.” [54]

C   1.  TRIM5-CypA protein is part of an immune system.  The immune benefit of this gene splice and whether it resulted from a mutation, programed change or existed from the beginning is uncertain.

C   2.  This substitution, no matter how it came to be, allows existing information to be spliced together.  Splicing existing information together is questionable as a gain in information. This may be illustrated by the following example of combining two sentences into one:

1.    My dog has fleas.

2.     Fleas are bad.

My dog has fleas and fleas are bad.

Here there is no gain in information.

E   The TRIM5 mutation in

certain species of monkeys resulting in the TRIM5-CypA protein is an example of gain in information by a mutation. [55]

11

f

CCR5-delta32 mutation:

F   “(R)esults from deletion of a particular sequence of 32 base-pairs [56]

Negatives:

“(S)trongly associated with a chronic and potentially life-threatening liver disease” and “higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu.” [57]

Benefits:

“The virus HIV normally enters a cell via its CCR5 receptors… But in people with receptors crippled by the CCR5-delta32 mutation, entry of HIV by this means is blocked, providing immunity to AIDS for homozygous carriers and greatly slowing progress of the disease in heterozygous carriers.” [58]

12

Lactase persistence:

F   “Lactase is the enzyme responsible for the digestion of milk sugar lactose and its production decreases after the weaning phase in most mammals, including most humans.  Some humans, however, continue to produce lactase throughout adulthood, a trait known as lactase persistence.” Lactase persistence is caused by a single mutation in European populations and by several different mutations in Africa and the Middle East. [59]

C   1.  ‘(T)hese genetic changes ‘are not “evolution” in the uphill molecules-to-milkman sense, as the changes are downhill, i.e., information has been lost (viz., the normal switching-off mechanism of lactase production following weaning).’ Lactase persistence is an example of selection. “But natural selection is not evolution.” [60]

C   2.  Lactase nonpersistent is genetically programmed. [61]

E   Lactase persistence in certain populations has been claimed by evolutionists as upward evolution in the ability for adults to digest milk.

13

Antibiotic resistance:        

F   “[B]acteria were resistant to antibiotics, even before 

commercial antibiotics were “invented.” [62]

C   Drug resistance in bacteria “does demonstrate natural selection (or a sort of artificial selection, in this case), but only among already existing variations within a kind.” [63]

E   “When penicillin was first introduced, Staphylococci infections were quickly defeated by small doses, but at some point in time the bacterial DNA underwent a mutation that made a particular Staphylococcus resistant to penicillin.” [64]

14

Light-colored and dark-colored Pepper Moths:

F   See item 10 in Table 3 – Evolutionary Myths

E   “It is believed that at some point a mutation occurred that resulted in dark-colored pepper moths, and these had a survival advantage, because they blended in with the dark, soot stained bark.” [65]

15

New genes?

C   ‘Mutations, random changes in the genetic code, do produce “new genes” not present at creation, but the so-called “new genes” are still found at the same locus, still pair the same way in meiosis, and are still turned on and off by the same regulators, so they are really only genes of the same kind as the original, and represent only variation within kind (usually harmful variation in the case of mutations).’ [66]

F   1. Neo-Darwinists believe that new genes with new functions can evolve through mutations.

F   2.  “Mutation is important as the first step of evolution because it creates a new DNA sequence for a particular gene, creating a new allele.” [67]

Allele is a variation of a particular gene.

16

Duplication of a single gene:

F   1.  “(T)he human genome probably contains between 30,000 and 40,000 genes...” and “many genes in the human genome are duplicated, some more than once.” [68]

F   2.  “To maintain genomic stability, all cells have built-in mechanisms to silence duplicated genes, after which they become subject to degenerative mutations.” [69]

F   3.  “Evolution by gene duplication predicts a proportional increase in genome size with organism complexity but this is contradicted by the evidence.  It is not genome size but intergenic regulatory sequences and gene regulation hierarchies that determine complexity. Gene regulation networks are irreducibly complex and constitute an insurmountable barrier for the theory.” [70]

C   Gene duplication does not add new information not present at creation.

E   1.  A serious problem to evolutionary theory is how much more complex multicellular organisms evolved from one-celled organisms.  One popular hypothesis among evolutionists is that this arose by some random mutations creating duplicate copies of genes that then acquired novel functions through mutations.  Of these novel genes, those that survived natural selection increased the complexity of the organisms.

E   2.  “Spare copies of genes or inactive genes can mutate and change their function over time thereby producing a new variation that natural selection can favor or reject.  Large-scale evolutionary changes in a species line generally occur in this way.” [71]

17

Duplication of a chromosome:

F   1.  “(I)s normally harmful, as in Down’s syndrome.” [72]

F   2.  Down's syndrome “is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21.” [73]

18

Substitutions, insertions and deletions:

F   1.    Substitutions – one nucleotide is replaced by another in a DNA strand. “Often caused by chemicals or malfunction of DNA replication.” [74] Some substitutions are neutral in their effects. “Sickle cell anemia is caused by a substitution in the beta-hemoglobin gene, which alters a single amino acid in the protein produced.” [75]

F   2.  Insertions – one or more extra nucleotide(s) is/are added to a DNA strand. [76] “(A) very efficient way of completely destroying the functionality of existing genes.” [77]

F   3.  Deletions – one or more nucleotide(s) is/are removed from a DNA strand. [78] “Both insertions and deletions are referred to as frameshift mutations, because all the nucleotides downstream are grouped incorrectly.” [79] The most common cause of cystic fibrosis is a deletion.[80]

F   4.  These errors are common.  “There is a self-correcting mechanism in DNA replication that repairs these small errors, but it does not always find every one of them.” [81] “(T)he repair mechanisms are not 100% perfect because they suffer mechanical damage themselves.” [82]

E   Although rare, some of these errors are beneficial advancing evolution.

19

Complexity of the human genome:

F   “You’ve got to remember that these genomes make one of the most complicated things we know, ourselves. The idea that the recipe book would be easy to understand is kind of hubris.” – Dr. Ewan Birney [83] Hubris is insolent pride or presumption. [84]

C   The complexity of the human genome shows the creative genius of the Creator.