The Myth of Beneficial Mutations

Mutation occurs at a rate of one for every ten million cell duplications. This is an insignificant number when compared to 100 trillion cells in a human body. Thus, the chance of having a couple of cells with a mutated form for every gene is possible without any noticeable effect. The reproduction system is a simple and powerful information system within the DNA molecule and it is a very stable system for transmitting that information. Mutations are very rare.

Researchers have by means of genetic breeding, changed a two-wing fruit fly into a four-wing fruit fly. The four-wing fruit fly consistently reproduces four-winged fruit flies. But although a new species has been produced, it is not a new “kind.” The mutant fruit fly is still a fruit fly. As a matter of fact, the four-winged fruit fly is a weakened form. The second set of wings do not help the fruit fly; they actually get in the way. Its ability to take flight is dangerously hindered. Having been selectively bred in the laboratory, this species will also not survive without the caring assistance of researchers. This is a poor example of evolution by mutation. The bottom line is that mutations always weaken an organism and never change it into something else. The fruit fly remains a fruit fly.

Beneficial Mutations
Sickle Cell Anemia is often presented as an example of a favorable mutation. This is because red blood cells carry a sickle cell hemoglobin mutation that resists malaria. Although it resists malaria, 25 percent of those who have this mutant gene can still get the disease. Many have a hard time calling this a beneficial mutation when it brings with it a 25 percent chance of death. Sickle cell anemia causes a sickle shape hemoglobin molecule that bonds to another producing an enlarged molecular structure that cannot pass through the capillary walls. This condition occurs when the oxygen supply is low. How can a diseased hemoglobin molecule that was processed with incorrect information in the DNA be called a benefit to any body? This defect itself can kill a person.

No New Information
A basic information principle must be violated for evolution to be true. For an organism to evolve upward from simple to complex there must be an increase of genetic information. When mutations take place, however, there is an exchange of information or misinformation, but never an increase. The system is limited to what it has and therefore cannot create new codes. Most frequently, information exchange leads to a loss of information.

Bacterial Resistance
The appearance of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics is often touted as evidence for the “molecules to men” Theory of Evolution. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is just the most recent in a long line of bacteria that has shown evidence of resistance to antibiotics that previously was clearly susceptible to a certain antimicrobial agents. There are numerous mechanisms, e.g. loss of enzymatic activity can result in metronidazole resistance, mutations associated with antibiotic resistance involve the loss or reduction of a pre-existing cellular function/activity, i.e., the target molecule lost an affinity for the antibiotic, the antibiotic transport system was reduced or eliminated, a regulatory system or enzyme activity was reduced or eliminated, etc. and several bacteria, including Escherichia coli, construct a multiple-antibiotic-resistance (MAR) efflux pump that provides the bacterium with resistance to multiple types of antibiotics, including erythromycin, tetracycline, ampicillin, and nalidixic acid are just a couple of them. (Anderson 2005)

Understanding that there are multiple reasons for bacterial resistance to antibiotics helps to see this ability as the result of a complex and often diverse interactions rather than a simple and straightforward ability of organisms to change over time. Remember, we are not stating that bacterial resistance to antibiotics does anything to substantially change the core components of bacteria. As with all other mutations, information is being lost or altered in some way. No new information is being transmitted and this is a basic requirement for the types of changes predicted by Darwinian evolution. Single cell bacterial remain single cell bacteria.

These mutations also cannot provide a mechanism that continues to “evolve” the level of protein specificity or protein activity that is necessary for normal cellular function. While such mutations are excellent examples of bacterial adaptation, they are actually the antithesis of the mutational change necessary for evolution. Yet, these are the very examples evolutionists offer as verifiable demonstrations of “evolutionary change.” Ironically, these mutations are, in fact, verifiable examples of a creation model—initial complexity being mutated to a level of greater simplicity. (Anderson 2005)

Having worked in the clinical laboratory at the time that Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV) went from a mysterious and rare wasting disease of unknown etiology to the worldwide viral pandemic it is today, I understand first hand fear that can be associated with newly emerging diseases in general and antibiotically resistant bacteria specifically. Still, the facts about microbial resistance to medicine tell a different story. The so-called ‘supergerms’ in hospitals are not ‘super’ at all. What has happened is that the use of antibiotics in modern hospitals has meant that the only ones surviving are those, which have all the resistance factors. If a person gets a serious infection with one of these resistant types, the infection is not therefore more aggressive than if it was a non-resistance form of the same bug; it is simply that doctors are powerless to treat it. In fact, it is generally a weaker form of the pathogen. (Wieland 1994)

Apes to Humans

An ape could, theoretically, mutate into a man by changing just one percent of his DNA. While the claim of a one percent DNA difference between man and ape is controversial and highly debatable, one might conclude, if we assume the claim to be true, that evolutionists have a point. One must remember, though, that all mutations have to be in exactly the same order as a human person’s genome. It is estimated that one million mutations are required for every one percent difference. Moreover, all the mutations must occur exactly where the two genomes differ. How can one have a million mutations when each mutation has to be in the exact sequence to make a human? It’s impossible. George Simpson, a well-known paleontologist and ardent evolutionist, estimated that it would take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chances to get five mutations in the exact order. Simpson concludes that simultaneous mutations as a process observed today had no part in evolution.

Simpson wrote a surprisingly honest comment on the absence of transitional fossils, “…Every paleontologist knows that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of family appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences.” (Simpson 1953)

Summary
The bottom line concerning beneficial mutations is clear, it simply does not add up. The Theory of Evolution proposes that every living organism is the result of natural processes, e.g. natural selection, or the survival of the fittest coupled with the ever elusive beneficial mutation. We are being told that all life is the result of one single-celled organism slowly changing over time into every other living organism on planet earth. That includes the plant kingdom/flora as well as the animal kingdom/fauna.

The evidence that we see around us every day is contrary to the story told by evolutionary scientists. We actually see every living organism reproducing “after their own kind” as recorded in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. When we look as the fossil record, a purportedly trustworthy history of the past on planet earth, we see every life form appearing abruptly in the fossil record, fully formed. We should not be seeing life forms pre-programmed by the Creator genetically to reproduce themselves. If Darwinian evolution is true, we should not have just a handful of allegedly transitional fossils, we should have a veritable plethora of transitional fossils showing the links between every single living organism we see alive today.

Instead of this hard evidence for Darwinian evolution, we see the evidence special creation. Instead of the myriad “just so” stories of evolution, we see the confirmation of the biblical record, the clear evidence of intelligent design by the Living Word of God who spoke the universe and everything therein into existence in six 24-hour days. As it is written: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1.

References
Anderson, Kevin (2005). Is Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics an Appropriate Example
of Evolutionary Change? Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4.
A peer-reviewed journal published by the http://www.creationresearch.org

Simpson, George Gaylord (1953). The Major Features of Evolution, New York, Columbia University Press, p. 360.
Wieland, Carl (1994). Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 8:1 (1994), p. 5.

– See more at: http://www.creationstudies.org/operationsalt/myth-beneficial-mutations.html#sthash.uBywD7rh.dpuf
Anderson, Kevin (2005). Is Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics an Appropriate Example of Evolutionary Change? Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4. A peer-reviewed journal published by the http://www.creationresearch.org

Simpson, George Gaylord (1953). The Major Features of Evolution, New York, Columbia University Press, p. 360.
Wieland, Carl (1994). Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 8:1 (1994), p. 5.

Dzik, J (2007). The Verdun Syndrome: simultaneous origin of protective armour and infaunal shelters at the Precambrian–Cambrian transition, in Vickers-Rich, Patricia; Komarower, Patricia, The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, Special publications, 286, London: Geological Society, pp. 405–414.

Fedonkin, M.A. (1992). Vendian faunas and the early evolution of Metazoa. In Lipps, J., and Signor, P. W.. Origin and early evolution of the Metazoa. New York: Springer. pp. 87–129.

Gould, Stephen Jay, & Eldredge, Niles (1977). “Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered.” Paleobiology 3 (2): 115-151.

Hamer, Gene (2005). The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes. New York, NY: Doubleday

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Strick, James (April 15, 2001). Evolution & The Spontaneous Generation. Continuum International Publishing Group. Bristol, England: Theommes Press, pp. xi–xxiv.

White, Lynn (1967). The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis. Accessed 1.3.13.