Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site iham1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!iham1!rck From: rck@iham1.UUCP (Ron Kukuk) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: The Scientific Case for Creation (Part 2) Message-ID: <329@iham1.UUCP> Date: Sun, 7-Apr-85 19:08:40 EST Article-I.D.: iham1.329 Posted: Sun Apr 7 19:08:40 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 8-Apr-85 01:35:28 EST Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 144 THE SCIENTIFIC CASE FOR CREATION: 116 CATEGORIES OF EVIDENCE I. (Life Sciences): THE THEORY OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION IS INVALID. A. EVOLUTION HAS NEVER BEEN OBSERVED. ... 3. Acquired characteristics cannot be inherited [a]. a) N. Heribert Nilsson, (Lund University), SYNTHETISCHE ARTBILDUNG (Lund Sweden: Verlag CWK Gleerup, 1953), p. 1144-1147. 4. Natural selection cannot produce NEW genes; it only SELECTS among preexisting characteristics. 5. Mutations are the only proposed mechanism by which new genetic material becomes available for evolution [a,b]. Rarely, if ever, is a mutation beneficial to an organism in its natural environment. In addition, almost all (perhaps all) observable mutations are harmful [c]; many are lethal [d-i]. a) ''Ultimately, all variation is, of course, due to mutation.'' [Ernst Mayr, as contained in Paul S. Moorhead and Martin M. Kaplan, editors, MATHEMATICAL CHALLENGES TO THE NEO-DARWINIAN INTERPRETATION OF EVOLUTION, Proceedings of a symposium held at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, April 25 and 26, 1966 (Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute Press, 1967), p. 50.] b) ''Although mutation is the ultimate source of all genetic variation, it is a relatively rare event, ....'' [Francisco J. Ayala, ''The Mechanism of Evolution,'' SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, September 1978, p. 63.] c) ''Mutations are more than just sudden changes in heredity; they also affect viability, and, to the best of our knowledge, invariably affect it adversely.'' [C. P. Martin, (McGill University) ''A Non-Geneticist Looks at Evolution,'' AMERICAN SCIENTIST, January 1953, p. 102.] d) ''[although mutations have produced some desirable breeds of animals and plants,] all mutations seem to be in the nature of injuries that, to some extent, impair the fertility and viability of the affected organisms. I doubt if among the many thousands of known mutant types one can be found which is superior to the wild type in its normal environment, only very few can be named which are superior to the wild type in a strange environment.'' [C. P. Martin, p. 100.] ''Mutation does produce hereditary changes, but the mass of evidence shows that all, or almost all, known mutations are unmistakably pathological and the few remaining ones are highly suspect.'' [C. P. Martin, p. 103.] e) ''The process of mutation is the only source of the raw materials of genetic variability, and hence of evolution.... The mutants which arise are, with rare exceptions, deleterious to their carriers, at least in the environments which the species normally encounters.'' [Theodosius Dobzhansky, ''On Methods of Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology,'' AMERICAN SCIENTIST, Winter, December 1957, p. 385.] f) ''If we say that it is only by chance that they [mutations] are useful, we are still speaking too leniently. In general, they are useless, detrimental, or lethal.'' [W. R. Thompson, ''Introduction to the ORIGIN OF SPECIES,'' by Charles Darwin; Everyman No. 811 Library (New York: E.P. Dutton & Sons, 1956 reprint of 1928 edition), p. 10.] g) ''...we could still be quite sure on theoretical grounds that mutants would usually be detrimental. For a mutation is a random change of a highly organized, reasonably smoothly functioning living body. A random change in the highly integrated system of chemical processes which constitute life is almost certain to impair it--just as a random interchange of connections in a television set is not likely to improve the picture.'' [James F. Crow, (Professor of Genetics, University of Wisconsin) ''Genetic Effects of Radiation,'' BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, Vol.14, 1958, pp. 19-20.] h) ''The one systematic effect of mutations seems to be a tendency towards degeneration.'' [Dr. Sewall Wright, THE NEW SYSTEMATICS (Clarendon Press), p. 174.] i) In discussing the many mutations needed to produce a new organ, Koestler says that ''Each mutation occurring alone would be wiped out before it could be combined with the others. They are all interdependent. The doctrine that their coming together was due to a series of blind coincidences is an affront not only to common sense but to the basic principles of scientific explanation.'' [Arthur Koestler, THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE (New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. 129]. ... II. (Astronomical Sciences): TO BE CONTINUED III. (Earth Sciences):