Re: evolution? and faith

Glenn Morton (grmorton@psyberlink.net)
Mon, 23 Jun 1997 22:20:47 -0500

At 10:28 PM 6/23/97 +0800, Stephen Jones wrote:
>Glenn
>
>On Tue, 10 Jun 1997 21:54:43 -0500, Glenn Morton wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>GM>I would not say that mutations have never been known to produce
>>anything good for the organism which possess it. Over the past 60
>>years, mankind has waged an unrelenting battle against the microbes
>>of this planet. We have killed them with penicillin, streptomycin,
>>vancomycin, and many other antibiotics. Because of this onslaught,
>mutations have produced immunities to each of the antibiotics which
>>we have thrown at them....
>
>The impression here given (perhaps unintentionally) is that
>favourable mutations arrive on demand when needed? My understanding
>is that it is not "mutations" but genetic variation already present
>in the populations that confers such resistance:

If God created life, which I firmly believe He did, and random mutation are
so bad as Creationist/anti-evolutionists say, then why did God create life
with a mechanism to produce mutations when they are under stress. There is a
new phenomenon, which has been discussed over the past few years.

"When a population of microorganisms is unable to grow because nutrients are
exhausted or cannot be used, it could make good sense for individuals i that
population to experiment with their genomes to try to overcome the
deficiency. One approach would be for a subpopulation to start mutating
vigourously at random (hypermutation), in the hope that a mutation might
arise that would enable growth to begin again. An alternative strategy
would be to mutate only those genes that might possibly be effective if
mutated (directed mutation), an idea that was raised by John Cairns and his
colleagues in much-cited work published in 1988. Two new papers, one from
Pat Foster and the other from Susan Rosenberg and her group, turn the
spotlight firmly on the first one of these strategies." B.A. Bridges,
'Hypermutation under Stress," Naturee June 5, 1997, p. 557

and

"Random hypermutation in specific genes is a tactic that has been evolved by
numerous pathogenic microorganisms in doing battle with their host's
defences. In contrast, the latest results with the FC40 system seem to
indicate a specific type of hypermutation in random genes." ibid p. 558

God gave the animals the ability to produce random mutation when such a
tactic was needed for survival. Are anti-evolutionists to say that God
didn't create this mechanism?

glenn

Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm