[grey_whiskers]

We can never know if a specific mutation was "natural" or the result of intervention. We can, however, test the limits of theories of change, and that is exactly what evolutionary biologists do.

"Test the limits of theories of change"??

Please explain, I don't know what that phrase means.

Cheers!

[js1138]

"Test the limits of theories of change"??

Please explain, I don't know what that phrase means.

I am referring to Behe's Edge of evolution, which asserts that two simultaneous mutations required for a new function are statistically impossible (something never posited by evolution theorists).

Behe say the next best thing is also impossible -- two sequential mutations, the first of which confers no benefit -- are also impossible.

Testing this is time consuming -- it can take decades -- but at least two laboratory experiments have demonstrated two and even three sequential mutations resulting in a new function. An equivalent multi-mutation sequence has occurred in the AIDS virus in historic times.

These cases confirm what theorists have claimed for the past 50 years -- that neutral and even mildly detrimental mutations can accumulate in a population and can become part of a new function, being bridged, so to speak, by a single enabling mutation. what was once theory is becoming laboratory science.