[nasamn777]

Junior,
You completely ignored my post -- or you didn't understand it. Try this experiment. Go to a football field and take along a die. The game is played as follows: start at the goal line and flip the die -- once per minute. If you get a lucky six you get to move ahead one yard. Do this until you get to the other goal line. How long on average would this game take? Now take a miniature computer with a random number generator (random like mutations). Set it so that it can generate numbers randomly between 1 and 10,000. Each minute you can generate a number. What is the average time to complete the game? Now let us use an illustration simulating coupled mutations. Let us say that you need precise mutations. This time play the game such that you can advance after 20 times of obtaining the lucky six by the use of the random generator between 1 and 10,000. What would be the average time playing this game? Coupled mutations cut of the possibility of advancement due to the sheer improbability of the events leading to advancement. Life is designed for limited change. But, at the point where new structure and systems start to form, multiple mutations are required to allow significant improved fitness such that selection takes place. This shuts down the evolutionary process.

[Junior]

Each minute you can generate a number.

And herein your analogy fails. There are literally thousands, if not millions, of mutations per generation.

[js1138]

Each minute you can generate a number.

Why not make it a century or an eon. If you make the interval sufficiently great you can make the task impossible. But considering the number of molecules at or near the earth's surface, I's say your time interval is off by a couple dozen orders of magnitude.

And given a typical home computer generating numbers between 1 and 10,000 and advancing on the number six, I estimate it would take under a minute to complete your task, if it is not hobbled.

But of course you don't need pricise mutations. All you need are mutations that don't preclude reproduction. Each of us has a number of such mutations.

[aNYCguy]

Go to a football field and take along a die.

Your analogy fails to take into account the vast parallelism of evolution. There isn't just one die being rolled every minute; there are large numbers of "die" being rolled every generation.