Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: exDemMom
Mendellian genetics, DNA, and the complexity of the organism shown by the genome project show evolution to be impossible. -me-

Yes, of course, the very mechanism by which evolution occurs is absolute proof that it does not occur. < /sarcasm > On a side note, I wonder how it is that it took the genome project to show the complexity of the organism? It did not. In fact, if all you looked at is the DNA, you'd get a false impression of the simplicity of an organism: ggATCCATCATgg... all DNA sequences look pretty much like that.

Since the first of my questions is being dealt with elsewhere and the 2nd you do not wish to respond to at this time, let's deal with how the genome project's discoveries disprove evolution.

The importance of the genome project was that it showed some big problems with the generally accepted idea that genes were what controlled life. In fact, it completely destroyed that idea. Prior to the genome project being started, scientists believed that there would be some 100,000 genes found in humans. This they had assumed because they had been able to find some 100,000 different proteins produced in humans, and they assumed that one gene produced one protein. This almost central assumption of biology came tumbling down when they only found some 30,000 genes in the human genome. This led scientists to the next step in deciphering how life works - that one gene can produce more than one protein. Something funny also happened at the same time. Two different companies were doing the same analysis, each with slightly different methodology. Surprisingly, not only did both companies find that there were much fewer genes than proteins, but also that half the genes each identified were different from what the other company identified! This complete destruction of the concept of one gene, one protein has led to the discovery of gene regulation, gene expression, and the interrelatedness and cooperation required between different parts of the genome in order for an organism to do something as simple as make a single protein. So I am afraid your statement that it did not show the complexity of the organism is very much incorrect.

Strangely your statement about the apparent simplicity of the genetic code leads to my next point about the complexity of the genome! The question that must be asked is how such simplicity can produce such complexity? There is only one possible answer - that the DNA code is a set of instructions which 'knows' what actions to take under different circumstances and passes such instructions to other parts of the genome and other cells in the organism according to specifically determined circumstances.

169 posted on 08/13/2002 8:15:57 PM PDT by gore3000
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies ]


To: gore3000
I am very, very sorry: Your post has so many factual errors that it would be very time-consuming to go through it point by point. I guess you forgot my earlier post where I pointed out that I will have my PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology within two months, if all goes well. Meaning that I am literally a walking textbook on the very subject matter on which you are trying to snow me.

The fact is, genome project or not, we do not know how many genes or proteins are in humans. And the old adage that one gene = one protein is still pretty much true. When two different products come off a single gene, we call them isoforms--but still consider them the same protein. The genome project had absolutely no bearing on what we know of genetic complexity; it merely gave us the sequence for the entire genome, so that it is now in searchable databases. I have even made use of that information.

In any case, the whole complexity of the genome (human or otherwise) pretty much supports the theory of evolution. From the creationist standpoint, there is absolutely no reason for the hundreds of duplicated DNA elements in the genome... no reason for pseudogenes, which code for proteins that aren't even made, yet still exist in the genome like so much excess weight... etc. It really looks like the result of mindless mixing, and not like the product of intelligent design.

179 posted on 08/14/2002 1:46:32 AM PDT by exDemMom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 169 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson