HURDLE NUMBER 24. THE MUTATION EXPERIMENTS HURDLE.
We have seen that The Neo-Darwinian Hypothesis, based on evolution by random mutations appears to be theoretically flawed. Now we will consider whether random mutations actually “work” in practice.
Here is a quote from the book – Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of The Genome (Classroom Edition), by Doctor J.C. Sanford (Cornell University Professor – Ph.D. in plant genetics) Third edition, published by FMS Publications, 2008. On pages 25 to 27, Doctor Sanford tells us – that, using powerful mutagenic agents, “millions and millions of plants were mutagenized and screened for possible improvements - - - - - - - vast numbers of mutants were produced and screened. - - - - - However, from all this effort, almost no meaningful crop improvement resulted - - - - The effort was an enormous failure for the most part, and was almost entirely abandoned - - - - - - Even with all the billions of mutations, there were no significant new beneficial mutations arising” . Sanford then tells us of a study by Bergman in 2004. He searched the scientific literature for scientific articles containing the word “mutation”. Sanford tells us that “He was unable to find a single example of a mutation which unambiguously created new information”. The author tells us that genetic mutations generally involve a “net loss of information”.
Here is another quote in a similar vein:-
(This quote is taken from the book The Argument: Creationism vs. Evolution, by Wilbert Rusch Senor, Published by Creation research Society Books, 1988, pages 33 to 34.)
The author discusses the views of geneticist Richard Goldschmidt, head of the Genetics Section of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology, and Professor at the University of Munich.
After many years experimenting with (artificially induced mutations) in fruit flies, but finding no new forms (of fruit fly), Goldschmidt concluded that “the explanation of evolution as the result of a series of cumulative micromutations was false.” (My highlighting.)
The next quote is from the book Free To Think – Why Scientific Integrity Matters, by Doctor Caroline Crocker (M.Sc., Ph.D., published by Leafcutter Press, 2010, page 75:-
Doctor Crocker quotes Lynn Margulis. (In 1988 Margulis was appointed Distinguished Professor of Botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was Distinguished Professor of Biology in 1993. In 1997 she transferred to the Department of Geosciences at Amherst to become Distinguished Professor of Geosciences.):-
“Never - - - did - - - one mutation make a wing, a fruit, a woody stem, or a claw appear. Mutations - - - tend to induce sickness, death, or deficiencies. No evidence in the vast literature of heredity changes shows unambiguous evidence that random mutation itself, even with geographical isolation of populations, leads to speciation.”