changing one letter in the dna will still result in something alive, whereas changing one letter in a word probably won't keep the word readable.
Usually, but not always. There are examples of single-gene mutations in humans that are fatal, or cripling (I'm afraid examples allude me at this time; I can seek them out if you wish). What I'm suggesting is that it is logically possible that every 'kind' (whatever grouping that may be) is genetically isolated from every other kind in this manner.
What I'm suggesting is that it is logically possible that every 'kind' (whatever grouping that may be) is genetically isolated from every other kind in this manner.
It's possible, but apparently not the case:
quote: Functional sequences are not so rare and isolated. Experiments show that roughly 1 in 10^11 of all random-sequence proteins have ATP-binding activity (Keefe and Szostak 2001), and theoretical work by H. P. Yockey (1992, 326-330) shows that at this density all functional sequences are connected by single amino acid changes. Furthermore, there are several kinds of mutations that change multiple amino acids at once.
Denton (1998, 276) wrote, "One of the most surprising discoveries which has arisen from DNA sequencing has been the remarkable finding that the genomes of all organisms are clustered very close together in a tiny region of DNA sequence space forming a tree of related sequences that can all be interconverted via a series of tiny incremental natural steps." Meyer cites an older work of Denton (1986) without alerting readers to Denton's changed view. Denton now criticizes intelligent design advocates for ignoring the overwhelming evidence (Denton 1999).
Oh, absolutely! Many lines of evidence demonstrate that.
My point is not that such things exist (they don't, as can be demonstrated) but that proving NS and RM is not quite enough to demonstrate full blown evolution.