Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 64 (9164 total)
4 online now:
Newest Member: ChatGPT
Post Volume: Total: 916,749 Year: 4,006/9,624 Month: 877/974 Week: 204/286 Day: 11/109 Hour: 0/2


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Have evolutionists documented the formation of NEW genetic material? (Lost Thread)
Huntard
Member (Idle past 2321 days)
Posts: 2870
From: Limburg, The Netherlands
Joined: 09-02-2008


Message 1 of 19 (489228)
11-25-2008 12:45 PM


Since the original has been lost to the great black hole of the forum , this is the restart for the thread.
The op was as follows:
Wardog25 writes:
Could you provide me with any specific scientific procedures that have resulted in a gain of NEW genetic material for an organism? (not a changing of current material, nor a doubling of current material. New material. New genes, proteins, etc.)
What evolutionists claim is the mechanism for evolution is what I call microevolution. Everyone is free to call it whatever they like. But that's what I call it.
Bottom line is, it has to add NEW genetic material for the mechanism to work.
So thousands of laboratory tests = many changes in current genetic material, but nothing new. This supports creation: that animals can change within their "kind".
We are still waiting for the tests that show the introduction of new genetic material. So at this point, the evolutionary mechanism gives more support to creation than it does to the theory of evolution.
(and I appologize for my use of the word "species". I forget that I come from other forums where people freak out if you use anything Biblically referenced.)
This is a quote of mine from another thread, but it was off topic, so I'm hoping to start a new discussion.
So can anyone provide any documented lab results, procedures, tests, etc. that have shown an organism gaining genetic material?
Clarification: By new genetic material, I mean exactly that. New. A fruit fly developing a leg that comes out of its head does not count as new. The genetic material for a leg already existed, so there is nothing "new" there, it's just moved. Same thing with doubling of genetic material. That only doubles what we already have, it does not produce anything "new". For the evolutionary mechanism to work, there HAS to be new genetic material formed. So where is the evidence?
To this Admin had placed the following warning:
Admin writes:
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST
The first 15 messages of this thread are discussion between the originator and moderators. You can skip this discussion, but please read all of this message, then understand that in the opinion of the moderators the first order of business in this thread should be reaching common ground regarding the definition of new genetic material. Then skip to Message 16. --Admin
The thread went along, and then Wardog25 got back in again with this message:
Wardog25 writes:
Sorry that I have not contributed to this. Life is too busy.
I actually was under the impression that the title of the thread was going to be changed, but oh well.
By "material", I meant something larger than just a new pattern in the DNA. I even mean something larger than say, the ability for bacteria to digest nylon.
An organism gaining the ability to digest something new, or a bacteria gaining resistance to an antibiotic is not demonstrating that the organism is on its way to developing a new structure. And it certainly isn't demonstrating that the distant offspring of that organism could ever evolve into another organism.
Bottom line is, if humans evolved from something smaller than a one-celled organism, there HAD to be a time when the "genetic material" for an arm, or a nose, or heart tissue did not exist. It came into existence.
So where is the mechanism that makes these new things come about? How many generations of fruit flies do we have to watch to demonstrate this? They may grow a leg out of their head, but they never even gain a more functional leg, much less a "new structure" that is even better than a leg. If we can't find evidence of such things, how can we take that a step further and believe that a fruit fly could ever evolve into anything else?
So call it "new genetic material" or "evidence of major morphological changes". Either is fine with me.
Does that clear up what I'm looking for?
To which Percy replied with:
Percy writes:
Wardog25 writes:
Bottom line is, if humans evolved from something smaller than a one-celled organism, there HAD to be a time when the "genetic material" for an arm, or a nose, or heart tissue did not exist. It came into existence.
So where is the mechanism that makes these new things come about?
The mechanism is descent with modification and natural selection.
If you're looking for a structure within the cell tucked amidst the mitochondria and ribosomes that directs evolution, no such structure exists. Evolution is undirected. It makes do with whatever already exists or is provided through mutation.
--Percy
PaulK replied with:
PaulK writes:
quote:
Bottom line is, if humans evolved from something smaller than a one-celled organism, there HAD to be a time when the "genetic material" for an arm, or a nose, or heart tissue did not exist. It came into existence.
And we know from the fossil record that that required a whole long (VERY long) sequence of smaller changes.
If you're going to ask for documented changes you are going to have to ask for changes that reasonably COULD be documented. Asking for full documentation of the evolution of even a primitive vertebrate from a single-celled organism is grossly unreasonable.
So, can you define what you want clearly enough that we can get it down to something reasonable ? Or are you just going to make demands that cannot possibly be met regardless of the truth of the matter so you can claim a "victory" ?
And Bluegenes replied with:
Bluegenes writes:
Wardog25 writes:
How many generations of fruit flies do we have to watch to demonstrate this?
To put things into perspective, a fruit fly generation is about 12 days, giving us about 30 generations per year or about 3000 per century, if anyone got around to observing them that long.
3000 generations is very little in evolutionary time. Our ancestors were Homo Sapiens 3000 generations ago.
You could witness the beginnings of the process of speciation in fast reproducing creatures like fruit flies, and that has been observed.
Then, Wardog25 got back in and made this post:
Wardog25 writes:
Scientists have been observing E coli for over 40,000 generations and have yet to find anything more than these small-scale changes mentioned above (resistance to antibiotic, etc)
If larger changes take much longer than 40,000 generations in every organism, the evolutionary time-line is in serious trouble.
Cavediver then responded:
Cavediver writes:
If larger changes take much longer than 40,000 generations in every organism, the evolutionary time-line is in serious trouble.
Really? You ask about growing new legs? When did our ancestors become tetrapods? Err, that would be nearly 400 million years ago? How many generations is that? And how many extra legs have evolved in all of the descendents of those first tetrapods? And those first tetrapods, did their legs just poof out of nothing, or were they actually just gradual changes to pre-existing structures? Oh yes, lobe-finned fish fins... what a surprise. So, evolution has apparently taken us, over the course of 400 million years, from four limbs to, err, four limbs. I must admit that large scale change of this magnitude is a real problem for evolution.
And that's all I could find from Google cache.
What follows is the reply I made to Wardog25's post (If I remember correctly)
Huntard writes:
I would like to point the following out:
Modern day extant species did not evolve for other modern day extant species. The bacteria you speak of would be very different genetically thousands, let alone millions, of years ago.
And that's all I really remember well enough to post about, I do remember Lucytehape coming in and bringing up some points to refute my claims, but I can't recall them well enough to reproduce them here.
That's kinda where we left off, so now, let's resume

I hunt for the truth

Replies to this message:
 Message 3 by bluegenes, posted 11-25-2008 4:44 PM Huntard has not replied
 Message 12 by wardog25, posted 12-01-2008 5:08 PM Huntard has replied

  
Huntard
Member (Idle past 2321 days)
Posts: 2870
From: Limburg, The Netherlands
Joined: 09-02-2008


Message 13 of 19 (490028)
12-01-2008 5:28 PM
Reply to: Message 12 by wardog25
12-01-2008 5:08 PM


wardog25 writes:
So how would a bacteria from millions of years ago and a bacteria from today differ?
Genetically they differ a great deal. And even morphologically a bacteria from millions of years ago would look very different then a bacteria today. Within the possibilities of these one celled organisms of course.
One is ready to evolve at a moments notice and the other isn't?
No. Bacteria evolve all the time, as do all other species.
That's not a statement backed by evidence. Sounds like a statement of faith to me.
Which is why I didn't say that. I said that the bacteria of today are different from those millions of years ago, and so, you should not expect a modern day bacteria to take the same evolutionary path. The same goes for fish and frogs, modern day fish are VERY different from millions of years ago, and so, will NEVER give birth to a modern frog (not that the fishes of millions of years ago did this). That's just not how evolution works.
Unless you can prove that bacteria of today are somehow at the top of the evolutionary ladder
There is no "evolutionary ladder" there is only being adapted to your environment. Most bacteria are VERY WELL adapted to their environment, and thus selective pressure to change drastically is absent.
it would seem that the mechanism of evolution "should" affect them as it always has,
It DOES still affect them, the selective pressure is just very low.
and therefore we should see more changes in 40,000 generations if that mechanism actually works.
Wrong, especially in the lab, where the selective pressure are even smaller. Or, if it is bigger, they DO show significant change. Does bacteria that become immune to antibiotics ring a bell? If an antibiotic is introduced into the bacteria's environment, the selective pressure increases greatly, and as a result, the change the population undergoes is also significant (it becomes immune to that particular antibiotic).
I think you also have the misconception that man is somehow the "end product" of evolution. We are not, we are simply another step evolution takes.

I hunt for the truth

This message is a reply to:
 Message 12 by wardog25, posted 12-01-2008 5:08 PM wardog25 has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 17 by CosmicChimp, posted 12-02-2008 7:37 PM Huntard has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024