Impossible evolution of new beneficial proteins

Crash,The question here is a good one, though. I keep hoping someone will make an effort to actually do the numbers, to see if we are in a ball-park or reason. Because of what we know of genetic engineering, we can suppose that new genes could be introduced from viruses or bacteria. Lot of those around for random mutations to happen to, over a very long time, and they reproduce so quickly, so we have lots of room for natural selection. But is it enough? As Greenblue notes, to get a new and useful protein requires an incredibly large number of steps, all of which have to be adaptive for a while, anyway.And what are you hoping for, Crash, and willing or unwilling to believe? What do you do with your subjectivity?Stephen

Loudmouth,Just discovered this post of yours, and the information in it was news to me. Thanks.Of course, the explanation alternative to evolution is creation, where random mutation is replaced by genetic engineering by supernatural beings. Now that we have at least the possibility that this explanation can be manipulated by prayer, we might have a means of deciding whether the observed "random mutations" were indeed random and not genetically engineered by some supernatural being.Stephen

L.Good point. Are the polymerase mistakes known to produce something useful?Stephen

M.Thanks. I hadn't seen those studies, and they are very useful. I still would like to see them replicated with and without prayers, but it sure looks like a confirmation of evolution!S.