Non-Kosher foods causing mutations is more in the christian holistic movement. There concerned about the heavy metals in respect to mutations. Heres a link about the clean verses the unclean creatures.
http://godkind.org/clean-foods.html
It shouldn't be surprising that a vast amount of the world's food supplies are unclean foods. From a scientific standpoint, you can support the issue of a food being "unclean." Most of the unclean foods can be demonstrated to be, literally, unclean.
Most of these foods are considered to be "scavenger" animals that eat the wastes of other animals, and help to clean up the environment. Lobster, shrimp, shell fish and other water scavengers contain high levels of heavy metals. Pigs, as you well know, scavenge the land and will eat literally anything they come into contact with.
The issue here, however, isn't whether we can prove whether or not the unclean creatures listed in the Bible are, in scientific fact, "unclean," but whether we are willing to believe what God tells us, along with everything else He has told us through the pages of the Bible. We can't reject what we don't like or don't agree with.
Whether or not God labelled some foods clean and others not is immaterial. But i find it hard to believe that that whole reasoning behind the kosher diet is to prevent mutations from occurring. Where in the OT does it speak of heavy metals causing mutation?
The mutagenicity of heavy metals still doesn't change things much. Even with a higher mutation rate, you're still not gonna get a coalescence date of 6000yrs. If the mutation rate in humans was that high, i'd expect humanity to have been wiped out pretty quick due to genetic disease.
What this all means is that mutations are not random things, but related to heavy metals in the diet.
you seem to misunderstand the use of the word "random". It is well known that external sources are able to generate mutations (eg. irradiation, xenobiotics, even heavy metals). It is the location of the mutation that is random.
Mutations, however, do not only occur due to external influence. The metabolism of an organism can also cause mutations, through the production of reactive oxygen species, or even due to errors in the replication mechanisms; the body's systems, while highly accurate, are not perfect.
This all supports that life is devolving, as mutations are not an increase in information.
This just shows that you don't have a proper grasp of how the genetic code works. The thing is, most mutations, even ones occurring within coding regions, are not harmful.
This is due to the redundancy of the genetic code. i'm sure you know that genes (DNA) codes for amino acid chains which form proteins. A single amino acid is coded for by a three base "codon" of DNA. There are 64 three-base combinations of the four DNA bases, A, C ,T, and G.
There are only approximately 20 amino acids (or 22 or thereabouts, i can't recall the exact number). This means that most of the amino acids are coded for by more than one codon.
So a mutation often doesn't result in an amino acid change. But i digress.
In respect to Michondrial Eve the mutations are only accumulative not self correcting because its not a sharing of genetic information.
You seem to think that mitochondrial genes are not under natural selection. i don't quite understand why. As WK mentioned the genes coded for by the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) are important for celluar respiration i.e energy production. Any organism with severe problems of the energy production pathway will not last long, or at least be severely impaired.
if you don't understand how the inheritance of mitochondria works, then ask and i will explain.
You must realise this, however; most dates gotten from DNA are often taken from a region not under natural selection. This is because natural selection messes around with mutation rates, and so the clearest picture is gained from a region that is not subject to selection.
The dating of mitochondrial Eve was done on the D-loop of the mtDNA i.e the two control regions. These regions are not subject to selection and are thus hypervariable i.e rapidly mutating.
Accelerated mutations in Michondrial Eve actually is supporting the creationists beliefs that African Eve is only 6,000 years old.
while the mutation rate of mtDNA is much higher than genomic DNA, its still not that fast.
So intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
- Pablo Neruda
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