Mutations are rare

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Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 External Links 6 References 7 Further Reading 8 Related claims 9 See Also 10 Acknowledgments

Claim

Mutations are rare.

Source

• Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas, p. 55.

Responses

1. "Rare" is a somewhat relative and subjective term. Even YECs have had to accept "microevolution", the small scale changes within populations and between closely related species, so by their own judgement mutations are frequent enough for evolution to occur.
2. While probability suggests that one person will not win the lottery, it is likely that some person in a large enough population will win the lottery (and, in fact, there are often winners each month in the lottery). In the same way, even if the claim is true, enough mutations come up within generations of populations. Nachman and Crowell estimated around 180 mutations in each generation with humans (of which, most were neutral and a small percentage were harmful or beneficial).
3. Some forms of mutations are actually extremely common. Damage to the DNA of our skin cells caused by ultraviolet light is one such form. Another common form of mutation is the silent mutation, where the base pair in a codon is altered, but not noticed because the mutated codon still produces the same amino acid.
4. add more responses

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Improper Notion of Probability (rare is not the same as nonexistent)

External Links

• Mark Isaak's page for this claim [1]
• Harter, Richard, 1999. Are Mutations Harmful? [2]

References

1. Nachman MW, Crowell SL, 2000. Estimate of the mutation rate per nucleotide in humans. Genetics 156(1): 297-304.

Further Reading

• Drake, J.W., Charlesworth, B., Charlesworth, D., & Crow, J.F., 1998. Rates of spontaneous mutation. Genetics 148: 1667-1686.

Related claims

• Most mutations are harmful
• Mutations don't add information
• Microevolution selects only existing variation
• Mutations increase genetic load
• Cost of natural selection is prohibitive (Haldane's dilemma)
• Junk DNA is not really junk
• DNA is the result of intelligence because it contains readable information

See Also

• Spontaneous Mutation
• Mutagen
• Why is Creationism not a Scientific Theory?

Acknowledgments

• 68.82.28.14