No entirely new features have evolved
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Claim
No entirely new features or biological functions have evolved.
Source
- Anon, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or By Creation? Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., p. 103
Responses
- The term "entirely new" is a meaningless hyperbole. Creationists use this term and refuse to define it in order to wave away any and all counter-examples as merely being "modified versions of older features."
- Japanese researchers discovered that a strain of Flavobacterium they were studying produced a mutated plasmid that carried at least two genes that code for a new enzyme henceforth refered to as "nylonase" that, obviously, enables the bacteria to break down and digest nylon, a wholly artificial polymer.
- The theory of evolution does not predict that change will normally occur through the addition of new features but rather the adaptation or second use of an existing feature. [1]
- add more responses
Fallacies contained in this claim
- Argument from incredulity (biologists can't explain this, so it can't have happened)
- Moving Goalpost Syndrome (biologists can't demonstrate new features because creationists refuse to acknowledge they actually exist)
External Links
- Mark Isaak's page for this claim [2]
- Thomas, Dave, n.d. Evolution and Information: The Nylon Bug. http://www.nmsr.org/nylon.htm
- Harris, Adam Noel, 2000 (July). An Observed Example of Morphological Evolution. http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/jul00.html
