Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2005

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Claim CB101.2:

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Response:

1. Variation of traits is production of novelty, especially where there was no variation before. The accumulation of slight modifications is a basis of evolution.
   
   
2. Documentation of mutations producing new features includes the following:
   • the ability of a bacterium to digest nylon (Negoro et al. 1994; Thomas n.d.; Thwaites 1985);
   • adaptation in yeast to a low-phosphate environment (Francis and Hansche 1972; 1973; Hansche 1975);
   • the ability of E. coli to hydrolyze galactosylarabinose (Hall 1981; Hall and Zuzel 1980);
   • evolution of multicellularity in a unicellular green alga (Boraas 1983; Boraas et al. 1998);
   • modification of E. coli's fucose pathway to metabolize propanediol (Lin and Wu 1984);
   • evolution in Klebsiella bacteria of a new metabolic pathway for metabolizing 5-carbon sugars (Hartley 1984);
   
   There is evidence for mutations producing other novel proteins:
   • Proteins in the histidine biosynthesis pathway consist of beta/alpha barrels with a twofold repeat pattern. These apparently evolved from the duplication and fusion of genes from a half-barrel ancestor (Lang et al. 2000).
   
   Laboratory experiments with directed evolution indicate that the evolution of a new function often begins with mutations that have little effect on a gene's original function but a large effect on a second function. Gene duplication and divergence can then allow the new function to be refined. (Aharoni et al. 2004)
   
   
3. For evolution to operate, the source of variation does not matter; all that matters is that heritable variation occurs. Such variation is shown by the fact that selective breeding has produced novel features in many species, including cats, dogs, pigeons, goldfish, cabbage, and geraniums. Some of the features may have been preexisting in the population originally, but not all of them were, especially considering the creationists' view that the animals originated from a single pair.

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