However, I would like to tell you a story about a family I'm supporting. They have 6 children, all except one have a disability caused by a genetic mutation, a duplication that occurs on the X chromosome. The girls are carriers & have a mild intellectual disability and the boys gave profound impairments. They are non verbal, have severe intellectual disability and have characteristics consistent with severe autism. They don't have any dismorphic features and look completely "normal". This is unusual. Most people with genetic abnormalities have physical features consistent with the syndrome. There are only 2 identified families in the world with this genetic mutation. Hunter Genetics are researching the condition along with a research team from Cambridge in the UK. My point in saying all this is to argue that the top researchers in the world do not understand why this genetic duplication has occurred. They are struggling to even map the genes accurately, initially thinking the condition was fragile x, let alone be able to replicate, model or explain what has happened fir thus family. Even allowing that at some point the condition may be understood, it will never result in something positive for this family or for the advancement of humanity. My question is therefore, how did we evolve so well if God or someone or something didn't have a design or plan? I struggle with the biblical explanation as much as the theory of evolution. How do I make sense of this?
The mechanics of evolution
Thanks Cheryl,
I too have long struggled with the mechanics of evolution though natural selection. From a broad view the theory of evolution makes sense, tiny changes in genetic material slowly diverging, concreted by natural forms of isolation until we finally have a new species. But then when we think about specific significant changes between species, it's very hard to see how natural selection could select for these until they were complete and functional.
Take a wing. A small mutant limb or two is actually a weakness to the poor creature not a strength and yet it must be fitter to survive for millions of years while that limb changes again and again into something useful. The spider's web glands and spinning skills are only useful for it's survival once complete and functional and not a minute before. How could natural selection achieve this?
What's more, any mutation must be both dominant and isolated. So in sexual creatures, the parents have to produce offspring with the defect that either strengthens or does not weaken their chances of survival. The the family has to be isolated from the remainder of the species by some geographical boundary for so long that the genetic change can make them unable to breed with their x-fellow species, otherwise, as I understand it, the mixing of that genetic material will dissolve the change over time. The numbers make it impossible for that change in the minority to persist in the majority.
This scenario, though possible would not be common, especially for creatures that survive in herds or packs or schools. The isolation itself is a weakness let alone the inbreeding which is essential for evolution to produce a new species. Almost every time, the mutant will die out far more quickly than the original community if not in one generation.
Please someone explain how theorists overcome these hurdles.