Changes

===What a creationist would reply===

===What a creationist would reply===

The existence of the four genetic bases, AGTC, and the fact that they fit together like puzzle pieces with the correct counterpart molecule, is evidence for intelligent design. If DNA were truly random, we would see adenine binding with guanine, thiamine and cytosine in roughly equal numbers, but instead there is a non-random pattern that indicates an intelligent creator. [[User:OllieB|OllieB]] 10:43, 27 March 2012 (EDT)

The existence of the four genetic bases, AGTC, and the fact that they fit together like puzzle pieces with the correct counterpart molecule, is evidence for intelligent design. If DNA were truly random, we would see adenine binding with guanine, thymine and cytosine in roughly equal numbers, but instead there is a non-random pattern that indicates an intelligent creator. [[User:OllieB|OllieB]] 10:43, 27 March 2012 (EDT)

 

::This seems a relatively easy point to refute. Note that the bases in DNA interact with each other through hydrogen bonding, an extremely common process with guides interactions between a wide range of compounds including organic molecules, inorganic metal complexes, and water, to name a few. When oriented relative to the backbone structure of the DNA molecule, thymine has one oxygen atom with a lone pair and one hydrogen bonded to a nitrogen exposed to the adjacent base pair. Adenine has one hydrogen atom bonded to a nitrogen and one nitrogen with a lone pair. Thus each of these molecules has two hydrogen bonding sites exposed to the adjacent base which allows for exactly two hydrogen bonding interactions. Cytosine, in contrast, has one oxygen with a lone pair, one nitrogen with a lone pair, and one hydrogen bonded to a nitrogen, and guanine has one oxygen with a lone pair and two hydrogens bonded to two nitrogens. This means cytosine and guanine have three hydrogen bonding sites and thus hydrogen bond to each other three times. This is not to say that interactions between adenine and guanine or thymine and cytosine for example are strictly prohibited. But if all four molecules existed in their free forms in solution, one would absolutely NOT expect adenine to interact with cytosine and guanine as much as it would interact with thymine. The bases are MOST STABLE in their interactions with the corresponding base pair because only the corresponding base pair has the correct number of hydrogen bonding sites. Note that the bases do not readily interact with themselves because they are essentially mirror images of each other; lone pairs must interact with hydrogens and vice versa, so the orientation of a base is not correct for it to hydrogen bond readily with itself. Essentially, thymine pairs with adenine and cytosine pairs with guanine due to simple chemistry. --[[User:StevenJP|StevenJP]] 20:21, 29 April 2013 (EDT)

==How could mutations—accidental copying mistakes (DNA ‘letters’ exchanged, deleted or added, genes duplicated, chromosome inversions, etc.)—create the huge volumes of information in the DNA of living things?==  

==How could mutations—accidental copying mistakes (DNA ‘letters’ exchanged, deleted or added, genes duplicated, chromosome inversions, etc.)—create the huge volumes of information in the DNA of living things?==