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Talk:Nylon-eating bacteria (view source)
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, 16:11, April 28, 2007Which creationists and ID proponents deny that mutations can create new information and new functions?
:Needless to say, they are not my citations. I'd be happy if they were dropped.--[[User:palmd001|PalMD]]<sup>[[User_talk:palmd001|talk]]</sup> 19:07, 29 March 2007 (EDT)
:Needless to say, they are not my citations. I'd be happy if they were dropped.--[[User:palmd001|PalMD]]<sup>[[User_talk:palmd001|talk]]</sup> 19:07, 29 March 2007 (EDT)
== Which creationists and ID proponents deny that mutations can create new information and new functions? ==
Lots and lots of what one might term "amateur creationists" make this claim, and finding a source sufficient to show that the claim is made at all is trivial. ''viz'':
"There are two fallacies in this argument. The first is that random changes in existing information can create new information."; "If you find a message that contains information (such as the location of Amelia Earhart's airplane), someone had to write it. Random chance does not produce information. If there is information coded in a DNA molecule (and there certainly is), an intelligent source must have put it there. There is no scientific evidence that even a small amount of information can be generated by chance. There is scientific evidence that random changes to a message can remove information. Mutations might remove information, but they will never create it." -- [http://www.scienceagainstevolution.org/v2i12f.htm Do-While Jones] in the "Science Against Evolution" journal.
"It must be noted that the process of natural selection deletes genetic information (the weaker traits), it cannot create new information required by the evolutionary theory."; "But random mutations never add new information, they can only decrease information. Therefore most mutations are harmful, and many of them lethal." -- [http://www.cryingvoice.com/Evolution/EvolutionTheory.html Evolution Theory] article at cryingvoice.com.
More satisfying, however, is to try to trace it back to the 'big names'.
Answers in Genesis [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:_bflnPSo2GcJ:www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i1/not_by_chance.asp+site:answersingenesis.org+%22create+information%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a comes close] ("The real issue concerns mutations, the alleged source of all the new information needed for evolution. With a detailed probabilistic analysis, based upon the standard evolutionary mathematics of such authorities as Gaylord Simpson and Fisher, Spetner shows that the chance of getting the required mutations for such ‘cumulative selection’ is just way too small.") and closer, but wordier, [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:VGd5nPp6d9MJ:www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i2/design.asp+site:answersingenesis.org+%22create+information%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a here]: "The anti-theistic physicist Paul Davies admits: ‘There is no law of physics able to create information from nothing’ (this issue, p. 42). Information scientist Werner Gitt has demonstrated that the laws of nature pertaining to information show that, in all known cases, information requires an intelligent message sender," and [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:0RYOMOvlY8oJ:www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0407apes.asp+site:answersingenesis.org+%22create+information%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a here]: "But since observational science has never revealed any natural process that can create information, i.e. ‘write the program,’ the most logical conclusion is that the programs themselves, i.e. the information in the original created kinds, arose from an intelligent mind—the same way programs arise today."
AiG explicitely says "Mutations in genes can only modify or eliminate existing structures, not create new ones." [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Oi0JjmREsOYJ:www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/re2/appendix1.asp+%22cannot+create+new+information%22+%22ken+ham%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a here].
The claim is implicit in ''not a single <nowiki>[</nowiki>Darwinist] has answered Egnor’s question: How does Darwinian mechanisms produce new biological information?'' from [http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/03/asking_the_right_questions_bri.html The Discovery Institute]. --[[User:Jtl|Jtl]] 12:11, 28 April 2007 (EDT)