Dr. Charles Ruark
Let’s define mutation. Any change in your DNA is a mutation. It’s that simple.
Let’s do some math. Let’s assume that the mutation rate for DNA replication is one uncorrectable mutation in 10 billion bases. According to Dr. David Cortez, professor of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University, the human body undergoes about ten thousand trillion cell divisions over the course of a lifetime. Written in scientific notation, this is 1e+16 cell divisions.
10 Quadrillion Mutations
As previously stated, the error rate for DNA replication is estimated to be about one mutation per every 10 billion base pairs. We think this is a bit low because this reflects ideal circumstances. So, for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume about one uncorrectable mutation per cell division, since about 6 billion bases are replicated per cell division. Understand these are all rough estimates. This works out to about 1e+16 mutations over the course of a human lifetime. A quadrillion is 1e+15 so there are roughly 10 quadrillion mutations experienced by the human body over the course of a lifetime.
On p.1085 of Voet Fundamentals of Biochemistry 5th Edition, it states that the average human body consists of about 1e+14 cells. Since, according to Voet, roughly this number of cells is needed to maintain the human body over the course of a year, the body experiences about this number of mutations each year. If we assume a lifetime of 80 years, 80 x 1e+14 = 8e+15 mutations or 8 quadrillion mutations. This roughly agrees with Dr. Cortez, if we assume one uncorrectable mutation every time a cell divides. This figure does not account for carcinogens.
Carcinogens
Carcinogens are cancer-causing agents. It is estimated that carcinogens account for 80% of human cancers as a direct result of the mutations they cause. We would estimate that by age 80 you can expect your body to experience about 20 quadrillion mutations as a result of the DNA replication necessary to maintain your body and DNA damage caused by carcinogens.
The evolutionist comprehends that mutation is inherent to all cells. It’s built-in. It cannot be avoided. The enzymes necessary to replicate DNA, known as DNA polymerases, are extremely accurate but inevitably make mistakes that cannot be corrected. Thus, they believe mutation is the necessary process for evolution to occur.
Mutation and Evolution
Simply put, although the vast majority of mutations are harmful to humans and higher animals, evolutionists maintain that natural selection inevitably selects out the beneficial ones over the billions of years in which they say Life has existed on earth. It is the fact that mutation is fundamental to all cells, no exceptions, that is the strongest buttress to the paradigm of evolution and why it is so difficult to refute from an intellectual standpoint. In addition, evolutionists like Dr. Francis Collins have recognized that the organization of the human genome and the genomes of the higher animal can be interpreted as being strongly supportive of common ancestry. Descent from a common ancestor is another bedrock of evolutionary dogma.
Theistic Evolution
We believe that we have provided you with a good definition of mutation and stated why evolution is so difficult to refute scientifically. Especially when there is the intellectual weight of the entire scientific community solidly supporting the theory. A significant number of these scientists actually claim to be Christians. If you don’t believe this go to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science AAAS DoSER outreach to seminaries on Google and find “Science for Seminaries”. You will find that this integration of science with religion, i.e., science with faith, results in the replacement of Gen 1-11 with evolutionary dogma. This marriage of science with the Bible is known as Theistic Evolution.
Before going further, we need to understand a little more about the DNA code. We will need this understanding in order to refute these facts and arguments. The DNA code is coded using 6-bit words known as codons. The molecules comprising the codons of mRNA are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and uracil (U).
Although the DNA molecule is coded using thymine (T), because thymine is transcribed as uracil during transcription, the codons of mRNA use uracil, and therefore by convention, the Code is generally described and explained using uracil bonding to adenine. As to why thymine is used in the DNA rather than uracil, it is stated that thymine is more stable and less prone to mutation than uracil. However, we believe this is inconsistent with evolution which needs mutation for organisms to evolve.
64 Codons in the DNA Code
There are 64 codons in the DNA code. Codons are defined as triplet combinations of the four nucleotide bases A G C U. Let’s give a few examples: UGC codes for cysteine. Therefore, we can write UGC = cysteine since this codon decodes to the amino acid cysteine. CUA codes for leucine so I can write CUA = leucine. In fact, every triplet combination of these four nucleotides codes for one and only one amino acid or a stop codon. A stop codon terminates translation of the sequence of codons into amino acids.
Since there are 64 possible unique triplet combinations of these four molecules, there are 64 codons. Each base in the codon is worth 2-bits of binary information making each codon worth 6-bits. Why? A truth table of 6-bits creates 64 unique binary combinations, and these binary combinations can be uniquely assigned to the sixty-four codons, thus making each codon worth 6-bits and each base inside the codon worth 2-bits. This binary assignment of 2-bits to each base is why the haploid genome of 3 billion bases is worth 6 billion bits of binary information as frequently stated on the internet.
At this point a digression is needed. DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher when he isolated a new molecule in the nuclei of lymphoid cells. He called this molecule nuclein. Interestingly, the nucleus of a lymphocyte is quite large in relation to the overall size of the lymphocyte cell.
Discovering the Double Helix
Then, in 1953 the understanding of the life sciences was forever changed by James Watson and Francis Crick when they discovered the double helix of the DNA molecule. This discovery eventually led to the deciphering of the DNA code. Thus, it became conclusive that all Life with no exceptions was based on a code and needed this code intact to survive.
We have just described to you how 2-bits of binary code can be assigned to each molecule (A G C U) of the Code. This assignment poses the interesting question: Which bits? There are 4! (24) unique ways to assign 2-bits to each of these four molecules.
I have already stated that the DNA code rigorously qualifies as a computer code. So, we can pose the legitimate questions: What is the optimum bit assignment to the Code and how would one go about finding it? This turns out to be a very difficult math problem even to state much less to solve, but the solutions are absolutely amazing. Later on, we will discuss how to approach obtaining these solutions and their implications in minute detail. At present we will tell you that these questions have never crossed the minds of the mainstream scientific community or of Dr.’s Watson and Crick when they were alive.
DNA Code: An Optimum Digital Network
The DNA code to the scientific community will always be a biochemical code and written as such in the textbooks of biochemistry. Yet it is a fact that because the Code qualifies as a computer code, it can be described in terms of an optimum digital network or several networks. Simply put, if it could be proved/shown or strongly suggested that the DNA code was fundamentally a binary code having a binary description in terms of Boolean equations as well as the currently accepted biochemical representation, it would overturn the theory/paradigm of evolution. This could never be allowed by the scientific community. Any attempt to do so would be thoroughly suppressed. Let’s end this digression.
Once translation is initiated after undergoing a start sequence, each codon is decoded or translated to its assigned amino acid without any spacing or punctuation until a stop codon is encountered, at which time the process of translation is terminated. A typical protein is about 400-500 amino acids in length or 1,200-1,500 codons.
The sequence and number of the amino acids are what determine the biochemical properties of the protein. If a mutation in the DNA has occurred, it creates a codon different from the one desired, and this will cause the insertion of an incorrect amino acid into the protein chain, resulting in a defective protein.
The classical example for this is the point mutation GTG (Valine) for GAG (Glutamine) in the DNA, resulting in sickle cell anemia. Note that I used the nucleotide thymine because the mutation always occurs in the DNA. Thus, GTG is transcribed as GUG, which is the codon for valine, whereas the transcribed codon should have been GAG (glutamine). Most of the time point mutations do not result in this type of tragedy. This is because of the redundancy of the Code and the reason we believe “degeneracy” is a poor choice of words in describing the resistance of the Code to harmful mutations. However, we believe the Code’s remarkable resistance to the effects of harmful mutations is inconsistent with evolution’s need for mutation.
Random selection needs more mutations for its selection process of stronger organisms having greater survival potential. Note that the mutation occurred in the second codon position, where the Code is more vulnerable to a harmful mutation than in the third codon position.