I want to highlight this question by Peter Ruest.
He is criticizing me for believing that anti-evolutionists hold that one and
only one sequence of amino acids is capable of performing a given function.
I cite below, lots of anti-evolutionists who do precisely that. And they
are not all YEC. Peter wrote:
>
>Of course, all this has nothing to do with the idea that there can be
>only one active cyt.c sequence. I wonder where you get that idea from.
>Do you know of anyone ignorant enough to hold it?
Yeah, lots of anti-evolutinists are that ignorant. Ignorant is your word so
I will use it.
I would point you to
Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley and Roger Olson, _The Mystery Of Life's
Origin_
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1984), p. 138. (See also the
discussion on page 145-146) This is an excellent book (no doubt
because I got to review a chapter prior to publication -- O. K.,
so maybe that isn't the reason!). :-) However, in their
discussion of the configurational entropy, of E. coli, with 4 x
10^6 nucleotides, they use the same assumption that only one
configuration of the nucleotides will form an E. coli. The
relevant equation is (8.12 and there is an error in the use of
parentheses in the book)
Entropy= kT ln(omegacr)-ln(omegacm)
omegacm is the configurational entropy of the molecule containing
a given message, and omegacr is the configurational entropy of
the same molecule with a random order. (see page 132-133). On
page 137 they state,
"If only one specific sequence of amino acids could give the
proper function, then the configurational entropy for the protein
or specified, aperiodic polypeptide would be given by
Scm = k ln(omegacm)
= k ln 1
= 0"
Note they assume only 1 amino acid sequence will perform the function.
They also assume that only 1 DNA sequence will make an E. coli. Which is
false.
In equation 8-12 where they calculate the entropy per gram they use
entropy = kTln{(4 x 10^6)!/(10^6!)(10^6!)(10^6!)(10^6!)) -kT ln 1
By using the 1 at the end of that equation, they are saying that
one and only one permutation of the DNA molecule of an E. coli
will make an E. coli. We know that is not true. There are all
sorts of strains of E. coli (some of them kill you if you eat
them at Jack in the Box in Washington state). All these strains
are based upon different sequences in the genome.
The real question is how many permutations are there which
will make an E. coli? I don't know, but it is more than one! If
it were only one, then the odds of forming that specific string
by chance would be 1 chance out of 4^4,000,000 --- a very
large number.
In fairness to Bradley, in an unfortunately often heated exchange, he did
admit that this was a mistake.
Davis and Kenyon are also claiming only one sequence would work:
"But the probability of forming just one specific protein in an
undirected search is practically zero.
"Consider a small protein cosisting of 100 amino acid units.
How many different combinations of the basic 20 amino acids
are possible in a chain of 100 units? The answer is 20^100 = 10^130
(1 followed by 130 zeros). This number is so enormous that
there has not been enough time during the conventionally
accepted age of the universe (15 billion years) to try to find
the specific combination of one protein!" ~ Percival Davis and
Dean H. Kenyon, Of Pandas and People, (Dallas: Haughton
Publishing Co., 1993), p. 54
The only way you can get the numbers they cite is to have only 1 working
sequence with all others not working. And cytochrome c is about 100 amino
acids long.
And Gange writes:
"Hemoglobin contains two trains totaling 574 cars - each selected
from among twenty kinds of amino acids. The number of ways we can
assemble these hemoglobin trains is so vast that it is a trillion
trillion (repeat twenty times more) times the entire number of
stars in the universe, despite this, only one combination known to
man carries oxygen most efficiently in your blood." ~ Dr. Robert
Gange, Origins and Destiny, (Waco: Word, 1986), p. 73
Doubt this? Look at Gange's use of 'particular'. We don't need to find a
particular dna sequence, lots will do.
"The argument that a near impossible arrangement can easily appear (some
sequence of the fifty-two cards) is erroneous because it presumes that each
of the many trillions upon trillions of ways that the cards can be arranged
organizationally functions to satisfy life's requirements. But this is
hardly the case. For example, to explain the origin of life we must explain
the origin of a particular sequence of nucleotide bases in the DNA blueprint
that instructs cells to manufacture protein, including the production of
three thousand vastly complex enzymes that supply the 'workmen' responsible
for doing the actual assembly." ~ Dr. Robert Gange, Origins and Destiny,
(Waco: Word, 1986), p. 85-86
Gish seems to think that only one RNA sequence of the tobacco virus is
workable. That is the only way to explain his calculations. Billions of
mutant varieties are possible and would still work.
The RNA of tobacco mosaic virus contains about 6,000 nucleotides. The
probability that this molecule results by random combination of the four
nucleotides is 1/4 6000 = 10-2000. Since the whole cosmos has an estimated
weight of 1080 protons, it would be practically impossible to obtain even
one such ribonucleic acid molecule in a billion years, by a random process,
even if the whole world consisted of a reacting mixture of nucleotides! A
nucleic acid containing 10,000 nucleotides would have 10 800 isomers!" ~
Duane Gish, Speculations and Experiments Related to Theories on the Origin
of Life A Critique, ICR Technical Monograph 1,(El Cajon: Institute for
Creation Research, 1972), p. 24-25
Russell Maatman says the same silly thing, and I think Russell is a very
smart guy.
"Second, the number of ways of placing a given group of amino acids in a
sequence is unbelievably great, although only one of those ways would be
'correct,' that is, functional." ~ Russell Maatman, The Impact of
Evolutionary Thought: A Christian View, (Sioux Center: Dordt College Press,
1993), p. 87-88.
But he is absolutely wrong here.
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
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