Indeed, the disconnect between what is easily found in sequence databases and the interpretation by ID proponents of dedicated mutational analyses of protein structure and function is striking.
It would be very, very helpful to the community of “critics” here if @bjmiller (and perhaps @Agauger) could spend some time here to rationalize what appear to be some glaring contradictions. For starters, how might you reconcile your interpretations of Bershtein et al. (Nature 444(7121):929-32, 2007) with @T_aquaticus’s comment (which is entirely accurate)?
(In order to minimize jumping around, here is what @bjmiller said about Bershtein et al. in a prior thread:
The study demonstrates that after 1 to 2 mutations to a protein, about 2/3 of the following possible non-synonymous mutations could be “tolerated”. However, after a few more mutations (around 5-6), the likelihood of the following non-synonymous mutation being tolerated is roughly 1/3. This result closely matches Axe’s result for the rarity of functional sequences in the vicinity of a functional beta-lactamase: (1/3)^150 is around 1E-77.)
Thanks in advance for your continued discussion.