Evolution by Blind Guidance Is Really Just Unguided Evolution

[T_aquaticus]

@r_speir

I am led to believe that outside influence or some otherwise form of interruption to normal DNA function initiates these kinds of mutations.

DNA function includes the production of mutations. Every person is born with 50 to 100 substitution mutations. Most of these are due to enzymes making an imperfect copy of DNA during the process of replication. DNA can loop around and bind with itself which results in chunks of DNA moving around the genome, a process called recombination.

Us humans can label things as normal or abnormal, but labels don’t change the reality. Mutations happen naturally due to the physical and chemical properties of the biological processes involved. This is exactly what I discuss in my other thread on mutations being consistent with biochemistry:

Mutations Are Consistent With Biochemistry

In a previous thread I discussed what science meant by random mutations and how this term is defined by experimental results and statistics. A lot of this work was done in the 1940’s and 50’s, and since then many new facts have been discovered in the field of genetics, such as the discovery of DNA. This gave rise to the field of molecular biology and allowed us to understand biology at the molecular scale. So what exactly causes mutations? We once again have to reiterate the the limited scope of science. What science can do is put forward hypotheses and see if the evidence is consistent with that hypothesis. What science can not do is make ontological statements about absolute truth. With that in mind, the next few posts will discuss the evidence that links mutagenesis (the production of mutations) with the biochemistry of the cell and why scientists aren’t simply assuming that mutations are caused by biochemistry.