Correcting A Few Common Misconceptions

A relatively popular liberal (politically speaking) blog called "Daily Kos" recently released their quarterly hate-mails. Mainly composed of illegible and intellectually bankrupt rants from extremely conservative people, the hatemail consisted mainly out of baseless and quite irrational rants. I, of course, went in expecting to find nothing out of the norm. A few good laughs, and tons of stupidity, of course, but nothing all too shocking. And then I saw this post:

"Evolutionist retard, learn some math 

Its amazing how stupid you evolutionists are. You dont even have basic math skills and you dont know jack about science. Lets review: the human genome is made of nucleic bases (there are four kinds, which you morons didn't know) and the entire genome is 3 billion bases long. Understand, idiot? OK, so the probability of this genome being randomly generated is (1/4)^3 billion or basically imposible. Please note that even small mistakes in the genome will result in disases like Down syndrome, so there is very little margin for error. In other words MATHEMATICS PROVES CONCLUSIVELY THAT EVOLUTION IS IMPOSSIBLE! Also, according to evolutionist fantasy, humans have been around for millions of years. If mutations have happened this entire time, what are the odds of ALL HUMANS OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS randomly going through the EXACT SAME mutations that are now the human genome? Zero, thats what.

Her'es another thing: the genome of most animals is very similar to humans (something like 97% similar). This means that even if you could randomly create a genome similar to ours, we would be much morelikely to be ducks or ponies or anything besides humans. So why aren't we ducks or ponies? Because we are not the result of some random evolutionary crapshoot, but instead we are divinely created and the similarities in the genomes of all animals are the divine code for life.

Here's the difference between us: I've actually studied biolofgy and such sciences whereas you probably have only read some propaganda leaflet written by the George Soros Evoultionist Lies Institute. But hey, dont feel too bad. Its not your fault your a stupid retard, its your... genes! HA!

P.S. Buy a calculator and learn how to use it."

I am afraid to say...that I have finally lost hope in humanity. Well...to be frank, that actually happened about a year ago when I found about the creationist movement in the United States and just how many people adhered to the creationist movement. A condition only worsened by men such as Kent Hovind, Ken Ham, and other icons of the creationist movement.


I find it quite frankly disturbing to see how misinformed and ignorant most Americans are about science. Surely, American remains one of the most scientifically illiterate developed nations in the world, in stark contrast to its place near the very top only a few decades ago. In the vast majority of the cases this ignorance is not the fault of the person in question, it is the fault of a faulty education, whether it is one given by the parents, the church, or the federal educational system (a system sorely in need of reform and national standards in both the science and math departments).


America's shockingly low scientific literacy, however, was actually one of my main reasons for starting this blog. Along with sharing the latest news in science (most especially those in the fields of physics, astrophysics, and astronomy as well as in the field of applied science known as engineering), this blog was created in large part as a way to help to clear up many very common, yet simple, misconceptions made by the general public about very well accepted theories and facts within their relevant fields of science.. So, without further adieu, let's take this apart, shall we?






In the form of a response:

"the human genome is made of nucleic bases (there are four kinds, which you morons didn't know) and the entire genome is 3 billion bases long."

Ehhhh... More like roughly 3 billion base pairs. "Pairs" meaning that there are two nucleic bases per pair. If one would like to talk about the number of individual nucleic bases, however, then one would have to double that number to roughly 6 billion.

"OK, so the probability of this genome being randomly generated is (1/4)^3 billion or basically imposible."

While at first glance this may seem like a credible point, the author actually makes a rather large mistake here. No, it is not that his figure for the improbability of the spontaneous generation of the human genome is off by quite a bit. And no, it is not that it is far from being basically impossible as any figure, no matter how seemingly improbably, is still possible. The fault lays in an assumption made by the writer.

"the probability of this genome being randomly generated"

See it now? The assumption being made is that the human genome is not only randomly generated, but also spontaneously generated. This probability (or at least the notion of an extremely improbable case) only applies if evolution were to state that the human genome arose ex nihilo (out of nothing). Yet it didn't. In fact this would defy everything that evolution states as the human genome arose and constructed itself through many billions of years from the simplest of bacterias to our evolutionary ancestors until eventually it reached us.


If one were to make this calculation again, taking into account that our genome was gradually constructed through subsequent generations of species, each adding a little bit of information to the genome and passing it down (which is exactly what modern evolutionary theory states), we would see this probability cut down drastically.

"Please note that even small mistakes in the genome will result in disases like Down syndrome, so there is very little margin for error."

However, this margin is VERY case specific. In other words, the aforementioned changes (mutations) to the genome will result in Down Syndrome ONLY if they take place within an equally narrow range of genes.


99% of the time, mutations will do absolutely nothing. In fact, from zygote to fetus the average human undergoes several dozen mutations, and we even continue to mutate, albeit at a much slower rate, as we live out the rest of our lives. The reasons that these mutations cause essentially no change to us is because they affect a non-coding (or, in other words, it doesn't actually do anything) part of our genome, which, coincidentally, also composes the vast majority of our genome; hence why, amongst other reasons, we commonly call it "junk DNA".


And then, of course, there are the mutations that do something but have effects that are either beneficial or nonconsequential to the organism; in this case humans. One example would be a mutation that would result in a slightly darker or lighter shade of skin. Or a mutation that would make one slightly taller or shorter than one's parents. These things also happen in humans with some relative rarity, and are also a result of changes to our genome, yet they have no apparent deleterious effects to humans.


In short, there is actually quite a large margin of error for mutations in the human genome.

"Also, according to evolutionist fantasy, humans have been around for millions of years. If mutations have happened this entire time, what are the odds of ALL HUMANS OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS randomly going through the EXACT SAME mutations that are now the human genome? Zero, thats what."

The answer to this question can actually be found in one of the previous statements made by this man. Remember that there are roughly 3 billion base pairs in the human genome, and the vast majority of these base pairs are in non-coding regions of the DNA. In other words, if you change them, they will have little to no effect on the organism in question. Furthermore, the majority of the mutations that we experience during our lifetimes are confined to ourselves and not our reproductive cells, meaning that our children don't get them. What does all of this mean? It means that even after a few thousand years, a species will have only a relative handful of mutations that actually affect the coding regions of our genome in a manner that can be consistently passed down through generations. That is one of many reasons why, despite having been around for as long as we have, humans remain, well...human.

"Her'es another thing: the genome of most animals is very similar to humans (something like 97% similar)"

Depends on the animal. Mammals are closer than lizards. And lizards are closer than bacteria. Furthermore, we also see that there is a large divide WITHIN the Mammalian family. For example, humans are genetically closer to pigs than horses (in fact, many organs are mutually compatible between humans and pigs). And the average chimpanzee is even closer to us than any pig one could ever find, genetically speaking.


And there is a reason for this. And it is, as I'm sure you will dislike to hear, an evolutionary one.

"This means that even if you could randomly create a genome similar to ours, we would be much morelikely to be ducks or ponies or anything besides humans."

But again, evolution does not state that our genome is sporadically and spontaneously created. It states that it arose gradually through several billions of years' worth of  accumulation, slowly working its way until what it is now.

"So why aren't we ducks or ponies? Because we are not the result of some random evolutionary crapshoot"

I agree with you. As does every biologists who actually understands evolutionary theory, because that is not what evolutionary theory states.






And I hope that any who read this will take something away from this. If you have any questions, you need only post below on the comments and I will get back to you.


And as for the format, as you have noticed, I am rather long winded. Or to be more accurate, very long winded. And, for the sake of being concise (ironic, I know), all I will say is: deal with it.