ABSTRACTS
The Mutation Repair Systems: A Major Problem for Macroevolution
Jerry Bergman
The ultimate source of all variation from which natural selection can operate is genetic mutations. Numerous cellular genetic repair systems exist to ensure that mutational expression is extremely rare. These repair systems pose major problems for evolution because virtually all genetic innovations caused by base pair changes will be corrected (and thus not expressed), or the cell itself will be destroyed. If genetic repair systems were perfect, then all macroevolution clearly would be impossible. These genetic repair systems argue against macroevolution, at least as caused by the accumulation of mutations.
Sequatchie Valley Tennessee and Alabama: A Different Approach
Emmett L. Williams and A. Jerry Akridge
The origin of Sequatchie Valley is viewed from a uniformitarian approach. In contrast, the origin of the valley is proposed from a young earth-Flood perspective. Also considered are the Tennessee River water gap in Walden Ridge, Tennessee, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary problem in the region and evidences of high-energy deposition on Walden Ridge and Sand Mountain, Alabama.
Drifting Interpretations of the Kennedy Gravel
Peter Klevberg and Michael J. Oard
Poorly stratified deposits of coarse gravel cover Kennedy Ridge and several other planation surfaces east of Glacier National Park in north-central Montana, U.S.A., and adjacent Alberta, Canada. These gravel deposits, commonly called “Kennedy drift” and classified as glacial drift, are composed primarily of lithologies identical to Belt Supergroup rocks observed in the Rocky Mountains immediately to the west. In recent years, the Kennedy gravel has been described as a series of tills containing paleosols documenting several glacial and interglacial episodes over the course of approximately two million years. Fabric measurements and paleomagnetic surveys have been taken and the evidence interpreted in support of the multiple till interpretation. However, these data are far from unequivocal, and alternative genetic interpretations may be superior to the multiple till interpretation.
Is Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics an Appropriate Example of Evolutionary Change?
Kevin L. Anderson
Evolutionists frequently point to the development of antibiotic resistance by bacteria as a demonstration of evolutionary change. However, molecular analysis of the genetic events that lead to antibiotic resistance do not support this common assumption. Many bacteria become resistant by acquiring genes from plasmids or transposons via horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal transfer, though, does not account for the origin of resistance genes, only their spread among bacteria. Mutations, on the other hand, can potentially account for the origin of antibiotic resistance within the bacterial world, but involve mutational processes that are contrary to the predictions of evolution. Instead, such mutations consistently reduce or eliminate the function of transport proteins or porins, protein binding affinities, enzyme activities, the proton motive force, or regulatory control systems. While such mutations can be regarded as “beneficial,” in that they increase the survival rate of bacteria in the presence of the antibiotic, they involve mutational processes that do not provide a genetic mechanism for common “descent with modification.” Also, some “relative fitness” cost is often associated with such mutations, although reversion mutations may eventually recover most, if not all, of this cost for some bacteria. A true biological cost does occur, however, in the loss of pre-existing cellular systems or functions. Such loss of cellular activity cannot legitimately be offered as a genetic means of demonstrating evolution.