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The NAS's Errors Regarding Mutations

The National Academy of Sciences suggests that mutations provide the necessary genetic variation for evolution, and refers to them as follows: "They may or may not equip the organism with better means for surviving in its environment." (Science and Creationism, p. 10). In fact, however, contrary to what the NAS authors claim, mutations do not lead to beneficial characteristics, and all experiments and observations on this subject have confirmed this fact.


Mutations are random changes in a living thing's DNA, the molecule in which its genetic information is contained.

Mutation refers to random changes in an organism's DNA, the molecule in which its genetic information is stored. Scientists compare DNA to a data bank or large library. Just as the random and unconscious addition of letters to any of the books in a library—or indeed any change in the order of the letters of such a book—will ruin the sense of the relevant words and sentences, so too does genetic mutation in organisms have an information-destroying effect. Mutation, which acts on the complex information in the DNA in a random and unconscious manner, harms the DNA, and therefore harms the organism bearing the DNA. At best, it may have no effect at all. However, mutations can never add any new information to DNA, and do not make any kind of improvement in the organism. Not a single instance of this has ever been observed.

The latest example of this is the negative effects of mutations on human beings. In recent years, thousands of diseases have been found to be caused by genetic mutations. Genetics textbooks list some 4,500 different genetic diseases. Such diseases caused by genetic mutations include Down's syndrome, sickle-cell anemia, dwarfism, mental impairment, cystic fibrosis, and certain forms of cancer. The reason why generations of people were born deformed or sick because of radiation at Hiroshima, and more recently Chernobyl, is again mutations.

Pierre-Paul Grassé, former president of the French Academy of Sciences and author of the 35-volume Traité de Zoologie, likened mutations to spelling mistakes in one of his papers, and said that they could never give rise to evolution:


Scientists compare DNA to a data bank or a large library.

As Grassé states, mutations bring disorder to exceedingly ordered structures. Genetic mutations might be compared to an earthquake or to hurling a clock against a wall. In the same way that an earthquake cannot improve a city, nor a violent impact a clock, so too genetic mutations do not improve living things, but rather harm them. Evolutionists are aware of this, but still propose mutations as the mechanism that brings about evolution. In order to better see the evolutionists' inconsistencies in this area, it will be useful to include some statements on the harmful effects of mutations on living things made by evolutionist scientists.

Francisco J. Ayala, of the University of California, Irvine, a professor of biological sciences and philosophy:

High energy radiations, such as x-rays, increase the rate of mutation. Mutations induced by radiation are random in the sense that they arise independently of their effects on the fitness of the individuals which carry them. Randomly induced mutations are usually deleterious. In a precisely organized and complex system like the genome of an organism, a random change will most frequently decrease, rather than increase, the orderliness or useful information of the system.2

James F. Crow, head of the Genetics Department at the University of Wisconsin and an expert on radiation and mutation:


If letters are added randomly and unconsciously to any one of the books in a library, various words and sentences in that book will lose their meaning. The same thing applies to DNA. A random and unconscious intervention in the complex information in DNA—in other words, a mutation—will damage DNA, and consequently the organism itself. At best, a mutation may have no effect at all on the organism.


The biologist Dr. Mahlon B. Hoagland:



The well-known mathematician Dr. Warren Weaver:



Weaver's question is a very important one, and demands an answer from evolutionists: How can a good effect—evolution to higher forms of life—result from mutations practically all of which are harmful?


Scientists compare mutations to an earthquake in a city or a clock being thrown hard against a wall. In the same way that earthquakes do not develop cities, and hurling clocks against walls does not improve them, mutations do not improve living things, but rather damage them.

I.L. Cohen, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, says: "To propose and argue that mutations even in tandem with 'natural selection' are the root-causes for 6,000,000 viable, enormously complex species, is to mock logic, deny the weight of evidence, and reject the fundamentals of mathematical probability."9 This statement unmasks the absurdity of those who believe that all life forms are the work of mutation and natural selection.

Another reason why evolutionists' claims regarding mutation are not credible is that just as there are no beneficial mutations, there is no mechanism in nature that might bring together and protect these useful mutations. For example, a blind creature will need a few mutations in order to possess an eye and an optic system. Expecting "beneficial" mutations accurately directed towards the eye, optic nerves, and visual center in the brain to keep occurring among that creature's descendants is to believe in the impossible. Therefore, consciousness and power are required to continue in that creature's descendants. Furthermore, they must foresee that the creature will need to see the outside world, they must provide all the necessary genetic information regarding vision and the eye, and they must carefully bring beneficial and accurate mutations together down the generations. Yet, there is no such consciousness and intelligence in nature.

Several evolutionists have drawn attention to this impossibility. For example, Professor Kevin Padian, of the University of California at Berkeley, asks whether random mutations in nature give rise to living species:


Grassé has this to say on the same point:


In order for a gilled fish to become a creature breathing with lungs, it would need a great many mutations. To expect "beneficial" mutations and ones "aimed directly at the transition to the lung" to keep occurring is to believe in the impossible.

Even if we grant what evolutionists can never actually demonstrate and accept that "favorable mutations" have come about in the necessary quantities, this still does not save the theory of evolution. Some important calculations by the Israeli bio-physicist Dr. Lee Spetner, who has worked at some of the most eminent universities in the world, such as MIT and Johns Hopkins, were brought to the attention of the scientific world in the book Not By Chance. In this book, which questions neo-Darwinism, Spetner employs the figures given by evolutionist authorities (such as mutation frequency and the ratio of "favorable mutations" to all mutations) and makes a detailed calculation of whether it is possible for one species to change into another. His conclusion is striking: Impossible! Even if we accept the theoretical existence of "favorable mutations," which have never been observed in experiments, it is still impossible for these to accumulate consecutively and in the right direction in a living species. It is also impossible for them to be permanent due to the disadvantages they bring with them, and thus it is impossible for a new species to emerge.

No evolutionist has been able to give a satisfactory response to Spetner's calculation.

"Favorable mutations" that never were

As we have seen, mutations are harmful to living things and no example of a beneficial mutation has ever been observed. The examples put forward by evolutionists as "beneficial mutations" all actually consist of distortions. In none of these examples have the benefits necessary for the evolution of an organism—that is, an increase in genetic information—ever come about. Let us now examine why the instances of "beneficial mutations" put forward by evolutionists are not actually useful at all, and cannot lead to evolution.

Sickle-cell anemia:

Sickle-cell anemia stems from an inherited fault in the code necessary for the production of the hemoglobin molecule, which helps carry oxygen in the blood. As a result of this fault, the structure of the hemoglobin molecule is defective and its ability to carry oxygen is severely impaired. The normal circular shape of the cells which carry hemoglobin becomes deformed and turns into a sickle shape. Since people with sickle-cell anemia gain a resistance to malaria, evolutionists describe this as a beneficial mutation. The fact is, however, that there is no increase in complexity nor any improvement in the organism's functions; on the contrary, there is a defect. Sufferers from sickle-cell anemia experience impaired development, a lack of immunity to infection, chronic organ damage due to clogged veins, poor organ function and organ deficiencies, and lack of energy.


The unhealthy appearance of a damaged blood cell

Sickle-cell anemia is a serious disease stemming from an error in the gene that encodes the molecule hemoglobin, which is responsible for carrying oxygen in the blood—in other words, from a mutation.

It is astonishing that this example of mutation, dealt with in the chapters on diseases of the blood in medical text books, should be seen as "beneficial." It is irrational for evolutionists to say that sufferers' resistance to malaria is a gift to them from evolution, for which reason the mutation in question is a favorable one. That claim is just as illogical as telling a blind man he has an advantage because he cannot be blinded by the sun.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics:

Another example of evolutionists' "beneficial mutations" is the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. Like all the other examples, this one, too, is a deception.

It is no secret that bacteria gradually develop a resistance to antibiotics over time. What happens is this: Most bacteria subjected to an antibiotic die, but some remain unaffected by it, and multiplying rapidly they come to comprise the entire population. In this way, the entire population comes to be immune to the antibiotic.

Evolutionists, however, claim that bacteria evolve according to the conditions in which they find themselves. The truth is, however, rather different. The Israeli biophysicist Professor Lee Spetner is one of the figures who have carried out the most detailed studies in this area. Professor Spetner explains how this resistance comes about by means of two separate mechanisms, neither of which makes any contribution to evolution. The two mechanisms in question are:

1) The transmission of already existing immunity genes in the bacteria and


The first mechanism is no evidence for evolution:


Bacterial DNA. Bacteria that suffer a loss of genetic information as a result of mutation become resistant to antibiotics. Yet, that mutation does not add any information to or develop the DNA. For that reason, it is no proof of evolution.

In a 2001 article Professor Spetner describes the first mechanism in this way:


This is no proof of evolution, as Professor Spetner describes:


In other words, there is no evolution here because no new genetic information appears. All that happens is that genetic information that already exists is transferred among bacteria.

The second mechanism is no evidence for evolution:

The second form of immunity, that resulting from mutation, is also no evidence for evolution. Professor Spetner states:

not by chance


In his book Not By Chance, Spetner compares this to the disturbance of the key-lock relationship. Like a key that perfectly fits a lock, streptomycin attaches itself to the bacteria's ribosome, disabling it. Mutation, on the other hand, damages the form of the ribosome, and in this case the streptomycin cannot attach itself to the ribosome. Even if this is interpreted as "the bacteria's gaining immunity to streptomycin" the bacteria actually suffer a loss rather than a gain. Spetner continues:

E-coli bacterium

The DNA of the E. coli bacterium.

In summary: A mutation impinging on the bacteria's ribosome can make the bacteria resistant to streptomycin. The reason for this, however, is that the mutation "deforms" the ribosome. In other words, no genetic information is added to the bacteria. On the contrary, the structure of the ribosome is damaged, and the bacteria are literally disabled. (It has, in fact, been established that the ribosomes of bacteria subjected to mutation are much less functional than those of normal bacteria.) Since this disability prevents the antibiotic, whose design allows it to attach itself to the ribosome, from latching on to it , "antibiotic resistance" develops.

In conclusion, there is no instance of a mutation that "improves genetic information," and the immunity mechanisms in bacteria do not represent evidence for the theory of evolution. Professor Spetner states that the mutations required by the theory of evolution have never been observed:


Experiments on fruit flies:

As long as a mutation does not change the morphology—that is, the shape—of an organism, it cannot be the raw material of evolution. One of the living things in which morphological mutations have been most intensively studied is the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). In one of the many mutations Drosophila was subjected to, the two-winged fruit fly developed a second pair of wings. Ever since 1978 this four-winged fruit fly has gained great popularity in textbooks and other evolutionist publications.

However, one point that evolutionist publications hardly ever mention is that the extra wings possess no flight muscles. These fruit flies are therefore deformed, since these wings represent a serious obstacle to flight. They also have difficulties in mating. They are unable to survive in the wild. In his important book Icons of Evolution, the American biologist Jonathan Wells studies the four-winged fruit fly, together with other classic Darwinist propaganda tools, and explains in great detail why this example does not constitute evidence for evolution.

fruit fly

In mutations caused in fruit flies, these insects have grown an extra pair of wings. However, what evolutionists are reluctant to make clear is that these extra wings have no flight muscles, and therefore represent a serious obstacle to the insect's flying at all. For that reason, the mutations in question have handicapped the insects, rather than improved them.

The truth is that fruit flies constituted no proof of evolution during the 20th century, and that is accepted even by evolutionists. Gordon Taylor, former chief science advisor of the BBC, once said:

It is a striking, but not much mentioned fact that, though geneticists have been breeding fruit-flies for sixty years or more in labs all around the world—flies which produce a new generation every eleven days—they have never yet seen the emergence of a new species or even a new enzyme.17

In his book Adam and Evolution, Professor Michael Pitman makes this comment:


In conclusion, neither fruit flies, nor bacterial resistance to antibiotics, nor sickle-cell anemia constitutes evidence of evolution. Therefore, evolutionists' claims that mutations are the cause of evolution do not rest on scientific evidence.




2. Francisco J. Ayala, "Genotype Environment and Population Numbers," Science, vol. 162, December 27, 1968, p. 1456.

3. James F. Crow, "Ionizing Radiation and Evolution," Scientific American, vol. 201, September 1959, p. 138. (emphasis added)

4. James F. Crow (Professor of Genetics, University of Wisconsin), "Genetic Effects of Radiation," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, no. 14, 1958, pp. 19-20.


6.Mahlon B. Hoagland, The Roots of Life: A Layman's Guide To Genes, Evolution, and the Ways of Cells, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981, p. 145. (emphasis added)

7. Warren Weaver, "Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation," Science, vol. 123, June 29, 1956, p. 1158.


9. I.L. Cohen, Darwin Was Wrong: A Study in Probabilities, New York: New Research Publications, Inc., 1984, p. 81.

10. "The Whole real Guts of Evolution", Paleobiology, vol. 15, Winter, 1989, p. 77.


12. Dr. Lee Spetner, "Lee Spetner/Edward Max Dialogue: Continuing an exchange with Dr. Edward E. Max," 2001; http://www.trueorigin.org/spetner2.asp

13. Dr. Lee Spetner; http://www.trueorigin.org/spetner2.asp

14. Dr. Lee Spetner; http://www.trueorigin.org/spetner2.asp

15. Dr. Lee Spetner; http://www.trueorigin.org/spetner2.asp (emphasis added)

16. Dr. Lee Spetner, http://www.trueorigin.org/spetner2.asp

17. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, London: Abacus, Sphere Books, 1984, p. 48.



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