{"id":143,"date":"2008-07-14T20:54:35","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T08:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/07\/you_wont_get_a_747_from_a_torn\/"},"modified":"2008-07-14T20:54:35","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T08:54:35","slug":"you-wont-get-a-747-from-a-torn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/07\/you-wont-get-a-747-from-a-torn\/","title":{"rendered":"you won&#8217;t get a 747 from a tornado in a junkyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent letter-writer in our local paper presented this argument:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Many people believe the evolutionary theory but none practice it. For example, how much is left to chance in the design and assembly of a 747 jet? Nothing is left to chance. Every component is tested to breaking point to find any weakness in design or construction materials. It&#8217;s all intelligent design to the highest degree.<\/p>\n<p>I have never seen the design team responsible for my car, but I know it isn&#8217;t the result of a chance explosion in a warehouse.<\/p>\n<p>Science is the truth about observable facts. Who would believe that a 747 jet was the result of a whirlwind going through a scrap yard? No normal person would. Yet proponents of evolution say everything in our universe, which is millions of times more complex than a 747, just came about by chance, no design in it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>My response?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>This argument is something of a creationist straw man. It&#8217;s saying that since a 747 could not be produced by a whirlwind in a junkyard, the theory of evolution must be wrong. This would be true only if organisms sprang fully formed from some evolutionary drawing board. But this doesn&#8217;t happen &#8211; in general evolution proceeds by relatively slow, incremental change. (You might get to life&#8217;s equivalent of a 747 eventually, but probably by a more circuitous route than you could ever imagine!)<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>What&#8217;s more &#8211; and contrary to popular belief &#8211; evolution is not a random process. While mutations and gamete production generate random genetic variation, natural selection acts on that variation in a distinctly non-random manner. An organism with a genetic trait that makes it more likely to survive and reproduce is more likely to leave descendants, &amp; at least some of those descendants will also have that trait. Thus the variation spreads through the population &#8211; and it&#8217;s not as a result of chance events. (Mind you, it&#8217;s important to point out here that natural selection isn&#8217;t the only factor in a population&#8217;s evolution. Genetic drift may also play a significant role, especially in isolated populations with a relatively small gene pool.)<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>I&#8217;ll get in quick here, because the next claim is often that evolution can&#8217;t work because mutations are &#8216;never beneficial&#8217;\/&#8217;always harmful&#8217;. Mutations are never &#8216;beneficial&#8217;? Of course they are! Think of the mutations that give bacteria the ability to resist antibiotics &#8211; not good for us, but enormously beneficial to the bacterial populations concerned. What about the extremely rapid evolution of HIV in response to anti-retroviral drugs? (And I&#8217;ve given other examples &amp; links <a href=\"http:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/05\/darwins-tomatoes-the-evolution.shtml#more\">here<\/a> &amp; &#8211; in humans &#8211;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/09\/diet-and-your-genes.shtml#more\">here<\/a>&nbsp;&amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/08\/question-are-humans-still-evol.shtml#more\">here<\/a>.)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent letter-writer in our local paper presented this argument: Many people believe the evolutionary theory but none practice it. For example, how much is left to chance in the design and assembly of a 747 jet? Nothing is left to chance. Every component is tested to breaking point to find any weakness in design [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5,15],"tags":[16,12,10],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>you won&#039;t get a 747 from a tornado in a junkyard : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/07\/you-wont-get-a-747-from-a-torn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"you won&#039;t get a 747 from a tornado in a junkyard : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent letter-writer in our local paper presented this argument: Many people believe the evolutionary theory but none practice it. 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