Darwin
Mutation
Christianity
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Darwin The Beagle set sail on December 27, 1831 to study the
west coast of South America and several Pacific islands. Darwin’s job was to study the geology and biology of the lands. During the course of the voyage, Darwin observed an enormous number of plant and animal species, and discovered many fossils. The budding naturalist took careful notes on everything he observed. Those notes later provided the basis of his theories. Darwin returned home in 1836 and developed a reputation as one of England’s leading biologists. Darwin concluded that species evolved over long periods of time. There may be differences in the offspring of an organism. These differences are called mutations. We generally think of mutations as harmful, such as birth defects, but a mutation is simply an alteration of the genetic information of an organism. Some mutations are good. A child might be stronger or more talented than his or her parents.
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Darwin’s theory suggested that organisms evolved to fit their environment based on natural selection. If a mutation was good, the organism lived and contributed its mutation to the gene pool of its offspring. If the mutation was bad, the organism was more likely to die before contributing to the gene pool. Over billions of years, these mutations slowly produced the world we know today. According to the theory of evolution, organisms have adapted to their environment. Lizards are green because if they were any other color they could be easy spotted and eaten. If bigger animals were around, a purple dinosaur would have a tough time staying alive in a green forest.
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Mutation In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are
changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell’s genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic chemicals, as well as errors that occur during meiosis or DNA replication.They can also be induced by the organism itself, by cellular processes such as hypermutation. Mutation can result in several different types of change in sequences;(DNA) these can either have no effect, alter the product of a gene, or prevent the gene from functioning properly or completely. Studies in the fly Drosophila melanogaster suggest that if a mutation changes a protein produced by a gene, this will probably be harmful, with about 70 percent of these mutations having damaging effects, and the remainder being either neutral or weakly beneficial. Due to the damaging effects that mutations can have on genes, organisms have mechanisms such as DNA repair to remove mutations.
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Christianity In the beginning there was no earth or sky or sea or
he had collected in the oceans. “I want these waters
animals. And then God spoke in the darkness: “Let
teeming with life!” As soon as He said it, it was so.
there be light!” And right away there was light, scat-
In no time, there were millions of small fish darting
tering the darkness and showing the infinite space.
through the shallow water and huge fish swimming in
“That’s good!” said God. “From now on, when it’s
the ocean. God made birds, too. He sent them soar-
dark it will be ‘night” and when it’s light, it will be
ing through the air. “Ahh, that IS good!, “said God.
‘day’. The evening came and the night passed and
The dusk fell over the water and the sky grew dark
then the light returned. That was the first day.
and that was the end of the fifth day.
On the second day, God made the earth and over it
“Believing in evolution is believing in the unproved, while believing in Christ is believing in the proven.”
He carefully hung a vast blue sky. He stood back and admired His creation. “That’s good too!” said God and the second day was over. The next morning God looked around and thought, “the earth needs to be a bit more organized.” So, He put all the water in one place and all the
On the sixth day, God added creatures to the land.
dry land in another. When He had finished that, God
So God added Mankind to enjoy and take care of all
made plants to cover the land. Dandelions and daf-
that He had created. God looked around and was
fodils appeared. All sorts of trees and grasses began
happy with all He had made.
to grow. “It’s looking great”, said God and that was
After six days, the whole universe was completed.
the end of the third day.
On the seventh day God had a nice long rest and
On the fourth day, God looked around and
enjoyed looking at all He had made.
though, “the daylight still needs a bit more work and the night is just too dark.” So, He made the sun to light the sky during the day and the moon and stars to add a bit of sparkle to the night. He hung them in the sky and stepped back to look at his work. “This is coming along very well,” said God. The next day, God turned his attention to the water
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