Re: This thing is toast

This has been fascinating reading, I must say. But I found a tidbit that you might not like so much (from Peter Borger):

Chris ,

Spetner's figures refer to point mutations, which are irrelevant for evolution anyway. The measured point mutations in bacterial cells generally lower than one in a million, indeed. However, they shuffle their genomes almost every generation. They are in a constant state of flux: they loose genes, duplicate genes and translocate genes. That is muations as well.

For human mtDNA, the usual tool for genetic studies changes so immensely fast that if we look at the mutations in the HV region (which is assumed neutral) we observed that humans, chimps, bonobos and neandertalers all have a common ancestor around 150 thousand years ago. Variability inducing mutations (by jumping genetic elements and repetitive sequences) can also be assumed neutral and occur with high incidences, too. The RFLP techniques in use by forensic investigaors are based on this phenomeneon and are able to discriminate between father and son.

peebee

So when Peter Borger says that life is not old, he's still thinking in terms of at least hundreds of thousands of years, and perhaps millions of years, as opposed to hundreds of millions or a billion years in the Darwinistic model. This still isn't demonstrating only 6,000 years of life (but what I've read so far doesn't necessarily discount 6,000 years of modern humanity).

I'll keep reading... good stuff!