Evolution always made sense to me and I still find it to be true. However, I quite recently found a comment online that gave me some doubts and made me curious on the subject. Although a student of biology, I don't really know genetics all that much (I'm more of an ecology type), so I'm asking here - I hope there's somebody who can help. Without further ado, how would you respond to this comment (fyi the original post was on the subject of a woman denying evolution, then talking about her new short-eared dog breed):
"The woman was probably demonstrating that changes that we see in dogs (variation within one kind) is NOT Evolution because it cannot create new genetic info (so it cannot explain the origin of organs). It causes CHANGE with what is already there, and these changes are only NEGATIVE or NEUTRAL (but often negative, that's why our dogs are degenerate from wolves). I used to make a living out of Selective Breeding so I know that you can only change a fish's color and size but you can never add feathers or wings or limbs to it since the codes for those doesn't exist in a fish, nor can we create one just by random mutation. That's like trying to create Windows10 OS by relying on random bit-rot/data corruption -- death of program is ensured. The word "engineering" in Genetic Engineering isn't there for no reason. Coding genetic programs requires more intellect than coding binaries. Literally, we're all digital programs (but very intelligently coded). Welcome to modern science.
Having said that, you do realize that the reason why you grow old is because of mutations, right? I will be neutral here (neither Evolutionist nor Creationist) but let's be realistic. If mutations can improve us, why do we grow old and die from it even though our body undergoes "selection" too? And you do know that our genome as a population is also getting older, right? Let's math this out: Let's say you're Adam with no mutations yet. Your offspring will inherit an average of 50 mutations from you (you generated this mutations as you grow old). Let's say that we die when reaching 10,000 mutations (Natural Selection). Your offspring started his life on earth a little bit older than you. And he shall add your 50 mutation, plus his own 50 mutation to his offspring. The 3rd generation will now start his life with 100 mutations. Some may mutate faster, but since ALL organism mutates and pass it down, it's easy to see where all of us will end up. Think of your last PC. :)"
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