Contender's Edge (@ContendersEdge)

@[email protected] @CynicalBroadcast Actually, you did say that mutations can sometimes be positive: "Some of them are positively selected for though, that means the resulting phenotype has a higher fitness thanks to that allele. In this case the mutation is likely to be carried through the generations and become more common in the population." Your words, not mine. And new genetic material cannot suddenly appear. But copies of pre-existing genetic material can be made but those copies can be corrupted during transcription. And no one is disputing that genetic material can be transferred and recombined. And if the common ancestor rests between us and the amoeba, then it cannot be our common ancestor since according to evolutionary thought, amoeba and man sprang forth from that same source. And if there is not such a thing as a blueprint in DNA, then the odds against the possibility of any sustainable life would be astronomical. If your gene code did not have a blueprint to it, chances are, for all anyone knows, either you or your offspring might end up being pile of glop. DNA has to have a blueprint and a programming sequence in order for life to be sustained and preserved but to assert otherwise has no basis in science or reason. "Say you have a lot of LUCAs (last unknown common ancestors). This lucas were all around, with many subpopulations. Some subject to some pressure from selection, other to others. Slowly, in time (we are talking billion of years here, and a generation of Lucas can be as short as 10 hours) they differentiate. Some become adapted to very hot climate, others to cold. The one in the cold maybe have a different season for mating, which starts to create a barrier to gene flow. This happens via selection and mutations/recombination. Now, at one point those two subpopulations won't be able to mate anymore, for many kinds of reproductive barriers. They start to evolve in different directions. The pseudopods of some may become more stiff, and give rise to more solid structure, even polynucleate. Another one may be able to go into freshwater, as modern amoebas, etc." The two subpopulations could only arise if the source form which they arose had the genetic potential to pass down traits for more solid structures in some and the ability for others to thrive in freshwater, which would have to mean, the common ancestor of both had a solidity to its structure and could dwell in freshwater. But that ancestor cannot pass down traits that it does not possess to its offspring. And I do not see how sterile hybrids could ever prove your point. Do you even know what "sterile" means? It means the inability to reproduce which would make any sterile hybrids a dead end in evolutionary terms. They will never be able to pass their traits on and will be extinct in one generation. And if you do not wish to continue this correspondence, so be it then. Depart in peace.