Evolution Includes Genes Jumping from One Species to Another


After blogging for several years I've had my share of discussions about evolution with religious people who scoff at it. "Sure, fish might have some changes over time, but they are still fish like God created.  Fish did not come out of the water and start walking."

Another rejection is a theory that the millions of years since some form of life first came along was not long enough for evolution to produce human beings. "Humans had to have been created by God because there was not enough time for them to have come about through evolution."

My impression is there has always been a little tension within the explanation of evolution. While adaptation through survival is the mother lode of evolution, many generations are required for adaptation. Yet, it appears that adaptation took place relatively quickly in some cases.

Science continues to unravel all this and new discoveries still come along. One is that there is horizontal gene alteration. That is, genes from one species are moved to another and the new host is changed. It happens by insects moving blood from one creature to another and bacteria that infect and change the host's DNA.

With the more recent ability to read DNA it has been determined that eight percent of our own DNA is not "native" to humans but was transferred through time from other creatures or were versions altered by other sources like bacteria. This horizontal evolution combined with vertical cause some rapid adaptions and changes.

If you consider all science to be an effort to undermine Christianity you will reject this information. This will not make it disappear.

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