After watching the recent debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, I realized both sides are missing a huge piece of the puzzle. So, I propose an evolution challenge for brave scientists to prove that it is possible to evolve any DNA based lifeform.
Remember, the theory of evolution was imagined before science understood DNA. Charles Darwin only saw the physical properties of plants and animals that he examined. Therefore, he was able to imagine the physical differences between various kinds of plants and animals as being evolutionary differences. Now, that we know these physical characteristics are controlled by genomes in the DNA, we understand evolution is much more complicated than Charles ever imagined.
Therefore, the genomes of the DNA need to evolve to change one physical trait to another. If this is done by random mutations, then the following requirements must always be true:
- The underlying DNA has to evolve one genome at a time
- The result of each change must be able to thrive
- The result of each change must be able to procreate
This is much more complex than imagining that finch beaks can evolve longer or shorter. To get an understanding of the complexity of this problem, I propose the following evolution challenge. Evolve the first paragraph one letter at a time into the second paragraph. This is trivial compared to the real human DNA. But it represents a real verifiable way to prove if evolution of any DNA based lifeform is even possible.
Evolution Challenge: evolve the following paragraphs one letter at a time
| A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens | The Gospel according to the Apostle John (God’s Word Translation) |
|---|---|
| It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. | In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was already with God in the beginning. Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him. He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity. The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it. God sent a man named John to be his messenger. John came to declare the truth about the light so that everyone would become believers through his message. John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light. |
The rules for this evolution challenge are:
- Each sentence can only change one letter at a time (including inserting or deleting letters)
- Each change must result in a real word (from the Oxford English Dictionary)
- Each change must be grammatically correct and make sense
Ready, set, go…
If you don’t think this challenge is fair, please see the Reference genome to get an idea of the complexity of the real human DNA. This challenge is almost trivial in comparison to the millions of genomes in human DNA.
For comparison, there are approximately 549 letters changed between these two paragraphs. By contrast, the Human Genome differs from the Ape by approximately 35 million single-nucleotide substitutions (Wikipedia | Genetic differences between humans and other great apes).
But if you think this challenge is too hard, please feel free to propose an easier set of rules that meets your understanding of how evolution works. However, the goal of the evolution challenge has to remain, evolve the first paragraph into the second paragraph.
Digging Deeper
- Typing monkey would be unable to produce ‘Hamlet’ within the lifetime of the universe, study finds – A new study reveals it would take far longer than the lifespan of our universe for a typing monkey to randomly produce Shakespeare. So, while the Infinite Monkey Theorem is true, it is also somewhat misleading.
- The surprising proof that evolution is faith-based – If you believe evolution is true because you trust someone, or because you trust some organization, or because you trust anything, that is faith.
- Biblical Christianity vs Religion of Humanism Biblical Christianity and Religion of Humanism have incompatible world views on God, human nature, morality, and human reasoning.
Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution