I’ve only 51 graduate credits in biology (and an M.S.) and that idea of randomness for evolution is precisely what we were taught. All changes were via mutation since learned behaviors are not genetic. You don’t find many biologists in the field (I used to work in the mid-Klamath, Shasta, and Salmon Rivers with endangered fish species) that take evolution seriously. There’s a massive difference between what is seen in the field vs. the antiseptic laboratory or sterile college campus. Most professors haven’t a clue what goes on in the real world..Every mutation we have seen has been uniformely deletarious. Humans have about 15,000 “bad genes” and according to Cornell’s genetics dept., we acquire 50 to 300 errors in our DNA in each generation. In a sense, we can predict when the human race will cease. Unfortunately, it’s also being observed in every species we’ve looked at.
re: richard S russell
I’ve only 51 graduate credits in biology (and an M.S.) and that idea of randomness for evolution is precisely what we were taught. All changes were via mutation since learned behaviors are not genetic. You don’t find many biologists in the field (I used to work in the mid-Klamath, Shasta, and Salmon Rivers with endangered fish species) that take evolution seriously. There’s a massive difference between what is seen in the field vs. the antiseptic laboratory or sterile college campus. Most professors haven’t a clue what goes on in the real world..Every mutation we have seen has been uniformely deletarious. Humans have about 15,000 “bad genes” and according to Cornell’s genetics dept., we acquire 50 to 300 errors in our DNA in each generation. In a sense, we can predict when the human race will cease. Unfortunately, it’s also being observed in every species we’ve looked at.