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Evidence that mutation is the cause of change in evolution has not been proven

I thank my opponent for responding. This has been a fun debate for me! Let me first address you made toward toward respective voters. You said I dropped the argument about chimanzee-human relation. You had no sources in your first round therefore I did not need to address those points. In adition, you did not address the catastrophe argument which flies in the face of evolution by random mutation killing out the undesirables and slowly replacing them with the more fit. Let me discuss the fossil record. You admit that the fossil record has very few transitional forms since you are now arguing for punctuated equilibriam. There is a small sub set of people who knew the fossil record did not match the theory so they had to come up with something to match the record. Others have come up with the hopefully monster theory. The problem is that they have given up on explaining the mechanism by which evolution works. The theory then becomes one of a metaphysical idea that can not be tested. It removes the theory even further from science. The neo darwinists at least have a mechanism that can be tested. You mention Archaeopteryx in relation to the fossil record. The problem is that it has no predecessors. The fossils that look like it lived millions of years after it did. The fossils that precede it look nothing like it. It sems to be an odd creation that went nowhere knid of like the edsel ford. In addition I state again "the extreme rarity" of the fossil reord is the "trade secret of paleontology". You mention bacteria. There are more studies to be done with this no doubt. However a few points-this could be a design element which would take this debate in another direction. They could be designed to adapt to enviroments when tranposae enzymes on the pOAD2 plasmid were activated. The bigger question is if rapidly mutating bacterium were proof of evolution, then after a few billion years of evolution, the only life forms we would have would be extremly sturdy bacteria and virusis. I mean people develop tolerance for things all the time but they don't turn into new creatures. consider malaria-It is a ferocious parasite that loves to attack anything that gets in its way, However, it needs a warm climate to reproduce. If a mutant parasite evolved that could handle lower temps, it could invade areas now closed to it. It has not done that. Where is evolution? Where is the science? Now let us return to the fruit fly. On e xperiment the fly was selected for a drease in bristles and in another for an increase in bristles starting with a parent stock averaging 36 bristles. After many generations the scientists were able to lower the bristle average to 25. What happened then, the line became sterile and died out. On the other side they were able to rais the average bristle to 56 bristles in the other experiment, then they dies out. Why? because mutations are by and large bad and harmful and there limits to change. In conclusion, I want to thank my opponent. It has been fun. http://wikipedia.org... www.pathlights-fruitflies Animal species and evolution Ernst Mayr1963 Darwin on Trial Phillip Johnson The Edge of Evolution by Michael Behe