According to an article in the Globe and Mail by Stephen Strauss, a little known fact about genes and mutations is causing considerable consternation in evolutionary circles.

Evolutionists believe that new species were created as gene's mutated. These mutations, if they were beneficial and helped the species survive in changing climates, were incorporated into the species as a whole and gradually resulted in the formation of new animals over hundreds of millions of year.

Over the past few years, we have been inundated with reports of the discovery of genes that regulate eye color, hair color and list goes on.

It leaves the impression that genes only affect one particular area. However, this impression couldn't be further from the truth and this is the root of the problem. Scientists have known for decades that a single gene affects multiple areas. It is a process called pleiotropy (lit. more change).

In Strauss' article, Mathematical biology professor at the University of British Columbia, Sally Otto said a single gene "affects the expression of something in the order of hundreds of other genes."

Otto believes if change of a single gene could be precisely measured, we would probably see it has effected, to varying degrees, the operation of every other gene. She added, "You can't change selection on one thing, without changing everything." There are no neutral changes every mutation effects a multitude of areas.

Consequently, changes that may be positive in one area invariably have a negative effect in the other areas regulated by the same single gene.

Incredibly the linkages are wildly unrelated. For example, they found a mutation in fruit flies that increases its hardiness to cold, but in turn makes it more susceptible to starvation. The gene mutations are also sex related. Men with the gene mutation that causes cystic fibrosis are also sterile.

Though scientists have known about pleiotropy for 75 years, they just recently acknowledged the trouble this causes evolutionary theory.

Alan Orr from the University of Rochester wrote a book on this problem. He said while a particular gene mutation could increase your rate of thinking, there are so many negative spin offs in the other areas, the change won't be integrated into the species.

Scientists, still trying to hold to evolutionary theory, are now forced to develop a number of theories to work around this huge problem. Orr suggests as a possible solution that mutations must be extremely minor so that its negative effect in other areas is similarly insignificant.

Otto -- who recently published a mathematical formula in an effort to explain the positive and negative affects of these mutations -- admitted she didn't have an answer to this complex issue.

Editor's note: After God was finished creating, He saw "it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). However, when sin entered the world, the genetic code of man was corrupted by sin -- the sin nature. God promises at the resurrection, we will be given new bodies. I suspect our genetic code among other things will be purged of this sin nature. I wonder if one of the spin-offs of this corrupted sin nature is mutation. As a result, I believe God instituted an elaborate fail-safe mechanism to prevent mutations from inserting themselves into the gene code. God is concerned about the integrity of the gene pool and there is evidence in scripture that He was willing to go to great lengths to protect it. Read: When did satan take over the world?    

Again the incredible interrelatedness of the gene code suggests a design so complex that it is impossible for it to be the product of random chance. There is a greater possibility of a tornado ripping through a junkyard and creating a Boeing 747, than of evolution.

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