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Viral Mutations
As we learn more about the coronavirus, the term “viral mutation” keeps popping up. We have heard about mutations which allow the virus to move from animal to human and then human to human organisms. “The observed rate of mutation (about two mutations per month) is completely normal for a virus … Flu and the common cold have similar mutation rates. Even a bit faster for flu” (Trevor Bedford, NextStrain. org).
Isn’t this clear evidence of Darwinian evolution?
When a question like this comes up, always ask, “Which kind of evolution do you mean? If you mean micro-evolution, then the answer is yes. If you mean macro-evolution, then the answer is no.” Naturalists want to trip up believers by equating small changes within a species to vast changes in body structure such as reptiles becoming birds. Believers in God do not question what is factual and reproducible. Changes in species can be engineered by dog breeders, rose growers and lab scientists.
The theory of macroevolution presents an insurmountable challenge: “Darwinian evolution requires the addition of traits (such as forelimbs changing into wings, and scales turning into feathers …), which requires the addition of new information. Selecting from information that is already present in the genome and that was damaged through copying mistakes in the genes cannot be the process that adds new information to the genome” (Patterson and Mortenson, The New Answers Book 3 278).
Changes in the already-existing genome of coronavirus produces the new strain we are now seeing. It’ll really be newsworthy if the virus mutates into a fundamentally different microorganism.
