Defender's Guide to Science and Creationism

Assertion: Mutations never increase the amount of genetic information.

Mark I. Vuletic

Last updated 21 March 2008

Analysis

It is unclear how to evaluate this claim without a definition of "genetic information." If the term simply refers to any functional sequence of DNA, then mutations that duplicate functional sequences of DNA obviously can very easily increase the amount of genetic information in a genome. If novelty is also required, then it is worth noting that point mutations to the duplicate sequences can generate novel functions without impairing the original function. This is, in fact, how hemoglobin evolved.

All Disqus comments will be moderated. Please use common sense. If you are not sure what counts as common sense, do a search for "comment etiquette."