Benaficial Mutations And Evolution

Lactose tolerance

Darwinists, use lactose tolerance, the ability to digest dairy products as an example of recent evolutionary development proving evolution. Nonhuman mammals lose the ability to digest lactose as soon as they reach adulthood. The same happens to a majority of human populations on this planet. The list below shows the geographic areas and the percentage of people living their who lose their lactose tolerance early in life.

Southeast Asians 98%

Asian Americans 90%

Alaskan Inuit 80%

African American Adults 79%

African American Children 45%

North American Jews 69%

Mexicans from rural communities 74%

Mexican American Males 55%

Greek Cypriots 66%

Cretans 56%

Indian Adults 50%

Indian Children 20%

Caucasians of N. European and Scandinavian decent 5%

It is rare for a child to be born lactose intolerant. A condition that is not beneficial since milk is rich in various essential minerals, vitamins, proteins, fat, milk sugar and lactose all necessary for rapid growth as well as antibodies against disease transferred from the mother. Animals that grow rapidly produce milk high in protein and minerals. For example, a calf doubles its birth weight in 50 days, and a human baby in 100. Lactase, an enzyme produced in the small intestine is needed to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and milk products. Lactase is at its highest at birth, and declines from the age of 3-5 years. Thus, by early childhood 95% of lactase is lost and decreases further with aging. There are exceptions where the level of lactase only declines in old age. The table above shows the Northern Europeans and the Scandinavians to be the most lactose tolerant. The reasons for this are several and although it is a beneficial mutation, it does not necessarily support the theory of morphological evolution. That is, Evolution from lactose intolerant to lactose tolerant people supports the evolution of the species. It is very difficult to prove that only lactose intolerant populations existed in the past. Just as lactose intolerant and lactose tolerant populations exist now, they may have existed in the past. What are the evolutionists explanations.

Various theories

The most popular explanation why certain populations developed lactose tolerance is that was due to animal husbandry, and the consumption dairy products. The development of lactose tolerance is ascribed to chance. But selective pressures favoured the reproduction of those most tolerant. Thus, Feldman and Cavalli-Sforza (1989) conclude: "Lactose tolerance is an example of selection-based evolutionary change in humans from milk-drinking cultures".

Albano Beja-Pereira et al, Nature Genetics 35, 311 - 313 (2003) concluded: "Milk from domestic cows has been a valuable food source for over 8,000 years, especially in lactose-tolerant human societies that exploit dairy breeds. We studied geographic patterns of variation in genes encoding the six most important milk proteins in 70 native European cattle breeds. We found substantial geographic coincidence between high diversity in cattle milk genes, locations of the European Neolithic cattle farming sites (>5,000 years ago) and present-day lactose tolerance in Europeans. This suggests a gene-culture coevolution between cattle and humans".

The general opinion of scientists is that lactose intolerance is the normal human condition. Some 10,000-years ago lactose tolerance by developed by an accidental mutation in the lactase gene, among the population who started using milk products. For some light skinned populations this source of food was vital. Robert M. Kradjian (MD Breast Surgery Chief Division of General Surgery, Seton Medical Centre) discovered that people with light skin can generate vitamin D more easily than those with darker skin. He concluded that if only the face were exposed to sunlight, the area of exposed skin would be insufficient to provide sufficient vitamin D from sunlight. If other dietary sources of vitamin D were limited, the ability to digest milk, a source of this vitamin, would give a survival advantage. This seems to be a logical explanation for light skinned humans having a higher degree of lactose tolerance compared to darker skinned people.

The genetic explanation for developing lactose tolerance is as follows. "Lactose tolerance may be caused by an activating mutation in the MCM6 gene (minichromosome maintenance gene) on chromosome 2, near the lactase gene (lactase phlorizin hydrolase gene, LPH gene). The mutation…is a base exchange from C (Cytosin) to T (Thymin) at the nucleotide position -13910 upstream of the lactase gene. Homozygous carriers of the mutation have a livelong lactose tolerance. In heterozygous carriers the lactose intolerance may be partially compensated". (Obermayer-Pietsch, 2004, Journal für Mineralstoffwechsel, 11(3):20-23; Sibley, 2004, Am J Pharmacogenomics, 4(4):239-245)

Leena Peltonen et al, University of Helsinki in Finland, and the University of California in Los Angeles (2003), examined 1611 DNA samples from 37 populations from four continents and found a mutation near the lactase gene that is associated with lactose tolerance. They discovered that Udmurts, Mokshas, Ezras, and other groups that originally lived between the Ural Mountains and the Volga River have the greatest DNA sequence diversity around the lactase gene mutation. This suggests that lactose tolerance first appeared in them. Before 3,500 to 4,500 years ago the Uralian nomadic herders, the Kurgas, brought the mutated lactase gene into Europe, especially to the north where the lactose tolerance is the highest.

Their most interesting assertion is that the ancestral variation of the lactase gene occurred through a mutation around 4,800 to 6,600 years ago in the Uralian population. This mutation was transferred from migrating tribes from the Asian steppes. Some geneticists have doubts whether the place where the original lactase gene originated can be identified, as the population in which this gene is now most common, might have migrated from elsewhere, or the original population is now extinct.

Sean Myles from his work concluded: "We genotyped the putatively causal allele for lactose tolerance (-13910T) and constructed haplotypes from several polymorphisms in and around the lactase gene (LCT) in three North African Berber populations and compared our results with previously published data. We found that the frequency of the -13910T allele predicts the frequency of lactose tolerance in several Eurasian and North African Berber populations but not in most sub-Saharan African populations. Our analyses suggest that contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the Middle East and that they share a dairying origin with Europeans and Asians, but not with sub-Saharan Africans".

If the genetic evidence is contradictory, and if this further conflicts with palaeontological evidence how is it possible to reach an answer? Francisco Rodriguez-Trelles et al, University of California (Irvine), concluded that the idea of a molecular clock may be hopelessly flawed. Here is an example. Paleontologists estimate that the Cambrian explosion occurred approximately 540 million years ago. Using genetic calculations, by comparative studies of similar proteins in various groups of organisms this period goes back for a further 500 million years. Menno Schilthuizen states this as "Molecular clocks are much more erratic than previously thought and practically useless to keep accurate evolutionary time," similarly, the genetic calculations to determine the time and place of the origin of ancestral lactase gene are likely to be in error.

From the Vedic literature, we know that lactose tolerance existed more than 10.000 years ago, long before the time estimated by the scientists. The ancient Puranic texts describe cyclical creations and destructions and also the way humans lived in the bygone ages. The last creation of all living entities including humans was before 120.5 million years ago.

So, the Vedas describe that having at that time developed agriculture and animal herding, people used different milk products with their food, and thus our conclusion is that they must have been lactose tolerant.

Moreover, as some peoples during their history stopped consuming milk products, they lost their lactose tolerance. This theory is consistent with new discoveries relating to genome degeneration.

To understand the ultimate conclusions about beneficial mutations please read the next essay written by John Sanford, "Can natural selection create? - Newsflash - Mutation/selection cannot even create a single gene".

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