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[[Image:Pierre Grasse.jpg|thumb|140px|right|Pierre Grasse]]
[[Pierre Grasse]], who served as Chair of Evolution at [[Sorbonne University]] for thirty years and was ex-president of the [[French Academy of Sciences]], said:{{QuoteBox|Some contemporary biologists, as soon as they observe a mutation, talk about evolution. They are implicitly supporting the following syllogism: mutations are the only evolutionary variations, all living beings undergo mutations, therefore all living beings evolve....No matter how numerous they may be, mutations do not produce any kind of evolution.<ref name="Grasse">Quoted on [http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/origins/quotes/mutations.html Veritas Forum]</ref>}}
Grasse went on to point out that bacteria, much studied by geneticists and molecular biologists, produce the most mutants,<ref>[http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/origins/quotes/mutations.html Veritas Forum]</ref>, yet bacteria are considered to have "stabilized a billion years ago!".<ref name="Grasse" />
Grasse regards the "unceasing mutations" to be "merely hereditary fluctuations around a median position; a swing to the right, a swing to the left, but no final evolutionary effect."<ref name="Grasse" />
Although he believed that random mutations produced new features, [[Harvard]] biologist [[Ernst Mayr]] admitted the difficulty with the idea: "It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations."<ref>[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes9.html Ernst Mayr, Systematics and the Origin of Species (New York: Dover Publications, 1942), p. 296]</ref> Such mis-statements conflate the definition of evolution, which is variation around an environment's effects.
[[Creationism|Creation scientists]] argue that mutations ''cannot'' generate new genetic information.<ref>[[Answers in Genesis]], [http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/mutations.asp Mutations: Questions and Answers]</ref><ref>Dr. [[Jerry Bergman]], [http://www.trueorigin.org/mutations01.asp Darwinism and the Deterioration of the Genome]</ref><ref name="Dawk" /><ref>[[Jonathan Sarfati]], P.H.D., F.M., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3831 ''Refuting Evolution'', Chapter 2, Variation and Natural Selection Versus Evolution]</ref><ref>[[Answers in Genesis]], [http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/selection.asp Natural Selection Questions and Answers]</ref>. However, it is notable that these claims are devoid of experimentation or support, and are more properly considered [[opinion]] than science.
==References==
==Other References==
* Biology (7th Edition). Neil A. Campbell,Jane B. Reece. http://www.amazon.com/Biology-7th-Neil-Campbell/dp/080537146X.* Yomo, T., Urabe, I. and Okada, H., [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=525574 No stop codons in the antisense strands of the genes for nylon oligomer degradation], [[PLoS Biology]] 3(7):3780–3784, 1992* Sean B. Carroll, [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030245&ct=1], [[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] USA 89:e245, 2005* Zhang Q, Zmasek CM, Dishaw LJ, Mueller MG, Ye Y, Litman GW, Godzik A., [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18680598?ordinalpos=6&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum], [[Genome Biology]] 9(8):R123, 2008
[[Category:Biology]]
