[continued from previous message]   
      
   population bottleneck that our species went through we have around 1/3   
   of the standing genetic variation found in chimps even though their   
   populations have been declining.  We have around 1/5 of the standing   
   genetic variation of your average species.  Species have a boat load of   
   genetic variation segregating within their population.  In the extant   
   human population every position in the human genome has likely been hit   
   by a new mutation event on the order of 100 times.  Most of this new   
   genetic variation is lost through drift, rare deleterious variants are   
   selected against, and a few might increase in the population due to   
   positive selection.  Most just drift in the population even if they do   
   something that you might be able to detect like increase some enzymatic   
   activity a bit, but not enough to make a significant difference in the   
   survival of the organism.  As Behe and Dembski have to admit these   
   "neutral" variants can get together to specify something that does   
   something different enough to produce a new function that natural   
   selection can act on.   
      
   When new species form due to isolation of the population it is the   
   standing genetic variation that initially gets selected to differentiate   
   the new population from the progenitor population.  Species   
   differentiation do not have to be selected for, but once two populations   
   can no longer interbreed the standing genetic variation can drift to   
   produce phenotypic differences between the two isolated populations.  It   
   is obvious that this genetic difference already exists within the   
   population and does not have to be designed into any new species.   
      
   Ron Okimoto   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)