Saturday, December 2, 2006

The IDiots Don't Understand Junk DNA

So what else is new?

The chief IDiot (Casey Luskin) over at Discovery Institute claims that junk DNA is a science-stopper. This is such old news.

Every time scientists find a function for some non-coding DNA we are treated to another diatribe against junk DNA. In fairness, it's not just the IDiots who do this. Some so-called scientists are just as guilty. They don't understand junk DNA.

Here's a clue. Junk DNA is DNA that has no function. It is not non-coding DNA. Lots of non-coding DNA has a function (regulatory sequences, origins of replication, centromeres, telomeres, SARs, etc. etc). But, in mammals, most of it doesn't. Most of the human genome is junk.

Just because we discover a function for some little bit of non-coding DNA does not mean that all of it has a function. Use your head. This is elementary rationalism. Oops, I almost forgot, that's not their strong point.

Think of pseudogenes or degenerative alu sequences, for example. They will always be junk DNA.

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