Selective Value of Genetic Variation in Humans

T he existence of genetic varia-tions that produce a clear sur-vival advantage that can be acted upon by natural selection is crit-ically important if evolution is to oc-cur. Those traits that exist are believed by most neoDarwinists to be due to the results of the natural selection of beneficial mutations (Mayr, 2001. p. 97-98). It is now estimated that about 0.1 % of the human genome (3,000,000 base pair differences) are non-deleter-ious genetic variations called polymor-phisms. The selection value of these enormous differences between hu-mans will be explored in this paper. The study of the natural world has revealed many examples of genetical-ly-caused animal and plant traits and variations that appear to have no known selective value. Furthermore,... continued on p. 6 T he last ten years have witnessed an explosion of scien-tific understanding in the areas of genetics and mo-lecular biology. On an ev-er-increasing level, popular newspapers and magazines have feature articles on top-ics such as the most recent discovery about the human genome or the molecular basis of various diseases. The “molecular revolu-tion ” is in full stride, and the scientific information being obtained weekly makes even next year’s textbooks hopelessly outdated literally before the ink even dries. Linking themselves closely to such discoveries, evolutionists are continually insisting that these new genetic discoveries are providing the final and ultimate proof of the evolu-tionary “theory ” (some even insist such discoveries would not have been possi-ble without the guidance and insight of evolutionary thinking). A letter in Cur-rent Biology (1996. 6:220) states, “most evolutionary geneticists would agree that the major problems of the field have been solved.” Another letter, in the Au-gust 2002 newsletter of th