Genetics as it applies to evolution, molecular biology, and medical aspects.
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So I'm a biologist and I went through a slow, gradual change from a theist to an atheist, and it seems like it started when I took this class as well as molecular biology. After learning how our genetic system works, I discovered two things:
1. Evolution is true. I'd been resistant to evolution all my life since I didn't want it to be true. I saw all the transitional fossils and thought, "well, I guess they could exist if God created in spurts". Or I looked at images of, say, homo erectus, online and they seemed so incomplete. Well, learning how our genetic system works instantly turned me into an acceptor of evolution. It's proof that is much more solid than anything else. If I this is how our genetic system works, and I knew it for a fact, then I would still accept evolution even if there was no other evidence.
2. I learned randomness is a real phenomena in nature, and the mutations/genetic recombination/ect that is occurring inside the diploid cells right before they become haploids (sexual reproduction here I'm talking about) involves real randomness. After seeing so many pictures of just plain "stupid" things like drosophila melanogaster with legs growing on it's head (antennaepedia), and all the other horrific birth defects in humans, I thought to myself, "wow, evolution probably occurred and unless things were different in the past than now, it seems unguided".
3. I learned how genetic information can be "created out of thin air" and inserted into a genome. Ok, not thin air, but just removing ONE nucleotide from a DNA strand can result in a frameshift mutation that completely changes the protein. You might have a gene encoding, say, a protein for converting chemical X into Y, and then just removing one nucleotide results in the protein, say, acting as a ligand and telling drosophila melanogaster to grow legs on the head rather than on the body.
Anyone else have similar stories?
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