The Problem with Christians

[AJW333]

Given that the context of the discussion concerns the ever increasing complexity of life, and in particular the transition of one species into another entirely different one, the scale of mutations required to do this is massive.

That, or the quantity of mutations need to be large. Or hell, not even that: small mutations that intensify over time would eventually become these big, massive mutations, without ever mutating a whole lot in a single generation. Like, say you have an ancient giraffe with a short neck, and one has a minor mutation that means its neck is longer and it can feed off of higher branches. If that's a survival advantage such that it gets passed on, then the genes for that longer neck are already present, and having a slightly longer neck is also an advantage that would get passed down. But then in that second generation, the genes for the longer neck are already present and can be built on, generation by generation, inch by inch, until eventually you have a modern giraffe. At no point in that process do you have a huge mutation, you just have a series of small-yet-advantageous ones accumulating over time, but the end result is still a dramatic difference.

Concerning the evolution of the giraffe's neck, there are a number of tissues that have to lengthen significantly. This includes  the muscles, bones, nerves, arteries, veins and connective tissue. The heart also needs to be significantly bigger to pump the blood. And the higher blood pressure requires stronger blood vessels, valves and thicker arterial walls to cope. Thus we have to have positive DNA mutations in a large number of tissues at the same time, otherwise the survivability of the animal will be threatened. In addition, the multiple positive mutations in the DNA must occur in the sex cells, not just the somatic cells, otherwise the trait won't be passed down.

To make matters worse, the fossil record shows no intermediate length giraffe necks. If the evolution of the long neck took millions of years, where are the intermediates?