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[Genetics: No Friend of Evolution: A Highly Qualified Biologist Tells It Like It Is by Dr. Lane Lester] "Mendel and Darwin were contemporaries whose theories were formulated in different ways and clashed with one another. Mendel used careful observations of traits and calculations to develop his theory of inheritance, while Darwin’s ideas were based on erroneous ideas about inheritance. Four factors can be considered in genetic variation: environment, recombination, mutation, and creation. It has long been known that environmental effects on individuals cannot be passed on to offspring as the information is not contained in the DNA. Mendel recognized the constancy of traits with variation, while Darwin, to some degree, accepted environmental influence on variation. This is evident from Darwin’s discussion of the giraffe’s neck becoming longer by “the inherited effects of the increased use of parts.”

Mendel showed that traits are reorganized independently when they are passed on to offspring. The variation would not always be evident, but it would only reappear if the trait was present in a previous generation. The amount of variation is limited by the information in the parents. Darwin’s finches offer an example of this recombination of traits. Mutations are rare in a given gene, and the cell has elaborate machinery to correct mistakes when they occur. Mutations, when they do occur, tend to be neutral but others are harmful. In the creation model, mistakes in the DNA would be expected to have harmful effects. In evolution, these mistakes are supposed to increase information even though in over 3,000 known fruit fly mutations not one produces a fly that has a survival advantage. Examples of mutations that are beneficial to the individual or population are shown to be a loss of information. Natural selection acts to preserve or eliminate traits that are beneficial or harmful, as the creation model would predict. Creation of organisms by a divine Creator is the only mechanism that is adequate to account for the variation seen in the world today. Each of the created kinds started with considerable genetic variability that has caused the variety of life we see today." Exposing Evolution, Second Ed.