acuodancer

Hi, I'm an atheist and I believe Evolution to be true. I'm having a debate with a creationist and one of his argument is about how improbable macro-evolution is. This is a quote from his argument: Have you read about theories for the origin of the whale? Two major theories are a Hyena species and a Hippo species. Taking the Hyena into consideration, the minimum number of traits that would have to be altered BY CHANCE are: 1. Dorsal fin development 2. Bony tail into a cartilaginous fluke 3. Teeth into baleen filter 4. Hair into blubber for insulation 5. Nostrils from nose to top of head, disconnect from mouth and formation of a muscular flap 6. Front legs into pectoral fins 7. Body size from 150 pounds to 360,000 pounds 8. External ears to high-pressure ears. 9. Loss of back legs. If you've done Permutations and Combinations, the number of DNA letters that must be added to change one animal into another can be calculation by the following: #Of body changes x #Of new proteins needed x #Of Amino acids in each neww protein x 3 new letters of DNA needed for each new amino acid =Total # of DNA letters added/changed. Let's take it hypothetically. If one new proteins directly related to one trait-change, and one protein contains 100 amino acids, then 2700 new letters of DNA would have to be added/changed to that of the hyena. These must be ACCIDENTALLY acquired by the hyena, and correlate to form a functioning animal. The odds of doing this, for each DNA letter would thus be 1/4^2700(since DNA is comprised of 4 letters) I believe you get 1/(364 x 10^1625). With a probability like that ... I don't take biology in school so I'm not really sure about how the copy and cross over process works. As a result, I find myself lacking a solid response to this question. I hope people who are better educated in this aspect can help me to show whether his argument has validity or if it is flawed. Thank you,looking forward to being educated more on this matter.