Now
that we've looked into the semi-macro of God's
creation, let's look into the micro-elements
of God's creation--DNA--found in both dinosaurs
and man, and the huge amounts of time "evolutionary
theory" requires for life to develop.
Ben
Bova in his book The Milky Way Galaxy says, "Man
has always been fascinated by the mystery of the
universe's creation. But how long is "always"?
Astonomers and geologists agree that the earth
is at least five billion years old [based on the
half-life of uranium, and the percentage of lead
found in each and every sample of uranium, which
is identical the world over]. Paleontologists
estimate that life on this planet began two and
a half billion years ago. Anthropologists believe
man appeared about a million years ago.
Man's written history dates back scarcely six
thousand years…"(The Milky Way Galaxy,
by Ben Bova, p. 1,).
So evolutionary theory gives the dinosaur life-forms
2.5 billion years to develop. Then WHAM!
The Great Dinosaur Extinction 65 million years
ago. Evolutionary assumption is
that it took 2.5 billion years for dinosaurs along
with their intricate DNA molecules with their
even more intricate codes for specific life-species
to evolve. Then all of a sudden the great extinction
of 65 million years ago takes place. As you've
seen the evidence, nothing lived. How could anything
survive not just the asteroid hits, but a half
million years of big volcanic activity on top
of all that? Now what is the statistical probability
that this highly intricate life-coding system
of cellular replication called DNA could "re-evolve" in
exactly the same atomic pattern, but this time
carrying the complex codes for man and all the
flora and fauna conducive to mankind--and this
in the geologically tiny space of time of a mere
65 million years? Dividing 65,000,000 by 2,500,000,000
equals 0.026. That means that this intricate life-coding
molecule, with all its differing codes for each
and every species, would have had to "re-evolve" in
just 2.6 percent of the time it took to evolve
in the first place. You students of the laws of
probability, is that within the realm of possibility?
I think the odds of hitting the power-ball lottery
are far more in your favor than those odds. And
it gets worse. Man and all the associated life-forms
that accompany man--even giving the evolutionary
paleontologists the million years they say man
has been around--took not 65,000,000 years, but
only 1 million years. That's 1,000,000 divided
by 2.5 billion, or 0.4 percent the amount of time
it took dinosaur life-forms and their complex
DNA coding systems to evolve. What are your odds
for evolution now??? You say the DNA isn't the
same, so we wouldn't recognize it or be able to
manipulate it? When Michael Creighton started
to write his famous book "Jurassic Park" he first
asked some expert geneticists if this whole idea
of cloning dinosaurs from their DNA was plausible,
possible. They said "Yes, it was." It has even
been rumored that Jack Horner, the famous dinosaur
hunter and paleontologist was attempting to
"extract" some DNA from a T-Rex's thigh-bone.
[I sincerely hope he doesn't succeed!]
Could DNA evolve? How intricate is DNA? How much
life-code is written into each DNA strand? Let's
see. After that we'll take a short look at some
other amazing micro life-forms.
"It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring
to realize that we have caught the first glimpse
of our instruction book, previously known only
to God." Francis Collins, director of the
Human Genome Project.
What DNA Looks Like
"DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in nearly
every single one of more than 75 trillion cells that
make up the human body. DNA is embedded in our
skin cells and our hair roots and our saliva.
It's in our blood, our sweat, and our tears. To
see what this DNA looks like, we need to take
a close look inside a typical human cell, which
magnifies the cell millions of times.
"Within this highly magnified cell, 46 chromosomesfloat
in a watery nucleus. These threadlike strands
are made of protein and DNA molecules. A
close look at one of these DNA molecules reveals
what scientists call the double helix. This large,
double-stranded molecule resembles a long, spiraling
ladder. The two sides of this spiraling DNA ladder
are made of four building blocks called nucleotides. Each
nucleotide is made of a sugar joined to a phosphate and
a base. These bases come in four varieties. Scientists
have identified them by the letters A (adenine),
C (cytosine), G (guanine), and
T (thymine), the four letters that make
up the DNA alphabet.
"These nucleotides are arranged in base pairs, with
each pair making up a rung on the DNA ladder.
Nucleotides pair up according to strict rules.
Nucleotide A pairs only with nucleotide T, and
nucleotide G pairs only with nucleotide C. The
A-T and G-C base pairs, repeated in various sequences
again and again, make up the 3 billion "rungs" of
the DNA ladder. These base pairs are arranged
in a very specific order called the DNA sequence.
What DNA Does
"Scientists have compared the DNA sequence to
the letters that make up the words in a book of
instructions. The experts have also compared it
to the software that programs computers. What
is it about DNA that makes them think this way?
It turns out that the DNA molecules in a single
cell--the basic unit of living matter--carry within
them all the vital information and instructions
needed for growth and operation of a human being
[or any other organism, of this age, or the dinosaur
age--no difference]. Because of DNA, our cells
divide to produce more cells. Because of DNA,
our hearts beat, our lungs breathe, our ears hear,
and our eyes see. Because of DNA, our bodies live,
grow, and function. In this way, we can say that
everyone is programmed by DNA from the moment
of conception.
"The DNA sequence in each of our cells carries
the hereditary information transmitted to us from
our parents. The chromosomes in the nucleus, or
control center, of each cell contain the information.
These 46 chromosomes come in two sets, each with
23 chromosomes. One set is inherited from our
father, and the other set is inherited from our
mother. This information determines what we will
grow up to look like. Our DNA determines the physical
characteristics we all have in common, such as
two eyes, two arms, and two legs.
"The DNA sequence within each of our cells also
carries the operating manual that tells our bodies
how to grow and function. These instructions are
packaged into units called genes. Each
gene consists of one small section of the DNA
ladder. (A typical gene takes up about 3,000 of
the 3 billion "rungs" of the DNA ladder.)
"Each gene has its own special task to perform.
The gene's DNA code, which is made up of sequences
of A-T and G-C nucleotide base pairs, "tells" the
gene to produce one specific kind of protein.
Proteins are the body's building blocks. Together,
all the genes produce the thousands of different
kinds of proteins that make up the cells and tissuesof
the human body. All the genes in a cell--80,000
or so--make up the human genome, the
coded genetic blueprint that is contained in virtually
every one of the more than 75 trillion cells in
the human body…" ("DNA Fingerprinting, the
Ultimate Identity", by Ron Fridell, pp. 7,8,9,10,11).
"But your genome is not quite identical to anyone
else's. Small but significant differences in the
DNA sequence appear here and there along the DNA
ladder. Here's how a geneticist, a scientist
who studies genes, explains these differences
to a lecture audience:
"Look at the neighbor to your left and to your
right. You're 99.9 percent identical. But in a
genome of 3 billion letters, even one tenth of
a percent difference translates into 3 million
separate spelling differences. I invite you again
to look to the left and right and notice how unique
you are. There is no one in this audience who
has the same DNA sequence as anyone else…"("DNA
Fingerprinting, The Ultimate Identity", p. 12)"
So that gives us a small glimpse of how complex
not only the DNA molecule is, but how complex
the DNA code or program is. The mere
discovery of the complexity of DNA and this code
or program within it caused one of it's discoverers
to caution evolutionary biologists not to scrap
the theory of evolution. But saying that all this
evolved is like saying you can put all the pieces
of an expensive Rolex Watch in an empty paint
can with the lid securely fastened and place the
can in a paint mixing vibrator, and after a million
years--MAGIC--PRESTO!!! OUT COMES A PERFECT
ROLEX WATCH!--absurd, impossible. And yet
brilliant minds ask us to believe in the evolution
of all the species we see around us, including
us, and of all the species that went before us,
65 million years ago.
Let's look at some more DNA facts--to fully see
the true complexity of DNA and what we really
are.
"The human body has 3 trillion cells. All except
red blood cells contain DNA--deoxyribonucleic
acid, the chemical that stores each person's genetic
code. Even after being multiplied millions of
times, DNA is invisible to the naked eye. Test
duplicate and isolate 13 specific sites along
a DNA strand, a coiled helix that in just one
cell stretches 5 feet. These sites identify an
individual…" ("Biotechnology"
Edited by Lynn Messina, p. 39).
"…Will it mean that our behaviors, thoughts
and emotions are merely the sum of our genes,
and scientists can use a genetic road map to calculate
just what that sum is? Who are we then, and what
will happen to our cherished senses of individuality
and free will? Will knowing our genetic code mean
we will know our irrevocable fates?…(ibid.
p. 21)
"The Primacy of Genes also assumes that genes
act on their own. How do they know when to turn
on and off the synthesis of particular proteins?
If you view genes as autonomous, the answer is
that they just know. No one tells a gene what
to do; instead, the buck starts and stops there.
"However, that view is far from accurate too.
Within the staggeringly long sequences of DNA,
it turns out that only a tiny percentage of letters
actually form the words that constitute genes
and serve as code for proteins. More than 95 percent
of DNA, instead, is "non-coding." Much of DNA
simply constitutes on and off switches for regulating
the activity of genes. It's like you have a 100-page
book, and 95 of the pages are instructions and
advice for reading the other five pages. Thus,
genes don't independently determine when proteins
are synthesized. They follow instructions originating
somewhere else.
"What regulates those switches? In some instances,
chemical messengers from other parts of the cell.
In other cases, messengers from other cells in
the body (this is the way many hormones work)….Or
a mother rat licking and grooming her infant will
initiate a cascade of events that eventually turns
on genes related to growth in that child. Or the
smell of a female in heat will activate genes
in certain male primates related to reproduction.
Or a miserably stressful day of final exams will
activate genes in a typical college student that
will suppress the immune system, often leading
to a cold or worse.
"You can't dissociate genes from the environment
that turns genes on and off. And you can't dissociate
the effects of genes from the environment in which
proteins exert their effects. The study of genetics
will never be so all encompassing as to gobble
up every subject from medicine to sociology. Instead,
the more science learns about genes, the more
we will learn about the importance of the environment.
That goes for real life, too: genes are essential
but not the whole story." (Biotechnology,
pp. 22, 23.)
The Bible in Proverbs 17:22 shows the interaction
of attitude and health as well. And it has become
a medical fact that attitude can trigger health
problems or degenerative diseases. But God's Word
got the medical scoop on this genetic-biologic
link long before man's study of genetics and DNA.
How was that possible? Proverbs 17:22, "A cheerful
heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries
up the bones." Or as one translation has it, "…rots
the bones."
HOW MANY GENES ARE THERE, ANYWAY?
"According to Collins, director of the Human Genome
Project for the National Institutes of Health,
the genome data collected so far haven't solved
a fundamental riddle: How many genes exist, anyway?
Estimates have ranged between 35,000 and 140,000
human genes. The figure is so imprecise because
recent mapping of chromosome 21 found far fewer
genes than expected, only 225 instead of about
500.
"In contrast, the sequences at Celera recently
suggested there may be more genes than expected
hidden on the chromosomes, as many as 140,000.
So in jest, Collins has been presiding over a
lottery that will pay off in 2003, when the genome
is done…
"…This lack of firm knowledge about how many
genes actually exist
"is pretty striking," Waterston said. The puzzle
exists because "it's not a simple thing to find
genes. Only about 3 percent of the genome is used
in genes that actually specify the construction
of proteins. The rest includes a huge amount of
DNA of unknown function that sits between genes
and within genes. And there are many known genes
that seem to control the activity of others" (ibid.
p. 12).
"The human Genome Project is generating an amount
of data unprecedented in biology. A simple list
of the units of DNA, called bases, that make up
the human genome would fill 200 telephone
books--even without the annotations describing
what those DNA sequences do. A working
draft of 90 percent of the total human DNA sequence
is expected by 2003. But that will be merely a
skeleton that will require many layers of annotation
to give it meaning…
"Proteins not only make up the structural bulk
of the human body but also include the enzymes
that carry out the biochemical reactions of life.
They are composed of units called amino acids
linked together in a long string; each string
folds in a way that determines the function of
a protein. The order of the amino acids is set
by the DNA base sequence of the gene that encodes
a given protein, through intermediaries called
RNA; genes that actively make RNA are said to
be
"expressed." (ibid. p. 13)
"…The six billion bases of the human genome
are thought to encode approximately 100,000 proteins…"(ibid.
p. 14)
"Being able to model a single cell will be impressive, but
to understand fully the life-forms we are most
familiar with, we will plainly have to consider
additional levels of complexity.
We will have to examine how genes and their products
behave in place and time--that is, in different
parts of the body and in a body that changes over
a life span.
"So far developmental biologists have striven
to find signals that are universally important
in establishing an animal's body plan, the arrangement
of its limbs and organs. In time, they will also
describe the variations--in gene sequence and
perhaps in gene regulation--that generate the
striking diversity of forms among different species.
By comparing species, we will learn how genetic
circuits have been modified to carry out distinct
programs so that almost equivalent networks of
genes fashion, for example, small furry legs in
mice and arms with opposable digits in humans.
(ibid. p. 16)
DID WE ALL COME FROM ONE SET OF PARENTS--ADAM
AND EVE??? DNA POINTS IN THAT DIRECTION.
"Despite what may seem like great diversity in
our species, studies from the past decade show
that the human species is more homogeneous than
many others; as a group, we display less variation
than chimps do. Among humans, the same genetic
variations tend to be found across all population
groups, and only a small fraction of the total
variation (between 10 and 15 percent) can be related
to differences between groups. This has led some
population biologists to the conclusion that not
so long ago the human species was composed of
a small group, perhaps 10,000 individuals, and
that human populations dispersed over the earth
only recently…" (ibid. p. 17)
DNA HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 3.5 BILLION YEARS BY SCIENTISTS
OWN ADMISSION--A HIGHLY COMPLEX MOLECULAR CODE
BOOK. THE K/T BARRIER SHOWS THAT ALL LIFE STOPPED
65 MILLION YEARS AGO. THEN--BAM!--AN ENTIRELY
NEW GROUP OF LIFE-FORMS APEAR, MANY HIGHER SPECIES
OBVIOUSLY CONTAINING THE 200+ PHONEBOOKS OF GENETIC
CODE CONTAINED IN DNA.
. If DNA were around for 3.5 billion years, then
how long did it take to "evolve" with all this
incredibly large code-book library for life found
in each species in the Age of Dinosaurs? And then
the DNA code-books are destroyed 65 million years
ago, for all life on the planet--and then they
re-appear fairly recently, less than a million
years ago, this time containing a whole new library
full of 200+ phonebook size code-books of DNA
for the life-forms around us today.
"To a large extent, DNA sequence data have already
exposed the record of 3.5 billion years of evolution…One
aspect of inheritance has complicated the hope
of assigning all living things to branches in
a single tree of life. In many cases, different
genes suggest different family histories for the
same organisms…Genes sometimes
hop across large evolutionary gaps." (ibid.
p. 19)
Say DNA took a billion years to evolve into the
many complex dinosaur life-forms that inhabited
earth from 3.5 billion years ago to 65 million
years ago. And then lets go with the date that
paleontologists ascribe to man's appearance on
earth, 100,000 years ago (we'll give them that,
even though the Bible says 6 thousand years ago).
100,000 divided by 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) (the
time it took for dino-DNA to "evolve") equals
0.1 percent of the original time it took for Dinosaurian
DNA to develop. That is, all the life-forms we
see around us, their DNA took only 0.1 percent
of the time to "re-evolve", but this time coded
to all the life-forms we see around us. Now what
are the statistical probabilities that something
as complex as DNA, or the 200+ phonebooks of DNA
code, could "re-evolve" in only 0.1 percent of
the time? The re-appearance of the same DNA code-books,
but now programmed to the flora and fauna of the
Age of Man show the authorship and ownership of
an extremely intelligent design and program engineer--God
himself. "Genes sometimes hop across large
evolutionary gaps…" Yes, they hopped across
the K/T Barrier. How in the world did they do
this? And how did they "re-evolve" in the same
identical complexity as they had been before,
and in only 0.1 percent of the time that they
had "evolved" before. And where is the evidence
of DNA evolution?
"It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring to
realize that we have caught the first glimpse
of our own instruction book, previously known
only to God."
Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome
Project.
Let's take a quick tour of recent cellular discoveries
in a quote from an article written by Mark Hartwig,
Ph.D., in the June 2002 number of "Focus On
The Family" Magazine.
Specified Complexity
"Seeing
is believing--or not
For example, take the cell. In Darwin's time,
scientists thought cells were just blobs of protoplasm.
Now we know better.
According to cell biologist Bruce Alberts, president
of the National Academy of Sciences, "The entire
cell can be viewed as a factory that contains
an elaborate network of interlocking assembly
lines, each of which is composed of a set of large
protein machines."
Alberts' description is no idle metaphor. Even
the simplest cells are bristling with high-tech
machinery. On the outside, their surfaces are
studded with sensors, gates, pumps and identification
markers. Some bacteria even sport rotary outboard
motors.
Inside, cells are jam-packed with power plants,
automated workshops and recycling units. Miniature
monorails whisk materials from one location to
another.
Such sophistication has led even hardened atheists
to acknowledge the apparent design in living organisms,
not that it changes their minds about evolution.
Francis Crick, a Nobel laureate and co-discoverer
of the structure of DNA warns, "Biologists must
constantly keep in mind that what they see was
not designed but rather evolved."
Proponents of intelligent design contend that
living organisms appeardesigned because
they are designed--they exhibit a feature that
natural processes cannot mimic.
That feature is specified complexity, a
concept developed by William Dembski to explain
how people distinguish accidents from things that
happen "on purpose."
Although the term sounds like a mouthful, the
basic idea is quite simple: An object displays
specified complexity when it has lots of parts
(is complex) and yet fits a recognizable pattern
(is specified).
For example, the article you're now reading has
thousands of characters, which could have been
arranged in zillions of ways. Yet it fits a recognizable
pattern: It's not just a jumble of letters, but
a magazine article written in English. Any rational
person would conclude that it was designed.
The effectiveness of such thinking is confirmed
by experience, Dembski says. "In every instance
where we find specified complexity, and where
[its] history is known, it turns out that design
actually is present."
Now here's a really good example of the super-complexity
of a single common bacteria. If it's spotted in
a town's water system, you have to boil the water.
"For example, consider the little outboard motor
that bacteria such as E. coli use to navigate
their environment. This water-cooled contraption,
called a flagellum,comes equipped with
a reversible engine, drive shaft, U-joint and
long whip-like propeller. It hums along at 17,000
rpm.
Its complexity is enormous. According to microbiologist
Scott Minnich of the University of Idaho, you
need about 50 genes to create a working flagellum.
Each of those genes is as complex as a sentence
with hundreds of letters. What's more, the requirements
for a working flagellum are extremely tight.
"Mutations in any single gene knock out function
or in lesser cases diminish function, " Minnich
says. "So, to swim you have to have the full compliment
of genes. There are no intermediate steps." June
2002 Focus On The Family, pp. 2, 3.)
And wherever we look in the micro-world of DNA
and genes, we find the same thing. Such systems
really do defy Darwinist explanations. Finally,
let's see what Stephen Hawkings has to say about
the second law of thermodynamics.
The
Second Law of Thermodynamics
The
second law of Thermodynamics points in the opposite
direction of evolutionary theory as well. The
second law of thermodynamics states that the decay
of matter and decay of systems from a complex
state of high order to a state of low or lower
order is always taking place. Man and life as
we know it, and the Dinosaurian life-forms as
well are and were systems of high quality and
high order. Evolution demands what we don't see
in nature, a reversal of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Evolutionary theory demands that we believe that
the complex life-forms we see around us came, "evolved",
from a much lower level of sophistication, from
a state of non-life, actually. I will leave you
with this final quote from Stephen Hawking:
"It is a common experience that disorder will
tend to increase if things are left to themselves.
(One has only to stop making repairs around the
house to see that!) One can create order out of
disorder (for example, one can paint the house),
but that requires expenditure of effort or energy
and so decreases the amount of ordered energy
available. A precise statement of this idea is
known as the second law of thermodynamics. It
states that the entropy of an isolated system
always increases, and that when two systems are
jointed together, the entropy of the combined
system is greater than the sum of the entropies
of the individual systems ("A Brief History of
Time", by Stephen Hawking, p. 130). Mr. Hawking
defines "entropy" as a measure of the degree of
disorder of a system. "In any closed system disorder,
or entropy, always increases with time. In other
words, it is a form of Murphy's law: things always
tend to go wrong!…" (ibid. p. 184.) If evolutionary
theory were true, a different situation would
be seen by all of us in the natural world. Let
Mr. Hawking explain. "Suppose, however, that God
decided that the universe should finish up in
a state of high order but that it didn't matter
what state it started in. At early times the universe
would probably be in a disordered state. This
would mean that disorder would decrease with
time. You would see broken cups gathering themselves
together and jumping back onto the table. However,
any human beings observing the cups would be living
in a universe in which disorder decreased with
time."
(ibid. pp. 187,188) But we don't live in such
a universe. In order to see order come from a
state of disorder, it takes intelligent design
of a design engineer, work, effort and applied
energy, or what is called an application of the
law of "Specified Complexity".
The
Next Important Question
So
now we come to the next really important question. If
we are the product of intelligent design, who
was the Designer? Skeptics, atheist's
and scoffers alike say the Bible was the writings
of early nomadic Jews, and is basically uninspired.
Even religious scholars in some of the famous
universities like Harvard teach courses that tend
to be critical of a literal interpretation of
the Bible, and show it was basically humanly inspired
and can't be taken literally. But is this really
true? Is the Word of God, the Holy Bible, just
a product of the imaginations of some early nomadic
Hebrew wanderers in the deserts of Mesopotamia
and Palestine? Or is the Bible really the Word
of God? Is there any way you, as an individual,
can prove that the Bible is the infallible Word
of God? To learn just how inspired and accurate
the Bible really is and to about Jesus, who he
was and who he is, log onto http://www.UNITYINCHRIST.COM/prophecies/1stcoming.htm. You
may also wish to learn about how the Christian
church got started, and how you can go about choosing
a church. To do so, log onto http://www.UNITYINCHRIST.COM/history2/index4.htm
This whole article takes the view of multiple specific creations having taken place during the various epochs, taking the view of what theologians call "The Gap Theory." (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/Does/Genesis%201-%201-31.html for more about this)