CHAPTER 3

THE MIRACLES IN THE CREATION OF LIVING BEINGS

NOT EVEN THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS ARE COINCIDENTAL

Living things may appear so simple at first sight, but possess structures and systems so complex that could never have arisen by chance.

Thus far, we have explored that the harmony and balances in the universe, the solar system, and our Earth could not be products of coincidence. Each of these balances, we have seen, is a miracle of choice among countless alternative possibilities. And not even the simplest living organisms can form coincidentally. Robert Shapiro is a Professor of chemistry and DNA expert at New York University. A Darwinist, Shapiro calculated the probability of the 2,000 different proteins found in simple bacteria having formed coincidentally He obtained the following result: 1 in 10^40,000 (a number formed by 4,000 zeros following the number 1; which does not correspond to anything in the universe). And there are 200,000 different proteins in the human body!

The chance of the 2,000 proteins in simple bacteria to form coincidentally is 1 in 10^40,000. Since the number of different proteins in the human body is 200,000, nothing can put this improbability into perspective.

Chandra Wickramasinghe, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at Cardiff University, has this to say about Shapiro's calculation:

The likelihood of the spontaneous formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 10^40,000 noughts after it…It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence. 53

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR LIFE'S BUILDING BLOCKS TO FORM BY THEMSELVES

Proteins, the fundamental building blocks of living cells, are exceedingly complex molecules. Not even the simplest of them could have come into existence by chance.

Protein molecules are the building blocks of life, and even the simplest one is so complex that it could never form accidentally. An average protein consists of 288 amino acids of twelve different types with 10³⁰⁰ (an astronomical number with 300 zeros) possible different sequencing combinations. But only one of these combinations can produce the relevant protein. All the other combinations are dysfunctional, or even harmful, chains of amino acids.

The probability of any such proteins to form by chance is 1 in 10³⁰⁰ . And in mathematics, any probability smaller than 10⁵⁰ is considered an impossibility.

One of the complex protein molecules that plays a role in one of the countless complex process in the body.

Yet a protein consisting of 288 amino acids is a simple affair when compared to the hugely complex proteins consisting of thousands of amino acids, in living beings. Applying the same probability calculation to these protein molecules makes the word impossible inadequate to describe their forming by chance.

But examining at the next stage of life formation reveals that proteins, by themselves, mean nothing much. Mycoplasma Hominis H39 is one of the most primitive bacteria known to man, but consists of 600 different proteins. In its case, we would have to apply probability calculations to 600 different proteins, and the results they would yield would be simply beyond impossible. Regardless of how much time we granted for amino acids to form proteins, they never could form by chance. The American geologist William Stokes concedes this reality in his book, Essentials of Earth History where he states that were the surface of the universe's billions of planets covered with a watery concentrate for a duration of billions of years, still proteins could never have formed.54 About the probability of the Cytochrome-C protein, necessary for life, to form by chance, he says:

No one would ever think that a seashore sandcastle had been produced by waves and natural conditions. A protein's structure is trillions of times more complex than a sandcastle's. Therefore, it's that many times more impossible for proteins to have been produced by chance natural conditions.

The likely probability of the formation of a cytochrome-C sequence is zero… To accept the alternative-that some metaphysical powers beyond our definition must have effected its formation-isn't appropriate to the goals of science. Therefore, we have to look into the first hypothesis. 55

This statement reveals clearly that evolutionist scientists consider the scientifically proven belief in "zero probability" as a scientific approach. In reality, principles of both logic and science demand that if a particular event has two possible explanations, where one has zero chance of being correct, then, the other explanation must be true. When principles of logic are applied to the zero probability of the Cytochrome-C protein's forming by chance, it's certain that it has been consciously made-in other words, created. This is the scientific, logical, and rational conclusion.

The materialist ideology forbids the acknowledgment of a Creator therefore compelling materialist scientists to reject scientific facts that contradict their philosophy. As a result, such scientists have no qualms in forsaking scientific facts that go against their grain. Instead, they try to impose their philosophies on the masses, which is why the of materialist scientists' integrity and trustworthiness are questionable.

ALL PROTEINS IN LIVING BEINGS ARE LEFT-HANDED; A FACT THAT CANNOT BE EXPLAINED BY CHANCE

For amino acids to form a functional protein, combining in the right number, in the right sequence and in their right three dimensional design is not enough. All the amino acids, without exceptions, must also combine to form a protein that is "left-handed."

Chemically, all amino acids exist in either right-handed or left-handed form, their three-dimensional structures being symmetrical opposites, like human hands.

Although the chances of an amino-acid being right- or left-handed are 50-50, the amino-acids in every living thing is left-handed, indicating a planned creation.

Amino acids from both camps can easily form bonds between them. But research has revealed one surprising fact: All proteins in all life forms, from the most primitive organisms to the most complex, are formed by left-handed amino acids. Even one right-handed amino acid within the structure renders it dysfunctional. Some experimenters introduced, right-handed amino acids into bacteria, and the bacteria immediately destroyed them. In some cases, the bacteria reconstructed left-handed amino acids from parts of the original right-handed ones.

For one moment, let's assume that, as evolutionists claim, amino acids formed themselves according to the laws of chance. There should be equal numbers of left and right-handed amino acids in nature and, consequently, in all living beings as well. This should be quite possible: Chemically, amino acids from both groups can easily bond with one another. In reality, though, all proteins in living beings are exclusively left-handed.

If a coin thrown into the air millions of times always turns up heads, is it more logical to account for this in terms of chance, or in terms of someone's conscious intervention?

For evolutionists, it is still a mystery why proteins select only left-handed amino acids, completely ignoring all right-handed versions. They cannot find any explanation for such a conscious, deliberate selectiveness.

Furthermore, this attribute of proteins makes the evolutionist's "coincidence" proposition untenable. The Britannica Science Encyclopedia, an outspoken defender of evolution, states that the amino acids of all living organisms on Earth-and the building blocks of complex polymers such as proteins-share the same left-handed asymmetry. The Encyclopedia adds that this is tantamount to tossing a coin one million times and having it always come up heads. It also states that it's impossible to understand why molecules should have become left-handed or right-handed; that, fascinatingly, this choice is related to the origin of life on Earth. 56

If a coin is flicked into the air millions of times, but always lands heads up, which is more rational; to ascribe it to coincidence, or to acknowledge someone's conscious intervention? The self-evident answer is, it's not possible for such a thing to be coincidental. And actually, the situation is even more complex than a coin's coming up heads every time. In spite of this, evolutionists seek refuge in chance rather than acknowledge conscious intervention. They believe the nonsensical claims that in order to form proteins, amino acids agreed to admit no right-handed amino acids as part of their game plan. In the face of all the facts revealed thus far, every rational human will realize that life has been designed and created in perfection by God.

LIFE ON EARTH EMERGED SUDDENLY, MIRACULOUSLY

Complex living things that suddenly emerged on Earth in the Cambrian Period, with no so-called evolutionary ancestors behind them, totally refute the claims of the theory of evolution. Such a miraculous emergence can only signify Creation.

Never mind the biological impossibility of life emerging by chance: The fossil record shows that life on Earth emerged suddenly-and miraculously.

When we investigate the fossil record in layers of sedimentary rocks, it becomes apparent that life emerged suddenly. The deepest (oldest) layers of rock containing fossils, belong to the Cambrian era of around 520-530 million years ago.

Trilobites, which appeared on Earth some 500 million years ago, possessed exceedingly complex organs. To the side can be seen a fossil trilobite's compound eye, with the same complex structure as the eyes of modern-day bees and flies.

Fossils from sedimentary rocks of the Cambrian era are of complex invertebrates like snails, trilobites, sponges, worms, jelly fish, star fish, and other crustaceans. Interestingly, all these different species emerged at the same time, which is why paleontologists call this miraculous event the "Cambrian explosion."

Life forms discovered in this layer had physiologically complex eyes, respiratory systems and metabolisms similar to those found in modern life forms. For instance, the trilobites' double-lens eye design is wholly miraculous. David Raup, geology professor at Harvard, Rochester and Chicago Universities says, "the trilobites 450 million years ago used an optimal design which would require a well trained and imaginative optical engineer to develop today." 57

These complex invertebrates emerged suddenly and completely, without any links to one-celled organisms or transitory life forms before them.

Richard Monestarsky, a staff writer of the popular evolutionist magazine, Science News, comments on the Cambrian explosion that astounds evolutionists:

A half-billion years ago,… the remarkably complex forms of animals we see today suddenly appeared. This moment, right at the start of Earth's Cambrian Period, some 550 million years ago, marks the evolutionary explosion that filled the seas with the world's first complex creatures. The large animal phyla of today were present already in the early Cambrian and they were as distinct from each other as they are today. 58

How did the Cambrian seas suddenly fill with such a diversity of invertebrate species, with no common ancestry? Evolutionists have never been able to answer the question. English biologist Richard Dawkins, one of the foremost names in evolutionist thought, has the following to say about on this fact that negates the thesis he espouses:

For example the Cambrian strata of rocks, vintage about 600 million years, are the oldest ones in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups. And we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history. Needless to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationists. 59

As Dawkins inadvertently concedes, the Cambrian explosion is clear proof for Creation: In the absence of any evolutionary ancestors, the only explanation for the sudden appearance of these living beings is Creation. Evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma states that, "Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from preexisting species by some process of modification."60 Since scientific data proves that life emerged suddenly, evolution is left with no leg to stand on, and now evolutionists openly or secretly concede now this reality.

DNA'S MIRACULOUS DESIGN

All the information about the bodies of living beings is encoded in the huge DNA molecules found within the nucleus of each cell. Living beings' DNA is formed by hundred of thousands of small molecules called nucleotides, of which there are four types. Their sequence is specific to each species. Each species' DNA contains the codes of that species' characteristics. The same is true for humans. It's thanks to our DNA sequence that man as a species is different from all other life forms; and each man's DNA makes him slightly different from every other man. We can compare nucleotides to letters in the alphabet. Since there are four different nucleotides, we can liken the DNA to a huge encyclopedia composed with an alphabet of four letters.

The sequence of the "letters" in the DNA molecule determines every detail of the human body. Besides details like height and the color of eyes, hair and skin, the blueprint for all 206 bones, 600 muscles, network of 10,000 hearing nerves, two million optic nerves, 100 million nerve cells and more than 100 trillion other cells is contained in every cell's DNA. If all the genetic information stored in the DNA were committed to printed pages, they would fill 900 volumes of 500 pages each. But this huge quantity of DNA information is encoded within the microscopic cell's nucleus.

The data contained in one DNA molecule would fill one million pages. In other words, a million encyclopedia pages' worth of information are stored in the nucleus of each human cell, controlling all bodily functions. In comparison, one of the greatest encyclopedias of the world, the Britannica consists of 23 volumes with a total of 25,000 pages. An incredible picture emerges. Inside a microscopic cell's nucleus is a molecule that serves as a databank, 40 times larger than the world's greatest encyclopedia, with millions of different entries. This represents an encyclopedia of huge proportions, 920 volumes strong, unlike anything currently existing in the world. Research suggests that this huge "encyclopedia" contains five billion different bits of data.

This huge databank has existed in each of the 100 trillion cells of the billions of people who have ever existed since the first human. No doubt this reality is a clear demonstration of God's infinite might, as the Lord of the heavens and the Earth.

UNDER NATURAL CONDITIONS, DNA CANNOT POSSIBLY FORM BY CHANCE

A single human DNA molecule contains enough information to fill millions of encyclopedia pages.

Considering that there are 200,000 genes in the human body, it is just impossible that the millions of nucleotides forming these genes, should line up accidentally, in the right sequence. Evolutionist biologist Frank Salisbury points out these impossibilities:

A medium protein might include about 300 amino acids. The DNA gene controlling this would have about 1,000 nucleotides in its chain. Since there are four kinds of nucleotides in a DNA chain, one consisting of 1,000 links could exist in 4^1,000 forms. Using a little algebra (logarithms) we can see that 4^1,000 =10⁶⁰⁰ . Ten multiplied by itself 600 times gives the figure 1 followed by 600 zeros! This number is completely beyond our comprehension. 61

A "small algorithmic" calculation of 1 in 4^1,000 means 10⁶²⁰. This is a number with 620 zeros after the 1. When eleven zeros after ten express one trillion, it is hardly comprehensible what a number with 620 zeroes means. Paul Auger, the French evolutionist and scientist expresses the impossibility of any coincidental accumulation of nucleotides to create the RNA and DNA:

We have to sharply distinguish the two stages in the chance formation of complex molecules such as nucleotides by chemical events. The production of nucleotides one by one-which is possible-and the combination of these within very special sequences. The second is absolutely impossible. 62

Dr. Leslie Orgel, the famous evolutionist and colleague of Stanley Miller and Francis Crick from California University, comments on this impossibility:

It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means. 63

Other well-known evolutionist scientists acknowledge the same fact:

DNA cannot do its work, including forming more DNA, without the help of catalytic proteins, or enzymes. In short, proteins cannot form without DNA, but neither can DNA form without proteins. 64

"How did the Genetic Code, along with the mechanisms for its translation (ribosomes and RNA molecules), originate?" For the moment, we will have to content ourselves with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than with an answer. 65

THE SECRET BEHIND THE DIVERSIFICATION OF CELLS

Stem cells are the source of all the 200 different kinds of cell in the human body. (1) Stem cells are identical copies of one another, yet shortly afterwards, they begin to diversify into other cells, developing into soft tissues, of which energy-providing fat cells (2), wound-healing cells (3), and vein cells (4) are just a few.

For multiplication by cell division to become possible, first one cell must make a copy of itself-which in turn, in time, must produce further copies of themselves and so on, into millions of identical cells. But this process is far more complicated and mysterious than it appears. At some point during the process of cell division, and by an unknown trigger, certain cells begin to diversify into altogether different cells. In this way, cells originating from a common stem cell diversify, by cell division, to create different tissues and organs. Some become light-sensitive retinal cells, others liver cells. Still others become nerve cells sensitive to heat, cold or pain, or receptive to vibrations caused by sound.

How can such diversification come about? Since a cell cannot decide on its own to specialize, who makes this decision?

All cells contain the same DNA data, yet produce different proteins. Two cells producing different proteins become different from one another. But how is it that two cells of common origin, and containing the same genetic information, suddenly begin producing different types of proteins and displaying different characteristics and behavior? Even though they are identical copies of each other, who directs them to produce different types of proteins?

Hoimar von Ditfurth, a fervent advocate of evolution, comments on the mysterious developments taking place in the womb:

How a single egg cell divides to form so numerous differentiated cells, and the perfect natural communication and the cooperation between these cells top the events that amaze scientists. 66

Likewise, other advocates of evolution fail to explain how one single cell can set in motion a development that leads to the formation of different organs and tissues, culminating in the creation of a human being with 100 trillion cells. This miracle they call a dark corner of evolution.

He is God-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and Earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Qur'an, 59:24)

INTELLIGENCE IN BACTERIA

In recent years, observations of bacteria have shown that these single-celled creatures make decisions, based on their analysis of their environment. Such behavior, requiring intelligence, reason and consciousness, and performed by a micro-organism with no brain or nervous system, shows that the creature itself cannot be the source of this behavior. This reveals an obvious miracle: Another intelligence governs it-God, Who creates these creatures and inspires their behavior. This is true not only of bacteria, but for all living things.

In recent years, research into bacteria has revealed that these one-cell organisms behave extremely intelligently, by responding to the situation in their environment. According to the renowned molecular biologist Michael Denton:

The amoeba, although the size of a small speck of dust, exhibits behavioral strategies which seem objectively indistinguishable from those of animals far higher up the scale. If an amoeba were the size of a cat, we would probably impute to it the same level of intelligence as we do to a mammal. Just how do such minute organisms integrate all the information necessary to make such apparently calculated intelligent decisions? …the way it [the amoeba] integrates all the information necessary to pursue its prey, its decision to change direction, its persistence in the pursuit when its prey escapes, the sudden breakout of the smaller amoeba from its imprisonment in the interior of its captor at the moment when the wall of protoplasm was at its thinnest-all this remains to be fully explained in molecular terms. 67

In the above excerpt, the final sentence is most noteworthy. Amoebas' behavior cannot be explained on a molecular level-by chemical reactions or physical triggers. These monocellular organisms consciously make decisions and carry them out. But interestingly, they have neither brain nor nervous system. Each one is a simple cell made of proteins, fats and water.

Other examples of intelligent behavior are displayed by bacteria. According to the July 1999 issue of the famous French science magazine, Science et Vie, bacteria communicate with one another and make collective decisions, based on the information they receive.

According to the Science et Vie article, this communication is the result of a highly complex system. The bacteria's surface area is able to send and receive electrical signals. Bacteria send signals containing data on the conditions of their environment, including nutritional information. Based on such information, they decide how often to divide and when to cease reproductive activities.

In short, living beings that are invisible to the naked eye gather information on their surroundings, interpret them, and communicate them to one another. They then decide on a joint action plan.

The fact that micro-organisms, devoid of brain and nervous system, can display behavior requiring intelligence, reason and consciousness, demonstrates that the source of such rational, planned, calculated and decisive action lies not within them. This situation reveals a clear miracle: Someone else directs them in a rational way. This being is God Who creates them and then directs each of their actions. This reality is not just true for bacteria but also for all other beings. As the Qur'an reveals: "…There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock…" (Qur'an, 11:56)