The Seed Blog: Telescopes & Microscopes: The Lovers, The Dreamer & Me, Part 2

The Bible is not a science book, but if God is real, then science should yell His Name in Glory; after all, He should be the One who has made the very laws and principles that make up science in the first place. We will only investigate what the experts say, and most of those will be atheists or agnostics... *Sorry, if this is a bit technical, but, if you never get to hear these powerful truths from the education system or media in general, where else will you ever hear them?*

Last week we started our lesson with this quote from renowned atheist Richard Dawkins: “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." Many Christians live in self-doubt or embarrassment because the media and education system often make them feel uninformed or weak to believe ‘fairy tales’. By the end of last week's lesson, we saw that according to many atheistic and agnostic scientist's own words, it is the secular world that has to hold onto faith, in spite of, and in lack of evidence today.

In our microscope, we are going to explore the origin and the complexity of life—it is important to start at the beginning, to get the big picture. What is the honest, unbiased position of secular science about whether it is even possible for life to have just sparked into existence from nonlife, without intelligent design?: The Law of Biogenesis (The principle stating that life arises from pre-existing life, not from nonliving material.) This Law has been tested in theory and observation, and it yields to the fact that life comes only from preceding life, and perpetuates itself by reproducing only its own kind or type.

“It was not until almost 100 years later (mid 1800’s) that the great French chemist Louis Pasteur put the debate (spontaneous generation) to rest…  While this debate may seem silly from a modern perspective, remember that the scientists of the time had little knowledge of microorganisms…  Spontaneous generation was a severe test of scientific experimentation, because it was such a seductive and widely held belief. Yet, even spontaneous generation was overthrown when the weight of careful experimentation argued against it.”

Abiogenesis (spontaneous generation) is the discredited theory or hypothetical process by which living organisms first arose spontaneously from nonliving matter. "Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing." (George Wald) Evolutionists' only attempt at justifying this belief, is to say that, ‘although spontaneous generation could never occur today, it may have been possible in the far, prehistoric world.’ The Miller-Urey Experiment in the early ‘50’s created an environment for the experiment that was nothing like evidence supports our world ever was in the past (no oxygen- against everything science shows as reality). (Howard Clemmey, Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin). If there had been oxygen, it would have been worse because oxygen makes up our ozone layer, without which, any molecule that could form would immediately be destroyed; the radiation present with no ozone would evaporate any water vapor present anyway. Even in this false atmosphere, only 9 of 20 amino acids needed were produced and they had to be immediately removed from the environment in which they were made, in order to survive. This, along with a number of other problems, ending up proving the opposite of its original claim. Harold Urey, who organized Miler's experiment, said: “All of us who study the origin of life find that the more we look into it, the more we feel it is too complex to have evolved anywhere. We all believe as an article of faith that life evolved from dead matter on this planet. It is just that its complexity is so great, it is hard for us to imagine that it did.”

And example of this untruth being taught to the public: College Level Biology Study Course. They only use Miller-Urey as their only footnote to claim that RNA can spontaneously form; no citing as proof that the building blocks of RNA could ever form accidentally. If it could, that would mean absolute, "zero" for the possibility of RNA ever forming by spontaneous generation. It was simply stated for the student to accept without documentation to back it up.

For many years we have, "listened" to the Universe through electromagnetic radiation, in hopes of seeing signs of transmissions from intelligent life (SETI), looking for even the simplest pattern or code, that would stand out against random radio waves, that would reflect intelligence. In our long, laborious, expensive, scientific search to find this pattern, code, or language that would prove intelligence somewhere out there, we totally dismiss the language that is literally coded into every living thing on earth; a language so complex, we are only beginning to translate it. Even if the Miller-Urey experiment had been successful, and we had amino acids to work with; these amino acids form together to make proteins; and proteins come together to create a cell. But, the coding, planning, and work that occurs at a subatomic level to make this happen is beyond imagination.

Charles Darwin notes: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.” Forget about a, "complex organ"... How about taking it down to even just the smallest living structure: the single cell we just mentioned. "To Darwin, the cell was a 'black box'—its inner workings were utterly mysterious to him. Now, the black box has been opened up and we know how it works. Applying Darwin's test to the ultra-complex world of molecular machinery and cellular systems that have been discovered over the past 40 years, we can say that Darwin's theory has 'absolutely broken down.'" (Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box) A cell relies on an incredible work arrangement between three classes of molecules: DNA, RNA, Protein.

The DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), stores the cell’s “master plans” or the blueprints of the structure; it is literally the brains behind ever cell; it is called, the language of life. An adult has enough uncoiled DNA to stretch to the sun and back 70 times—yet all of this encoded information, in a translatable language is supposed to be a complete accident. And we have listened to the stars for decades with SETI, in hopes of finding what?: Even a simple pattern, that might represent intelligence over random occurrence. "Natural selection could never have produced the first molecule. Many scientists believe that the coding within the DNA molecule points to an intelligence far exceeding what could have occurred by natural causes." (Francis Crick Co-discoverer of DNA). His only answer to this dilemma is his developed theory "Directed Panspermia ", which says life must have been transported to earth from another planet. A very prominently known British philosopher, Antony Flew, who was most noted in his career as a strong advocate of atheism, changed his life-long unbelief in the early 21st century, when he studied the intelligence behind DNA: "...almost entirely because of DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is to show that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements together. The enormous complexity by which the results were achieved look to me like the work of intelligence... It now seems to me that the finding of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design."

RNA copies the DNA master plan, and transports it to a protein assembly station. All of this happens through an unbelievable structure of moving machines. First, there are stations which read "stop & start" points on the DNA strand... Split the DNA strand, and replicate it as RNA; then splice it together again; then the newly formed RNA transports to the assembly stations which translate the RNA to link amino acids, according to the encoded language, to produce proteins; then, these proteins are used to construct designs according to the blueprints. “Further, chaperons and many other assembly tools are needed to ensure that the protein is properly assembled. All of these parts are necessary and must exist as a properly assembled and integrated unit. DNA is useless without both RNA and proteins,”.

So, what the College Course dismissed in one sentence as random and spontaneous is actually known to involve language, coding, copying, and decoding beyond our ability to comprehend or duplicate, even with our intelligence. The RNA could never have possibly formed by accident, when it shows so much complex purpose. (Purpose necessitates design) “A code system is always the result of a mental process (it requires an intelligent origin or inventor) … It should be emphasized that matter as such is unable to generate any code. All experiences indicate that a thinking being voluntarily exercising his own free will, cognition, and creativity, is required” (Dr. Werner Gitt, In the Beginning was Information) If the RNA did spontaneously invent itself, with perfect coding intact, it is useless without DNA and proteins all present at the same time, working together instantly. What good is a library of blueprints if we have no machinery to build the building?

All the information, all the proper conditions for life, mean nothing if there aren't machines, intelligent machines, to decipher the code; machines to transport, machines to actually build life. “At a cellular level, literally thousands of “machines” need to exist before life ever becomes possible. This means that evolution from chemicals is impossible.” “A Xerox machine is capable of copying its own blueprints, but it is not capable of springing spontaneously into existence… if replication needs complex machinery, since the only way we know for complex machinery ultimately to come into existence is cumulative selection (slow, unguided evolution), we have a problem.” All of the complex blueprints for life are carried in this DNA; this information has to be translated to be used in construction; that translation system was built by a previous blueprint: only the factory can create the plans to build the factory. All of this occurs in the confines of one single cell, at one time, altogether, or the simplest, single cell cannot exist.

Even the movement of one of these, "cities of wonder" in the microworld (cell), requires motors called, "flagellum" (3 kinds… The most amazing, Bacterial...), which are made of over 40 intricate parts, to literally create a motor (complete with propeller, bushings, drive shaft, universal joint), of which, again have to all be present, perfectly formed, & working together, or the cell could not move where it needs, in order to build life. This is irreducible complexity. (Refer to Darwin’s quote: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed… my theory would absolutely break down.”) The human body has an estimated 60 trillion of these cells, of over 200 different types; each cell made of over 1 trillion subatomic working parts, all working together to construct perfectly crafted tissue, bones, organs, and blood; and piecing them together, to produce very specific designs for seeing, hearing, walking, talking, digesting, breathing, reproducing—yet this was supposed to be an unguided, accident with no purpose; which by the way, came together in a Universe that exploded from nothing, producing everything, in unimaginable precision, outside the natural laws of science in such a perfect way as to produce this beautifully functioning, reproducing accident, with no purpose or design! ("Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy." Charles Darwin)

"We have no acceptable theory of evolution at the present time. There is none; and I cannot accept the theory that I teach to my students each year. Let me explain. I teach the synthetic theory known as the neo-Darwinian one, for one reason only; not because it's good, we know it is bad, but because there isn't any other. Whilst waiting to find something better you are taught something which is known to be inexact. . ."  (Jerome Lejeune) “When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility…Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved one hundred years ago by Louis Pasteur, Spellanzani, Reddy and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion — that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God…I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution.” (George Wald)

Review again Richard Dawkins quote: "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." Everything from these past two weeks of study (from the distant Universe in the Telescope, to the subatomic Universe in the Microscope) lets us see one absolutely inescapable conclusion: "In the beginning, God…” Three thousand years ago, Hindus recorded the earth resting on giant elephants; Greek mythology said the god Atlas held it on shoulders; but about 1000 yrs before Christ, God's Word said: Job 26:7, Psalm 139:14, Colossians 1:16.