In recent years molecular biology and cell biology have become the focal point of biological research. I'm fascinated with the progress that science has made in putting together some of the biochemical puzzles that have led to a better understanding of the operation of the human cell.
In the nineteenth century scientists thought of the cell as primitive. The term simple cell was coined by Ernst Haeckel, a German scientist and a strong supporter of Charles Darwin. The theory of evolution led Haeckel to believe that the cell was "a simple little lump of albuminous combination of carbon." To Haeckel it seemed that such simple life, with no internal organs, could easily be produced from inanimate material.
In 1931 the invention of the transmission electron microscope began to reveal the internal structure of the human cell. In 1942 the scanning electron microscope was perfected, and scientists could now see the external structure of the human cell as well, just as if they were looking at a snapshot. With these incredible tools scientists could magnify objects up to 1 million times, and the information that began to pour in was staggering. Scientists were stunned when they began to uncover the structure and complexity of the "simple cell."
The late Carl Sagan, a noted astronomer and an avowed atheist, was awed when he studied the human cell. Sagan said: "A living cell is a marvel of detailed and complex architecture. Seen through a microscope, there is an appearance of almost frantic activity. . . . It is known that molecules are being synthesized at an enormous rate. Almost any enzyme catalyzes the synthesis of more than 100 other molecules per second. . . . The information content of a simple cell has been estimated as . . . comparable to about 100 million pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica."1
An Amazing Feat of Architecture
The human genome is the full complement of genetic material in a human cell. The genome is distributed among 23 pairs of chromosomes, which in each of us have been replicated and rereplicated since the fusion of sperm and egg that marked our conception. In an amazing feat of architecture, our 46 chromosome "threads" linked together would measure more than 6 feet, yet the nucleus of the cell that contains them is less than 4/10,000ths of an inch in diameter!2 Each chromosome is a packet of compressed and entwined DNA, the substance that controls the complete construction, organization, and operation of our cells. DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is estimated that the total amount of DNA necessary to code 100 billion people could be contained in one half of an aspirin tablet!3
The DNA contained within each cell is a blueprint for making proteins. The DNA molecule itself is described as a "double helix." It is constructed like a twisted ladder. The rungs of the ladder are composed of four nitrogenous linkages called base pairs, and it is the arrangement and sequence of these base pairs that give the instructions for the manufacture of proteins. If we count only one chromosome of each of the pairs, the genome comprises about 3 billion base pairs.
Other than water, proteins are the major constituents of living cells. Each cell contains thousands of different kinds of proteins. These proteins are responsible for the formation and operation of our bodies. The human mind and body are built to run with about 100,000 kinds of protein molecules. It is the job of the genes to provide a continuous supply of these proteins. To decode our genes, then, would be a huge step for science in the quest to understand more of life's mysteries.
All of the subtlety of our species, all of our art and science, is ultimately accounted for by a surprisingly small set of discrete genetic instructions. More surprisingly still, the differences between two unrelated individuals, between Mozart and the person next door, may reflect a mere handful of differences in their genomic recipes--perhaps one altered base pair in 500. We are far more alike than we are different, while at the same time there is room for nearly infinite variety.4
Which Came First?
Creationists and evolutionists have long been debating the "chicken and egg" paradox. The answer to the origin of the DNA molecule is essentially the answer to the origin of life on earth. The process of duplicating DNA means that specific protein enzymes must function to unwind, unzip, copy, and rewind the DNA molecule. There are even enzymes that screen for and correct copying errors! The instructions for the production of all proteins, including these enzymes, are, in turn, stored on the DNA molecule. So which came first--the DNA molecule or the proteins necessary to make DNA? You can't make DNA without highly specific proteins, but you can't make proteins unless you have a system in place to code for and to build those proteins in the first place--and that means DNA.5 Creationists accept that God created this marvelous mechanism, while evolutionists accept the theory of spontaneous generation--the natural synthesis of something from nothing.
George Wald, the Harvard biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine in 1967, made the following statement regarding the theory of spontaneous generation: "When it comes to the origin of life, there are only two possibilities: creation or spontaneous generation. There is not a third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved one hundred years ago [by Louis Pasteur], but that leads us to only one other conclusion, that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds; therefore we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance. One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are, as the result, I believe, of spontaneous generation."6
Wald's belief in the impossible can be explained only by faith, not fact. The biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1. It is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." By his own admission Wald places the theory of spontaneous generation, the very basis of the theory of evolution, in the realm of philosophy and religion, not science.
Francis Crick and James Watson won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their discovery of the structure and function of DNA. In 1982 Francis Crick, an evolutionist, wrote a book entitled Life Itself, Its Origin and Nature. In his book Crick says: "An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that, in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going."
Sadly, even as scientific discoveries cast more and more dark shadows over the theory of evolution, we seem to see more of our educators and other church members embracing scientific theories that run contrary to the Genesis account.
I am honored, however, to accept and to maintain a firm conviction in David's words in Psalm 33:6-9: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."
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1 Carl Sagan, "Life," in Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia, 1974 ed., pp. 893, 894.
2 Rick Gore, "The Awesome Worlds Within a Cell," National Geographic, September 1976, pp. 357, 358, 360.
3 R. L. Wysong, The Creation-Evolution Controversy (Midland, Mich.: Inquiry Press, 1976), p. 115.
4 The U.S. Department of Energy and The Human Genome Project, "To Know Ourselves," p. 6.
5 Chick Missler, "The Origin of Life and the Suppression of Truth," p. 11.
6 George Wald, "The Origin of Life," Scientific American, May 1954.
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Deryl R. Corbit writes from Paradise, California.
'M A CYTOLOGIST. WHENEVER I mention my profession to someone who asks me what I do for a living, they invariably and understandably think I said I'm a psychologist.
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