| Creation Truth Outreach, Inc. Pamphlet |
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| Chapter 3. Sixteen Fatal Roadblocks against a Purely Natural Formation of Life. Fatal Roadblock Number 15. Initial Functionality Is A Single-step Process. Natural selection is useless to choose between the best of two failures. The first appearance of anything completely new must therefore be a single-step process. This applies across the entire spectrum from origin-of-life processes to brand new features in already fully-developed organisms. When I was reading Dawkins Blind Watchmaker, I was struck by an obvious discrepancy between the model he proposed and real life. This is the problem. Dawkins claimed he was mimicking natural selection by picking which of two sequences was the closest to a target, when neither of the alternatives came close to meeting the functional requirements of the target. In other words, as far as the target was concerned, both sequences would have been complete failures. Notice, natural selection is useless to pick which of two enzyme sequences is closest to matching a needed sequence, if neither of the choices available has any capacity at all to function in the manner needed. Natural selection really does not care about the details of how an enzyme is sequenced. It only cares about behaviors that are “expressed,” that is, that actually affect an organism’s functionality. Let’s give an illustration. Every living cell--with the exception of certain anaerobic bacteria--uses the citric acid cycle as part of its mechanism for burning fuel to generate controlled energy for use by cell components and processes. This applies to bacteria. It applies to plants. It applies to animals. At a certain step in the citric acid cycle an enzyme called succinate dehydrogenase controls activity. At this particular step it is necessary to remove two hydrogen atoms from specific locations of the molecule being burned for energy. A double bond between two specific carbon atoms then takes the place of the hydrogen atoms. Succinate dehydrogenase is the enzyme that performs this two- fold function. Removing the hydrogen atoms and creating the carbon double bond is a complicated task. It is so complicated that in real life, it requires a 1,100-amino acid enzyme to perform it; the number varies only slightly between species whether one considers bacteria or oak trees or elephants. This is the critical concept to understand. There is no value for an enzyme to have an amino acid sequence which almost allows it to function if it is, nonetheless, inadequate. For instance, consider the step of the citric acid cycle that requires an enzyme to remove two hydrogen atoms and insert a double carbon bond in a certain molecule. Either an enzyme does this to some acceptable degree or it does not do it. This is a very exacting, very specialized function. Very few amino acid sequences out of the total number of possible amino acid sequences will be capable of producing an enzyme that can perform this task with any measurable degree of success. For a large enzyme, this number is effectively infinitesimal. Natural selection is incapable of improving on an early form of succinate dehydrogenase unless and until it already works to some degree. Therefore, getting this initial degree of functionality is a single-step process. It is critically important to understand this statement and the reasons behind it. If this statement is true, then evolutionary theory is dead. In our earlier discussions, we talked about the effective impossibility of piecing together a tiny enzyme of only 101 amino acids. The mathematical odds against it were overwhelming. Early termination, spurious side chains, chemical equilibrium issues, the difficulties of getting a usable amino acid sequence, all become mind boggling when one thinks about a 1,100+-amino acid enzyme such as succinate dehydrogenase. Furthermore, it is not even sufficient to get the first appearance of some form of succinate dehydrogenase in a single step. All of the control mechanisms to use it properly also need to show up at the same time. In a cell, enzymes that work cooperatively to perform a specific function, such as turning a sugar molecule into a usable form of energy, are typically arranged next to each other in proper sequence. They mimic the layout of workstations of a well-designed assembly line in a factory. So, the first time some version of succinate dehydrogenase shows up in some early form of an emerging cell, it also needs to be positioned correctly in the internal assembly line, next to other enzymes do neighboring steps of the cycle. An enzyme sequence could be very close to something that works. Many times changing a single amino acid can completely change the shape of an enzyme, ruining its functionality. However, before natural selection can begin to improve on it, it has to work effectively to some degree. Suppose there was an amino acid sequence that was only one or two amino acids away from performing the function of succinate dehydrogenase properly. Yet, because of a few critical, errant amino acids the shape expressed by this sequence was completely wrong and offered none of the required enzyme functionality. Suppose there was another enzyme sequence that had nothing to do with the required enzyme functionality and was not close to it in any manner. Since both sequences produce failures, natural selection cannot tell them apart. Therefore, the first appearance of anything completely new is a single-step process. A single-celled bacterium capable of sustaining life in the wild totally independently of other organisms typically has about 2,000 different enzymes, almost every one of which is critically required and almost every one of which works in cooperation with other enzymes as they together perform some specific, critical function. So, we have an interesting situation. Once it is acknowledged that the first appearance of something new is a single-step process, then there is a ripple effect that requires the entire cell to appear as a single step. Essentially every function in a cell depends on all of the other functions of the cell to work properly in order for it to work properly. Energy processors, information decoders, reproductive mechanisms, cell maintenance systems, cell membranes, and so on, as well as the proper mechanisms to control them, are all mutually dependent on each other’s successful functioning for their own survival as well as their ability to contribute beneficially. Therefore, the initial appearance of each of the 2,000 enzymes ripples into a gigantic single-step process for the entire system. In summary, there exist large enzymes in a cell that perform very specific, extremely specialized tasks as steps in some sort of complex process. The initial appearance of these enzymes is single step because there is no value in having an amino acid sequence that is extremely close to one which is capable of working but which, nonetheless still does not. In an enzyme of 1,136 amino acids, if a person were to get 1,130 of them to match a sequence which functions properly, but the remaining six destroyed the ability of the enzyme to acquire the required structure, then the sequence is useless. Natural selection cannot distinguish it from an alternative having only 6 that match and 1,130 that do not. Dawkins’s model in The Blind Watchmaker breaks down at this point. Initial functionality is single step. Yet, having only one component of a complicated process is useless. It is like having only some of the parts needed to build an airplane. The ripple effects of this ultimately require the entire first cell to be created as a single step. Evolutionary theory is dead. The data of science points to and requires a Creator God as the source of life. |