| Creation Truth Outreach, Inc. Pamphlet |
| © 2007 Creation Truth Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This pamphlet may be freely copied provided it is copied in its entirety, its contents are not altered in any manner, and additional or tighter copyright restrictions than these are not imposed on it. Revised May 5, 2008 |
| Chapter 3. Sixteen Fatal Roadblocks against a Purely Natural Formation of Life. 17. Other Fatal Roadblocks. 1. Problem of phosphorous. Phosphorous is an essential mineral used in living systems. It serves as the controlled energy source for cell metabolism, as cells use the energy in ATP and release ADP. It provides the backbone for RNA and DNA. However, very, very little phosphorous is available in water solutions. It tends immediately to combine with any calcium and precipitate out. Unfortunately, calcium tends to be an abundant mineral in natural sources of water. In fact, relatively little amounts of life are in the center of the oceans, specifically as a result of the limited phosphorous available in the water far from shore. In real life, plants extract phosphorous from the soil. Animals get their phosphorous from plants. However, in an origin-of-life scenario, before cells had developed sufficiently to extract their own phosphorous, there would effectively be none available for them to use. Hence, there would not be sufficient phosphorous to make an RNA-nucleotide soup. This also presents another potentially serious roadblock for the formation of self-replicating molecules. 2. The issues of start and stop bits in the genetic code as well as gene identifying information were mentioned in passing in the discussion of earlier fatal roadblocks. However, they are worthy of being their own set of roadblocks. Notice, it is extremely critical to identify properly the exact starting location in the DNA of an enzyme/amino acid sequence. Starting in the wrong place would guarantee a wrong shape. Likewise, if an enzyme under formation does not stop adding amino acids when it has reached its full size, it will ultimately end up with a wrong shape. So, a useful means of terminating the enzyme formation process needs to exist. Furthermore, the body of information in the DNA to build an enzyme must be marked with this means. Identification and control information also needs to be imbedded in the information. In fact, some of the identification information is actually used as part of the “start” process, in that misaligned sequences could easily generate false start bits but they are much less likely to generate both false start bits and false identification information. So, information is useless and cannot be formed in DNA until a mechanism for implementing 1. start bits, 2. stop bits, and 3. identification/control information is already in place. The choice of mechanisms to perform these tasks is characteristic of arbitrary selection. Lots of equivalent options are available and lots of different components need to use the selected mechanism from the beginning. The body of stored information must also be consistent with the choice of mechanism. The three items actually represent three more roadblocks. 3. No adequate source of positively charged amino acids. Stanley Miller fairly recently (2003) said, “I do not think that there is yet a good prebiotic synthesis of arginine, lysine, and histidine, and of other biochemical compounds.” 18 On the surface, this statement may not sound serious. However, these three amino acids are the only positively-charge amino acids used in living systems. The existence of at least one of them or some fourth equivalent is essential to the ability of making stable enzymes of a proper shape. In real life, an analysis based on the average distribution of amino acids across a wide variety and large number of living organisms revealed that about one out of every 8 amino acids used in an enzyme is selected from among these three. 19 That represents significant, extensive usage. After 50 years of brilliant scientists trying to use every imaginable combination of energy, temperature, and ratio of all kinds of raw materials, they still can’t make any of these amino acids appear with any significance. To claim that their appearance in useful concentrations would be “inevitable” under uncontrolled conditions in a pre- life environment talks against experimental observation. Yet, life as we know it cannot exist without them. 4. Entropy, self-organizing systems, and Prigogine’s fatal flaw. Random changes to an organized system tend to destroy the order that exists. This principle is called entropy. Perhaps the clearest example of entropy is the effect of a two-year old toddler left alone in a room which has lots of different things in it but starts off neat and tidy. As the child randomly rearranges things, he messes it up. This is entropy in action. Creationists like to talk about how entropy presents a barrier to evolution. Random mutations destroy order. Furthermore, they will destroy it faster than natural selection can fix it. Therefore, living systems today are going downhill, not advancing. Emil Prigogine is an evolutionist who seemed to have found the solution to this dilemma. He won the Nobel Prize in 1978 for his study of thermodynamic systems out of equilibrium. The bottom line of his work is that entropy does not apply to certain aspects of systems that are not in equilibrium. Self-organization can occur in these systems. We can see self organization at work in weather systems. For instance, a mass of cold, dry air can be clear and stable. A mass of warm, humid air can be clear and stable. If the systems are moving and if the warm air flows over the cold air, the conditions remain stable. However, if the cold air flows over the warm air, something happens. The warmer air is lighter than the colder air, so it starts to rise. As it rises, it cools off. As it cools off, the moisture in it condenses and rain start to fall. It the difference in temperatures and humidity between the two air masses are great enough, a long line of thunderstorms called a squall line can develop. Tornadoes can even form in the squall line. Hail can form. A thunderstorm containing a tornado or two represents organization. Where did this organization come from? Prigogine showed that when a system which consists of a collection of many independent, interacting particles is out of equilibrium, self-organization an occur: “A non-equilibrium system may evolve spontaneously to a state of increased complexity.20 This is what happens in a thunderstorm. Prigogine also demonstrated that the observed self-organization is the result of certain kinds of resonances developing between the interacting particles.21 However, Prigogine went too far. He tried to apply self-organization as a means to overcome the problem of entropy in the origin of life. However, in doing this, he overlooked a major, but obvious fact:
Living systems are information based. It is true that there is a limited degree of self-organization produced in a thunderstorm. However, a thunderstorm does not generate information. If resonance does not generate information, then the natural limitations on self-organization keep it from being adequate to be useful in an origin-of-life scenario. To illustrate the problem: To a lesser extent, the formation of various cloud shapes on a spring day represents a degree of self-organization. In my lifetime, I have seen many shapes by many clouds. Most of them seem to look like animals, ranging from ducks to monsters. I have also occasionally observed a commercial skywriter. A skilled acrobatic pilot in an acrobatic airplane would fly in various loops and lines in the sky, releasing smoke at critical points. Ultimately, he would spell out several words. Perhaps it might have been the name of a politician running for office or the name of a local car dealership having a sale. At any rate, the smoke trails were more than just interesting shapes made by a skillful pilot who was fun to watch. They also contained information. I could read a name. By contrast, I have never seen the name of a politician or car dealer spelled out by puffy clouds on a spring day. The clouds simply do not contain a body of information unrelated to their structure and function. The gap between the organization of a thunderstorm and an information-based living system is huge. It is too huge for resonance-based self-organized systems to overcome. Entropy is still a fatal principle to evolution. 5. The large size of typical enzymes in a cell. Evolutionists are aware of the statistical problems against putting together useful enzymes through chance processes. Usually, they either ignore them or make a feeble effort to explain them away. The most typical efforts to explain them away are to claim that in an origin-of-life scenario, an enzyme could still be effective even if it were significantly smaller than what we see in cells today. Sizes ranging anywhere from ten to forty amino acids for an emerging enzyme are sometimes talked about. The justification for this is the observation that the actual active area of an enzyme typically uses only a few amino acids. Therefore, a few amino acids are all that are really required. Of course, this is nonsense. To claim that the active area of an enzyme is its only important part is the equivalent of claiming that a piston is the only important part in an automobile engine. The piston has no meaning without a cylinder to contain it, etc. The active area of an enzyme has to be of an exact, precise shape and amino acid composition. However, the enzyme is built of sheets and coils. There need to be enough sheets and coils of the appropriate composition such that when they come together, the appropriate active area is formed. Notice, in living systems today these proposed small enzymes simply do not exist. Yet, bacteria have been found to be extremely efficient at getting rid of useless structures. If it were possible to have effective enzymes of only ten to 40 amino acids, bacteria should be characterized by many examples of these kinds of enzymes. But they aren’t. By contrast, consider succinate dehydrogenase again. This enzyme is found in every living cell, with the exception of a few kinds of anaerobic bacteria. Yet, it takes over 1,100 amino acids to make this enzyme. Where did this enzyme come from? There is no selection value in forming it until it already exists. Hence, there is no rational means for it to evolve into its current form. If something simpler than an 1,100 amino acid enzyme would work, one would expect that at least some bacteria would show us such an alternative. But they don’t. The large sizes of the actual enzymes used in living systems is problematic. Summary: I started off with a list of about 8 roadblocks. This expanded to 16 when I first wrote the pamphlet. I keep finding new ones. I haven’t even written down many of them I have thought of. A person skilled and knowledgeable in biochemistry should be able to add to this list easily if he wanted to and put any effort into it. The Bible teaches us that these roadblocks are here by design. God deliberately made them so that a person who is unwilling to acknowledge Him as Creator would be without excuse. |