Could Chance Create Bacteria?
THE COMPLEXITY OF THE SIMPLEST
SIMPLE? THEY HAVE THE LARGEST MOLECULES KNOWN!
MOST evolutionists will readily admit that animal cells, such as the one depicted on page 4, are marvels of biological complexity. ‘But the first living organisms were not so complicated,’ they will quickly add. “The first living organisms on the earth . . . were presumably one-celled entities resembling modern fermenting bacteria,” according to chemistry professor Richard E. Dickerson, writing in Scientific American magazine.
Very well, then. Consider the lowly bacterium and decide for yourself if it could have come into existence without a Creator.
Perhaps you would expect the cell walls of bacteria to be more primitive than the cell walls of higher organisms. The opposite is true. Higher plant cells have a wall of cellulose consisting of a string of sugar molecules. Bacterial cell walls also begin with strings of sugar molecules, but those strings are then intricately woven together with short chains of amino acids. The entire cell wall, as one scientist put it, “can be conceived of in a general way as a gigantic bag-shaped molecule.”
This bag is extremely strong. Bacterial cell walls withstand internal pressures of 300 pounds per square inch without bursting. Try that with your automobile tire!
It is true that bacteria do not have a nucleus, as do the cells of higher organisms. But even the simplest bacteria contain quite a bit of DNA, the universal genetic material. Instead of being enclosed by a nuclear membrane, bacterial DNA generally forms a single long loop inside the bacterium. The common E. coli bacterium has in its giant loop of DNA “by far the largest molecule known to occur in a biological system,” according to scientist Dr. John Cairns.
Does all of that sound like something that could have just washed up on some primeval beach? Could “the largest molecule” be an accidental combination of inert chemicals?
E. coli duplicates its DNA in preparation for the next division. In order for this to take place, the DNA molecule, which is designed something like a great twisted zipper, must be “unzipped” so that each half can reproduce itself. Sections of the DNA molecule called base pairs correspond to the teeth of a zipper. In the humble E. coli bacterium those base pairs are being duplicated, with scrupulous accuracy, at the rate of 150,000 per minute!
What happens when E. coli needs to travel? It literally sprouts a propeller. According to biology professor Howard Berg, six filaments arise on the sides of the cell and come together to form a bundle. These filaments rotate, something that requires “the structural equivalents of a rotor, a stator, and rotary bearings,” says Dr. Berg. Not bad for such a “primitive” form of life!
There is more. Like all living things, E. coli uses its DNA to direct the synthesis of chemicals it needs to live. The lowly bacterium controls its DNA through elaborate feedback mechanisms that activate or shut down sections of DNA according to need. “One must pause to remark on the extraordinary economy and efficiency of this control system,” says biochemist Jean-Pierre Changeux, who marvels that “the control costs the cell no expenditure of energy whatever. . . . A factory with control relays that require no energy for their operation would be the ultimate in industrial efficiency!”
The complexity of bacteria is not alone in arguing against their evolution. The very proteins that help make up bacteria, and other living things, show evolution to be hopelessly improbable. Why is that?
Evolutionists make much of a 1952 experiment in which scientists ran a spark through a mixture of gases and synthesized numerous chemicals, including some amino acids. This is considered significant, since amino acids, when properly linked together, form proteins, the basic building blocks of all living things.
Now, depending on how an amino acid is put together, it can be “left-handed” or “right-handed.” The amino acids created by various gas and spark experiments include equal numbers of the left- and right-handed models. However, as evolutionist Richard Dickerson admits, “except for certain special adaptations . . . all living organisms today incorporate only L [left-handed] amino acids.”
If a typical protein has 400 amino acids, the odds that all of them will be left-handed would be comparable to the odds against flipping a coin and getting heads 400 times in a row. There is less than one chance in one followed by over 100 zeros—a number many times as great as all the atoms in all the galaxies of the known universe! Yet even if an impossible random protein of 400 left-handed amino acids were to coalesce spontaneously, it would have only the slightest chance of being formed of the proper left-handed amino acids—there are 20 kinds—and in the proper order.
The spontaneous generation of proteins by chance might be illustrated this way: Suppose you had a box containing equal amounts of letters and numbers on little squares of wood, identical to the touch. Now, blindfolded, you are told to choose 400 of these little squares. The odds against your choosing letters only and no numbers are high enough. But that is not all. The 400 blocks with letters that you have chosen must spell out a meaningful, grammatically correct paragraph when laid side by side in the order you chose them.
The complex systems of E. coli demonstrate another problem with the notion that evolution could be responsible for life, even primitive life. DNA molecules are necessary for life, but they are not enough for life. Other very complicated molecules such as enzymes are needed to direct and cooperate with the activities of the DNA.
Thus, life can exist only when several very complex systems come into existence at the same time and operate together in perfect harmony. None of the complex systems can ever lead to even primitive life without the other systems in place.
Evolutionists face this dilemma by simply asserting their “faith” in evolution.
[Blurb on page 6]
Bacterial cell walls withstand internal pressures of 300 pounds per square inch
[Blurb on page 7]
The base pairs of the E. coli bacterium are being duplicated 150,000 per minute