Evolution Cruncher Chapter 8
DNA AND PROTEIN
Why DNA and protein could not be
produced by random chance
This chapter is based on pp. 265-313 of
Origin of the Life (Volume Two of our three-volume Evolution Disproved
Series). Not included in this chapter are at least 110 statements by
scientists. You will find them, plus much more, in the 3
Volume Encyclopedia on this site.
One of the most important discoveries of
the twentieth century was the discovery of the DNA molecule. It has had
a powerful effect on biological research. It has also brought quandary
and confusion to evolutionary scientists. If they cared to admit the
full implications of DNA, it would also bring total destruction to their
This chapter goes hand in hand with the
previous one. In the chapter on Primitive Environment, we learned that
earthly surroundings—now or earlier—could never permit the formation
of living creatures from non-living materials. This present chapter will
primarily discuss the DNA code, the components of protein— and will
show that each are so utterly complicated as to defy any possibility
that they could have been produced by chance events.
Yet random actions are the only kind of
occurrences which evolutionists tell us have ever been used to
accomplish the work of evolution.
The significance of all this is immense.
Because of the barrier of the multi-billion DNA code, not only was it
impossible for life to form by accident, —it could never thereafter
evolve into new and different species! Each successive speciation change
would require a totally new and different—but highly exacting code to
be in place on its very first day of its existence as a unique new
As with a number of other chapters in
this book, this one chapter alone is enough to completely annihilate
evolutionary theory in regard to the origin or evolution of life.
1 - DNA AND ITS CODE
GREGOR MENDEL—(*#1/7 Gregor Mendel’s
Monumental Discovery*) It was Mendel’s monumental work with genetics
in the mid-19th century that laid the foundation for all modern research
work in genetics. The complete story will be found on our website.
YOUR BODY’S BLUEPRINT—(*#2 The Story
of DNA*) Each of us starts off as a tiny sphere no larger than a dot on
this page. Within that microscopic ball there is over six feet of DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid), all coiled up. Inside that DNA is the entire
code for what you will become,—all your organs and all your features.
The DNA itself is strung out within long
coiling strips. DNA is the carrier of the inheritance code in living
things. It is like a microscopic computer with a built-in memory. DNA
stores a fantastic number of "blueprints," and at the right
time and place issues orders for distant parts of the body to build its
cells and structures.
You have heard of "genes" and
"chromosomes." Inside each cell in your body is a nucleus.
Inside that nucleus are, among other complicated things, chromosomes.
Inside the chromosomes are genes. The genes are attached to chromosomes
like beads on a chain. Inside the genes is the complicated chemical
structure we call DNA. Each gene has a thousand or more such DNA units
within it. Inside each cell are tens of thousands of such genes, grouped
into 23 pairs of chromosomes.
Inside the DNA is the total of all the
genetic possibilities for a given species. This is called the gene pool
of genetic traits. It is also called the genome. That is all the traits
your species can have; in contrast, the specific sub-code for YOU is the
genotype, which is the code for all the possible inherited features you
could have. The genotype is the individual’s code; the genome applies
to populations; the entire species.
(For clarification, it should be
mentioned here that the genotype includes all the features you could
possibly have in your body, but what you will actually have is called
the phenotype. This is because there are many unexpressed or recessive
characters in the genotype that do not show up in the phenotype. For
example, you may have had both blue and brown eye color in your genotype
from your ancestors, but your irises will normally only show one color.)
COILED STRIPS—(*#3/33 The Origin of
DNA*) Your own DNA is scattered all through your body in about 100
thousand billion specks, which is the average number of living cells in
a human adult. What does this DNA look like? It has the appearance of
two intertwined strips of vertical tape that are loosely coiled about
each other. From bottom to top, horizontal rungs or stairs reach across
from one tape strip to the other. Altogether, each DNA molecule is
something like a spiral staircase.
The spiraling sides in the DNA ladder
are made of complicated sugar and phosphate compounds, and the
crosspieces are nitrogen compounds. It is the arrangement of the
chemical sequence in the DNA that contains the needed information.
The code within each DNA cell is
complicated in the extreme! If you were to put all the coded DNA
instructions from just ONE single human cell into English, it would fill
many large volumes, each volume the size of an unabridged dictionary!
acid (DNA) is a double-stranded helix found within the chromosomes,
which are located inside the nuclei of every living cell. The molecule
consists of just four nucleotide units, one containing adenine, one
guanine, one cytosine, and one either thymine (in DNA) or uracil (in
RNA). The sides of the helix consist of alternating deoxyribose sugars
The illustration shows
the strange shape of DNA. It has that shape because it must fit inside
the chromosome. It does this by squashing an immense length into the
tiny chromosome. It could not do this if it did not have a twisted
shape. The four illustrations show progressively smaller views of a DNA
molecule and what is in it.
DIVIDING DNA—DNA has a very special
way of dividing and combining. The ladder literally "unhooks"
and "rehooks." When cells divide, the DNA ladder splits down
the middle. There are then two single vertical strands, each with half
of the rungs. Both now duplicate themselves instantly—and there are
now two complete ladders, where a moment before there was but one! Each
new strip has exactly the same sequence that the original strip of DNA
This process of division can occur at
the amazing rate of 1000 base pairs per second! If DNA did not divide
this quickly, it could take 10,000 years for you to grow from that first
cell to a newborn infant.
Human cells can divide more than 50
times before dying. When they do die, they are immediately replaced.
Every minute 3 billion cells die in your body and are immediately
THE BASE CODE—(*#7 Coding in the
Information*) The human body has about 100 trillion cells. In the
nucleus of each cell are 46 chromosomes. In the chromosomes of each cell
are about 10 billion of those DNA ladders. Scientists call each spiral
ladder a DNA molecule; they also call them base pairs. It is the
sequence of chemicals within these base pairs that provides the
instructional code for your body. That instructional code oversees all
your heredity and many of your metabolic processes.
Without your DNA, you could not live.
Without its own DNA, nothing else on earth could live. Within each DNA
base pair is a most fantastic information file.
A-T-C-T-G-G-G-T-C-T-A-AT-A, and on and on, is the code for one creature.
T-G-C-T-C-A-A-G-A-G-T-G-C-C, and on and on, will begin the code for
another. Each code continues on for millions of "letter"
units. Each unit is made of a special chemical.
The DNA molecule is shaped like a coiled
ladder, which the scientists describe as being in the shape of a
"double-stranded helix." Using data from a woman researcher
(which they did not acknowledge), *Watson and *Crick
"discovered" the structure of DNA.
UTTER COMPLEXITY—In order to form a
protein, the DNA molecule has to direct the placement of amino acids in
a certain specific order in a molecule made up of hundreds of thousands
of units. For each position, it must choose the correct amino acid from
some twenty different amino acids. DNA itself is made up of only four
different building blocks (A, G, C, and T). These are arranged in basic
code units of three factors per unit (A-C-C, G-T-A, etc.). This provides
64 basic code units. With them, millions of separate codes can be
sequentially constructed. Each code determines one of the many millions
of factors in your body, organs, brain, and all their functions. If just
one code were omitted, you would be in serious trouble.
AN ASTOUNDING CLAIM—The evolutionists
applied their theory to the amazing discoveries about DNA—and came up
with a totally astonishing claim:
All the complicated DNA in each
life-form, and all the DNA in every other life-form—made itself out of
dirty water back in the beginning! There was some gravel around, along
with some dirt. Nearby was some water, and overhead a lightning storm.
The lightning hit the dirty water and made living creatures complete
with DNA. They not only had their complete genetic code, but they were
also immediately able to eat, digest food, move about, perform enzymatic
and glandular functions, and all the rest.
Instantly, they automatically knew how
to produce additional cells, and their DNA began dividing (cells must
continually replenish themselves or the creature quickly dies), their
cells began making new ones, and every new cell could immediately do the
myriad of functions that the first creature, an amoeba, can and must do.
That same stroke of lightning made both
a male and a female pair and their complete digestive, respiratory, and
circulatory organs. It provided them with complete ability to produce
offspring and they in turn more offspring. That same stroke of lightning
also made their food, with all its own DNA, male and female pairs, etc.,
And that, according to this children’s
story, is where we all came from! But it is a story that only very
little children would find believable.
"Laboratory experiments show that
the basic building blocks of life, the proteins and organic molecules,
form pretty easily in environments that have both carbon and
water."—*Star Date Radio Broadcast, January 24, 1990.
In this chapter we will not consider
most of the above points. Instead we will primarily focus on the DNA and
protein in each cell within each living creature.
TRANSLATION PACKAGE NEEDED AT
BEGINNING—The amount of information in the genetic code is so vast
that it would be impossible to put together by chance. But, in addition,
there must be a means of translating it so the tissues can use the code.
"Did the code and the means of
translating it appear simultaneously in evolution? It seems almost
incredible that any such coincidences could have occurred, given the
extraordinary complexities of both sides and the requirement that they
be coordinated accurately for survival. By a pre-Darwinian (or a skeptic
of evolution after Darwin) this puzzle surely would have been
interpreted as the most powerful sort of evidence for special
creation."—*C. Haskins, "Advances and Challenges in
Science" in American Scientist 59 (1971), pp. 298.
Not only did the DNA have to originate
itself by random accident, but the translation machinery already had to
be produced by accident—and also immediately! Without it, the
information in the DNA could not be applied to the tissues. Instant
death would be the result.
"The code is meaningless unless
translated. The modern cell’s translation machinery consists of at
least fifty macromolecular components which are themselves encoded in
DNA [!]; the code cannot be translated otherwise than by products of
translation. It is the modern expression of omne vivum ex ovo [‘every
living thing comes from an egg’]. When and how did this circle become
closed? It is exceedingly difficult to imagine."—*J, Monod,
Chance and Necessity (1971), p. 143.
This translation package has also been
termed an "adapter function." Without a translator, the highly
complex coding contained within the DNA molecule would be useless to the
"The information content of amino
acid sequences cannot increase until a genetic code with an adapter
function has appeared. Nothing which even vaguely resembles a code
exists in the physio-chemical world. One must conclude that no valid
scientific explanation of the origin of life exists at
present."—*H. Yockey, "Self Organization Origin of Life
Scenarios and Information Theory," in Journal of Theoretical
Biology 91 (1981), p. 13.
"Cells and organisms are also
informed [intelligently designed and operated] life-support systems. The
basic component of any informed system is its plan. Here, argues the
creationist, an impenetrable circle excludes the evolutionist. Any
attempt to form a model or theory of the evolution of the genetic code
is futile because that code is without function unless, and until, it is
translated, i.e., unless it leads to the synthesis of proteins. But the
machinery by which the cell translates the code consists of about
seventy components which are themselves the product of the
code."—*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 147
DESIGNING CODES—*Sir Arthur Keith, a
prominent anatomist of the 1930s (and co-producer of the Piltdown man
hoax), said: "We do not believe in the theory of special creation
because it is incredible." But life itself and all its functions
and designs are incredible. And each true species has its own unique
designs. A single living cell may contain one hundred thousand million
atoms, but each atom will be arranged in a specific order.
Yet all this is based on design, and
design requires intelligence—in this case an extremely high order of
intelligence. Man’s most advanced thinking and planning has produced
airplanes, rockets, personal computers, and flight paths around the
moon. But none of this was done by accident. Careful thought and
structuring was required. Design blueprints were carefully crafted into
The biological world is packed with
intricate, cooperative mechanisms that depend on encoded and detailed
instructions for their development and interacting function. But
complexity, and the coding it is based on, does not evolve. Left to
themselves, all things become more random and disorganized. The more
complex the system, the more elaborate the design needed to keep it
operating and resisting the ever-pressing tendency to decay and
DNA and other substances like it are
virtually unknown outside living cells. Astoundingly, they both produce
cells and are products of cells; yet they are not found outside of
cells. DNA is exclusively a product of the cell; we cannot manufacture
it. The closest we can come to this is to synthesize simple, short
chains of mononucleotide RNA—and that is as far as we can go, in spite
of all our boasted intelligence and million-dollar well-supplied,
MESSENGER RNA—Special "messenger
RNA" molecules are needed. Without them, DNA is useless in the
body. Consider the story of s-RNA:
"The code in the gene (which is
DNA, of course) is used to construct a messenger RNA molecule in which
is encoded the message necessary to determine the specific amino acid
sequence of the protein.
"The cell must synthesize the
sub-units (nucleotides) for the RNA (after first synthesizing the
sub-units for each nucleotide, which include the individual bases and
the ribose). The cell must synthesize the sub-units, or amino acids,
which are eventually polymerized to form the protein. Each amino acid
must be activated by an enzyme specific for that amino acid. Each amino
acid is then combined with another type of RNA, known as soluble RNA or
"There is a specific s-RNA for each
individual amino acid. There is yet another type of RNA known as
ribosomal RNA. Under the influence of the messenger RNA, the ribosomes
are assembled into units known as polyribosomes. Under the direction of
the message contained in the messenger RNA while it is in contact with
polyribosomes, the amino acid-s-RNA complexes are used to form a
protein. Other enzymes and key molecules are required for this.
"During all of this, the complex
energy-producing apparatus of the cell is used to furnish the energy
required for the many syntheses."—Duane T. Gish, "DNA: Its
History and Potential, "in W.E. Lemmerts (ed.), Scientific Studies
in Special Creation (1971), p. 312.
THE LIVING COMPUTER—DNA and its
related agencies operate dramatically like an advanced computer.
"All this is strikingly similar to
the situation in the living cell. For discs or tapes substitute DNA; for
‘words’ substitute genes; and for ‘bits’ (a bit is an electronic
representation of ‘yes’ or ‘no’) substitute the bases adenine,
thymine, guanine and cytosine."—*Fred Hoyle and *C.
Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (1981), p. 106.
Everywhere we turn in the cell we find
the most highly technical computerization. Electrical polarity is a key
in the DNA. This is positive and negative electrical impulses, found
both in the DNA and about the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus. The
result is a binary system, similar to what we find in the most advanced
computers in the world, but far more sophisticated and miniaturized. In
computer science, a "byte" is composed of eight bits and can
hold 256 different binary patterns, enough to equal most letters or
symbols. A byte therefore stands for a letter or character. In biology
the equivalent is three nucleotides called a codon. The biological code
(within DNA) is based on these triplet patterns, as *Crick and *Brenner
first discovered. This triad is used to decide which amino acid will be
used for what purpose.
THE BIOLOGICAL COMPILER—The code in
both plants and animals is DNA, but DNA is chemically different than the
amino acids, which it gives orders to make. This code also decides which
of the 20 proteins the amino acids will then form themselves into. There
is an intermediate substance between DNA and the amino acids and
proteins. That mediating substance is t-DNA. But now the complexity gets
worse: Each of the 20 proteins requires a different intermediate t-DNA!
Each one works specifically to perform its one function; and chemically,
each t-DNA molecule is unlike each of the other t-DNA molecules.
The biological compiler that
accomplishes these code tasks is t-DNA. It changes DNA code language
into a different language that the cells can understand—so they can
set about producing the right amino acids and proteins. Without these
many t-DNA molecules, the entire code and what it should produce would
DNA INDEXING—Information that is
inaccessible is useless, even though it may be very complete. Every
computer requires a data bank. Without it, needed information cannot be
retrieved and used. Large computer data banks have libraries of disc
storage, but they require an index to use them. Without the index, the
computer will not know where to look to find the needed information.
DNA is a data bank of massive
proportions, but indexes are also needed. These are different than the
translators. There are non-DNA chemicals, which work as indexes to
specifically locate needed information. The DNA and the indexes
reciprocate; information is cycled round a feedback loop. The index
triggers the production of materials by DNA. The presence of these
materials, in turn, triggers indexing to additional productions. On a
higher level of systems (nervous, muscular, hormonal, circulatory,
etc.), additional indexes are to be found. The utter complication of all
this is astounding. The next time you cut your finger, think of all the
complex operations required for the body to patch it up.
CELL SWITCHING—"What is most
important; what should be done next?" Computers function by
following a sequential set of instructions. "First do this, and
then do that," they are told, and in response they then switch from
one subroutine to another. But how does the cell switch its DNA from one
process to another? No one can figure this out.
"In bacteria, for example, Jacob
and Monod demonstrated a control system that operates by switching off
‘repressor’ molecules, i.e., unmasking DNA at the correct ‘line
number’ to read off the correct (polypeptide) subroutines. With
eukaryotes [a common type of bacteria], Britten and Davidson have
tentatively suggested that ‘sensor genes’ react to an incoming
stimulus and cause the production of RNA. This, in turn, activates a
‘producer gene,’ m-RNA is synthesized and the required protein
eventually assembled as a ribosome. Many DNA base sequences may thus be
involved, not in protein or RNA production, but in control over that
production—in switching the right sequences on or off at the right
time."—*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 124.
THE FIVE CHEMICALS IN DNA AND RNA—DNA
is an extremely complex chemical molecule. Where did it come from? How
did it form itself back in the beginning? How can it keep making copies
of itself? There are two kinds of bases in the DNA code: purines
(adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (thymine or, in RNA, uracil; and
cytosine). Where did these five chemicals come from? Charlie, you never
told us the origin of the species; now help us figure out the origin of
Do you desire fame and fortune? If you
want a Nobel prize, figure out how to synthesize all five DNA chemicals.
If you want a major place in history, figure out how to make living,
functioning DNA. If sand and seawater did it, our highly trained
scientists ought to be able to do it too.
Scientists eventually devised
complicated ways in expensive laboratories to synthesize dead compounds
of four of these five, using rare materials such as hydrogen cyanide or
cyanoacetylene. (Thymine remains unsynthesizable.) Sugar can be made in
the laboratory, but the phosphate group is extremely difficult. In the
presence of calcium ions, found in abundance in oceans and rivers, the
phosphate ion is precipitated out. In life-forms enzymes catalyze the
task, but how could enzymatic action occur outside of plants or animals?
It would not happen.
Then there are the polynucleotide
strands that have to be formed in exactly the fit needed to neatly wrap
about the DNA helix molecule. A 100 percent exact fit is required. But
chemists seem unable to produce much in the way of synthesized
polynucleotides, and they are totally unable to make them in
predetermined sizes and shapes (*D. Watts, "Chemistry and the
Origin of Life," in Life on Earth, Vol. 4, 1980, p. 21).
If university-trained scientists,
working in multimillion-dollar equipped and stocked laboratories, cannot
make DNA and RNA, how can random action of sand and dirty water produce
it in the beginning?
NON-RANDOM: ONLY FROM
INTELLIGENCE—Non-random information is what is found in the genetic
code. But such information is a proof that the code came from an
Those searching for evidence of life in
outer space have been instructed to watch for non-random signals as the
best evidence that intelligent people live out there. Ponnamperuma says
that such a "non-random pattern" would demonstrate intelligent
extraterrestrial origin (*C. Ponnamperuma, The Origins of Life, 1972, p.
195). *CarI Sagan adds that a message with high information content
would be "an unambiguously artificial [intelligently produced]
interstellar message" (*Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980, p. 314).
"To involve purpose is in the eyes
of biologists the ultimate scientific sin . . The revulsion which
biologists feel to the thought that purpose might have a place in the
structure of biology is therefore revulsion to the concept that biology
might have a connection to an intelligence higher than our
own."—*Fred Hoyle and *Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from
Space (1981), p. 32.
EACH CHARACTERISTIC CONTROLLED BY MANY
GENES—The more the scientists have studied genetics, the worse the
situation becomes. Instead of each gene controlling many different
factors in the body, geneticists have discovered that many different
genes control each factor! Because of this, it would thus be impossible
for the basic DNA code to gradually "evolve." The underlying
DNA code had to be there "all at once"; and once in place,
that code could never change!
"However it gradually emerged that
most characters, even simple ones, are regulated by many genes: for
instance, fourteen genes affect eye color in Drosophila. (Not only that.
The mutation which suppresses ‘purple eye’ enhances ‘hairy
wing,’ for instance. The mechanism is not understood.) Worse still, a
single gene may influence several different characters. This was
particularly bad news for the selectionists, of course . . In 1966 Henry
Harris of London University demonstrated, to everyone’s surprise, that
as much as 30 per cent of all characters are polymorphic [that is, each
character controlled several different factors instead of merely one].
It seemed unbelievable, but his work was soon confirmed by Richard
Lewontin and others."—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery
(1983), pp. 165-166.
(A clarification is needed here about
the basic DNA code in a true species which never changes: Chapter 11,
Animal and Plant Species, will explain how the DNA gene pool within a
given true species can be broad enough to produce hybrids or varieties.
This is why there are so many different types of dogs or why some birds,
when isolated on an island—such as Darwin’s finches on the
Galapagos,—can produce bills of different length. This is why there
are two shades of peppered moth and various resistant forms of
In order to make the evolutionary theory
succeed, the total organic complexity of an entire species somehow had
to be invented long ago by chance,—and it had to do it fast, too
fast—within seconds, or the creature would immediately die!
2 - MATHEMATICAL POSSIBILITIES OF DNA
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION—This is a number
plus a small superscript numeral. Using it, small numbers can be written
to denote numbers that are so immense that they are both
incomprehensible and can only with difficulty be written out. Thus, 8
trillion (8,000,000,000,000) would be written 8 x 1012, and 1 billion
(1,000,000,000) would be written simply as 109. Here are a few
comparisons to show you the impossible large size of such numbers:
Hairs on an average head 2 x 106
Seconds in a year 3 x 107
Retirement age (0 to 65) in seconds 2 x l09
World population 5 x 109
Miles [1.6 km] in a light-year 6 x 1010
Sand grains on all shores 1022
Observed stars 1022
Water drops in all the oceans 1026
Candle power of the sun 3 x 1027
Electrons in the universe 1080
It is said that any number larger than 2
x 1030 cannot occur in nature. In the remainder of this chapter, we will
look at some immense numbers!
MATH LOOKS AT DNA—(*#4/37 More
Mathematical Impossibilities*) In the world of living organisms, there
can be no life or growth without DNA. What are the mathematical
possibilities (in mathematics, they are called probabilities) of JUST
ONE DNA molecule having formed itself by the chance?
"Now we know that the cell itself
is far more complex than we had imagined. It includes thousands of
functioning enzymes, each one of them a complex machine itself.
Furthermore, each enzyme comes into being in response to a gene, a
strand of DNA. The information content of the gene in its complexity
must be as great as that of the enzyme it controls.
"A medium protein might include
about 300 amino acids. The DNA gene controlling this would have about
1000 nucleotides in its chain. Since there are four kinds of nucleotides
in a DNA chain, one consisting of 1000 links could exist in 41000
"Using a little algebra
(logarithms) we can see that 41000 is equivalent to 10600. Ten
multiplied by itself 600 times gives the figure 1 followed by 600 zeros!
This number is completely beyond our comprehension."—*Frank
Salisbury, "Doubts about the Modern Synthetic Theory of
Evolution," American Biology Teacher, September 1971, pp. 336-338.
So the number of possible code
combinations for an average DNA molecule is the numeral 4 followed by
1000 zeros! That is not 4000 (4 followed by 3 zeros),
but 4 followed by
a thousand zeros! How could random action produce the right combination
out of that many possibilities for error?
LIFE REQUIRED—In addition to DNA, many
other materials, such as proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates, fats, etc,
would have to be instantly made at the same time. The beating heart, the
functioning kidneys, the circulatory vessels, etc. They would all need
to be arranged within the complicated structure of an organism,—and
then they would have to be endued with LIFE!
Without LIFE, none of the raw materials,
even though arranged in proper order, would be worth anything.
One does not extract life from pebbles,
dirt, water, or a lightning bolt. Lightning destroys life; it does not
GOLEY’S MACHINE—A communications
engineer tried to figure out the odds for bringing a non-living organism
with few parts (only 1500) up to the point of being able to reproduce
"Suppose we wanted to build a
machine capable of reaching into bins for all of its parts, and capable
of assembling from those parts a second machine just like
itself."—*Marcel J.E. Goley, "Reflections of a
Communications Engineer," in Analytical Chemistry, June 1961, p.
Likening a living organism to a machine
that merely reached out and selected parts needed to make a duplicate of
itself, Goley tried to figure the odds for 1500 needed items—requiring
1500 right choices in a row. Many different parts would be needed, and
Goley assumed they would all be lying around near that manufacturing
machine! Goley assumes that its mechanical arm will have only a 50-50
chance of error in reaching out and grabbing the right piece! Such a
ratio (1500 50.50 choices) is preposterous (it ought to be one chance in
a hundred million for EACH of the correct 1500 selections from among
1500 items), but Goley then figures the odds based on such a one-in-two
success rate of reaches. But even with such a high success rate, Goley
discovered that there was only one chance in 10450 that the machine
could succeed in reproducing itself! That is 1 followed by 450 zeros!
Far smaller are all the words in all the
books ever published. They would only amount to 1020, and that would be
equivalent to only 66 of those 1500 50-50 choices all made correctly in
TOO MANY NUCLEOTIDES—Just the number
of nucleotides alone in DNA would be too many for Goley’s machine
calculations. There are not 1500 parts to work out the probabilities
on—there are multiplied thousands of factors, of which the nucleotides
constitute one factor.
(1) There are 5,375 nucleotides in the
DNA of an extremely small bacterial virus (theta-x-174). (2) There are
about 3 million nucleotides in a single cell bacteria. (3) There are
more than 16,000 nucleotides in a human mitochondrial DNA molecule. (4)
There are approximately 3 billion nucleotides in the DNA of a mammalian
cell. (People and most animals are mammals.)
Technically, a "nucleotide" is
a complex chemical structure composed of a (nucleic acid) purine or
pyrimidine, one sugar (usually ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphoric
group. Each one of those thousands of nucleotides within each DNA is
aligned sequentially in a very specific order! Imagine 3 billion
complicated chemical links, each of which has to be in a precisely
NOT POSSIBLE BY CHANCE—Many similar
mathematical comparisons could be made. The point is that chance cannot
produce what is in a living organism, —not now, not ever before, not
ever in the future. It just cannot be done.
And even if the task could be
successfully completed, when it was done, that organism would still not
be alive! Putting stuff together in the right combination does not
And once made, it would have to have an
ongoing source of water, air, and living food continually available as
soon as it evolved into life. When the evolutionist’s organism emerged
from rock, water, and a stroke of lightning hitting it on the head,—it
would have to have its living food source made just as rapidly.
The problems and hurdles are endless.
"Based on probability factors . .
any viable DNA strand having over 84 nucleotides cannot be the result of
haphazard mutations. At that stage, the probabilities are 1 in 4.80 x 1050. Such a number, if written out, would read:
"Mathematicians agree that any
requisite number beyond 1050 has, statistically, a zero probability of
occurrence (and even that gives it the ‘benefit of the doubt’). Any
species known to us, including ‘the smallest single-cell bacteria,
have enormously larger numbers of nucleotides than 100 or 1000. In fact,
single cell bacteria display about 3,000,000 nucleotides, aligned in a
very specific sequence. This means, that there is no mathematical
probability whatever for any known species to have been the product of a
random occurrence—random mutations (to use the evolutionist’s
favorite expression)."—*I.L. Cohen, Darwin was Wrong (1984), p.
Wysong explains the requirements needed
to code one DNA molecule. By this he means selecting out the proper
proteins, all of them left handed, and then placing them in their proper
sequence in the molecule—and doing it all by chance:
"This means 1/1089190 DNA
molecules, on the average, must form to provide the one chance of
forming the specific DNA sequence necessary to code the 124 proteins. 1089190 DNAs would weigh
1089147 times more than the earth, and would
certainly be sufficient to fill the universe many times over. It is
estimated that the total amount of DNA necessary to code 100 billion
people could be contained in ½ of an aspirin tablet. Surely 1089147
times the weight of the earth in DNAs is a stupendous amount and
emphasizes how remote the chance is to form the one DNA molecule. A
quantity of DNA this colossal could never have formed."—R.L.
Wysong, The Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 115.
A GEM OF A QUOTATION—Evolutionists
claim that everything impossible can happen by the most random of
chances,—simply by citing a large enough probability number. *Peter
Mora explains to his fellow scientists the truth about evolutionary
"A further aspect I should like to
discuss is what I call the practice of avoiding the conclusion that the
probability of a self-reproducing state is zero. This is what we must
conclude from classical quantum mechanical principles, as Wigner
"These escape clauses [the enormous
chance-occurrence numbers cited as proof by evolutionists that it could
be done] postulate an almost infinite amount of time and an almost
infinite amount of material (monomers), so that even the most unlikely
event could have happened. This is to invoke probability and statistical
considerations when such considerations are meaningless.
"When for practical purposes the
condition of infinite time and matter has to be invoked [in order to
make evolution succeed], the concept of probability [possibility of its
occurrence] is annulled. By such logic we can prove anything, such as
that no matter how complex, everything will repeat itself, exactly and
innumerably."—*P.T. Mora, "The Folly of Probability,"
in *S.W. Fox (ed.), The Origins of Prebiological Systems and of Their
Molecular Matrices (1965), p. 45.
3 - AMINO ACIDS AND PROTEIN
PROTEIN NEEDED ALSO—(*#6 Amino Acid
Functions*) Now let’s look at protein:
Putting protein and DNA together will
not make them alive; but, on the other hand, there can be no life
without BOTH the protein and the DNA. Proteins would also have had to be
made instantly, and in the right combination and quantity,—at the very
beginning. And do not forget the sequence: Protein has to be in its
proper sequence, just as DNA has to be in its correct sequential
Proteins come in their own complicated
sequence! They have their own coding. That code is "spelled
out" in a long, complicated string of materials. Each of the
hundreds of different proteins is, in turn, composed of still smaller
units called amino acids. There are twenty essential amino acids (plus
two others not needed after adulthood in humans). The amino acids are
complex assortments of specifically arranged chemicals.
Making those amino acids out of nothing,
and in the correct sequence,—and doing it by chance—would be just as
impossible, mathematically, as a chance formation of the DNA code!
ONLY THE LEFT-HANDED ONES—We
mentioned, in chapter 6 (Inaccurate Dating Methods), the L and D amino
acids. That factor is highly significant when considering the
possibility that amino acids could make themselves by chance.
Nineteen of the twenty amino acids (all
except glycine) come in two forms: a "D" and an "L"
version. The chemicals are the same, but are arranged differently for
each. The difference is quite similar to your left hand as compared with
your right hand. Both are the same, yet shaped opposite to each other.
These two amino acid types are called enantiomers [en-anti-AWmers]. (Two
other names for them are enantiomorphs and sterioisomers). (On the
accompanying chart, note that they are alike chemically, but different
dimensionally. Each one is a mirror image of the other. One is like a
left-handed glove; the other like a right-handed one. A typical amino
acid in both forms is illustrated.)
For simplicity’s sake, in this study
we will call them the left-handed amino acid (the "L") and the
right-handed amino acid (the "D").
Living creatures have to have protein,
and protein is composed of involved mixtures of several of the 20 left
amino acids. —And all those amino acids must be left-handed, not
right-handed! (It should be mentioned that all sugars in DNA are
(For purposes of simplification we will
assume that right-handed amino acids never occur in living amino acids,
but there are a few exceptions, such as in the cell walls of some
bacteria, in some antibiotic compounds, and all sugars.)
"Many researchers have attempted to
find plausible natural conditions under which L-amino acids would
preferentially accumulate over their D-counterparts, but all such
attempts have failed. Until this crucial problem is solved, no one can
say that we have found a naturalistic explanation for the origin of
life. Instead, these isomer preferences point to biochemical
creation."—Dean H. Kenyon, affidavit presented to U.S. Supreme
Court, No. 85-15, 13, in "Brief of Appellants," prepared under
the direction of William J. Guste, Jr., Attorney General of the State of
Louisiana, October 1985, p. A-23.
TOTAL IGNORANCE—(*#5/29 DNA, Protein
and the Cell*) Scientists have a fairly good idea of the multitude of
chemical steps in putting together a DNA molecule; but, not only can DNA
not be synthesized "by nature" at the seashore, highly trained
technicians cannot do it in their million-dollar laboratories!
"The evolution of the genetic
machinery is the step for which there are no laboratory models; hence we
can speculate endlessly, unfettered by inconvenient facts."— *R.
Dickerson, "Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life," in
Scientific American, September 1978, p. 70.
Dozens of inherent and related factors
are involved. One of these is the gene-protein link. This had to occur
before DNA could be usable, yet no one has any idea how it can be made
now, much less how it could do it by itself in a mud puddle.
"None has ever been recreated in
the laboratory, and the evidence supporting them all [being produced by
random chance in the primitive environment] is very thin. The emergence
of the gene-protein link, an absolutely vital stage on the way up from
lifeless atoms to ourselves, is still shrouded in almost complete
mystery."—*A. Scott, "Update on Genesis," in New
Scientist, May 2, 1985, p. 30.
4 - SYNTHESIZED PROTEIN
THE MILLER EXPERIMENTS—In 1953, a
graduate biochemistry student (*Stanley Miller) sparked a non-oxygen
mixture of gases for a week and produced some microscopic traces of
non-living amino acids. We earlier discussed this in some detail in
chapter 7, The Primitive Environment (which included a
discription of the
complicated apparatus he used), showing that *Stanley’s experiment
demonstrated that, if by any means amino acids could be produced, they
would be a left-handed and right-handed mixture—and therefore unable
to be used in living tissue.
"Amino acids synthesized in the
laboratory are a mixture of the right-and left-handed
forms."—*Harold Blum, Time’s Arrow and Evolution (1968), p.
Even if a spark could anciently have
turned some chemicals into amino acids, the presence of the right-handed
ones would clog the body machinery and kill any life-form they were in.
(1) There are 20 amino acids. (2) There
are 300 amino acids in a specialized sequence in each medium protein.
(3) There are billions upon billions of possible combinations! (4) The
right combination from among the 20 amino acids would have to be brought
together in the right sequence—in order to make one useable protein
(5) In addition to this, the
ultra-complicated DNA strands would have to be formed, along with
complex enzymes, and more and more, and still more.
IMPOSSIBLE ODDS—What are the chances
of accomplishing all the above—and thus making a living creature out
of protein manufactured by chance from dust, water, and sparks? Not one
chance in billions. It cannot happen.
Evolutionists speak of
"probabilities" as though they were "possibilities,"
if given enough odds. But reality is different than their make-believe
There are odds against your being able
to throw a rock with your arm—and land it on the other side of the
moon. The chances that you could do it are about as likely as this
imagined animal of the evolutionists, which makes itself out of nothing
and then evolves into everybody else.
A mathematician would be able to figure
the odds of doing it as a scientific notation with 50 or so zeros after
it, but that does not mean that you could really throw a rock to the
moon! Such odds are not really "probabilities," they are
The chances of getting accidentally
synthesized left amino acids for one small protein molecule is one
chance in 10210. That is a number with 210 zeros after it! The number is
so vast as to be totally out of the question.
Here are some other big numbers to help
you grasp the utter immensity of such gigantic numbers: Ten billion
years is 1018 seconds. The earth weighs 1026 ounces. From one side to
the other, the universe has a diameter of 1028 inches. There are
elementary particles in the universe (subatomic particles: electrons,
protons, neutrons, etc.). Compare those enormously large numbers with
the inconceivably larger numbers required for a chance formulation of
the right mixture of amino acids, proteins, and all the rest out of
totally random chance combined with raw dirt, water, and so forth.
How long would it take to walk across
the 1028 inches from one side of the universe to the other side? Well,
after you had done it, you would need to do it billions of times more
before you would even have time to try all the possible chance
combinations of putting together just ONE properly sequenced left-only
amino acid protein in the right order.
After *Miller’s amino acid experiment,
researchers later tried to synthesize proteins. The only way they could
do it was with actual amino acids from living tissue! What had they
accomplished? Nothing, absolutely nothing. But this mattered not to the
media; soon newspaper headlines shouted, "SCIENTISTS MAKE
"The apparatus must consist of a
series of proteins as well as nucleic acids with the ‘right’
sequences."—*R. W. Kaplan, "The Problem of Chance in
Formation of Protobionts by Random Aggregation of Macromolecules,"
ín Chemical Evolution, p. 320.
5 - MORE PROBLEMS WITH PROTEIN
ALL 20 - BUT IN 39 FORMS—The
evolutionists tell us that, at some time in the distant past, all the
proteins made themselves out of random chemicals floating in the water
or buried in the soil.
But there are approximately 20 different
essential amino acids. Each of them, with the exception of glycine, can
exist in both the L (left-handed) and D (right-handed) structual forms.
In living tissue, the L form is found; in laboratory synthesis, equal
amounts of both the L and D forms are produced. There is no way to
synthesize the L form by itself.
A—Here is the amino acid sequence of just one protein in your body.
The amino acid units (written from left to right) are connected. If
separated, they would read like this: methionyl, glutaminyl, arginyl,
Here are all 39 forms. What a hodgepodge
for the random accidents of evolution to sort through—and come up with
only the L forms. Each one has its own complicated sequence of amino
1 - Glycine
2a - L-Alanine 2b - D-Alanine
3a - L-Valine 3b - D-Valine
4a - L-Leucine 4b - D-Leucine
5a - L-Isoleucine 5b - D-Isoleucine
6a - L-Serine 6b - D-Serine
7a - L-Threonine 7b - D-Threonine
8a - L-Cysteine 8b - D-Cysteine
9a - L-Cystine 9b - D-Cystine
10a - L-Methionine 10b - D-Methionine
11a - L-Glutamic Acid 11b - D-Glutamic
12a - L-Aspartic Acid 12b - D-Aspartic
13a - L-Lysine 13b - D-Lysine
14a - L-Arginine 14b - D-Arginine
15a - L-Histidine 15b - D-Histidine
16a - L-Phenylalanine 16b - D-Phenylalanine
17a - L-Tyrosine 17b - D-Tyrosine
18a - L-Tryptophan 18b - D-Tryptophan
19a - L-Proline 19b - D-Proline
20a - L-Hydroxyproline 20b - D-Hydroxyproline
WHY ONLY THE L FORM—You might wonder
why the D form of protein would not work equally well in humans and
animals. The problem is that a single strand of protein, once it is
constructed by other proteins (yes, the complicated structure of each
protein is constructed in your body cells by other brainless proteins!),
it immediately folds into a certain pattern. If there was even one
right-handed amino acid in each lengthy string, it could not fold
(See our special study on Protein
website. It is fabulous, and shows the astoundingly complex activities
of proteins inside the cell.)
6 - ORIGINATING FIVE SPECIAL MATERIALS
We are omitting this section from this
paperback. It consists of detailed information on the step-by-step
requirements needed to produce proteins, sugars, enzymes, fats, and DNA.
The complexity of all this is fabulous. Over three large pages are
required just to list the steps! You will find this on pp. 280-283 of
Vol. 2 of the three-volume Evolution Disproved series set or on our
internet site, evolution-facts.org.
7 - ADDITIONAL MATHEMATICAL IMPOSSIBILITIES
ALL BY CHANCE—Earlier in this chapter,
we said that the possible combinations of DNA were the number 4 followed
by a thousand zeros. That tells us about DNA combinations; what about
The possible arrangements of the 20
different amino acids are 2,500,000,000,000,000,000. If evolutionary
theory be true, every protein arrangement in a life-form had to be
worked out by chance until it worked right—first one combination and
then another until one was found that worked right. But by then the
organism would have been long dead, if it ever had been alive!
Once the chance arrangements had hit
upon the right combination of amino acids for ONE protein—the same
formula would have to somehow be repeated for the other 19 proteins. And
then it would somehow have to be correctly transmitted to offspring!
THE STREAM OF LIFE—The primary protein
in your red blood cells has 574 amino acids in it. Until that formula
was first produced correctly by chance, and then always passed on
correctly, your ancestors could not have lived a minute, much less
survived and reproduced.
You have billions upon billions upon
billions of red blood cells ("RBCs," the scientists call them)
in your body. This is what makes your blood red. Each red blood cell has
about 280 million molecules of hemoglobin, and it would take about 1000
red blood cells to cover the period at the end of this sentence.
(Hemoglobin is the iron-carrying protein material in RBCs, which carries
oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, and carbon dioxide from the
tissues to the lungs.) Both in complexity and in enormous quantity, your
red blood cells are unusual. Several large books could be filled with
facts about your red blood cells.
MAKING PROTEIN BY CHANCE—The
probability of forming 124 specifically sequenced proteins of 400 amino
acids each by chance is 1 x 1O64489. THAT is a BIG number!
If we put a
thousand zeros on each page, it would take a 64-page booklet just to
write the number!
The probability of those 124
specifically sequenced proteins, consisting of 400 all-left-amino acids
each, being formed by chance, if EVERY molecule in all the oceans of
1031 planet earths was an amino acid, and these kept linking up in sets
of 124 proteins EVERY second for 10 billion years would be 1 x 1078436.
And THAT is another BIG number! That is one followed by 78,436 zeros!
As mentioned earlier, such
"probabilities" are "impossibilities." They are fun
for math games, but nothing more. They have nothing to do with reality.
Yet such odds would have to be worked out in order to produce just 124
proteins! Without success in such odds as these, multiplied a
million-fold, evolution would be totally impossible.
Throughout this and the previous
chapter, we have only discussed the basics at the bottom of the ladder
of evolution. We have, as it were, only considered the first few
instants of time. But what about all the development after that?
More total impossibilities.
ENZYMES—*Fred Hoyle wrote in New
Scientist that 2000 different and very complex enzymes are required for
a living organism to exist. And then he added that random shuffling
processes could not form a single one of these in even 20 billion years!
He then added this:
"I don’t know how long it is
going to be before astronomers generally recognize that the arrangement
of not even one among the many thousands of biopolyers [enzymes,
proteins, hormones, etc.] on which life depends could have been arrived
at by natural processes here on the earth.
"Astronomers will have a little
difficulty in understanding this because they will be assured by
biologists that it is not so; the biologists having been assured in
their turn by others that it is not so. The ‘others’ are a group of
persons [the evolutionary theoreticians] who believe, quite openly, in
"They advocate the belief that,
tucked away in nature outside of normal physics, there is a law which
performs miracles (provided the miracles are in the aid of biology).
This curious situation sits oddly on a profession that for long has been
dedicated to coming up with logical explanations . . The modern miracle
workers are always found to be living in the twilight fringes of [the
two laws of] thermodynamics."—*Fred Hoyle, "The Big Bang in
Astronomy," in New Scientist, November 19, 1981, pp. 521-527.
*Taylor says that proteins, DNA, and
enzymes—all of which are very complicated—would all be required as
soon as a new creature was made by evolution.
"The fundamental objection to all
these [evolutionary] theories is that they involve raising oneself by
one’s own bootstraps. You cannot make proteins without DNA, but you
cannot make DNA without enzymes, which are proteins. It is a chicken and
egg situation. That a suitable enzyme should have cropped up by chance,
even in a long period, is implausible, considering the complexity of
such molecules. And there cannot have been a long time [in which to do
it]."—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), p. 201.
Enzyme systems do not work at all in the
body—until they are all there.
"Dixon [a leading enzymologist]
confesses that he cannot see how such a system could ever have
originated spontaneously. The main difficulty is that an enzyme system
does not work at all until it is complete, or nearly so. Another problem
is the question of how enzymes appear without pre-existing enzymes to
make them. ‘The association between enzymes and life,’ Dixon writes,
‘is so intimate that the problem of the origin of life itself is
largely that of the origin of enzymes.’ "—*Michael Pitman, Adam
and Evolution (1984), pp. 144-145.
DIXON-WEBB CALCULATION—In 1964
*Malcolm Dixon and *Edwin Webb, on page 667 of their standard reference
work, Enzymes, mentioned to fellow scientists that in order to get the
needed amino acids in close enough proximity to form a single protein
molecule, a total volume of amino-acid solution equal to 1050 times the
volume of our earth would be needed! That would be 1 with 50 zeros after
it multiplied by the contents of a mixing bowl. And the bowl would be so
large that planet earth would be in it!
After using the above method to obtain
ONE protein molecule, what would it take to produce ONE hemoglobin
(blood) molecule which contains 574 specifically coded amino acids? On
page 279 of their Introduction to Protein Chemistry, *S.W. Fox and *J.F.
Foster tell how to do it:
First, large amounts of random amounts
of all 20 basic types of protein molecules would be needed. In order to
succeed at this, enough of the random protein molecules would be needed
to fill a volume 10512 TIMES the volume of our entire known universe!
And all of that space would be packed in solid with protein molecules.
In addition, all of them would have to contain only left-handed amino
acids (which only could occur 50 percent of the time in synthetic
Then and only then could random chance
produce just the right combination for ONE hemoglobin molecule, with the
proper sequence of 574 left-handed amino acids!
Yet there are also thousands of other
types of protein molecules in every living cell, and even if all of them
could be assembled by chance,—the cell would still not be alive.
BEYOND DNA AND PROTEIN—We have focused
our attention on DNA and protein sequence in this chapter. Just for a
moment, let us look beyond DNA and protein to a few of the more
complicated organs in the human body. As we do so, the requirements
which randomness would have to hurdle become truly fabulous. Consider
the human brain, with its ten billion integrated cells in the cerebral
cortex. How could all that come about by chance? Ask an expert on
ductless glands to explain hormone production to you. Your head will
swim. Gaze into the human eye and view how it is constructed, how it
works. You who would cling to evolution as a theory that is workable
give up! give up! There is no chance! Evolution is impossible!
COMPUTER SIMULATION—Prior to the late
1940s, men had to work out their various evolutionary theories with
paper and pencil. But then advanced computers were invented. This
changed the whole picture. By the 1970s, it had become clear that the
"long ages" theories just did not work out. Computer
calculations have established the fact that, regardless of how much time
was allotted for the task,—evolution could not produce life-forms!
Evolutionists can no longer glibly say,
"Given enough time and given enough chance, living creatures could
arise out of seawater and lightning, and pelicans could change
themselves into elephants." (Unfortunately, evolutionists still say
such things, because the ignorant public does not know the facts in this
But computer scientists can now feed all
the factors into a large computer—and get fairly rapid answers. Within
a dramatically short time they can find out whether evolution is
possible after all!
Unfortunately, the evolutionists prefer
to stay away from such computer simulations; they are afraid to face the
facts. Instead they spend their time discussing their dreamy ideas with
one another and writing articles about their theories in scientific
A computer scientist who spoke at a
special biology symposium in Philadelphia in 1967, when computers were
not as powerful as they are today, laid out the facts this way:
"Nowadays computers are operating
within a range which is not entirely incommensurate with that dealt with
in actual evolution theories. If a species breeds once a year, the
number of cycles in a million years is about the same as that which one
would obtain in a ten-day computation which iterates a program whose
duration is a hundredth of a second . . Now we have less excuse for
explaining away difficulties [via evolutionary theory] by invoking the
unobservable effect of astronomical [enormously large] numbers of small
variations."—*M.P. Schutzenberger, Mathematical Challenges to the
Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution (1967), pp. 73-75 (an address
given at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology Symposium).
*Schutzenberger than turned his
attention to the key point that scientists admit to be the only real
basis of evolution: gradual improvements in the genetic code through
beneficial mutations, resulting in new and changed species:
"We believe that it is not
conceivable. In fact, if we try to simulate such a situation by making
changes randomly at the typographic level—by letters or by blocks, the
size of the unit need not matter—on computer programs, we find that we
have no chance (i.e., less than 1/101000) even to see what the modified
program would compute; it just jams!’
"Further, there is no chance (less
than 1/101000) to see this mechanism (this single changed characteristic
in the DNA) appear spontaneously and, if it did, even less [chance] for
it to remain!
"We believe that there is a
considerable gap in the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution, and we
believe this gap to be of such a nature that it cannot be bridged within
the current conception of biology."—*Ibid.
There is a one in 1/101000 chance that
just one mutation could be beneficial and improve DNA. Now 1/101000is
one with a thousand zeros after it! In contrast, one chance in a million
only involves six zeros! Compare it with the almost impossible
likelihood of your winning a major multimillion-dollar state lottery in
the United States: That figure has been computed, and is only a
relatively "tiny" number of six with six zeros after it.
Evolution requires probabilities which are totally out of the realm of
THE DNA LANGUAGE—Another researcher,
*M. Eden, in attendance at the same Wistar Institute, said that the code
within the DNA molecule is actually in a structured form, like letters
and words in a language. Like them, the DNA code is structured in a
certain sequence, and only because of the sequence can the code have
*Eden then goes on and explains that
DNA, like other languages, cannot be tinkered with by random variational
changes; if that is done, the result will always be confusion!
"No currently existing formal
language can tolerate random changes in the symbol sequences which
express its sentences. Meaning is invariably destroyed."—*M.
Eden, "Inadequacies of Neo-Darwinian Evolution as a Scientific
Theory," in op. cit., p. 11.
And yet evolutionary theory teaches that
DNA and all life appeared by chance, and then evolved through random
changes within the DNA!
(For more information on those special
evolutionary conferences, see chapter 1. History of Evolutionary
THE MORE TIME, THE LESS
SUCCESS—Evolutionists imagine that time could solve the problem: Given
enough time, the impossible could become possible. But time works
directly against success. Here is why:
"Time is no help. Biomolecules
outside a living system tend to degrade with time, not build up. In most
cases, a few days is all they would last. Time decomposes complex
systems. If a large ‘word’ (a protein) or even a paragraph is
generated by chance, time will operate to degrade it. The more time you
allow, the less chance there is that fragmentary ‘sense’ will
survive the chemical maelstrom of matter."—*Michael Pitman, Adam
and Evolution (1984), p. 233.
ALL AT ONCE—Everything had to come
together all at once. Within a few minutes, all the various parts of the
living organism had to make themselves out of sloshing, muddy water.
"However, conventional Darwinian
theory rationalizes most adaptations by assuming that sufficient time
has transpired during evolution for natural selection to provide us with
all the biological adaptations we see on earth today, but in reality the
adaptive process must by necessity occur rather quickly (in one or at
the most two breeding generations)."—*E. Steele, Somatic
Selection and Adaptive Evolution (2nd ed. 1981), p. 3.
"So the simultaneous formation of
two or more molecules of any given enzyme purely by chance is
fantastically improbable."—*W. Thorpe, "Reductionism in
Biology," in Studies in the Philosophy of Biology (1974), p. 117.
"From the probability standpoint,
the ordering of the present environment into a single amino acid
molecule would be utterly improbable in all the time and space available
for the origin of terrestrial life."—*Homer Jacobson,
"Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life," American
Scientist, January 1955, p. 125.
"To form a polypeptide chain of a
protein containing one hundred amino acids represents a choice of one
out of 1O130 possibilities. Here again, there is no evidence suggesting
that one sequence is more stable than another, energetically. The total
number of hydrogen atoms in the universe is only 1078. That the
probability of forming one of these polypeptide chains by change is
unimaginably small; within the boundary of conditions of time and space
we are considering it is effectively zero."—*E. Ambrose, The
Nature and Origin of the Biological World (1982), p. 135.
"Directions for the reproduction of
plans, for energy and the extraction of parts from the current
environment, for the growth sequence, and for the effector mechanism
translating instruction into growth—all had to be simultaneously
present at that moment. This combination of events has seemed an
incredibly unlikely happenstance, and has often been ascribed to divine
intervention."—*Homer Jacobson, "Information, Reproduction
and the Origin of Life," American Scientist, January 1955, p. 121.
BACTERIA DISPROVE EVOLUTION—Let us go
beyond DNA molecules and pieces of protein, and consider one of the
simplest of life-forms. Scientists have studied in detail the bacterium,
Escherichia coli. These bacteria are commonly found in the large bowel.
Under favorable conditions bacterial
cells can divide every 20 minutes. Then their offspring immediately
begin reproducing. Theoretically, one cell can produce 1020 cells in one
day! For over a century researchers have studied E-coli bacteria. All
that time those bacteria have reproduced as much as people could in
millions of years. Yet never has one bacterium been found to change into
anything else. And those little creatures do not divide simply. The
single chromosome replicates (makes a copy of itself), and then splits
in two. Then each daughter cell splits in two, forming the various cells
in the bacterium. These tiny bacteria can divide either sexually or
Escherichia coli has about 5000 genes in
its single chromosome strand. This is the equivalent of a million
three-letter codons. Yet this tiny bacterium is one of the
"simplest" living creatures that exists.
Please, do not underestimate the
complexity of this, a creature with only ONE chromosome: First, that one
chromosome is a combination lock with a million units, arranged in a
definite sequence. Second, each unit is made up of three sub-units
(A-C-C, G-T-A, etc.). Third, the sub-units are combined from four
different chemical building blocks: A, G, C, and T. What are the
possible number of combinations for that one chromosome? Get a sheet of
paper and figure that one out for yourself.
FRAME SHIFTS—Then scientists
discovered an even "simpler" creature that lives in the human
bowel. It is called the theta-x-174, and is a tiny virus. It is so
small, that it does not contain enough DNA information to produce the
proteins in its membrane! How then can it do it? How can it produce
proteins without enough DNA code to produce proteins! Scientists were
totally baffled upon making this discovery. Then they discovered the
high-tech secret: The answer is but another example of a
super-intelligent Creator. The researchers found that this tiny,
mindless creature routinely codes for that protein thousands of times a
day—and does it by "frame shift."
To try to describe it in simple words, a
gene is read off from the first DNA base to produce a protein. Then the
same message is read again—but this time omitting the first base and
starting with the second. This produces a different protein. And on and
on it goes. Try writing messages in this manner, and you will begin to
see how utterly complicated it is: "Try writing messages / writing
messages in / messages in this / in this manner." That is how the
simplest of viruses uses its DNA coding to make its protein!
Does someone think that the virus was
smart enough to figure out that complicated procedure with its own
brains? Or will someone suggest that it all "just happened by
With all this in mind, *Wally Gilbert, a
Nobel prize winning molecular biologist, said that bacteria and viruses
have a more complicated DNA code-reading system than the "higher
forms of life."
THE CENTRAL DOGMA—*Francis Crick, the
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, prepared a genetic principle
which he entitled, "The Central Dogma":
"The transfer of information from
nucleic acid to nucleic acid, or from nucleic acid to protein may be
possible, but transfer from protein to protein, or from protein to
nucleic acid is impossible."—*Francis Crick, "Central
Dogma," quoted in *Richard Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution
(1990), p. 77.
The Central Dogma is an important
scientific principle and means this: The complex coding within the DNA
in the cell nucleus decides the traits for the organism. But what is in
the body and what happens to the body cannot affect the DNA coding. What
this means is this: Species cannot change from one into another! All the
members in a species (dogs, for example) can only be the outcome of the
wide range of "gene pool" data in the DNA, but no member of
that species can, because of the environment or what has happened to
that individual, change into another species. Only changes in the DNA
coding can produce such changes; nothing else can do it.
"It [the Central Dogma] has proved
a fruitful principle, ever since James Watson and Crick discovered the
double-helix structure of DNA in the 1950s. DNA is the blueprint; it
gives instructions to the RNA and to proteins about how to arrange
themselves."—*Richard Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990),
"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."—*Francis Crick, Life Itself (1981), p. 88.
BLUE GENE—As we near press time on
this paperback, announcement has been made that IBM has begun work on
their largest computer to-date. It is called "Blue gene"; and
it must be powerful, for they have been building ever larger
supercomputers since the 1940s. This one will be 100 times more powerful
than Big Blue, the computer used to defeat Kasperson in chess several
They are trying to figure out something
which is so utterly complicated that no lesser computer can handle the
task. No, not something simple like computing a trip to Saturn and back.
Their objective is solving something far more complicated. —It is
figuring out how a protein folds!
In every cell in your body, brainless
proteins assemble more proteins from amino acids. They put them into
their proper sequence (!), and then, as soon as the task is ended, the
new protein automatically folds down into a clump, as complicated as a
piece of steel wool. IBM is trying to figure out the fold pattern
instantly made by this microscopic piece of mindless, newborn protein!
The computer will cost $100 million, and
Stanford University is trying to get people to let them use their home
computers to help with the task (go to standford.edu for details). They
say they need the information to figure out drugs to counteract HIV and
other viruses. So far, they can only get the protein to wiggle; they
cannot get it to fold (NPR, Wednesday evening, September 27, 2000).
As we go to press: It has recently been
discovered that the terrible plague of Mad Cow Disease, (initially brought
into existence by cannibalism) is caused by protiens that do not fold
For more on proteins and how they do
their work in the cell, go to our website, evolution-facts.org, and
locate a special study on protein which we have prepared. It contains a
remarkable collection of facts.
COULD NOT DO THIS
The teeth of a rat are designed so
the top two front teeth go behind the bottom two, at just the right
angle to produce self-sharpening teeth. Engineers at General Electric
wanted to design a self-sharpening saw blade in order to obtain exactly
the right angle in relation to the metal it is cutting; so they studied
the teeth of a rat. They found there was no other way it could be done
as efficiently. As it slices through the metal, small pieces of the new
blade are cut away by the metal, thus always keeping the blade sharp.
That self-sharpening blade lasts six times longer than any other blade
they had previously been able to make. All because the trained
researchers studied the teeth of a rat.
CHAPTER 8 - STUDY AND
DNA AND PROTEIN
GRADES 5 TO 12 ON A
1- Prepare a diagram of
a DNA molecule. Use different colors to show the different parts.
2 - Research the story
of how DNA was discovered and write a report on it.
3 - Would it be easier
for DNA to be made by randomness or by researchers in a laboratory?
Could living DNA be made in either place?
4 - Research into what
is in a blood cell, and then write about the different parts. Underline
those parts which could be produced by random action (called
5 - There are 20
essential amino acids, 300 special-sequence amino acids in each
medium-sized protein, and billions of possible sequences. What do you
think would happen in your body if just one of those sequences was out
6 - Can "non-random
patterns" be produced randomly? Codes are made by intelligent
people. Can they be produced by chance?
7 - Find out how DNA
divides, and write a brief report on how it happens.
8 - Random production of
amino acids always produce a 50-50 mixture of left- and right-handed
forms of them. Could the randomness of evolution produce living tissue
with only left-handed amino acids?
9 - Why is it that
evolutionists do not give up trying to prove that impossible things can
10 - There are 26
reasons why DNA cannot be originated outside of living tissue. List 10
which you consider to be the most unlikely to be accomplished
11 - Briefly explain one
of the following: translator package, messenger RNA, biological
compiler, codon, nucleotide, t-DNA.
12 - Write a report on
the mathematical possibilities (probabilities) that amino acids,
protein, or DNA could be accidently produced by random activity in
barrels of chemicals which filled all of space throughout the universe.
You have just completed
8 DNA AND PROTEIN
Go to the next file in
Chapter 9 Natural Selection