A Bit of a Puzzle

 

In the first edition of his famous book On the Origin of Species Darwin closed the last paragraph with this sentence.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

He could not have been more horribly wrong. His proposed simple beginnings of forms most beautiful and wonderful do not exist. Humming birds, whales, bees, ants, elephants Etc, are the result of the inner workings of microscopic nanotechnology. Technology of a type which leaves the best efforts of mankind at the starting block. If you are a sceptic about design I ask you to watch these two videos. Because each one in a different way demonstrates the absurdity and ignorance at the root of evolutionary theory. There is no simplicity in nature, scientists having understood so much about living things, plants and animals still cannot fathom the mysteries of life at the molecular level. The reason being the levels of complexity continue in these systems seemingly without end. If modern science were open to any other explanation other than Darwinist, they might make more progress and emulate those scientists who studied nature with the mindset of Johannes Kepler to whom this saying is attributed: “Thinking God’s thoughts after him.” A man who was following the Master who preceded them all. Kepler is among the greatest of all scientists, a rational man who believed in God. If you were to argue he believed this because he lived in an age of faith then realise you have made a rod for your own back. For the same could be said for those who dismiss God as Creator. They live in an age of atheism and scepticism. Kepler said:

“Geometry is unique and eternal, a reflection of the mind of God. That men are able to participate in it is one of the reasons why man is an image of God.”

Look at the videos below and allow yourself to wonder at Creation.

 

 

 

Understanding nature at its most basic level is a puzzle. DNA is at the root of all living things and perhaps the most surprising. How did coded specified information leading to functional, apparently engineered biological units and systems arise from the chaos of the early earth before life began? And once life was established it produced billions of diverse features such as lungs, wings, blood vessels, molecular motors etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. The first puzzle is of a constantly occurring type throughout nature. We know a birds wing, brilliant though it is remains useless without its connection first to the body and then the necessary neural links to a brain. Second puzzle; we know all these big units have at root innumerable lesser, but arguably even more exquisite systems at the molecular level, each one of many millions combine to ensure all living things can survive the challenges of life. Beyond that there is the necessary Eco-system, which includes a fine tuned for life universe subject to universal laws. We are the recipients of a planet capable of photosynthesis and a supply of breathable air. These along with countless other component parts enable creatures like the birds and bees to live and flowers be pollinated. An encyclopedia of other marvels could follow, but we will stop here and consider the view which lords over every explanation concerning nature and creation. The most counter intuitive hypothesis ever conceived. And it took some of the brightest of those at the pinnacle of creation: scientists and philosophers to make the case. It is of course the one we all bow towards as if it were the Mecca of science: evolution!

This is another puzzle, because the common answer to how it all came about belongs to a category we all know from both science and common experience is impossible: things do not appear out of nothing from nowhere by chance. Artificial intelligence took intelligent design, no argument there. But the intelligence which conceived, designed and engineered AI, was not designed. It evolved from lifeless matter.

Extraordinary!

If I say birds cannot happen by chance evolutionists will cry Natural Selection you idiot! It is not just by chance, there is a selection process. My answer to that is simple. Anyone who has found themselves involved in a process of selection knows that selection is a function of intelligence, and intelligence is ruled out of the Darwinian script. The following is an example of the problems faced by a directionless, random process of selection. Try it, do some science. Throw Lego bricks in countless billions, or pieces of different puzzles into piles and wait for a random selective process to put them into any kind of order. Even if you examined the results on a minute by minute basis over billions of years no rational person would expect to find anything greater than what a one year child might create over a playtime of one hour. Two or three pieces or bricks set together only to be rearranged later into the chaos from which they arose. To select a piece of a puzzle and keep it hoping another that links to it will just turn up is to argue from intelligence. We all know without a shadow of doubt that order does not come out of chaos without the input of intelligence and a plan. So how in such a scheme did cellular life begin? The origins of complex interrelated plans for future development set into a context of all the building bricks necessary for the fulfilment of those plans being in place. We are faced with coded information stored in DNA capable of producing proteins, (building bricks) which construct the three dimensional living units that comprise everything seen in the natural world? No life without proteins is possible, but proteins follow the instructions laid down by DNA, which just to complicate the issue is made by proteins. This is simple classroom stuff, but it seems the questions I have asked are rarely stated and even less often answered. And the answers that are presented have nothing to do with science. There is not one single example of unguided chaotic forces operating on chemicals that have ever produced a functioning and self replicating living anything. That briefly is the unsolved puzzle. Unless of course you find the answer this way. Assume both the means and the result: the finished product being proof of the process. The bird wing proves evolution works.

Back to molecular building bricks, those without which life is impossible. DNA according to Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft DNA is far more advanced than any software created by man. And yet it must have existed and functioned as it does today from the genesis of life. Why? Because living things exist as they do because of DNA. It holds the plans which define type: whether that be grass or elephant, shape, size or pigmentation. The amazing information storage capacity of DNA will feature again in the context of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Why? Because DNA is at the cutting edge of new technology. Darwin’s simple beginnings, into which he invested so much hope fade into absurdity when set against the astonishing digital storage capacity of DNA. Then there is the puzzle of the first life forms.

Here is a description of a basic working unit which enables all life to exist: no life can exist without energy and this is supplied by molecular motors. Had Darwin known of their existence and seen its outline as a blurred image through the eyepiece of an ancient microscope, he may have exclaimed: “At last, the simple beginning of life I prophesied would one day be found!” The problem is he could never have seen it under a normal microscope. We are talking nanotechnology and electron microscopes. Had he been able to access such a device he would have seen as near a physical miracle as you could imagine. The simple beginning is anything but simple. How about this one: the MO-1 bacterial flagellum.  This is a rotary motor which provides bacteria with their source of movement through liquid environments. This tiny powerhouse of a bacteria beats them all and may be one of the most ancient ever discovered. It is powered by seven motors, arranged in a hexagonal array. All the gears interact with 24 smaller gears set between them. The seven flagella rotate one way, and the smaller gears rotate in the opposite direction thereby maximising torque while minimising friction. The gears are synchronised and the researchers who studied it stated, unsurprisingly given the facts, that it is highly organised. It’s performance is phenomenal, creating a speed in water unsurpassed by any other bacteria. The MO-1 motors can drive the bacteria at speeds of 100 body lengths per second. Nothing man-made could get close to competing, and certainly not man himself. Usain Bolt? Six body lengths per second.

If you believe in evolution via mutations and natural selection then please explain how these highly organised examples of engineered inventions have appeared on earth. Tell us how without design the previously referred to MO-1  motility system came into existence. It has exquisite design stamped on every part, of which it has a large number. And of course on top of this it has the ability to replicate itself. I do not believe it possible to deny that the evidence describing perhaps the most primitive organism on the planet, proves, beyond reasonable doubt the existence of a designer. There was a time, long, long ago, when modern science was birthed, that to argue as evolutionary scientists do would have been considered delusional. Your chances of finding a seat alongside the greats, and fathers of modern science would have have been remote. Float the evolutionary schooner in that largely Christian intellectual pond and watch it sink without trace. Newton, Maxwell Clark, Harvey, Boyle, Faraday etc would have asked Darwin to show the science; demonstrate the empirical scientific method you have applied; the repeated tests and the resulting evidence. They may well of said: this cannot work, because you Mr Darwin, have over the course of decades diligently observed breeders of plants and animals demonstrating that you can only push a type of dog or rose or pigeon so far and no further. There are limits to variability. Limits imposed by genetics, not by Christian philosophers or Creationists.

DATA STORAGE PROBLEMS

We really do have no excuse. If the above is not sufficient incentive to start thinking there is something in the design / designer argument, then consider the following. Data storage is a big and growing global problem, but its solution, via biotech is neat beyond adequate description. Here is how Microsoft took on the problem of data storage and retrieval. Powerful corporations around the world are alarmed at the mounting costs estimated for data storage. Not only governments but the most famous names in business, from Facebook to Microsoft are compelled to invest in huge data storage facilities: massive sprawling industrial buildings. This happens all over the globe. The answer is perhaps unsurprising given what you have read earlier. A solution has been found by harnessing the genius systems found in biology. Studies in biotech have produced amazing results.

Microsoft took the initiative to examine the potential wrapped up in nature. They converted the digital systems found in DNA.

Data storage density is DNA’s speciality subject. To cut to the chase how much information can DNA fit into a small unit? The answer? It can take the amount of data contained in around a hundred industrial sized buildings and reduce it to what do you think? Five industrial units? One such unit? No it is less, much less. See what the Creator of the world can do with a problem this size. It is of course a bit of a cheat since DNA surpasses all man-made efforts, it can store information three-dimensionally.

It is capable of storing these industrial shed loads of data in something the size of a….SHOE BOX!!!!

This is the story of life as presented to us. Life began with the appearance of single celled bacteria 3,800 million years ago. All bacteria are equipped with DNA. As a logical consequence it seems to me as if expert opinion endorses an origins of life theory placing a 3,800 million years old data storage kit as the first and most primitive example of life. A highly unlikely saviour and solution to what would otherwise be an insuperable problem to modern man. Who to applaud most highly: Microsoft or the ridiculously ancient molecule whose long name is Deoxyribonucleic acid? Microsoft had an inventor with a name: Bill Gates.  Deoxyribonucleic acid has no inventor, and goes under the title, unknown and anonymous. Where is God when you want him? Perhaps waiting for you to appear before him and interested in your explanation.

Below is a Harvard animation of the life going on in every cell of your body. It is helpful in watching this to get an idea what is going on. Right now trillions of them are conspiring to ensure you can see, read, comprehend and use your hands to access this information.  A cell has been described as a city. Within it you have local government, information and storage facilities, transport systems, factories, highways, import and export controls, communication systems, diagnosis and repair systems, security, post offices and much more. The membrane which holds it all together is ingenious beyond imagining. A cell can replicate itself within 24 hours, programmed death of a cell ensures we are not filled with useless debris. Is this a likely product of time and chance and selection. A rough figure of the number of cells you have is around 70 trillion.

 

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