Session 6 – Refuting Evolution Pt.2

Session 6 – Refuting Evolution Pt.2 In this final session we will continue our refutation of the theory of evolution We will look at what most believe is the best evidence against evolution, and great evidence for the creator God of scripture Don’t let your study stop after this, there is much more information available on these topics that support the Biblical view

Irreducible Complexity & Design In this session we will look at two topics that are similar but distinct from each other The first is the argument against evolution from irreducible complexity (which will be explained in a moment) The second will be a general argument against evolution from design and complexity found in organism

"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.“ - Charles Darwin, Origin of Species Evolution must explain everything by random mutation and natural selection (which we showed isn’t possible) in short successive building steps over billions of years

The best argument against evolution (in my opinion) comes from Irreducible Complexity which was originally put forward (and remains to be argued) by Dr. Michael Behe “By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal or any one of the parts causes the system to effectively crease functioning” – Michael Behe

The example often given to illustrate this is a mouse trap with it’s five interacting parts If you remove the spring (1 or the 5 parts) from the mouse trap, does it become 1/5th less effective than before? No. It’s useless Unless you have all the parts there, there is no function to the mouse trap

The mouse trap couldn’t “evolve”, because evolution does things step by step over a period of time, not all at once When dealing with living organisms, natural selection should get rid of useless machinery that is taking nutrition from the cell. If you have to build these step by step, but don’t have any function until all steps are complete, the organisms doesn’t look ahead and wait for that function to come about, it either has a beneficial function or doesn’t

Irreducibly complex systems Bacterial Flagellum Motor The flagellum is a rotary motor in bacteria that drives a propeller to spin It is capable of spinning 100,000 rpm More than other motors found in nature, this one looks like something we’d make

When we look at a simple bacteria (E. Coli) we’ve discovered there are 35 genes (Proteins) that make up this system If any one of these genes was not in place, the flagellum would not function, and would be removed by natural selection You need all the pieces of this puzzle in place to begin in order for evolution t explain it, but there is no mechanism that can arrange these 35 parts from the get go

Eukaryotic Cilium The cilium is a hair-like, or whip-like structure that is built upon a system of microtubules the function of the cilium will fail if it is missing any microtubules, connecting arms, or lacks sufficient dynein motors Because everything is needed to work, it’s irreducibly complex

Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases (aaRS) These enzymes are responsible for fusing tRNA with the proper amino acid Most cells require twenty different aaRS (one for each of the amino acids needed) If you don’t have all types of aaRS present, translation cannot continue (and life ends)

Ribosomes These molecular machines are essential for life, and give us the best example of an irreducibly complex system Ribosomes are responsible for RNA translation, and the production of polypeptides (proteins) inside cells

How does it work?

George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics said: “The ribosome, both looking at the past and at the future, is a very significant structure -- it's the most complicated thing that is present in all organisms. Craig does comparative genomics, and you find that almost the only thing that's in common across all organisms is the ribosome. And it's recognizable; it's highly conserved…

So the question is, how did that thing come to be? And if I were to be an intelligent design defender, that's what I would focus on; how did the ribosome come to be?” For the most simple Ribosome, a minimum of 53 proteins and 3 polynucleotides are required to function (many ribosome's have around 300 proteins) They’ve tried to construct more simple ribosome's in the lab, and have failed

“The only way we're going to become good scientists and prove that it could come into being spontaneously is to develop a much better in vitro system where you can make smaller versions of the ribosome that still work, and make all kinds of variations on it to do really useful things but that are really wildly different, and so forth, and get real familiarity with this really complicated machine. Because it does a really great thing: it does this mutual information trick…

but not from changing something kind of trivial, from DNA to RNA; that's really easy. It can change from DNA three nucleotides into one amino acid. That's really marvelous. We need to understand that better..” – Dr. George Church Leading evolutionists agree this system is problematic for the theory, it’s the best example of a system that can’t get any simpler, but is essential for life to exist

ATP Synthase According to cell biologist and molecular machine modeler David Goodsell, “ATP synthase is one of the wonders of the molecular world.” Found inside the Mitochondria (and other places) ATP Synthase is the power (ATP) producing molecular machines of the cell Understand there are many steps before ATP synthase also needed to get energy

There are two motors involved with this system, the F0 (powered by protons) and F1 motors (powered by the F0 motor) This kinetic energy is used like a generator to synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP) Cyanide blocks the step prior to this, making ATP synthase useless and killing the organism

Whole processes in the cell often require many independent molecular machines to make them happen DNA replication In order for cells to divide (and for life to continue) DNA must be replicated This vital process is not a simple challenge for evolution to overcome, and shows evidence of incredible design by a creator

Here’s an overview of what happens All these parts have a vital function

DNA polymerase This is the main character in replication, it’s the machine that reads and adds nucleotides to create a template strand of DNA It is extremely accurate, making less than one mistake per billion bases (usually if a mistake is made, it catches and corrects it)

Other parts Topoisomerase cuts and rejoined the DNA during replication Helicase catalyzes the breaking of hydrogen bonds between the original DNA strands being copied SSBP attached to the separated strands to prevent them from recombining

Primase adds RNA primers to the lagging strand of DNA which is needed for DNA polymerase to begin doing it’s job DNA Polymerase I replaces the RNA with DNA Ligase closes the gaps on the lagging strand

RNA Polymerase in cells Without RNA polymerase, you wouldn’t have the RNA needed to code for proteins in the Ribosome we looked at earlier It’s not as simple as RNA polymerase though, you need initiation factors in order for RNA polymerase to start doing it’s job These initiation factors guide the RNA polymerase to where it needs to be on the strand of DNA

What about these simple cells? Understand that most these molecular machines we have been discussing are inside the most simple cells “To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York…

What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like the port holes of a vast space ship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity.” Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory In Crisis

Here is a “simple” bacteria cells

Here is a Eukaryotic cell

Human (Mammals) reproduction shows great complexity and design

Ovaries contain 400,000 eggs to begin! The mother never generates more Fertilization happens very quick after the egg enters the fallopian tube, and the baby begins to grow from that point If the egg can’t get from the ovary to the tube, life can’t continue

If fertilization happens inside the tube, that means you need to get the sperm up to that point, while moving the egg down If you can’t get the fertilized egg down the fallopian tube, the baby can implant in that location and cause a tubal pregnancy (which kills both mother and baby)

How do the sperm get up to the egg? It is true they swim, but left alone they would never reach the egg. The muscles inside the tube help move the sperm upward But if the muscles are moving the sperm upward, how is the egg coming down? There are trillions of little hairs (Cilia) that help move the egg down! What kind of motion do they use?

Maybe they just go wild? Maybe they are like windshield wipers on a car going back and forth? Reality? They end up doing the wave

The next obstacle will be fertilization (But don’t worry, there was a smart designer) There are several barriers that the sperm must over come to fertilize the egg, but it has what it needs The sperm must first get through the cumulus and the shell of the egg

Luckily it has enzymes needed to dissolve those barriers and always it entry Once it’s inside the egg, there is a check that takes place to make sure it’s the same species (which is why humans and monkeys can’t have offspring together) You then have to make sure no other sperm get into the egg, which is hard because usually many are trying to. So once the first sperm get’s in there is a reaction that creates another shell to prevent others

From that point the process of growth begin to take place as the cells begin to divide If left alone for the next 9 or so months (for humans) you will get a baby Psalm 139:14: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” God created the miracle of reproduction and should get the credit for it and everything else that he created

Memory Verse Hebrews 11:3: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

Session 6 – Refuting Evolution Pt.2