by Bill Nugent
Article #126
On a recent radio broadcast an evolutionist college professor was being interviewed about creation science. It was an interesting interview in which the professor, who believed in atheistic materialism, deflected questions with humor, bluster and unfortunately — very little substance. It got especially interesting when a student asked the professor how the first living cell could have formed by chance from the primordial ooze in the early earth.
The professor said that the first living cells were probably based on RNA rather than the more complex DNA molecule. My ears really perked up when he said this because I thought I would finally hear an evolutionist grapple with chemical evolution. (The evolutionist claim that life came from nonlife is called “spontaneous generation”, “chemical evolution” or “abiogenesis.”) The professor disappointed me however, when he gave no further information but simply mumbled something about how the student could ask just about anybody on that big college campus for an answer. He quickly moved on to the next question.
By stating that he thought that the first living cells were based on RNA, the professor implied that RNA could form randomly from nonliving chemicals. Let’s look for a moment at the complexity of the RNA molecule and the immense hurdles that would have to be overcome if RNA were to form by random collisions of atoms. RNA is an extremely complex chemical compound that is composed of hundreds of nucleotides each consisting of a sugar called ribose, a phosphate group and nitrogenous bases all arranged in precise order. Any missing molecular part or any part out of order can render the RNA dysfunctional or completely inoperative.
Nobel prize winning scientist Francis Crick (not a creationist) who was co-discoverer of DNA has done a probability analysis to determine the odds of forming bio-polymers (proteins) by random processes. Dr. Crick in his book “Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature” on pages 51-52 describes the random possibilities presented by a very simple protein consisting of just 200 amino acids in a polypeptide chain. This is a molecule that is much simpler in chemical structure than RNA. The number of random possibilities presented by the simple protein are expressed by a one with 260 zeroes after it. That’s a number larger than the number of atoms in the known universe! This means that the right combination of atoms to form just one small protein occurs by chance only once in ten to the 260th power of random chemical events. Francis Crick has shown that the probability of unguided, random formation of just one small protein is so vanishingly small that to claim it happened by chance in the prebiotic earth would be unscientific speculation.
Many probability statisticians agree that any occurrence with a probability of one in ten to the 40th power will simply never happen. A protein forming by chance is far more remote than one in ten to the 40th power and therefore, according to probability statistics, it can’t happen.
Let’s suppose for argument’s sake that somehow, against all odds a strand of RNA did form by chance. In this case you would have an RNA molecule freely floating in the primordial soup (or as Darwin put it: a warm little pond). RNA by itself is not life. RNA needs all of the other components of a cell including cytoplasm and many organelles. All of the cellular structures are composed of proteins. We saw above in the citation from Crick’s book how remote it is for even one protein to form by chance. A typical “simple” one celled organism requires several hundred varieties of protein all bonded to each other in precise order to form the structure of a cell.
I could quote Hoyle, Wickramasinghe, Morowitz and others who have done probability analyses of the potential for biochemicals to form randomly. Their findings also calculated a probabilities so small as to never happen in a trillion years on a trillion earths.
The professor’s claim that the first living cells were RNA based solves nothing regarding the evolutionist’s dilemma. Life is conclusively proven to be too complex to have formed by chance. God designed and created life. Those who deny God as creator and teach young people atheistic evolution are slayers of souls and are on the road to damnation!
We must continually confront the two biggest fatal flaws of evolution. The first — as we have seen — is that life coming from nonlife (chemical evolution) is impossible. The second is that genetic mutations (the supposed mechanism of evolution) are destructive errors in DNA and do not result in uphill change in the genes to add new organ systems. Genetic mutations are typically caused by radiation or toxic chemicals that interfere with the DNA replication process. Radiation and toxins do not bring new base pairs to add new information to the DNA. There is no evolutionary mechanism to add necessary information to DNA. In nature we do not see genetic accretion. We see genetic entropy.
The lack of transitional forms in the fossil record also undermines evolution but fossils are more open to subjective and ambivalent interpretation. The probability analysis regarding the impossibility of proteins forming by chance is so airtight and based on hard science that it is unassailable.
An intellectually honest person when viewing the evidence, must reject evolution and acknowledge God as creator and Lord.
We must point people to Jesus Christ who came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament Bible prophecies written hundreds of years before His birth. No other person in all of history can match this claim! Jesus worked miracles in front of eyewitnesses and this is recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament. Miracles continue to be worked today by Christians who rely on the power of Christ.
Jesus suffered and died to take upon Himself the penalty of our sins, thus making atonement. He rose from the dead in victory to offer forgiveness of sins to all who turn to Him in repentance. Call upon Jesus Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!