Kanook – Tlingit Nation

January – 2010

Most of us, who give a rip, have heard from time-to-time that “Mother Nature”
designed and made this, or that. We read in wonder and stare at presentations with
looks of awe and reverence at the magnificence of Nature.
But hang on there, just because something simply exists in our environment
doesn’t necessarily mean it originated from Nature – say for instance I take all the
atoms and chemicals that make up a salmon and scattered them about and walk
away “Mother Nature” doesn’t have the ability or wherewithal to re-organize them
into a fish again – whereas it will take a couple of more salmon to make another
one.
Yes I realize, as preached from the bully pulpits of academia and higher levels of
science that “amino acids” are the basic building blocks of life and some do come
together by chance, consider it has NEVER been demonstrated that various “amino
acids” can come together into a sequence by “chance” to form protein molecules,
not even in Hollywood. The reason that “amino acids” come together into a
sequence in the cells of our bodies is because they have a road-map directing them
to do so, this road-map being an already existing genetic code or program labeled
our DNA, which is also made up of molecules arranged in a precise sequence. In
other words, no road-map, poor “Mother Nature” would wander around and be as
helpless as you trying to make sense out of you telephone bill.
At one time or the other we have either read or heard the arguments over
evolution and intelligent design, one thing I do find astounding is how many of our
society believe, including the highly educated, that scientists have already created
life in the laboratory – push it aside, it has never been done! They have genetically
engineered existing forms of life, with a result of being able to produce new forms
of life, but they have not made new life-forms from non-living matter – zip! And
even if they did produce life from non-living matter this would support the process
of intelligent design or planning and still not support the process of life originating
by chance or evolution. There have been recent reports that scientists “may be”
close to creating artificial (synthetic) life – none happening by chance, here again
an artificial life form created with intelligent design and planning – also consider
how many life forms on our Blue Marble have gone extinct in your life span – how
many new ones have wandered out of the jungle or crawled ashore from the oceans
– yep zip! And yet the majority of society breezes through their day denying the
process of intelligent design…makes you wonder.
The artificial life experiments do not consist of a couple of yokel locals drinking a
bottle of coke halfway and then throwing in some amino acids and then shaking it
wildly creating a mixture pressurized with carbon dioxide and shooting it into a
beaker boiling away – they have peeled back the DNA code twisted it around a bit
and then implanted the result into an already existing living cell and, bingo by
changing the cell we have a new form of life. But really, if a cell had evolved it
would have had to be in a relatively short time, whereas a partially evolved cell
can’t wait around in a local puddle for millions of years to attain complete status, it
might become highly unstable and disintegrate in an open environment, especially
if it did not have a solid fully functioning membrane. When you consider the simple
fact that an average cell can contain millions of protein molecules and that an
average protein molecule may have five-hundred amino acids arranged sequentially
and larger protein molecules have thousands creating a simple cell that would have
millions of complex protein molecules the act of “chance” is getting pretty slim.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (“DNA”) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic
instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms
and some viruses. Ribonucleic Acid (“RNA”) is a biologically important type of
molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Paradoxically without
DNA there cannot be RNA, and without RNA there cannot be DNA, and if you
eliminate either there cannot be proteins, and without proteins there cannot exist
DNA or RNA, as you can see they are mutually dependent upon each other for
existence!! Now I realize that our present scientific community has NOT been
around for millions of years to observe a bowl of amino acids turn into a sunflower,
but then again amino acids by themselves under perfect conditions do not survive
very long in a laboratory, much less millions of years. Common acceptable belief is
that it took one billion years for the first life-form or cell to have evolved, a common
gospel taught in our elementary and secondary schools – a gospel that cannot be
sustained by modern science. Yes, Yes maybe our science has not hit upon the
right combination(s) that created the cell one billion or so years ago, such as a
lighting strike impacting a sea of amino acids and millions of amino acids suddenly
getting together and “wala” a living breathing cell rejoices understanding that
sometime in the next few million years a slimy lizard will crawl from the bowl of
juice onto dry land and eventually become a alligator…this is the common belief.
Back on track here, once there is a complete, living, and fully functioning cell the
genetic program and the complex biological mechanisms exist to “direct” the
formation of more cells – in a complete and living cell, the cell membranes only
allows the entrance of certain raw materials and molecules from the environment.
Gaining entrance the genetic code and other complex biological mechanisms direct
these raw materials or molecules to form more cells with their own genetic code
and complex mechanisms – this creates the question “how” could life have come
about “naturally” on Earth when there was NO existing code or directing
mechanism in Nature?
British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle once said that the “probability of the sequence
of molecules in the simplest cell coming into existence by ‘chance’ is equivalent to
a tornado going through a junk yard of airplane parts and assembling a 747 Jumbo
Jet!” We tend to judge something as being simple or complex by its size! This
assumption leads us to believe that because a cell is microscopic that it must be
simple, whereas size is relative and that if you were as big as the Empire State
Building you would more than likely believe that the tiny cars beneath your feet
were simple and came together such as the 747 in the junk yard, you and I know
that is not the case.
Natural laws are adequate in explaining how the “order” in life, the universe, and
even a microwave oven operates, but mere “undirected” natural laws cannot fully
explain the origin of such “order”. It is understandable that science “cannot” prove
how life originated since us super-dooper humans were not present when it came
about, and our basis for science is formulated on establishing proof, it is my belief
that both sides should have the opportunity to present their case, so-to-speak.
Take for instance the snaps taken of Mars that supposedly showed pyramids and a
similar picture of a face, here we have an uninhabited planet and at present we
have to scientific proof that the figures were carved or simply originated by chance
processes of erosion or a chance positioning of light – none of positions is science,
but debate has been made to support one or the other.
Remember “Natural Selection” is a figure of speech, where many belief it is proof
of nature that we evolved, however keep in mind that it by itself does not produce
biological variations whereas natural selection only works where biological
variations which are possible and have a high-end survival value. In other words, it
is a passive process in nature – simply it is another way of saying that if a biological
variation occurs which is helpful to an animal or plant’s survival then that the
variation will be preserved and be passed on. Also, natural selection only applies
“once” there is life and not before –fact: Nature does not do any active or conscious
breeding, where natural selection is NOT involved in any “pre-biotic”, non-living
interactions of chemicals.
Dyed-in-the-wool hardcore evolutionists believe that random or chance mutations
in the “genetic code”, caused by random environmental forces such as radiation,
will produce favorable evolutionary changes necessary for natural selection to act
upon. Tell me how many times have you put a piece of beef in a microwave oven to
prepare for cooking, and when the microwave was finished a steer walked forth
from the microwave? In addition, there is NO evidence that random or chance
mutations in the genetic code are capable of making or creating biological
complexity or vertical evolution among natural species whereas mutations are only
present in horizontal evolution or variations within natural species—in any case,
most biological variations among natural species are a product of new combinations
in existing genes and NOT mutations.
We all understand that life is complex, but few understand that it is more logical
to believe that the genetic and biological similarities between all species are due to
design rather than common evolutionary ancestry…in other words it is only logical
that a designer would design similar functions for similar purposes and different
functions for different purposes encompassing all of the various forms of life.
Science understands that the Law of Entropy shows that the Universe does not
have the ability to have sustained itself from all eternity, it required a beginning!
Just as we understand from science that natural laws could not have brought the
Universe into being from Nothing…what some of us do not understand or believe is
that the Universe might have had a designer acting as a the originator.
It is not only religious texts, such as the Christian Bible that refer to creation, as
over the years mankind has found numerous references to creation, some carved in
rock tablets pre-dating ancient history and too many to count myths from multiple
locations and societies scattered randomly across our Earth. Stories that have been
passed down over countless years, stories that amuse and cause great hilarity
amongst the evolutionists, slamming the authors and the persons who pay attention
to the myths of the ancients creating countless debates even among the greatest
scientific minds. Yet the same who make fun of the myths when falling back on
their science, look and find very little to support their ideas of evolution and natural
selection.
Information in this short piece is based on an article by Babu G. Ranganathan who
has a B.S. in biology and in theology. He is recognized in the Marquis “Who’s Who
in the East”.