Elaine

Biological requirements for Life

Just how "simple" can a functioning organism get? Microbiologists are the experts in the field. Here is what they say. At minimum, the first living organism must have possessed all of the following:

Something to hold together the energy and the molecules which make the cell function

Something to control movement of materials in and out of the cell

Something that will provide genetic instructions for duplicating itself and issue instructions for building proteins from amino acids

Something that will translate the genetic instructions and assemble the needed proteins

Something which will act as a factory for protein assembly

Something for transporting and storing energy

Something to act as a catalyst for chemical reactions

Something to fill in the cell area which will not impede operations.

These are the bare bone, essential requirements for life. Remove just one of these "somethings" and life will cease. This point cannot be over emphasized: Everyone of these functions, had to be in complete working order from the first instant. Otherwise, life would never have begun at all. A piecemeal or haphazard start will not work.

Bacteria and Blue-Green Algae

Fortunately for us, bacteria and blue-green algae have retained these basic elements without requiring new ones. If evolution has occurred, they haven't heard of it. They possess:

An outer membrane which holds together energy and molecules that make the cell function, and the membrane controls movement of materials in and out of the cell

DNA, a nucleic acid which contains genetic instructions for making identical copies of itself and issues instructions for building proteins from amino acids

RNA, a nucleic acid which "reads" DNA and assembles proteins

Ribsomes, structural sites which act as factories for assembling proteins

ATP molecules for transporting and storing energy

Enzymes, proteins which act as catalysts for chemical reactions

Cytoplasm, a jelly-like substance that fills the cell wall.

These single-celled organisms are, in fact, what microbiologists describe when they state the essential requirements for life. And they are readily available for study. Here is the most extraordinary fact about bacteria: To produce this "simple" single-celled life form requires a DNA sequence of 3 million nucleotides, all aligned into a very specific order.

Change the order and you damage or destroy the bacteria. Simple? Absolutely not! The very first living microorganism started off as a highly complex and sophisticated form of life.

Charles Darwin did not have access to an electronic microscope. Consequently, he and his 19th century scientists could not see the intricate structures or the intense activity taking place in the cell. Little wonder Darwin thought the cell was simple. He reasoned if enough chemicals of the right sort were to bump into each other in a "warm little pond," eventually, life would ensue from one of these chance meetings.

Amino Acids

That theory inspired scientists into a number of experiments. Researchers mixed precise measurements of water, hydrogen, ammonia, and methane; then sparked their concoctions with electric charges or exposed them to ultraviolet light. They did get results. They produced several amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. But that is all they are - building blocks. It is not life itself. In fact, it is nowhere near life.

Biogenesis

The chemical complexities of even the simplest form of life is a chasm over which random combinations of molecules cannot jump. Biologists know it. They have even codified it into law. The principle of biogenesis says that a living organism can originate only from one or two parents of the same kind. A cell comes from a previous cell; life comes from previous life. This rule is universally validated and has no known exceptions.

Law of Entropy

Not only is the "accumulating chemical" explanation for life contrary to the law of biogenesis, it is also at odds with the second law of thermodynamics, also called the law of entropy. We have run across this law before. It's the law that says everything is running down; organization is deceasing, in general, the whole universe is headed toward an equilibrium where movement will cease.

Against that law, naturalists claim an exception. Instead of dissipating, chemicals of just the right type and quantity congregated and united [on their own initiative?] into ever increasing complex forms until they ultimately formed a living entity. Under normal circumstances, you can see how just the opposite would happen.

Get a glass of water and put in a couple drops of dye. After a few minutes, the whole glass of water becomes evenly colored with scattered atoms of dye. That proves the second law of thermodynamics, but what about the proposed exception?

Naturalist reply, "First we must have the right ingredients for life." By that they mean the 24 naturally occurring types of atoms which are essential to the formation and development of living organisms. But there are 92 different types of naturally occurring atoms on earth. What do we do the the other 68 atoms?

"Keep them away from the mixture," say the naturalists. Oh? That makes you wonder who or what in nature had the foresight to keep the 68 "bad" types of atoms away while the 24 "good" atom types frolicked and combined in the naturalist's broth.

"Second," say the naturalists, "we need the right proportions of ingredients. Heavy on the hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon atoms; medium on the nitrogen and calcium atoms; and light on the chlorine, iron, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sodium, and sulfur atoms. Hold the aluminum and no helium please!"

How did we happen to get these correct proportions four billion years ago? "Just chance," claim the naturalists. "Natural selection culled out the other aspiring combinations."

Oxygen in the Atmosphere

"Third, 3.5 billion years ago, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere to break down chemical combinations," explain the naturalists. Recently however, geologists have concluded that early earth might well have had oxygen in the atmosphere after all. Oxygen would tend to break down chemical combinations.

Electric Charge or Radiation

Anything else? "Yes, there needs to be a jolt of electricity or perhaps a bit of radiation to jump start the brew." But if a bolt of lightning hit anywhere near the chemical formation, in all probability, it would destroy the mixture or at least disperse it.

And if the geologists have it right, that is, if the early atmosphere contained oxygen, then planet earth also had an early ozone. We know that the ozone is a protective layer which dramatically reduces the opportunity of random radiation striking and energizing the naturalist's broth.

Before we proceed, let's review what we have discovered about life. The naturalist's chemical combination formula for life is contested by both the laws of biogenesis, which says life comes only from prior life, and by the law of entropy, which says everything including chemicals tend to dissipate over time, not congregate and unite. Other than being basically untenable and contrary to established scientific law, is there anything else wrong with the natural origin of life theory?

Yes, its requirements strain credibility. Consider the following: One way or another 24 different types of the right sort of atoms must accidentally bump into each other in correct proportions no less. At the same time they must somehow completely exclude the other 68 wrong sort of atoms.

Once the chance meeting of the 24 atomically correct molecules takes place, they must stay put until something comes along and zaps them. Not too much of a zap mind you. That would do in the whole chemical concoction.

The alternative explanation is that perhaps an ultraviolet ray found its way through the ancient ozone and landed on the assembled chemicals energizing them into action.

DNA and Proteins

Could it have happened that way? No, probably not. Life requires both DNA and proteins. DNA cannot transfer its genetic information without the assistance of proteins. And proteins cannot be constructed without DNA instructions for manufacturing amino acids. One without the other is useless. We must have DNA and a host of other specialized proteins together and operating in sync before life can function.

The odds are decisively against a chance meeting of chemicals initiating any sort of life. The naturalists know that as well as anybody else. But if no one has been able to come up with a logical explanation for the origin of life, where does that leave the naturalists?

Most of them admit that is a serious problem for their side. Without a scientific solution for life's inception, the claim that everything can be explained by natural means appears to be dead on arrival.

Here we find the Achilles heel of naturalism. Life's origins is a riddle for which naturalism has no answer.

Quote of the Day: "A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature." Anthony Flew, British philosopher, at age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake.

Jerry Boone, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, United States webmaster@merechristianity.us Mr. Boone is a sailor, author, and webmaster of http://merechristianity.us His works include: Mere Christianity.us and SAFETY LINE - EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN, an apologetic study published 1998.