Proof of God by examining the origin of life and the cell

The Origin of Life And The Other Cell Components

As we saw in Proof of God – The Protein, creating the basic building block and the origin of life by chance from amino acids in the primordial ooze is as near to impossible as we can get. We used the specific example of creating proteins from those amino acids to make the point that life was created on purpose by God.

Now let’s step back and look at other components in the cell to see the hand of God in action establishing the origin of life. Why do we keep looking at the cell and its components, you ask? Because the cell is the basic element around which all life as we know it is formed. Every living thing is comprised of cells. Every living thing that we see with our eyes is comprised of billions of cells that are created, reproduce and die. Inanimate objects like rocks, water and air do none of these things.

As noted in the Cellular Biology And The Origin Of Life, there are 4 types of organic molecules in a today’s cells:

Sugars (carbohydrates) provide nutrients or energy
Lipids store energy, trigger cellular processes and are part of cell membranes
Nucleic acids – DNA and RNA – carry “information” like that contained in your genes
Proteins execute the instructions carried in the nucleic acids and direct nearly all activity of the cell

In its simplest form, the cell cannot exist, reproduce and die unless it has at least some way to duplicate its “information” and processes. Some scientists theorize that because the RNA molecule contains “information” and can be duplicated, the very earliest cells arose in an “RNA World” – before DNA, proteins, sugars and lipids were part of cellular biology.

At face value, “RNA World” theories appear promising in that conceivable simpler pre-RNA molecules might have been able to trigger their own replication. The argument goes that pre-RNA molecules could lead to RNA molecules and other early cellular enablers (e.g., ribosome precursors) followed by more sophisticated DNA molecules and other cellular components. In addition, lab experiments have been able to create RNA molecules that fold up similar to proteins and can break themselves into smaller chunks like those needed to create proteins.

Here’s a nice, short video clearly describing the RNA World hypothesis:

Here’s a detailed and somewhat technical assessment for how the RNA World might have evolved: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/

The Time Problem

At issue is “why?” What would trigger all these things to coalesce this way by random chance – thus establishing the origin of life? In the inanimate world, there’s no such thing as “why?” Inanimate objects don’t operate with a purpose. Rocks don’t erode because they choose to erode. Glaciers don’t melt because they choose to erode. Only live, animate objects have a purpose and choose to do things for a reason.

Sure, it might be possible for random chance to, over billions of years, establish the origin of life with some form of pre-RNA molecule and slowly evolve to the state of today’s cell. But before we get too excited about that, let’s iterate all the random things that would have to happen to inanimate objects for this to occur:

Pre-RNA molecules that can replicate themselves would need to arise – per the suggestion in the RNA World hypothesis
- There are no remnants of such molecules in today’s cells nor is there any fossil evidence for these pre-RNA molecules [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/]
Pre-RNA molecules would need to give rise to RNA molecules
- This has been shown in lab experiments but, of course, there was a scientist with a purpose doing the experiment and driving toward a specific result – not the case with inanimate objects
- In general creating RNA is difficult: “It has been postulated that there was a time in protobiological evolution when RNA played a dual role as both genetic material and a catalytic molecule (“the RNA world”). However, this appealing concept encounters significant difficulties. RNA is chemically fragile and difficult to synthesize abiotically. The known range of its catalytic activities is rather narrow, and the origin of an RNA synthetic apparatus is unclear.” [Final Report from NASA’s “Astrobiology Workshop” September 9-11, 1996]
RNA molecules would need to give rise to those that that can replicate themselves
- RNA molecules have the capabilities to do this under certain lab conditions but there’s no evidence that this exists in nature
- There’s no evidence self-replicating RNA ever existed. You’d think that we’d find them everywhere in the fossil record [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/]
The self-replicating RNA molecules would have to fork off a parallel set of self-replicating RNA molecules that choose to fold themselves and assist with (catalyze) needed chemical reaction (called ribozymes)
- This is important because, as we saw in Proof of God – The Protein, it’s crucial that proteins fold up like a wad of string. Otherwise, they don’t perform their required functions
- The big issue here is that RNA and proteins are made up of completely different components. RNA is made up of nucleotides while proteins are made of amino acids [http://www.cmlab.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~zick/bio/diff]. So even if RNA molecules can fold, how do they “teach” proteins made up of amino acids to do so? Remember, we’re talking inanimate objects here.
Once a set of the self-replicating RNA molecules arises, it would have to start cutting itself into pieces
- This is important because, when making proteins, only a portion of the RNA is needed for each protein.
As noted above, the self-replicating RNA, made up of nucleotides, would have to teach the protein, made up of amino acids, to fold up and then do that repeatedly to create proteins that can perform functions. Why an inanimate object would do that repeatedly is unclear
Eventually, the self-replicating RNA molecule would have to evolve into the double stranded DNA molecule
RNA molecules would have to stop replicating themselves and instead “let” DNA molecules take over as the primary mechanism for transmitting information
DNA molecules would need to learn how to split themselves along their helix to create the RNA molecules needed for cell operations
Specific chunks of RNA chunks, called rRNA, would need to learn how to build the machines (ribosomes) that combine amino acids into protein strings based on the “information” in other parts of the RNA (the mRNA section per below)
Other chunks of RNA, tRNA, would need to learn how to move amino acids to the ribosomes so they can be used to create protein strings
- A chain of amino acids, before folding, is called a peptide
- Making a peptide from RNA is called peptide synthesis (see image on the upper right)
A third chunk of RNA, mRNA, would need break itself up such that the “information” it contains can be repeatably used by the rRNA to combine amino acids into specific protein strings

Beyond that, there’s the fact that each cell has thousands of proteins, each cell membrane has specific sophisticated gateways that allow only certain molecules to pass in and out, each cell is able to metabolize nutrients to it can replicate, move, interact with other cells, etc, specific chaperone proteins are needed to move newly created proteins where they execute their functions plus many more – and there are many many types of cells that work in conjunction with others to perform functions like allowing living beings to see, feel, think and run. But we’ll put those facts aside at the moment.

Each of these twelve steps highlighted above must operate randomly on a set of inanimate objects. Thus each step is very unlikely. To see how unlikely let’s consider that each step occurs once in a trillion random attempts. That’s a fairly low hurdle since there are more than 30 trillion cells in your body alone [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-372-trillion-cells-in-your-body-4941473/].

If each step occurs one time in a trillion random attempts and each step produces 1 trillion cells with that characteristic (again, a fairly low hurdle) then the probability of producing 1 trillion cells with the characteristics as specified in all 12 steps is 1 x 10¹⁴⁴. If we make all this 1000 times more likely per step and say success happens one time in a billion attempts – a very low hurdle indeed, we’d still require 10¹⁰⁸ attempts – far more than could have occurred since the beginning of time – much less since the beginning of the earth.

As we saw in Proof of God – The Protein, running this many operations since the beginning of time, much less the beginning of life on earth, is insufficient to produce even one cell with all the characteristics specified. And, as noted above, that simple cell is nothing compared to the complexity of modern cells and the diversity of life on this planet.

Oh, and there’s just one more problem: the fossil record shows that cells, the origin of life, resembling current bacteria existed on earth 3.6 billion years ago so the time during which an RNA-dominated world could have existed is less than 100 million years. [Peter Moore, “Ribosomes and the RNA World” p 119-135. The RNA World, R.F. Gesteland and J.F. Atkins, eds. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1993. p 131.]

Proof of God

Like we saw in Proof of God – Part 1, the complete improbability demonstrated here is proof that cells, their functions and, indeed, the origin of life were not created by chance and thus must have been created on purpose. God is the only being who can create such complex objects and processes on purpose and in the time that life has existed on earth – or in the universe for that matter. Those who argue that life was created on some other planet miss the point. Life can no more be created by chance elsewhere in the universe as it can here on earth. It’s clear that life was created on purpose by God.

Other Next Steps

Consider one of these options:

If you’re Jewish, Muslim or Christian, take a moment and say a prayer. Thank God for the awesome world we live in and for each blessing of your life
If you’ve been skeptical about God but are ready to consider following Him then just stop here for a few minutes, close out the distractions of life and, if needed, find a place where you can be at peace. Ask God to enter your life and your heart. Ask for forgiveness for the things you do that are bad. Thank Him for each of the blessings in your life and for the amazing world that surrounds you. And ask Him to help you live the life that fits His plan for you

References

The Molecular Composition of Cells: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9879/

The RNA World and the Origin of Life: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/

The Origin of the RNA World: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3331698/

The RNA world hypothesis: the worst theory of the early evolution of life (except for all the others): https://biologydirect.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1745-6150-7-23

The Origin and Evolution of Cells: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9841/

Peter Moore, “Ribosomes and the RNA World” p 119-135. The RNA World, R.F. Gesteland and J.F. Atkins, eds. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1993. p 131.

Proof Of God – The Cell