3. Does Science support the Bible?

We saw in an earlier section that science cannot make informed comment on how life began. The Bible says:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1 v 1

 

The Bible makes no comment about how it was done. It does, however, tell us that there is a Creator. Modern science has discovered something of the remarkable organisation of living things which points to a Creator. Here, science supports the Bible.

We will now look at just a few ways in which the living world provides evidence for a creator.
 

The “simple” cell

Sometimes, when describing evolution, it is said that “complex chemicals collected together to form a simple cell”. (This was the extent of knowledge about the cell when Darwin first formulated the theory of evolution.) The impression given is that a cell is a collection of a few chemicals that could work together and reproduce themselves. But the “simple” cell is far more complex than that. Biologists and biochemists have spent many years trying to find out how the cell works.

To appreciate just how complex the cell is, we need to know something about it. We shall try to keep this as simple as possible!
 

Simulation of highly magnified red blood cells in an artery

The cell is the basic unit of all life. All living things are made up of cells. Some organisms consist of only one cell. Plants and animals are made up of many different types of cells. The human body contains more than 10 trillion (10,000,000,000,000) cells of about 200 different types.

Most cells can only be seen with a microscope. It would take about 40,000 of your red blood cells like those shown opposite to fill this letter O. It takes millions of cells to make up the skin on the palm of your hand.
 

All cells have things in common, whether they are specialised animal cells or singlecelled organisms like the Euglena pictured opposite. A cell is alive – as alive as you are. It breathes, takes in food, gets rid of wastes. It grows and reproduces, and in time it dies.

Single-celled animals incorporate many of the complex mechanisms that we will look at in the next section.

The single celled Euglenas live in fresh water, and in warm weather they form a green scum on the surface of ponds
 

The parts of a typical animal cell

The picture below shows the main parts of a typical animal cell.

Just as a house has a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, so a cell has specialised areas partitioned off for separate uses.
 

These areas include:

1. The nucleus, which controls the cell growth, function and reproduction. It contains the DNA
– the cell’s source of information

2. The mitochondria, which produce the cell’s energy

3. The endoplasmic reticulum, which processes proteins

4. The golgi apparatus – a storage area for proteins being transported elsewhere

5. The lysosome – the cell’s waste disposal unit

6. Secretory vesicles, which store cargo before it is sent out of the cell
 

Each compartment is sealed off from the rest of the cell by its own membrane, just as a room is separated from the rest of the house by its walls and door.

In total there are more than twenty different sections in a cell.

The cell is continually making new complex chemicals called proteins and getting rid of old ones.

Some sections of the cell make some of these chemicals for themselves. But the great majority of these proteins are centrally made and shipped to other compartments. The shipping of proteins between compartments is a fascinating and intricate process. The details differ depending on the destination, just as shipping details of a parcel are different depending on whether it is going just down the road or to a totally different country.

We will now look at the fascinating journey of a protein needed by the cell from its place of manufacture in the cell to its arrival at the correct place in the cell.

 

The journey of one protein

The protein “lysomal hydrolase” is used by the cell to help break down unwanted chemicals in the cell’s waste disposal unit (the lysosome). We will refer to this as “the protein” in this description.
 

The process to make the protein starts in the nucleus and the protein ends up at the lysosome – a distance of about one ten thousandth of an inch. Yet it requires the services of many other different proteins to ensure its safe arrival.

When the cell senses (by mechanisms that we will ignore) that it needs more of this protein in the waste disposal unit, the process to make the protein is set in motion. Follow the fascinating journey of this protein on the diagram opposite.

The numbers on the diagram refer to the description numbers below.
 

Every protein has the information for its manufacture stored in the nucleus in the form of “DNA”.

1. A copy of the DNA coding for the protein is made in the nucleus.

2. This copy of the DNA code (known as RNA) floats over to a nuclear pore in the nucleus wall

3. Proteins in the pore recognise a signal on the RNA which opens the pore and allows the RNA to float into the cell fluid surrounding the nucleus.

4. Floating around in the cell fluid are protein building machines known as “ribosomes”. As soon as the RNA meets a ribosome, the ribosome begins making the protein using the information in the copy of the DNA code.

5. The first part of the protein that is made is called a “leader sequence”.

6. The leader sequence is recognised by a “signal recognition particle” (SRP) which binds onto the developing protein.

7. The SRP then carries the ribosome and the partially built protein over to a docking mechanism (the “ribophorin”) in the wall of the “endoplasmic reticulum” (ER).

8. The ribosome then resumes its protein building work and a protein channel opens in the wall of the ER allowing it to enter the ER.

9. As the protein passes through the channel into the ER, an enzyme removes the leader sequence.

10. Once the protein has been processed in the endoplasmic reticulum a small section of the ER separates off and produces a small sub compartment containing the protein.

11. This sub-compartment then floats across to the Golgi apparatus and fuses onto it.

12. Inside the Golgi apparatus, the protein has an identification shape added to it that indicates to which compartment of the cell the protein will go.

13. In the wall of the last compartment of the Golgi there are chemical ”haulers” which fit closely round the identification shape that has been added on the protein.

14. The wall of the Golgi around the “haulers” and attached protein then separates from the surrounding wall and forms a sub compartment. This sub compartment has an identification shape on the outside that is identical to the identification shape on the protein. This shaped delivery code is also identical to a “port marker” on the outside of
the cell’s waste disposal unit

15. The sub-compartment then moves to the waste disposal unit – the lysosome – and attaches itself. The sub-compartment then merges with the wall of the waste disposal unit, putting the protein into the waste disposal unit. The protein has now arrived at its destination and can begin to do the job for which it was made.
 
 

This incredible process takes place many billions of times in every cell of your body during your lifetime. It is one of many such processes that must take place regularly in all living cells for life to continue.

The process by which the protein passes from compartment to compartment in the cell has been called “gated transport”. This is a means of allowing only certain chemicals through the wall and keeping all the rest out.

Consider step 3 of the journey of the protein, where the signal on the DNA code copy opens the pore and allows the code copy out of the nucleus.

We see that three elements are needed to make the system work:

  • an identification tag
  • a scanner
  • a gate activated by the scanner

If any of these elements are not in place and working, the system will not work.

The last stage of the protein’s journey is even more complex. The process by which it ends up in the waste disposal unit of the cell needs these elements to make it work

  • an identification tag on the protein
  • a scanner on the sub-compartment
  • an identification tag on the sub compartment
  • a scanner in the wall of the waste disposal unit
  • a gate in the wall activated by the scanner

Both of these systems are what we can call “irreducibly complex”. They cannot work unless all of the components are there.

When there is just one defect in this system that we have just looked at, the results are tragic.“I-cell disease” is caused when there is just one defect in this incredibly complex process. The protein never reaches its correct destination – like a letter delivered to the wrong address. As a result the cell cannot dispose of its waste products. The terrible consequences can include:

  • Stunted growth
  • Puffed up eyes and face
  • Bent legs
  • Difficult movement
  • Mental retardation
  • Enlarged heart, liver and spleen
  • Probable death by the age of 5

This shows just how vital it is to have all of theses complex systems in perfect working order before the cell can work.

No one has offered a plausible explanation of how these systems could have developed as required by evolution. A search of the professional biochemical literature shows that no one has ever proposed a detailed route by which these systems could have evolved.

Talking about the membranes which surround the different parts of the cell (called “organelles”), the famous Turkish evolutionist Professor Ali Demirsoy wrote in his book Inheritance and Evolution:

One of the most difficult stages to be explained in evolution is to scientifically explain how organelles … developed from these primitive creatures … no creature or group has yet been found with organelles of a simpler construction in any way, or which are more primitive. In other words, the organelles carried forward have developed just as they are. They have no simple and primitive forms.

There are theories which attempt to explain how the cell evolved. Virtually all of them assume that the cell came from simpler organisms already having all the complex systems that cells we know today have. These theories do not explain the evolution of the incredibly complex sub-cellular systems that we have been looking at.

As we saw earlier, we must remember not to confuse facts and opinions.

The facts are:

  • The cell which is the basis of all life is incredibly complicated
  • The cell contains many “irreducibly complex” systems
  • Tragic results occur if just one element in one of the many complex systems does not work correctly
  • No one has ever discovered a partially developed cell

The many “irreducibly complex” systems in the cell, which is the basis of all life, point to a designer and creator.
 
The honey bee
 

In summer, most of us will have seen honey bees in the garden buzzing from flower to flower collecting pollen. These creatures show remarkable organisation, pointing to a creator.

On leaving the nest for the first time, the young honey bee will fly from side to side with her head pointing toward the nest. She is recording a “video” of what the nest site looks like. This “video” is contained in a special growth that develops within the bee’s brain.This video contains information such as the location of trees and bushes in relation to the nest entrance. She also notes the position of the sun at various times of the day. This means that, although she may fly up to two miles away from home, she can always return in a straight line (a “bee line”) back to the nest.
 

Honey bees also have a dance system to enable one bee to tell
the rest of the bees where to find a new field of flowers. The dance is performed on the vertical comb in the nest. The dance is like a figure of eight, as the left-hand diagram opposite shows. The bee shakes her abdomen when making a straight line across the middle part of the “8”. The angle of the straight part of the dance relative to the vertical is the angle the bees need to fly relative to the position of the sun in order to get to the flowers.The number of waggles in the straight line of the dance, along with pulsing sounds from the dancing bee, tell the other bees how far to fly to find the new flowers.
 

Another remarkable activity of honey bees is what is known as “buzz pollination”. Most plants release pollen unassisted, but some require a helping hand. The bee will walk round the inside of the flower buzzing as she goes. She buzzes at a particular frequency, which shakes the anthers that hold the pollen. The shaking releases the pollen, some of which the bee harvests. Different plants require different frequencies to shake the anthers. Once she has been to a particular flower, the bee remembers which frequency is required for that particular flower. She also remembers which plants do not require to be buzzed.

This is just a small part of the organisation needed to collect nectar and pollen to enable the bee colony to survive. All of these systems are vital to the colony:

  • The young honey bee must be able to find its way back to its own nest
  • When a bee has found new flowers it must be able to tell other bees where to find them
  • Both the bee doing the dance and the watching bees must understand the significance of the dance
  • The bee must know that some flowers need “buzz pollinating”. It also needs to remember the correct frequency for each flower

These are remarkable evidences of design in themselves. It is even more remarkable when we realise that these bees are sterile – they do not produce offspring themselves. Honey bees are produced by the queen bee. So honey bees cannot pass on any beneficial mutations to the next generation. This means that these remarkable features are most unlikely to have developed gradually.

Again we see remarkable organisation that points to a creator.
 

Remarkable relationships in nature

There are some amazing relationships in nature which point to a creator. One such relationship involves the way some animals allow other smaller animals to clean their mouth and teeth.

Large fish feed on smaller fish and shrimps. Eventually their mouths begin to accumulate food debris and parasites. For several kinds of fish this problem is solved by a visit to the local cleaning station. These are special areas usually marked by specific shrimps and small brightly coloured fish.

Straight after chasing and eating other small fish and shrimps, a predatory fish will visit the station. It will open its mouth wide, baring its vicious looking teeth. The little cleaner fish and shrimps are not deterred by the teeth that could kill them so
easily. It probably causes a certain amount of irritation to the big fish having a shrimp crawling around in its mouth and smaller fish picking off parasites from the soft tissues of its mouth.

But the big fish just hovers there, and lets the cleaners
do their work.

When the cleaning is done the big fish lets the cleaners out of its mouth and swims off to continue its normal occupation of eating any small fish and shrimps it can catch.

This kind of relationship is most unlikely to have developed gradually. Both predator and cleaner fish have to recognise that the presence of the specific shrimps and brightly coloured fish means that the normal behaviour of the predator fish has been suspended. They both then have to be aware that the predator will not eat the cleaners when they are escaping through the vicious teeth, having finished their job.
 

A similar kind of relationship exists between the crocodile bird and the Nile crocodile.

The crocodile opens its mouth to the bird, which walks in, picks off the parasites and food debris, and then is allowed to leave
again.

Again, both the bird and the crocodile have to “agree” that the normal “rules” do not apply.

This kind of remarkable behaviour again shows clear signs of a designer.