EarthTraces: Purpose In Heart - The Odds In Creation

The Odds In Creation
Bob Hollingsworth

Arguments on both sides of the origin of man often get bogged down in when or how long it took for life to occur - with that becoming a deciding argument in if we were designed by a Creator or simply a beautiful cosmic accident. But if we step back to the first building block of life in both arguments, one can only be left in awe over the magnitude of what that first DNA strand means.

When you look around in Nature, do you see how beautifully complex it is? There is an incredible circle of life - plants, animals and Earth all living in balance with one another. Was this a cosmic mistake as some evolutionary arguments state? Did man burst into existence at once as fundamentalists proclaim? The truth is our Earth evolved according to a plan so vast we can never comprehend it. We have a linear existence (with a beginning and and end) - our trying to assign time and dates to a non-linear design (one that exists outside of time) only leads to misunderstandings. If it took billions of years or just days does not change the magnitude of the design. To have a design means there is a designer. One that existed outside and before the design - this is the definition of God. Trust His timing is perfect. Just look how awesome this Creation is...

Consider
the pure
science and
mathematics
of life.

"It is a mistake of man's ego to conclude science is Godless or made by man. It is a gift to man to help us grow in understanding of, closeness to and relationship with our Creator. Those who use Science for Godless knowledge as well as those who avoid it and the truth it contains both miss its purpose. God doesn't give us knowledge to trick or confuse our understanding, nor does He give us knowledge so He may be left out of the picture."

Scientists are now widely recognizing problems in original evolutionary theory Darwin's ⁽¹⁾"Origin of the Species". One major hurdle is the real understatement and misunderstanding of what it took to create the first living cell - even if it were to later evolve into many diverse organisms on its own from there. In Darwin's day the complexity of DNA, ⁽²⁾the design code of life, was not known. Darwin's work has been used to define that life all happened by accident - no Designer, no God, just chance. But, if we can understand the building blocks needed by Darwin and all life science those facts we were once taught point amazingly in a different direction - one of complexity, order and design.

Let's go back to that first tiny creature that would have started all evolution and try to understand the unbelievable creation it in itself was. That first tiny organism was incredibly complex - with all our science and understanding we can't come close to creating anything like it. Consider one of the simplest living organisms now known, the single-DNA strand E.Coli bacteria. Even this simplest organism has about 5,000 genes - the genetic code holders. Alter the position, leave out or change the chemical combinations up of just a few lines of code and the organism ceases to thrive. There are 4.80 x 10⁵⁰ ⁽³⁾possible DNA combinations in those 5,000 genes. That means the odds of that DNA strand forming are:

1 in 480,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

How big is this number? It's more than astronomical! Think of it this way. There's 1.37 x 10²⁵ drops of ⁽⁴⁾water in all the oceans on Earth (10 drops per cc x 10¹⁵ cc per km³ x 1.37x10⁹ km³ water in oceans). That's 10 to the 25^th power, not 50^TH power. You'd need to count every drop of water on 7 trillion trillion Earths to get the same number! Here's another thought. You know how big a millimeter is? About the width of a dime. Pretty small right? From one side to the other, the ⁽⁵⁾UNIVERSE has a diameter of 3 x 10²⁹ millimeters. The odds of accidentally forming that first single DNA strand is a billion trillion times larger. Using accepted mathematical and statistical theory, it's ⁽⁶⁾statistically impossible that this happened in the simplest single cell organism. Now consider that humans have 100 trillion cells in their body - each in a unique location for a unique purpose. The impossibility of our existence is why we can know we were created in the image of God.

(click drawing to enlarge)

DNA is so complex yet so perfectly formed that the "total amount of DNA necessary to code 100 billion people could be contained in ½ of an aspirin tablet..." That’s more than the number of all the people that ever lived.

(—R.L. Wysong, ⁽⁷⁾The Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 115.)

Compare the creation of life to how a great invention is made. What is more logical and scientific: (1) the beginnings of life all happened by accident all at once, the odds billions of times greater than the universe itself took place or (2) an inventor with the knowledge to make it happen did just that? Call Him what you may – Inventor, Creator, Designer all are God.

Take the simplest argument of evolution and apply it to creation and it must say something like this: In the beginning, DNA made itself out of the ⁽⁸⁾"primordial soup" when lightning hit the water. In an instant it not only made the DNA, but the living cell that it was in the center of and the organism that hosted it. It had its complete genetic code, was immediately able to eat, digest food, move about, perform enzymatic and glandular functions and do everything else needed for life. They automatically knew how to produce additional cells, and their DNA began dividing (cells must continually replenish themselves or the creature quickly dies), their cells began making new ones, and every new cell could immediately do everything that first creature had to do to survive.

⁽⁹⁾Dr. Stanley Miller (USCD) was the first scientist to create some of the amino acid ⁽¹⁰⁾“building blocks of life” in the lab. Since 1953 he has been leading this research that has caused many to conclude life may have just happened on its own. But, even he has more recently has stated, while “It has been demonstrated that amino acids can form abiotically…Sugars, however, which are components of modern genetic materials such as DNA or RNA are thought to be too unstable to have been widespread on Earth before life arose. Another of the remaining "big questions" is how and when did non-living molecules turn into life forms and begin to make copies of themselves.” We can bring grains together to make feed, but we will never make a cow to eat it.

In the last decade, Dr. Miller's amino acid creation experiments have been largely discredited because they used the incorrect mix of conditions, atmospheric chemicals and (11) lack of "next steps" required for DNA development. No one has been able to duplicate the amino acid creation with the currently accepted primordial soup.

The ⁽¹²⁾second law of thermodynamics states that everything moves from a higher energy state or order to a lower energy state or order, unless blocked or energy (order) is added from the outside. Evolution uses random lightning to provide the energy needed for DNA formation. Lightning, while powerful, is not very ordered. ⁽¹³⁾Chaos theory states it is impossible to predict how and when lightning will strike. It's commonly said lightning doesn't strike the same place twice (even if not exactly true). Is it possible to scientifically state that the first organism with its 4.80 x 10⁵⁰ possible DNA combinations got the right amount of lightning at exactly the right time without then destroying the organism or even amino acids it just created? Let's forget the problem that the rate of destruction of amino acids by ultraviolet light or electrical discharges far exceeds their rate of formation. How long would it take for the right combination to come together? It's incredible! Let's say that 100 BILLION correct combinations came together all at the right spot (that spec of a DNA strand) and in exactly the right way every second. Since there 3 x 10⁷ seconds in a year, it would take 100 MILLION, TRILLION, TRILLION years (10³³ years) for all the combinations to come together. The ⁽¹⁴⁾age of the universe is under 15 billion years (1.5 x 10⁹ years). All stars in our universe would burn out and the universe itself would cease to exist trillions of years before this could ever happen...

Now ⁽¹⁵⁾some evolutionists will argue this isn't fair. Use a ⁽¹⁶⁾Ghadiri group peptide instead (one of the smallest "self-replicating" peptides accepted in evolutionary theory as the first building block). We'll even forget it's not close to a living organism and dismiss the immensely more complicated functions of energy & oxygen transport and replication that are still needed. It's only 32 amino acids long. What's that chance of forming it? 4.29 x 10⁴⁰. It would only take 40 BILLION TRILLION years to form. Sorry, sun's burnt out.

CONCLUSION

Well, ⁽¹⁷⁾what are the options we have for how life began? Everything simply comes down to one of two alternatives, summed up like this:

"In the beginning, GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth," ⁽¹⁸⁾(Genesis 1:1, NAS) and, "Through faith we understand that the world was made by the Word of God. Things we see were made from what could not be seen." ⁽¹⁹⁾(Heb. 11:3, NLV)

"Once upon a time perhaps three billion years ago, under a deadly sun, in an ammoniated ocean topped by a poisonous atmosphere in the midst of a soup of organic molecules, a nucleic acid molecule came ACCIDENTALLY INTO BEING that could SOMEHOW BRING ABOUT the existence of another like itself" ⁽²⁰⁾(Isaac Asimov, The Well-Springs of Life)

We have been given a responsibility to teach and lead our families and others to a better understanding of our purpose, Earth and Creator. Don't let yourself get trapped in debates over God's timetable for the creation of life. Don't spend time on the question of billions of years versus days in the beginning - just get straight to the beginning. Atheists can no longer use evolution as proof of a Godless universe. DNA, God's code for life, so tiny yet larger than the universe itself is proof we are not an accident.

Don't dismiss the incomprehensible complexity, synergy and beauty in what God has placed here. It has all happened in His time and on His plan. Yes He has the power to design and in an instant create the plan for 100 billion people in the space of ½ an aspirin. Yes He has the ability and desire to watch over and have a personal relationship with each one of us. All He asks of us is to choose the gift He gave us in Christ.

Nature is incredibly important to one's path with God and helping others to find there's. Spending time in "the wilderness" is written about many times in the Bible. Plan adventures with family and friends at least a couple times a year. It gives you time away from the trappings of a manmade world to see and experience the incredible complexity and beauty there is in this existence. It gives you time to think, to evaluate your priorities and to talk with God, and it gives you challenges that can help you prove who you are. Make this one of the purposes that drives your heart. So, now when you're out in Nature maybe you can see it from a slightly difference point of view. One that has been touched for you and all of us by the awesome hand of God in everything you see...