And God said, “Let there be light.” Sun appearing over the India ocean/NASA/Flickr/Creative Commons
One of the massive problems facing evolutionists is how did non organic material suddenly come to life — living, growing, moving, breathing, consuming and most importantly reproducing.
There is no explainable way it could happen and according to an article entitled “Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome” published in Science Magazine, the issue is much worse than previously thought.
Over two decades, a group that would involve 20 scientists took one of the simplest bacteria, M. mycoides, and began to strip away unnecessary genes to discover what was the least number needed for it to continue to exist.
Unnecessary does not mean these genes are unuseful. If I was to strip my car down to the very basics needed to function, there are probably dozens of things I could remove that are not necessary, but nevertheless beneficial, such as the rear view mirror and front window.
With 900 genes, M. mycoides is one of the simpler forms of bacteria. In comparison, the E. coli bacterium has over 4,000 genes.
They had sorted out what they believed were M. mycoides essential and non-essential genes. They gradually removed those considered unnecessary and then meticulously studied the bacteria to see if it would survive.
They found a significant number of genes which they described as ‘quasi essential.” They weren’t even sure what some of these genes did, but they were “required for robust growth.”
After years of testing, they were shocked by the complexity needed for this single cell bacteria to survive and thrive.
Stripped to its basics, M. mycoides required 473 genes to live and they had no idea what 140 of those genes did. All they knew is if they removed any one of them, it hindered the bacteria’s ability to survive.
In an interview with the Atlantic, famed chemist and co-leader Craig Venter said, “we’re showing how complex life is, even in the simplest of organisms. These findings are very humbling.”
They had created one of the simplest forms of life, and it was horribly complex. It was the type of single-celled entities that evolutionists believed would have spontaneously come to life in the primordial soup they believed existed at the beginning.
Yet even at its simplest, stripped down stage, this bacteria required nearly 500 genes inter-working and communicating with each other. Remove one of those genes and it doesn’t work.
Anyone in their right mind knows that is impossible. But this is what you are left with when you remove God from the equation.
But the theory is not new. In the Middle Ages, scientists believed in what they called “spontaneous generation.” It involved the belief that life such as fleas spontaneously appeared out of dust.
Modern science scoffs at these silly notions, but what they are left with today is essentially no different.
Dr. Ann Gauger works in the developmental biology department at the University of Washington. She says this 20-year study is evidence of intelligent design. Life this complex does not just spontaneously appear.
She wrote in a commentary published on CNnews:
Irreducible systems are evidence of intelligent design, because only a mind has the capacity to design and implement such an information-rich, interdependent network as a minimal cell.
Think about the design of a basic car. You need an engine, a transmission, a drive shaft, a steering wheel, axles and wheels, plus a chassis to hold it all together. Then there’s gas, and a way to start the whole thing going. (I have undoubtedly left out something, but you get my point.) Having one or two of these things won’t make a functioning car. All the parts are necessary before it can drive, and it takes a designer to envision what is needed, how to fit it together, and then to build it.
Whether you’re talking about a car or a minimal cell, it won’t happen without a designer.
Sources:
OpentheWord.org 