The incredible world of molecular machines that operates within the living cell provides powerful evidence for the existence of an Intelligent Designer. This amazing realm of irreducibly complex interdependent moving parts cannot have evolved by incremental random chemical processes. With fascinating images and expert testimony, this episode explores the stunning evidence of God’s creative hand within every living cell.
VIDEO AND PODCAST LINKS
VIDEO PRESENTATION, EPISODE 6: MOLECULAR MACHINES
AUDIO PODCAST, EPISODE 6: MOLECULAR MACHINES
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Episode 6 of Evidence For Belief, a series which examines evidence for the existence of God. In this Episode, we are going to continue to look at the concept of intelligent design within the Living Cell. We are still the realm of Teleological Evidence which looks at the purposeful design of something which, in turn, provides evidence for an Intelligent Creator. We are going to examine the third amazing aspect of the living cell – the incredible world of MOLECULAR MACHINES which operate inside all living cells and which keep them alive.
MOLECULAR MACHINES
The advent of the electron microscope has helped us to see that the living cell is teeming with literally thousands of what scientists refer to as “molecular machines”. These are microscopic protein molecules that move around inside the cell, like tiny robots, performing all kinds of intricate tasks. Here are some snapshots from a video produced by Harvard University Biology Department, showing computer enhanced images of thousands of molecular machines at work within a single cell …
All these are computer enhanced images from inside a single cell. Thousands and thousands of complex biological molecular machines moving around inside the cell. We call them “machines” because they have machine-like characteristics – cogs and gears and motors, and many of them are like tiny robots with arms and legs. And each molecular machine is comprised of dozens or even hundreds of individual parts made of many different protein molecules, shaped and joined together to form all the various moving parts of the machine. And each machine is … well … they’re alive! The living cell is a veritable factory filled with thousands of factory workers scurrying around doing all sorts of tasks. Some protein machines transport nutrients from outside the cell, through the cell wall into the cell.
Some carry the nutrients throughout the cell and feed the other machines. Some transport waste back to the cell wall, some repair other machines, some build new machines, some build the components of new cells, some read the DNA instructions and copy bits of the instructions to take to other parts of the cell, a bit like delivery messengers.
IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY
This incredible world of molecular machines that operate within cells increases our understanding of the IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY of cells, because if any one of those machines or group of machines was removed or was not in place in the beginning, the cell would not be viable – it would not be alive. All those complex biological components, a huge army of molecular machines – had to be in existence in the very first cells from the very beginning in order for those cells to be viable – in other words, in order to be alive and able to reproduce. Molecular machines COULDN’T have evolved incrementally over successive generations – BECAUSE THE CELLS WOULD NOT BE VIABLE.
ATP SYNTHASE MACHINE
The ATP Synthase Machine is one of the more spectacular molecular machines that populate living cells. It has a motor and very intricate gears and cogs, and its motor spins at an incredible 130 revolutions per second! If you saw a life-sized version of this operating in a factory you would definitely conclude: someone with intelligence designed and made that. You certainly wouldn’t conclude that it simply formed itself out of a primordial swamp!
Biologist and author, Dr Alex Williams, explains:
“The ATP Synthase machine is a proton-powered motor that produces the universal energy molecule ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate). When the motor spins one way, it takes energy from digested food and converts it into the high-energy ATP, and when the motor spins the other way, it breaks down the ATP in such a way that its energy is available for use by other metabolic processes.”[i]
And this is just one of thousands of molecular machines that operate within a living cell. There are molecular machines for converting energy stores to usable nutrients, for transporting nutrients around the cell, for removing waste, for repairing damaged molecular machines, for breaking down dysfunctional molecular machines and recycling their parts.[ii] The cell is literally swarming with thousands of specialised molecular machines!
For example, there is the extraordinary assembly line of molecular machines within the nucleus, at the heart of the cell, responsible for producing new proteins:
- Molecular machines to uncoil a strand of DNA ready for transcription
- RNA polymerase machines to transcribe a section of DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA)
- Molecular machines to cut and splice sections of the mRNA
- Molecular machines to transport the mRNA outside the nucleus into the cytoplasm of the cell
- A molecular machine known as ribosome which binds to the mRNA and reads the code in the mRNA to produce a chain made up amino acids
- Transfer RNA molecular machines to link new amino acids to the mRNA chain in the correct order (thus forming a new protein),
- Molecular machines known as Chaperones which then fold the new protein into its correct shape,
- Molecular machines to carry the new protein to the site in the cell where it is needed.
All of these machines are essential to the proper functioning and survival of the cell, and without all of them working together, the cell would die. In this sense, the ‘humble’ cell can be said to be functionally irreducibly complex. Its viability (survival and ability to replicate) is absolutely dependent upon the simultaneous co-existence of this vast army of interdependent machines. These molecular machines had to be in existence and fully operational in order for the first cell to be alive. In this sense, the living cell is irreducibly complex.
Furthermore, each of these molecular machines, individually, is irreducibly complex and cannot have evolved incrementally and gradually. You see, each molecular machine is comprised of many individual, inter-dependent moving parts, made of different proteins, folded and shaped and joined together in just the right order to construct the machine.
PROTEIN COMPONENTS OF MOLECULAR MACHINES
Here is a list of just a few of the molecular machines within a cell and the number of proteins that each is comprised of:
- Eukaryotic ribosomes, a machine which copies segments of RNA and synthesises new proteins – 80 proteins
- 26S Proteasome, a machine which deconstructs damaged proteins, like a garbage disposal truck in the cell, – it has 66 protein components
- NPC, Nuclear Pore Complex, a machine that transports newly formed proteins and other molecules from the cell’s nucleus to the cytoplasm – 1,000 individual proteins
- Spliceosome, a machine which splices RNA in the formation of new genes – 300 individual proteins.
- Centrosome, a machine which oversees some important functions during cell division – 500 individual proteins.
Now, there are literally millions of different types of proteins, but only the correct specific proteins assembled together in just the right order and shape must somehow be selected and joined together to make each molecular machine.
SPLICEOSOME
Going back to the spliceosome, if any one of its 300 component proteins was missing or in the wrong order or a different protein, if just one of the millions of other possible proteins was included in the structure at ANY one of those points, the machine would not function. All of the right proteins in exactly the right order have to be in place for the molecular machine to function.
Thus, molecular machines are irreducibly complex. They cannot have evolved incrementally over time, because a partially constructed machine would be non-functioning and would have no evolutionary value. And non-functioning molecular machines would, in turn, render the whole cell non-functioning. The cell itself would not be alive and able to reproduce itself.
PROTEINS COMPRISED OF AMINO ACIDS
But the irreducible complexity of these molecular machines is made even more extraordinary when we understand that proteins – the building blocks of molecular machines – are themselves comprised of hundreds of different amino acids, each of which is arranged in precisely the right order.
The average protein is comprised of about 400 individual amino acids, and only the right amino acids, joined together in exactly the right order will form a functioning protein. And each of the millions of different proteins has a completely different sequence of amino acids. And as we have seen in a previous episode, the statistical chance of even a single protein forming by random combination of amino acids is ridiculously improbable to the point of statistical impossibility. There literally haven’t been enough seconds in our universe’s existence for a single protein to have formed by chance.
IMPOSSIBILITY OF PROTEINS EVOLVING NATURALLY
Dr. Thomas Heinze, professor of organic chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, in his article, “Did God Create Life? Ask a Protein”[iii], states:
“Proteins are so complex they will not form anywhere in nature except in living cells. Inside cells, the directions for protein construction are already contained in the DNA. Then, if a protein is to perform its task, its production must be carefully regulated, but even then, it will not function unless it also has the correct address tag and is properly folded. All these systems would have to have been in place or the ‘first cell’ could not function. These systems, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. I chose them to illustrate the many coordinated systems that would have to have been present before the first cell would work. The teaching that the first cell spontaneously popped into being without the involvement of the Creator has its basis in the pre-scientific myth that single-celled creatures were simple. It obviously does not stand up under today’s knowledge that a cell’s DNA, RNA, membranes and proteins are extremely hard to make, and when proteins are made, they must be properly folded, addressed, and turned on and off at just the right times. None of these brilliant solutions could invent itself, yet no ‘first cell’ could exist without all of them. They could not have happened without a very intelligent Creator.”
Dr Sir Fred Hoyle (Professor of emeritus astrophysics at Cambridge University) stated the problem more simply:
“The chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein machine by chance combination of amino acids is equivalent to trillions of blind men all solving Rubik’s Cube simultaneously”.
Biochemist, Dr. Michael Denton, in his book, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis”, states:
“We now know that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.”[iv]
A PROFOUND MYSTERY
But zooming back out from these biological building blocks of amino acids and proteins, to look again at these molecular machines as a whole, there is also a profound mystery to them. What makes them move and work? It’s one thing to join all the right amino acids together into the right proteins, and then join all the right proteins together in exactly the right order and fold them into exactly the right shape to construct these molecular machines, but what actually makes them come alive? What makes them move and function? How do they know how to do what they do? How do they know how to go where they go and perform the intricate tasks that they perform? What brings them to life? No scientist can actually answer this at any depth. There is an incredible mystery here!
AUTOPOIESIS
In an attempt to explain this mystery, scientists have coined the term, “Autopoiesis” to refer to the self-perpetuating, self-organising, self-repairing, self-replicating, life-force that exists within cells as a whole and within each molecular machine. Biologist, Alexander Williams, believes autopoiesis makes a stronger case for intelligent design than irreducible complexity because it is inherent in all biological life. He writes:
“Autopoiesis provides a compelling case for intelligent design in three stages: (i) autopoiesis is universal in all living things, which makes it a pre-requisite for life, not an end product of natural selection; (ii) … autopoiesis is not reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry [cannot be explained by mere naturalistic processes]; and (iii) there is an unbridgeable abyss between the dirty [inefficient], mass-action chemistry of the natural environmental and the perfectly-pure, single-molecule precision of [intra-cellular] biochemistry.”[v]
There is a great mystery here. Despite coining a term for this self-life of molecular machines – autopoiesis – we really don’t understand it. Merely giving something a name doesn’t explain it! There is no natural explanation for this. Something is going on here at a profound level – There is a life force that we cannot comprehend and cannot explain – and which only makes sense if we are indeed the handiwork of an all-powerful, life-giving Intelligent Designer.
EVIDENCE OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Professor Dean Kenyon (a world-renowned biologist) was originally an Atheist and evolutionist, and as an atheist scientist he wrote the textbook, “Biochemical Evolution”, arguing for how the cell could have evolved by chance cell.
But after the invention of the electron microscope and the discovery of these molecular machines within our cells he was converted to the creationist viewpoint. When he first looked down the barrel of an electron microscope, his atheism was destroyed, because he realised that this living cell, teeming with complex molecular machines, could not have evolved incrementally by chance. In an video interview after his conversion, Dr Kenyon stated:
“Nothing short of an intelligence could have created this intricate cellular apparatus. This new realm of molecular machines is where we see the most compelling evidence of design on the earth””.
The microscopic world of the living cell, with its complex gross physical structures, it’s amazingly complex DNA encoding and its plethora of extraordinary living moving molecular machines –cries out for an intelligent designer.
CHANCE OR DESIGN?
In fact, I think it takes MUCH more faith to believe that all this came about by random natural processes rather than by the design of an all-powerful, intelligent Creator. To claim that all this somehow created itself defies logic. It is a biological IMPOSSIBILITY for the living cell to have formed itself! It defies all laws of science, logic and statistical probability. The living cell CANNOT have formed itself via chance natural processes. Abiogenesis – the concept of life creating itself from non-life, random chemicals somehow arranging themselves into the right order to produce the huge library of genetic information in our DNA and produce cells teaming with thousands of living, moving molecular machines – the creation of all that by random chemical combinations is simply fanciful and ridiculous.
DARWINS CRITERION OF FAILURE MET
The simplest and best explanation for the living cell is that it was marvellously designed and created by an all-powerful Creator God. World renowned biologist, Dr Michael Behe, in his book, “Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution”, wrote:
“Darwin knew his theory of gradual evolution by natural selection carried a heavy burden. He stated; “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.””
He then argues that the irreducibly complex living cell with its irreducibly complex molecular machines has surely met Darwin’s criteria for the failure of the theory of evolution. He writes:
“As the number of unexplained, irreducibly complex biological systems increases, our confidence that Darwin’s criterion of failure has been met skyrockets toward the maximum that science allows.”[vi]
I agree. The living cell simply cannot have evolved via incremental, random natural processes. It cries out for the existence of a supernatural Creator.
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For more information on any of these topics, you can check out my books, 7 Reasons to Believe and No More Monkey Business; Evolution in Crisis, which are available on my website, smartfaith.net, where you can also subscribe to my weekly blog.
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FOOTNOTES
[i] Alex Williams, “Life’s Irreducible Structure – Part 1: Autopoiesis”, 2007, in Journal of Creation 21(2):109-115
[ii] Alex Williams, “Life’s Irreducible Structure – Part 1: Autopoiesis”, 2007, in Journal of Creation 21(2):109-115
[iii] Thomas Heinze, “Did God Create Life? Ask a Protein.”, https://creation.com/did-god-create-life-ask-a-protein
[iv] Michael Denton, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,” 1986, p. 250.
[v] Alex Williams, “Life’s Irreducible Structure – Part 1: Autopoiesis”, 2007, in Journal of Creation 21(2):109-115
[vi] Michael Behe, “Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution”, Free press, New York, 2006