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Evidence ID: BIO-EV09
Evidence: Spontaneous Generation & Chemical Evolution of DNA Not Possible
Summary: Neo-Darwinists account for the creation of biological intelligence (DNA) through spontaneous generation or chemical evolution. Spontaneous generation refers to the sudden appearance of the original DNA by a random chemical reaction. While chemical evolution refers to the gradual emergence of the original DNA by a guided chemical reaction. In the final analysis, the probabilities produced by both methods are innumerable and therefore impossible.
Description: DNA is the codebook for life. It specifies the precise composition of every cell in a living organism. Neo-Darwinists account for the creation of biological intelligence through spontaneous generation or chemical evolution.
Spontaneous generation refers to the sudden appearance of the original DNA by a random chemical reaction. This process relies on chance to bring about a viable DNA strand much like a chemical Big Bang. The problem with spontaneous generation is that the chance of generating a viable DNA is next to impossible given its size.
Chemical evolution refers to the gradual emergence of the original DNA by a guided sequence of chemical reaction. This process relies on some form of selection or bias (e.g. environmental conditions) to bring about a viable strand of DNA. The problem with chemical evolution is that DNA does not possess the formative power to select because it is not a living organism.
Once created, these original DNA could evolve over time through the normal Darwinian processes of mutations and natural selection.
As with the sudden appearance of phyla during the Cambrian explosion [BIO-EV01], the challenge for Neo-Darwinists is how did the first, original DNA emerge?
As we examine the DNA double helix, we recognize it is intricately organized into an ordered set of chromosomes, genes, and codons. This organization makes it possible to select a specific gene from a specific chromosome for protein synthesis.
In the chart above, genes are subdivided into codons which are each comprised of a sequence of exactly three nucleotide pairs. Genes contain special codons called promoters and terminators which demarcate the start and end of genes. Genes are transcribed in the cell's nucleus into messenger RNA or mRNA. mRNA is passed into the cell's body where the special enzyme called the ribosome translates the sequence of codons of the mRNA into a chain of amino acids to synthesize a protein. [REF-CELL01]
What is important to realize is the order and composition of each codon in the gene is critical in the production of the specific chain of amino acids. If any one of the codons is deleted or substituted with a different codon, or if a codon is added to the sequence, the resulting protein will be rendered inviable. [BIO-EV02]
According to the fossil records, the first organisms appeared on Earth around 3.8 billion years ago. These organisms were simple, single-celled microbes referred to as prokaryotes. The DNA of prokaryotes consists of a single chromosome that is comprised of approximately 160,000 to 12,200,000 million nucleotide base pairs depending on the species [REF-DNA02].
By comparison, the human genome is comprised of 24 chromosomes and approximately 3,200,000,000 nucleotide pairs. This estimate is based on the findings of the Human Genome Project [REF-HGP01].
To illustrate the improbability of DNA being spontaneously generated by random chance, we employ a branch of mathematics called combinatorics. Combinatorics enable us to quantify the number of possible permutations of the sequence of nucleotide pairs in a strand of DNA.
A nucleotide pair consists of two of the following nitrogen-containing bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), or guanine (G). Because A and T always bond together, and C and C always bond together, there are four possible pairings of nucleotide bases, AT, TA, CG, and GC.
A simple permutation of a codon consisting of a sequence of three nucleotide pairs, yields a possibility of 64 unique sequences (4 x 4 x 4 = 64). So, the chance of selecting the AT-AT-AT sequence from all possible sequences is 1 in 64, or 1.5%.
For estimation purposes we assume prokaryotic organisms possess DNA that is similar in size and complexity to the first, original DNA. When we permute all possible combinations of the simplest prokaryote DNA comprised of 160,000 nucleotide pairs, we multiple 4 times itself 160,000 times. The resulting number of permutations cannot be calculated because it is considered infinite. Therefore, we conclude that the chance of selecting the simple prokaryote DNA sequence randomly the first time is impossible.
Based on the approximate size of the human genome consisting of a sequence of 3,200,000,000 nucleotide pairs, we can safely assume infinite permutations and an impossible chance of random selection the first time.
According to Oxford University astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, the estimated chance of complex life by evolutionary process is 1 in 1040,000. To illustrate the chances of producing DNA by spontaneous generation, we turn to Hoyle's analogy of the Boeing 747.
"A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing-747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe." [REF-HOY01]
"The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein … I am at a loss to understand biologists’ widespread compulsion to deny what seems to me to be obvious." [REF-HOY03]
In this analogy, Hoyle's focused exclusively the millions of hardware components that comprise a Boeing 747. Notably missing from his analogy are the millions lines of software that control all its hardware components. When we compare the Boeing 747 to the human body, we can equate the lines of software with the human genome in terms of size.
Additionally, the human body has the capacity to self-heal and self-replicate, something absent in the Boeing 747. Therefore, we conclude that the complexity of the Boeing 747 pales in comparison to the complexity of the human body,
Hoyle is certainly caught in the horns of a great dilemma [REF-HOY02]. As an evolutionist, he recognized that the emergence of DNA and life by evolution was impossible given its complexity.
This angst is best captured in the statements by George Wald, Harvard University biochemist and Nobel Laureate.
"One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are, as a result. I believe in spontaneous generation." [REF-WALD01]
"There are only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only possible conclusion that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible; spontaneous generation arising to evolution." [REF-WALD02]
In an ongoing effort to find a plausible explanation, Fred Hoyle, Francis Crick, Stephen Hawking, and others concluded that the only way such complex life could have suddenly appeared on earth is for it to come from another planet. This theory known as panspermia which postulates that complex life-forms must have been transported to earth by some interplanetary object sometime during the Pre-Cambrian or Cambrian periods [REF-PAN01]. While this theory may seem remotely plausible, it does not explain how complex life-forms came about on alien planets. They are simply avoiding the fundamental question on the origin of life.
Unlike spontaneous generation, chemical evolution relies on a sequence of chemical reactions to gradually bring about the original DNA. These reactions rely less on random chance. Instead, these reactions are guided by precipitating factors such as environmental conditions or other favorable conditions conducive for perpetuating formative chemical reactions.
Richard Durrett, professor of mathematics at Duke University, specified formulae for estimating the probability of DNA sequence evolution based on several theoretical models [REF-DUR01]. Durrett's formulae have been cited by hundreds of other researchers in an effort to estimate the probabilities of DNA evolution.
While these and many other models improve the overall probability due to guidance, they continue to produce estimates that are well outside the realm of feasibility. Regardless of model, it is unlikely to generate viable DNA, epigenetics, proteins and multicell organisms, must less complex and distinct body plans since the dawn of life some 3.8 billion years ago.
In the final analysis, the probabilities produced by spontaneous generation and chemical evolution methods are innumerable.
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