Secular biology class confirms design
by Joseph Benson
The hard facts of science, such as the Law of Biogenesis and apoptosis (programmed
cell death) support design by a Creator, not evolution.
(Image credits: Scientist holding flask © iStockphoto/caracterdesign
Man with Bible stock.xchng
Glassware in background © iStockphoto/JanPietruszka)
Although secular science classes are typically taught with materialistic assumptions
built into the curriculum, the actual ‘hard science’ strongly supports
creation. There are many examples, but here are two that I came across.
In a recent biology class I was taught that cells (the most basic unit of life)
arise only from pre-existing cells (called the Law of Biogenesis).1 My professor openly stated that scientists do not
know how the first cell evolved, though they are constantly searching for an answer
to this “problem”. From a creationist perspective, however, the fact
that the most basic unit of life arises only from already existing life makes perfect
sense. The Bible tells us that God created life; it did not arise by natural processes.
How the first cells arose is thus a problem only when biology is approached with
materialistic, evolutionary assumptions.
Programmed cell death, called apoptosis, presents an equally puzzling problem
for the evolutionist. Of its many important roles, apoptosis eliminates cells that
are damaged lest they continue to divide and become cancerous.2 Apoptosis instructs the cell to commit suicide;
thus preventing cancer. It is also a part of normal development in our mother’s
womb, such as in the formation of our fingers and toes.3 Like any human invention, a mechanism that behaves
with such specificity indicates design.
What’s more, apoptosis functions in so-called “primitive” life
forms just as it does in humans; so they call it “evolutionarily conserved”.4 This simply means that two
organisms far apart in the supposed evolutionary tree share very similar sequences
of DNA.5 The remarkable
similarity here seems to better support design by a common Creator.
Indeed, there is no plausible evolutionary theory to explain how apoptosis arose.
Again, from a creation perspective apoptosis makes sense, being designed by an intelligent
creator to serve a specific purpose. Just as with the origin of the cell, the problems
arise when materialism dictates the research.
Conclusion
Evidence of design surrounds us. Undisputed facts about the natural world presented
in secular science classes clearly point to a Designer. Despite the materialistic
assumptions that pervade science today, evidence of God’s handiwork cannot
be easily hidden.
Readers’ commentsMichael B., United Kingdom, 28 February 2011
As humans we live in a world that is filled with designs of our own invention. In fact just look around you everyday whereever you are and just try to identify how many designs there are designed by man. Eventually you come to the conclusion that as humans we are completely surrounded by objects of man’s creative design. We never give man’s designs any thought except to pay tribute to the designers for their designs or products we use in our everyday lives. We never say however that the kettle I used this morning was the product of countless mutations over millions/billions years. That would simply be ridiculous bordering on insanity.
Yet man, to date have never been able to create life from nothing. I find it incredibly strange that materialists/evolutionists unconditionally accept the principle of man’s creative/design abilities which incidently as previously mentioned excludes the ability to create life but cannot appreciate the creative/design genius of an Omnipotent God who created what man is still unable to do—life in all its variety abundance and glory.
Michael B., Australia, 31 March 2011
The subject of design is very poorly presented in both education and academia generally most likely because at a deep level it ends up inferring a designer. The real reason we instantly recognize something as ‘designed’ is because we are equipped with a language processor in our brain. What we are actually doing is reading the language of the specification of the design which is contained in the very form and function of the object. All design is specified by semantic information and in living things we not only have the observable form and function but we can actually read (in part with great difficulty) the specification in its DNA. The problem for the naturalist is there is no known natural source of semantic information. From Dr Werner Gitt In the beginning was Information we know there are 5 prerequisites for semantic information 1-An alphabet 2-A Grammar 3-Writing machine 4-Reading machine 5-Purpose. Which means design is recursive because (3) and (4) are both designs which themselves must be specified by semantic information. So the very existence of semantic information requires semantic information!! Hence a natural universe without semantic information can never achieve it. |
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References
- Mazzarello, P., A unifying concept: the history of
cell theory, Nature Cell Biology 1(1):E13–E15, 1999;
nature.com/ncb/journal/v1/n1/full/ncb0599_E13.html. Return to text.
- Bell, P., Apoptosis: cell “death”
reveals creation, Journal of Creation 16(1):90–102;
2002; creation.com/apoptosis; Bergman, J., Origin of apoptosis: selfish
genes or intelligent design? Creation Research Society Quarterly 44(3):204–212,
2008. Return to text.
- Sarfati, J., Ostrich eggs break dino-to-bird
theory; creation.com/dino_digits. Return to text.
- David, C. et al., Hydra and the evolution
of apoptosis, Integrative and Comparative Biology 45(4):631–638,
2005; icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/631. See also: Bell, ref
2. Return to text.
- Lamb, A., Corals and sponges and ur-complexity,
27 October 2007; creation.com/ur.Return to text.
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