Transcript Slide 1

Session 6 – Refuting Evolution Pt.2
In this final session we will continue our
refutation of the theory of evolution
We will look at what most believe is the
best evidence against evolution, and great
evidence for the creator God of scripture
Don’t let your study stop after this, there is
much more information available on these
topics that support the Biblical view
Irreducible Complexity & Design
In this session we will look at two topics that
are similar but distinct from each other
The first is the argument against evolution
from irreducible complexity (which will be
explained in a moment)
The second will be a general argument
against evolution from design and
complexity found in organism
"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.“ - Charles
Darwin, Origin of Species
Evolution must explain everything by random
mutation and natural selection (which we
showed isn’t possible) in short successive
building steps over billions of years
The best argument against evolution (in my
opinion) comes from Irreducible Complexity
which was originally put forward (and
remains to be argued) by Dr. Michael Behe
“By irreducibly complex I mean a single
system composed of several well-matched,
interacting parts that contribute to the basic
function, wherein the removal or any one of
the parts causes the system to effectively
crease functioning” – Michael Behe
The example often
given to illustrate
this is a mouse trap
with it’s five
interacting parts
If you remove the spring (1 or the 5 parts)
from the mouse trap, does it become 1/5th
less effective than before? No. It’s useless
Unless you have all the parts there, there is
no function to the mouse trap
The mouse trap couldn’t “evolve”, because
evolution does things step by step over a
period of time, not all at once
When dealing with living organisms, natural
selection should get rid of useless machinery
that is taking nutrition from the cell. If you
have to build these step by step, but don’t
have any function until all steps are
complete, the organisms doesn’t look ahead
and wait for that function to come about, it
either has a beneficial function or doesn’t
Irreducibly complex systems
Bacterial Flagellum Motor
The flagellum is a
rotary motor in
bacteria that drives a
propeller to spin
It is capable of spinning 100,000 rpm
More than other motors found in nature,
this one looks like something we’d make
When we look at a simple bacteria (E. Coli)
we’ve discovered there are 35 genes
(Proteins) that make up this system
If any one of these genes was not in place,
the flagellum would not function, and would
be removed by natural selection
You need all the pieces of this puzzle in place
to begin in order for evolution t explain it,
but there is no mechanism that can arrange
these 35 parts from the get go
Eukaryotic Cilium
The cilium is a hair-like, or whip-like structure
that is built upon a system of microtubules
the function of the
cilium will fail if it is
missing any
microtubules,
connecting arms, or
lacks sufficient
dynein motors
Because everything is
needed to work, it’s
irreducibly complex
Aminoacyl-tRNA
Synthetases (aaRS)
These enzymes are
responsible for fusing
tRNA with the proper
amino acid
Most cells require twenty different aaRS
(one for each of the amino acids needed)
If you don’t have all types of aaRS present,
translation cannot continue (and life ends)
Ribosomes
These molecular machines are essential for
life, and give us the best example of an
irreducibly complex system
Ribosomes are
responsible for RNA
translation, and the
production of
polypeptides (proteins)
inside cells
How does it work?
George Church, Professor of Genetics at
Harvard Medical School and Director of the
Center for Computational Genetics said:
“The ribosome, both looking at the past and
at the future, is a very significant structure -it's the most complicated thing that is
present in all organisms. Craig does
comparative genomics, and you find that
almost the only thing that's in common
across all organisms is the ribosome. And it's
recognizable; it's highly conserved…
So the question is, how did that thing come
to be? And if I were to be an intelligent
design defender, that's what I would focus
on; how did the ribosome come to be?”
For the most simple Ribosome, a minimum
of 53 proteins and 3 polynucleotides are
required to function (many ribosome's have
around 300 proteins)
They’ve tried to construct more simple
ribosome's in the lab, and have failed
“The only way we're going to become good
scientists and prove that it could come into
being spontaneously is to develop a much
better in vitro system where you can make
smaller versions of the ribosome that still
work, and make all kinds of variations on it
to do really useful things but that are really
wildly different, and so forth, and get real
familiarity with this really complicated
machine. Because it does a really great
thing: it does this mutual information trick…
but not from changing something kind of
trivial, from DNA to RNA; that's really easy. It
can change from DNA three nucleotides into
one amino acid. That's really marvelous. We
need to understand that better..”
– Dr. George Church
Leading evolutionists agree this system is
problematic for the theory, it’s the best
example of a system that can’t get any
simpler, but is essential for life to exist
ATP Synthase
According to cell biologist and molecular
machine modeler David Goodsell, “ATP
synthase is one of the wonders of the
molecular world.”
Found inside the Mitochondria (and other
places) ATP Synthase is the power (ATP)
producing molecular machines of the cell
Understand there are many steps before
ATP synthase also needed to get energy
There are two
motors involved
with this system,
the F0 (powered by
protons) and F1
motors (powered
by the F0 motor)
This kinetic energy is used like a generator to
synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
Cyanide blocks the step prior to this, making
ATP synthase useless and killing the organism
Whole processes in the cell often require
many independent molecular machines to
make them happen
DNA replication
In order for cells to divide (and for life to
continue) DNA must be replicated
This vital process is not a simple challenge
for evolution to overcome, and shows
evidence of incredible design by a creator
Here’s an overview of what happens
All these parts have a vital function
DNA polymerase
This is the main
character in replication,
it’s the machine that
reads and adds
nucleotides to create a
template strand of DNA
It is extremely accurate, making less than one
mistake per billion bases (usually if a mistake
is made, it catches and corrects it)
Other parts
Topoisomerase
cuts and rejoined
the DNA during
replication
Helicase catalyzes the breaking of hydrogen
bonds between the original DNA strands
being copied
SSBP attached to the separated strands to
prevent them from recombining
Primase adds RNA primers to the lagging
strand of DNA which is needed for DNA
polymerase to begin doing it’s job
DNA Polymerase I replaces the RNA with DNA
Ligase closes the gaps on the lagging strand
RNA Polymerase in cells
Without RNA polymerase, you wouldn’t have
the RNA needed to code for proteins in the
Ribosome we looked at earlier
It’s not as simple as RNA polymerase though,
you need initiation factors in order for RNA
polymerase to start doing it’s job
These initiation factors guide the RNA
polymerase to where it needs to be on the
strand of DNA
What about these simple cells?
Understand that most these molecular
machines we have been discussing are inside
the most simple cells
“To grasp the reality of life as it has been
revealed by molecular biology, we must
magnify a cell a thousand million times until
it is twenty kilometers in diameter and
resembles a giant airship large enough to
cover a great city like London or New York…
What we would then see would be an object
of unparalleled complexity and adaptive
design. On the surface of the cell we would
see millions of openings, like the port holes
of a vast space ship, opening and closing to
allow a continual stream of materials to flow
in and out. If we were to enter one of these
openings we would find ourselves in a world
of supreme technology and bewildering
complexity.” Michael Denton, Evolution: A
Theory In Crisis
Here is a “simple” bacteria cells
Here is a Eukaryotic cell
Human (Mammals) reproduction shows great
complexity and design
Ovaries contain 400,000 eggs to begin! The
mother never generates more
Fertilization happens
very quick after the
egg enters the
fallopian tube, and
the baby begins to
grow from that point
If the egg can’t get from the ovary to the
tube, life can’t continue
If fertilization
happens inside the
tube, that means
you need to get the
sperm up to that
point, while moving
the egg down
If you can’t get the fertilized egg down the
fallopian tube, the baby can implant in that
location and cause a tubal pregnancy (which
kills both mother and baby)
How do the sperm get up to the egg? It is
true they swim, but left alone they would
never reach the egg. The muscles inside the
tube help move the sperm upward
But if the muscles are moving the sperm
upward, how is the egg coming down?
There are trillions of
little hairs (Cilia) that
help move the egg
down! What kind of
motion do they use?
Maybe they just go wild?
Maybe they are like windshield wipers on a
car going back and forth?
Reality? They end up doing the wave
The next obstacle will
be fertilization (But
don’t worry, there
was a smart designer)
There are several barriers
that the sperm must over
come to fertilize the egg, but
it has what it needs
The sperm must first get through the
cumulus and the shell of the egg
Luckily it has enzymes needed to dissolve
those barriers and always it entry
Once it’s inside the egg, there is a check that
takes place to make sure it’s the same
species (which is why humans and monkeys
can’t have offspring together)
You then have to make sure no other sperm
get into the egg, which is hard because
usually many are trying to. So once the first
sperm get’s in there is a reaction that creates
another shell to prevent others
From that point the process of growth begin
to take place as the cells begin to divide
If left alone for the next 9 or so months (for
humans) you will get a baby
Psalm 139:14: “I praise you, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your
works; my soul knows it very well.”
God created the miracle of reproduction and
should get the credit for it and everything
else that he created
Memory Verse
Hebrews 11:3: “By faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that the things which are seen were
not made of things which are visible.”