Life Designed Itself?

on February 28, 2009

CBC News: “Montreal Scientists Unlock Mystery of Early Molecular Mechanism” Have Canadian scientists uncovered the key that makes an evolutionary origin of life plausible?


Steinberg and Bokov looked to ribosomes for their hypothesis.

According to CBC News, Steinberg and Bokov looked to ribosomes for their hypothesis. (The ribosome is a cell organelle responsible for building proteins based on RNA instructions.) The duo discovered that ribosomes are assembled using “relatively simple structural rules,” akin to a three-dimensional puzzle. The scientists developed a mathematical model to show that the rules could only result in a ribosome; if the rules were altered, the ribosome “simply wouldn’t hold together.”

Stephen Michnick, another University of Montreal scientist, praised the research: “The assembly followed rules that were logical and for which there were no alternatives.” Michnick claimed the study explains a critical step in the random formation of the earliest life. And in a clear swipe at creationism, Steinberg added, “In the absence of such explanations, some people could imagine unseen forces at work when such complex structures emerge in nature.”

But imagine watching any sort of machine self-assemble based on a perfect blueprint that wouldn’t allow any result except that machine. Would we be content to conclude that the self-constructing assembly was a product of mere chance? Of course not. The news release casts further doubt on the scientists’ explanation, since it claims Steinberg “examin[ed] the molecular self-organizing processes that preceded the living cell.” (Obviously those processes are not observable in nature, but are instead entirely within the imagination of evolutionists.) The release also notes, “[T]he construction of the ribosome likely followed an ordered series of steps to form the structure found in the first living cell” (emphasis added).

Given staunch belief and an active imagination, we don’t doubt that we could come up with exotic, just-so explanations for the existence of just about anything. Evolutionary scientists already believe that evolution happened, and since they “know” that it happened, any wild idea—self-assembly, random chance, or both (perhaps on the backs of crystals!)—passes for a hypothesis. Never mind that besides these woeful explanations, none explains how the genetic code came to have meaning or how ribosomes were able to interpret that meaning. Compared to Genesis 1, the evolutionary model of origins sounds downright miraculous!



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