Page 66 - The Miracle in the Cell

THE MIRACLE IN THE CELL
address and aligns along the mRNA, depositing its amino acid. Once
all of the codons have been "read," the amino acids join together to
form a protein molecule.
As you can imagine, the event crudely outlined in a few sen-
tences above, in reality occurs as a result of processes that are miracu-
lously complex, beyond the limits of what the mind can conceive. But
they do leave us facing some important questions.
The first has to do with the beginnings of protein synthesis. How
does a cell-which cannot be seen with the naked eye, formed from
mindless molecules-make the decision to start producing something?
The ability to decide, think, and evaluate is a feature of conscious liv-
ing things. Obviously, unconscious molecules of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen atoms don't possess the ability to make deci-
sions. There must be another power inspiring the cell to make these
decisions and then directing it accordingly.
Once a decision is made, the next step is for the messenger RNA
to read the instructions encoded within the DNA. The enzyme respon-
sible for producing RNA finds in the DNA only the instructions need-
ed for the desired protein-but in reality, the process is extremely
difficult. Finding the relevant information in the DNA means locating
and extracting an instruction consisting of 900 base pairs from a store
of 5 billion. This is like trying to find one particular sentence in a 20-
volume encyclopedia, without any help. However this problem has
been made easy in an awe-inspiring way: The relevant portion of the
DNA has been marked by "start" and "stop" labels that the enzyme can
find.
Who has placed these labels, understood only by enzymes, in the
relevant places? Who gave these enzymes the ability to recognize
these labels?
The undoubted answer to these questions is clear: the One Who
made these faultless systems and the One Who placed every detail
where it needs to be, and Who has allowed all of this to proceed in har-

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