Page 352 - General Knowledge from the Qur'an

350 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE FROM THE QUR'AN

THE COMPLEX STRUCTURE OF LIFE
The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up in such a
big impasse about the origin of life is that even the living organisms
deemed the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell of a
living being is more complex than all of the technological products
produced by man. Today, even in the most developed laboratories of
the world, a living cell cannot be produced by bringing organic chem-
icals together.
The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great in
quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of pro-
teins, the building blocks of cell, being synthesized coincidentally, is 1
in 10 950 for an average protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathe-
matics, a probability smaller than 1 over 10 50 is practically considered
to be impossible.
The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of the cell and
which stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. It is calcu-
lated that if the information coded in DNA were written down, this
would make a giant library consisting of 900 volumes of encyclopae-
dias of 500 pages each.
A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: the DNA can only
replicate with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes). How-
ever, the synthesis of these enzymes can only be realized by the infor-
mation coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have
to exist at the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that
life originated by itself to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an evolution-
ist of repute from the University of San Diego, California, confesses
this fact in the September 1994 issue of the Scientific American maga-
zine:
It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of
which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same
place at the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one with-
out the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that
life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means. 21
No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated from natural
causes, then it has to be accepted that life was 'created' in a supernatu-