Page 112 - The Alliance of the Good

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THE ALLIANCE OF THE GOOD

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too
great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The
probability of proteins, the building blocks of cell, being
synthesized coincidentally, is 1 in 10 950 for an average
protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathematics, 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 calculated that if the information coded in
DNA were written down, this would make a giant library
consisting of 900 volumes of encyclopaedias of 500 pages
each.
Avery interesting dilemma emerges at this point: the
DNA can only replicate with the help of some specialized
proteins (enzymes). However, the synthesis of these enzymes
can only be realized by the information 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
evolutionist of repute from the University of San Diego,
California, confesses this fact in the September 1994 issue of
the Scientific American magazine:

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
without the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to
conclude that life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical
means. 22
No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated