Page 104 - The Miracle of Human Creation

THE MIRACLE OF HUMAN CREATION

cells act as if they know where to go, and
what to be, and what to do when they get
It is God Who created
there? And also act in such harmony with
the seven heavens and
their fellow cells? 27
of the earth the same
In the answer he has tried to give to
number, His Command
these questions, Flanagan is far from being
descending through all
able to explain these wondrous occurren-
of them, so that you
ces.
might know that God
These big questions take us into the
has power over all
world of the almost infinitesimally
small molecules within the cells, pri- things and that God
marily those that compose the genes encompasses all things
and make up the genetic programme. in His knowledge.
Since the advent of molecular bi- (Qur'an, 65: 12)
ology, it is for the first time becoming
possible to detect and describe some
of these processes. "Life's book, it seemed, was suddenly laid
open…", although only some fascinating pages of it. We are still far
from understanding the whole story.

It is clear that cells work together so well because there is a continu-
al molecular dialogue between them and they adapt their intrinsic
genetic instructions accordingly. The instructions are held in the ge-
nes in the form of the so-called genetic-code, spelled out in the arran-
gement of molecules, like letters of a special alphabet. The genetic
programme for the baby, spelled out in that code, was achieved on
the first day in the union of parent cells. From then on, every time
any cell divided and gave rise to two new cells, a precise replica of
all the genes was made and passed along to each new cell. Therefo-
re every cell of the body carries exactly the same genes, and holds the
full genetic programme.
Every cell might simply go on to produce clones of itself, all with the
same destination and function, if the full programme were to be ac-
tive all the time. What makes for the great variety of cells produced,
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