Page 158 - Miracles Within the Molecule

then today's uni verse might con sist
of noth ing more than radi a tion.
Anyone who declares, "I believe in chance emer -
gence," must be able to answer these ques tions: How did coin ci -
den ces give rise to the atom? How did they man age to keep these
par ti cles togeth er in a very spe cial equi lib ri um and speed? If the four
basic for ces were deter mined by chance, then how did they arrive at the
ideal cal i bra tions lev els to con sti tute the atom? Why did elec trons
acquire orbits? And why did these orbits have to pos sess elec trons num -
ber ing 2, 8, 16, and so on? Why are these num bers ide al ly suit ed for the
emer gence of ele ments (car bon, for instance) that per mit the molec u lar
bonds essen tial to life? Why do atoms need to com plete the spe cif ic
num ber of elec trons in their orbits and thus make chem i cal bonds pos -
si ble? Can coin ci den ces make deci sions? How have those coin ci den ces
man aged to keep elec trons in dif fer ent orbits around the atom, and why
should every atom seek to obtain eight elec trons in its outer shell? How
could the coin ci den tal com ing togeth er of a few par ti cles have given rise
to the uni verse, the stars, the air, mat ter, and human i ty? How is it that
two sub stan ces, sodi um and chlo rine—one explo sive and the other
toxic—come togeth er by chance to con sti tute deli cious and essen tial
salt?
Beyond these phys i cal and chem i cal cri te ria, what expla na tion of
the ori gin of life, —which can not be account ed for in terms of such "laws
of nature"—can evo lu tion ists offer? Since chem i cal and phys i cal reac -
tions can not give rise to liv ing organ isms, by what coin ci den ces could
these organ isms have come into being? Faced with the fact that the
chan ces of coin ci dence giv ing rise to a sin gle pro tein are effect ive ly zero,
what response can evo lu tion ists give?

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