Page 729 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

The evolutionist hypothesis that prokaryotic cells (left) turned into
eukaryotic cells over time has no scientific basis to it.

The Endosymbiosis Hypothesis and

Its Invalidity

The impossibility of plant cells' having evolved from a bacterial cell has not prevented evolutionary bi-
ologists from producing speculative hypotheses. But experiments disprove these. 295 The most popular of
these is the "endosymbiosis" hypothesis.
This hypothesis was put forward by Lynn Margulis in 1970 in her book The Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. In
this book, Margulis claimed that as a result of their communal and parasitic lives, bacterial cells turned into

plant and animal cells. According to this theory, plant cells emerged when a photosynthetic bacterium was
swallowed by another bacterial cell. The photosynthetic bacterium evolved inside the parent cell into a
chloroplast. Lastly, organelles with highly complex structures such as the nucleus, the Golgi apparatus, the
endoplasmic reticulum, and ribosomes evolved, in some way or other. Thus, the plant cell was born.

As we have seen, this thesis of the evolutionists is nothing but a work of fantasy. Unsurprisingly, it was
criticized by scientists who carried out very important research into the subject on a number of grounds: We
can cite D. Lloyd 296 , M. Gray and W. Doolittle 297 , and R. Raff and H. Mahler as examples of these.
The endosymbiosis hypothesis is based on the fact that the mitochondria of animal cells and the chloro-
plasts of plant cells contain their own DNA, separate from the DNA in the nucleus of the parent cell. So, on
this basis, it is suggested that mitochondria and chloroplasts were once independent, free-living cells.

However, when chloroplasts are studied in detail, it can be seen that this claim is inconsistent.
A number of points invalidate the endosymbiosis hypothesis:
1- If chloroplasts, in particular, were once independent cells, then there could only have been one out-
come if one were swallowed by a larger cell: namely, it would have been digested by the parent cell and used
as food. This must be so, because even if we assume that the parent cell in question took such a cell into itself

from the outside by mistake, instead of intentionally ingesting it as food, nevertheless, the digestive en-
zymes in the parent cell would have destroyed it. Of course, some evolutionists have gotten around this ob-
stacle by saying, "The digestive enzymes had disappeared." But this is a clear contradiction, because if the
cell's digestive enzymes had disappeared, then the cell would have died from lack of nutrition.
2- Again, let us assume that all the impossible happened and that the cell which is claimed to have been
the ancestor of the chloroplast was swallowed by the parent cell. In this case we are faced with another prob-

lem: The blueprints of all the organelles inside the cell are encoded in the DNA. If the parent cell were going
to use other cells it swallowed as organelles, then it would be necessary for all of the information about them
to be already present and encoded in its DNA. The DNA of the swallowed cells would have to possess in-
formation belonging to the parent cell. Not only is such a situation impossible, the two complements of
DNA belonging to the parent cell and the swallowed cell would also have to become compatible with each

other afterwards, which is also clearly impossible.
3- There is great harmony within the cell which random mutations cannot account for. There are more
than just one chloroplast and one mitochondrion in a cell. Their number rises or falls according to the activ-
ity level of the cell, just like with other organelles. The existence of DNA in the bodies of these organelles is
also of use in reproduction. As the cell divides, all of the numerous chloroplasts divide too, and the cell divi-
sion happens in a shorter time and more regularly.

4- Chloroplasts are energy generators of absolutely vital importance to the plant cell. If these organelles
did not produce energy, many of the cell's functions would not work, which would mean that the cell could
not live. These functions, which are so important to the cell, take place with proteins synthesized in the

Adnan Oktar 727