THE MIRACLE OF DESIGN IN THE CELL

The theory of evolution was advanced by Charles Darwin in the middle of the 19th
century. That period greatly differed from today in terms of its extremely poor level of
science and technology. 19th century scientists had to work in simple laboratories with
quite primitive equipment. With the devices then available, it was impossible for them to
view even bacteria.
Furthermore, scientists were still under the influence of many superstitious beliefs
upheld since the Middle Ages.
One of these superstitious beliefs was that life had a simple form. Going as far back
as Aristotle, this belief maintained that life could self-originate by the coincidental
assembly of inanimate matter in a moist milieu.
While developing his theory, Darwin relied on the belief that life basically had a
simple structure. Other biologists who adopted and defended Darwins theory thought
the same way. For instance, the greatest advocate of Darwinism in Germany, Ernst
Haeckel supposed that the living cell, which could only be viewed as a dark spot under
the microscopes of that time, had a very simple structure. In one of his articles, he
referred to the cell as a simple little lump of albuminous combination of carbon.
The theory of evolution was based on assumptions such as these. The pioneers of
evolutionary theory like Haeckel, Darwin and Huxley thought that life had a very simple
form and that this simple form could originate by itself as a result of chance.
However, they were mistaken.
In the one and a half centuries that have passed since Darwins day, giant steps
have been taken in science and technology. Scientists discovered the structure of the
cell to which Haeckel referred as a simple little lump of albuminous combination of
carbon. They saw with surprise that it is not simple at all as earlier supposed. It was
revealed that the cell has a system so complex as to have been unimaginable in Darwins
time.
A renowned molecular biologist, Michael Denton, makes the following analogy to
describe what kind of a structure the cell has:
To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must
magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter
and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or
New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity
and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings,
like the port holes of a vast space ship, opening and closing to allow a continual
stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings
we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering
complexity. (Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. London: Burnett Books,
1986, p. 328)
Now, let us vitalize Professor Dentons spaceship analogy and see the complexity in
the cell closer
ANIMATION
Our journey starts with hormones that look for an appropriate cell for themselves
When hormones approach the cell, they first look for a door that will let them in
The doors of the cell are selective in the way they operate. Every molecule
stopping by a door is checked by the door to see whether it is beneficial to the cell or
not. The doors open only for useful molecules.
If a harmful material, such as a virus, tries to enter a cells door, the situation
changes. The cell door analyzes the material, finds out that it is harmful, and rejects it.
When hormones step in the door, they are immediately taken under control by
special proteins that carry out the functions of the cell. These proteins are called
enzymes. If required, enzymes immediately put the newly-arriving hormones to use. If
there is no need for these hormones at that moment, they are placed in the storage
compartment of the cell, which is called the Golgi apparatus.

Some molecules, such as the insulin that carries sugar molecules, are too big to
pass through the doors of a cell. The cell has a specially designed system for such big
but useful molecules. The cell extends a special appendage outside its membrane to
admit the insulin. The insulin outside is pulled in by this appendage. Of course theres no
need to say that a strict security check is not forgotten.
Once inside, special carrier enzymes carefully collect the sugar molecules on the
insulin.
Enzymes convey the sugar molecules they receive from insulin to the mitochondria,
which make up the cells power generating plant.
The duty of mitochondria is to break down the energy-containing molecules it
receives and process them so that they can be used by the cell. Produced as a result of
very complicated reactions in the mitochondria, the ATP energy packs are transferred
to the related compartments of the cell through, again, a perfect mechanism.
Special channels called endoplasmic reticulum handle the transportation in the
cell.
The nucleus, which resembles a gigantic information-processing center, is the
brain of the complex system of the cell.
Inside the cell are chromosomes, each of which is a huge data bank.
Chromosomes consist of intertwined DNA chains. The detailed plans of all the
systems in the cell are coded in these DNA chains.
A DNA chain is like a spiral helix composed of the sequential arrangement of four
different molecules. These four different molecules are actually an alphabet of four
letters. Thanks to this alphabet, an enormous amount of information that would fill
hundreds of volumes of an encyclopedia is coded in the DNA molecule.
This coding system includes the detailed production plans of the thousands of
different enzymes and proteins used in the cell. The projects of all organic molecules
that will be structured in the cell are written in the DNA down to their smallest details.
The production of an organic molecule, such as a protein, starts with the
identification of the gene containing the required information among the DNA found in
the chromosomes. An enzyme exclusively in charge of this task opens the DNA like a
zipper. Then another group of enzymes come and divide the DNA strands into two.
Another enzyme goes over one of the split pieces and quickly reads and copies the data
coded here. Now, a perfect copy of the production plan in the DNA is obtained.
After replication is completed, enzymes close the DNA and restore it to its original
state.
The copy produced from the DNA is called messenger RNA. Messenger RNA
contains the production plan of the protein required for the cell.
Protein production itself takes place in another part of the cell. This structure,
which we can also call the factory of the cell, is the ribosome.
There is a perfect system of production in the ribosome. Messenger RNA slips in
from one end of the ribosome and slowly proceeds. In the meantime, conveyors called
the transfer-RNA molecules carry the amino acids, which are the components required
for the protein to be produced, to the ribosome in a complete state and in the right
sequence.
The amino acids brought here combine in the right sequence thanks to the code on
the messenger RNA. As the messenger RNA proceeds, the amino acid that corresponds
to the data coded there is added to the chain.
The result is a new protein. The slightest mistake in the amino acid sequence
would cause the protein that is produced to be useless. Yet such mistakes almost never
happen.
Production complete, the protein leaves the ribosome to set out for its duty.
All these extraordinary processes take place not somewhere far away but right in
your own body. The events we have simplified here are actually far more complicated
and they are continuously repeated in each and every one of the 100 trillion cells in your
body.
The cell, which was thought to be a simple little lump of albuminous combination
of carbon by the formulators of the theory of evolution, has such an extraordinary

design. This magnificent system certainly could not have emerged by chance as the
theory of evolution claims.
When all these details of cell biology were revealed and understood, the theory of
evolution suffered a great blow. Today, many of the worlds distinguished scientists
acknowledge that lifeas embodied in the living cellcannot be a product of chance and
they admit that a very superior design underlies all aspects of life. One of these
scientists is Michael Behe, an acclaimed American professor of biochemistry. He refers
to the fact of design in the cell as revealed by modern science as follows:
I think the conclusion of design is a scientific one, an empirical one, based
completely on the observable system the universe and life were intended, that they
are the product of intelligent activity. And I just like to point out that this idea
comes from the progressive science, it is not from what we do not know, that is
rather from what we have learned over the past 50 years.
Indeed, science shows that all living beings have been brought into being as a
result of conscious creation.
Failing to explain the complex systems in a single living cell, the theory of evolution
also fails to explain the designs in the bodies of living things.
For instance, the aerodynamic in a bird wing
The amazing hunting methods of a spider
An insect made to resemble a leaf so that it can camouflage itself
The eye design on a butterflys wings
Or the feeling of compassion in animals
Life, with all its details perfectly designed, is obviously the result of superior
creation.
THAT SUPERIOR CREATOR IS THE ALMIGHTY GOD, THE LORD OF THE
HEAVENS, THE EARTH, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.

THE EYE
When you look around you out in open air and in a broad field, you can readily see
all objects farthest and closest to you in all their colors, shape, and size. This view, which
you have obtained without making any effort, is produced as a result of numerous
complex reactions and interactions in your body. Now let us look at these complicated
operations closer.
The human eye has a fully automatic mechanism that works perfectly. It is made up
of the combination of 40 different basic parts and all these parts have critical functions
in the process of seeing. Any defect or disability in even one of these parts would make
seeing impossible.
The transparent layer in the front part of the eye is cornea. Right behind lies the
iris. Giving the eye its color, the iris adjusts its size automatically according to the
sharpness of light thanks to the muscles attached to it. For example, if we are in a dark
place, the iris widens to take in as much light as possible. When light increases, it
shrinks to decrease the amount of light coming into the eye.
The automatic adjustment system in the iris works like this: The moment light
comes to the eye, a nerve impulse travels to the brain and gives message about the
existence and brightness of the light. The brain immediately sends back a signal and
orders how much the muscles around the iris will contract.
Another eye mechanism working parallel to this structure is the lens. The duty of
the lens is to focus the light coming to the eye onto the retina layer at the back of the
eye. Thanks to the movement of the muscles around the lens, light rays coming to the
eye from different angles and distances can always be focused on the retina.
All the systems we have mentioned are far smaller yet far more superior to the
mechanical devices designed by the use of the latest technology in order to imitate the
eye. Even the most advance artificial imaging system in the world remains extremely
simple and primitive compared to the eye.

When we think of the effort and knowledge that has been put into developing these
artificial imaging systems, we can understand with what a superior creation the eye is
made.
If we examine a single cell in the eye at the microscopic level, the superiority of
this creation will be further revealed.
Let us suppose that we look at a crystal bowl full of fruit. The light rays coming
from this bowl to our eye pass through the cornea and iris and are focused on the retina
by the lens.
So, what happens in the retina so that the retinal cells can perceive light?
When light particles, also called, photons, strike the cells in the retina, they
produce a cascading effect like a row of dominoes carefully arranged one after the other.
The first of these dominoes in the retinal cells is a molecule called 11-cis-retinal. When a
photon of light interacts with it, this molecule changes shape. This forces a change in
the shape of another protein, rhodopsin, to which it is tightly bound. Now, rhodopsin
takes such a form that it can stick to another protein, called transducin, which was
already present in the cell, but with which it could not interact before due to its shapes
incompatibility. After this union, another molecule called GDP also joins in this group.
Now, two proteinsrhodopsin and transducinand a chemical molecule called GDP
have bound together.
However the process has just begun. The compound called GDP now has the
proper form to bind to another protein called phosphodiesterase, which always exists in
the cell. After this bonding, the shape of the molecule that is produced will trigger a
mechanism that will start a series of chemical reactions in the cell.
This mechanism changes the ion concentration in the cell and produces electrical
energy. This energy stimulates the nerves lying right at the back of the retinal cell.
Consequently, the image that came to the eye as a photon of light sets on its journey in
the form of an electrical signal. This signal contains visual information about the object
outside.
In order for seeing to take place, the electrical signals produced in the retinal cell
have to be transmitted to the center of vision in the brain. Nerve cells however are not
directly connected to one another: there is a tiny gap between their junction points. How
then does the electrical stimulus continue on its way?
At this point, another set of complex operations takes place. The electrical energy
is transformed into chemical energy without any loss of the information being carried
and in this way the information is transmitted from one nerve to the next. The chemical
carriers located at the junction points of nerve cells successfully convey the information
contained in the stimulus coming from the eye from one nerve to another. When
transferred to the next nerve, the stimulus is again converted into electrical signal and
continues its way until it reaches another junction point.
Making its way to the center of vision in the brain in this way, the signal is
compared to the information in the center of memory and the image is interpreted.
Finally, we see the bowl full of fruit, which we viewed before, by virtue of this
perfect system made up of hundreds of small details.
And all these amazing operations take place in a fraction of a second.
Moreover, since the act of seeing takes place continuously, the system repeats
these steps over and over. For example, the molecules playing a part in the chain
reaction in the eye are restored to their original state every time and the reaction starts
all over again.
Of course at the same time many other equally complex operations are taking place
in other parts of the body. We may simultaneously hear the sound of the image we are
viewing, and depending on circumstances we may sense its odor and taste and feel its
touch. Meanwhile, millions of other operations and reactions have to continue without
interruption in our body if we are to go on living.
The primitive science of Darwins day knew about none of this. Despite that
however, even Darwin realized the extraordinary design in the eye and confessed his
despair in a letter he wrote to Asa Grey on April 3rd 1860 in which he said
The very thought of the eye makes me cold all over.

The biochemical properties of the eye that have been discovered by modern
science dealt a greater blow to Darwinism than Darwin could ever have imagined.
The complete process of seeing that we have summarized in barest outline here is
even more complex in its details. However even this summary is enough to show what a
glorious system has been created in our body.
The reactions taking place in the eye are so complex and so finely tuned that it is
quite unreasonable to think that these are a product of chance occurrences as the
theory of evolution claims.
Michael Behe, a recognized professor of biochemistry, makes this comment on the
chemistry of the eye and the theory of evolution in his book Darwins Black Box:
Now that the black box of vision has been opened, it is longer enough for an
evolutionary explanation of that power to consider only the anatomical structures
of whole eyes, as Darwin did in the nineteenth century. Each of the anatomical
steps and structures that Darwin thought were so simple actually involves
staggeringly complicated biochemical processes that cannot be papered over with
rhetoric. Michael J. Behe, Darwins Black Box, p. 22
But as we have seen, the theory of evolution is unable to account for a single
system in a single living cell, much less explain life as a whole.
Having utterly demolished the hypothesis that life is simple, science demonstrated
to humanity a very important fact.
Life is not the product of unplanned happenings. It is the result of a perfect
creation.
The perfect creation of a superior Creator Who brought life into being, Who is God,
the Lord of all the Worlds.
It is He Who created both humans and all other living beings. And man is
responsible to his Lord Who created him.
God reminds man of this truth in the Quran:
It is He Who has created hearing, sight and hearts for you. What little thanks you
show! (Surat al-Muminun: 78)
They said, Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught
us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Baqara: 32)
This film is based on Harun Yahyas book The Design in Nature.