Why We Believe in Creation not in Evolution

III. THE UNBRIDGEABLE CHASM BETWEEN THE NON-LIVING AND THE LIVING

In general, scientists call living things, or things derived from living things, “organic”; and the non-living, “inorganic.”

The galactic universe — the macrocosm — is certainly vast and majestic — and it speaks to us of the power and glory of our God — but it is inorganic, lifeless in itself. How can life exist in the intense heat of a “burning” star?

The atoms speak to us of the miracle of God’s creation in the microcosm, the world that approaches the infinitely minute, but there is no life in either the whirling electrons or the center core, the nucleus — even though there is plenty of mystery, action and power in each atom and its particles.

When we look around on earth, we see the phenomena of LIFE on all sides: plant life, animal life, life in the sea, in the air and on the land. It exists in over a million different forms from invisible viruses and bacteria to highly complex and well organized life in the higher animals and man. Where did life on earth come from? How did it all start?

Since there is no such thing as spontaneous generation — life must always come from life — we conclude that life on earth, as the Bible says, was created by God.

“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth” and it was so.

“And God said, “let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. . . .

“And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth. . . .(Gen. 1:11, 20, 21; see also vs. 24-27).

The ETERNAL GOD, who made the Universe and all things in it, is the true “secret of the Universe.”

Pre-organic Conditions on Earth and the Requirements of Life that Demand Creation

All scientists agree that there was a time when there was no life on earth. Fred Kohler says:

“According to the best estimates, living matter began to develop about one to two billion years ago from the then existing non-living material” (p. 12, “Evolution and Human Destiny:).
But according to this same author — who is, by the way, an ardent evolutionist — the prerequisite for life on earth is the presence on earth of some form of “organic compounds.”
“The non-living material which existed on this planet at the time at which the first structures that can be termed “living” developed, must have included some organic compounds of a high order of complexity.” . . . And “as the organic compounds that gave rise to living structures could not have existed at the time the earth began to solidify, they in turn must have developed from simpler substances. It is consequently apparent that a ‘pre-organic’ evolution of chemical complexity must have preceded the evolution of life.” (Evolution and Human Destiny, pp. 12, 13).
Now the question logically arises, What gave rise to these “pre-organic compounds” that had to be on earth before life could either come to pass, or be sustained after it got here?

Fred Kohler frankly admits the evolutionist faces a real problem here. He says:

“Life represents matter organized into systems of great complexity. How such orderly aggregates could develop in the first place, persist and continue to become more complex, is not so easily explainable in terms of the generally accepted laws of the physical sciences.” (Ibid., p. 14).
Then he goes on to tell us WHY the presence of life on earth can not be easily explained.
The “Second law of Thermodynamics”
Mr. Kohler says:

“One of the most fundamental maxims of the physical sciences is the trend toward the greater randomness; the fact that on the average things will get into disorder rather than into order if left to themselves. This is essentially the statement that is embodied in the Second Law of Thermodynamics” (Ibid., pp. 14-15).

This “Second Law of Thermodynamics” is very interesting. It teaches, as Mr. Kohler says, that “things will get into DISORDER rather than order, if left to themselves.” This law infers and involves the fact of “the universal tendency toward decay” — and all nature demonstrates it!

Now note this well: The Second Law of Thermodynamics infers and teaches EXACTLY OPPOSITE TO WHAT EVOLUTION TEACHES! It demands universal decay rather than universal development. Careful, honest observers admit that the law of nature in both the inorganic and the organic world tends toward degeneracy rather than toward improvement.

This second Law of Thermodynamics is of universal application. The very universe itself is “running down,” Instead of the sun and stars conserving their energy, they are gradually losing it, though it is a very slow process.

“Astronomers tell us that the sun is gradually losing its heat and also it weight. The loss of weight is at the rate of 250 tons a minute, or 120 million tons a year.”

The Second Law of Thermodynamics * can also be seen at work in the radio-active elements in the atomic world. Uranium is in a constant state of decay even though its rate of disintegration is very slow.

* The First Law of Thermodynamics deals with heat transfer; the Second with Entrophy or heat loss; and the Third relates to the behaviour of chemical substances at low temperatures.

“Lord Rutherford’s group at Cambridge proved that the radio-active elements uranium and thorium decay ultimately into helium and lead” (The Age of the Solar System, April, 1957, “Scientific American.” **

** This gradual decay of the elements not only has enabled science to set an approximate date of “4.5 billion years ago when the earth and its neighbors were formed” (Age of the Solar System”) — but it also is the positive proof that our earth and our universe HAD A BEGINNING. Matter is NOT eternal; if it were, uranium and thorium long ago would have deteriorated into helium and lead, and all stars ages ago would have burned out. GOD CREATED ALL THINGS IN THE BEGINNING!

And so the Second Law of Thermodynamics — a law of nature — becomes a witness for the need of DIVINE INTERVENTION before life could come. ALL THINGS — ALL FACTS — drive us back to GOD, the Original Cause.

The quotations given above by Dr. Fred Kohler actually give us a perfect case for creation even though he is arguing (in his book) for evolution. Let us summarize our arguments:

(1) There was a time on earth when there was no life; now there is abundant life.

(2) Before there can be life on earth, there must first be on earth “organic compounds of high complexity.” But

(3) The Second Law of Thermodynamics sets forth the truth that things left to themselves will certainly NOT develop into “a high state of complexity” but will tend to “decay” and to degenerate into “more randomness.”

(4) Therefore we must conclude that a Power greater than and apart from nature stepped in and created life. This Power, this original Cause, is of course the living God.

Complex Proteins
The “organic compounds of high complexity” that must precede life on earth are proteins. Proteins are “the basic material of life.” But proteins are always and only made by living organisms! *

* A few years ago a chemist, Stanley Miller, working at the University of Chicago, put into a flask what evolutionists believe to have been the chief elements of the atmosphere two or three billion years ago: methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water. He exposed them repeatedly to an electric spark. In a week he succeeded in producing three amino acids, which are essential constituents of protein. From this experiment evolutionists presume that “lightning acting on the earth’s atmosphere” may have formed the first protein molecules necessary to life. But this is wishful thinking. Proteins are highly complex requiring “about 20 or more different amino acids” (not three), arranged in most intricate, involved “peptide chains.” They are far too complex and involved to “just happen.”

So here again the evolutionists faces an impasse, a situation that stumps him. If proteins are necessary for life, and proteins come only from living organisms, where did the original proteins — without which there can be no life — come from?

Paul Doty, writing on Proteins in the “Scientific Monthly” says:

“Thousands of different proteins go into the make-up of a living cell. They perform thousands of different acts in the exact sequence that causes the cell to live. How the proteins manage this exquisitely subtle and enormously involved process WILL DEFY OUR UNDERSTANDING FOR A LONG TIME TO COME (caps ours). . . . Protein molecules are giant molecules of great size and complexity and diversity. . . .Proteins are polypeptides of elaborate and very specific construction . . . (with) the long chains of each protein apparently folded in a unique configuration which it seems to maintain so long as it evidences biological activity (life).
For proteins to “just happen” or develop by natural processes is as unlikely as getting a Gettysburg Speech together by stirring a million macaroni “letters” in a bowl of soup! For proteins are unbelievably complex. Some protein molecules actually have “hundreds, even thousands, of atoms in formations which stagger the imagination.”
“Proteins, the keystone of life, are the most complex substances known to man. . . .For more than a century chemists and biochemists have labored to try to learn their composition and solve their labyrinthine structure. . . .In 1954 a group of investigators finally succeeded in achieving the first complete description of the structure of a protein molecule. *

* Since then the structures of other protein molecules have been resolved. See the Feb., 1961, “Scientific American.”

The protein (they studied) is insulin, . . . one of the smallest proteins. Yet its formula is sufficiently formidable. The molecule of beef insulin is made up of 777 atoms, in the proportion of 250 carbon, 377 hydrogen, 65 nitrogen, 75 oxygen and 6 sulphur. . . . Of the 24 amino acids 17 are present in insulin.” (“The Insulin Molecule,” Scientific American).
Fredrick Sanger, of Cambridge University, one of the group that finally worked out the “labyrinthine” structure of the insulin protein molecule actually “spent ten years of study on this single molecule!” (Scientific American). Only a trained biochemist can appreciate how involved a protein molecule is. The layman is impressed, but not sufficiently, by descriptions of the insulin protein molecule. But let us quote a little more:

“The insulin protein molecule consists of 51 amino acid units in two chains. One chain has 21 amino acid units; it is called the glycyl chain. The other chain has 30 amino acids; it is called the phenylalanyl chain. These chains are joined by sulphur atoms.”

We will not burden the reader by more quotations as to the intricate nature of the protein molecule, except to say that anyone who takes the time to look into the structure of the protein molecule must be convinced that such a fantastically complicated structure could hardly come about by mere chance: it is far too complex. And so the tiny PROTEIN MOLECULE — essential to, and a prerequisite of, life on earth, becomes a most effective witness for GOD, ITS CREATOR.

Proteins are of special interest not only because of their vast complexity of structure, but also because of their great variety and versatility in nature.

“There are tens of thousands, perhaps as many as 100,000, different kinds of proteins in a single human body. They serve a multitude of purposes.” (The Structure of Protein Molecules, Scientific American).
It is obvious to us, and we trust it is also to the reader, that only God could bridge the chasm between non-living atoms and life, even in its lowest forms, and that only God could and did create the intricate proteins that are necessary for life on earth.

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TESTIMONIES OF DEVOUT SCIENTISTS
Kepler, overawed with a sense of God’s majesty in the firmament, said as the discovery of His “Third Law,” came to mind (March 8, 1618), “God has passed before me in the grandeur of His ways. Glorify Him, ye stars in your ineffable language, and thou, my soul, praise Him!”

The immortal Newton exclaimed with deep reverence, “Glory to God who has permitted me to catch glimpse of the skirts of His garments.”