Sunday, January 13, 2008

Cell Biology


Image showing onion cells at 100X magnification


"A cell is generally defined as a single unit or compartment, enclosed by a border or wall, which is usually part of a bigger structure. In biological terms, cells are the structural and functional units of all living organisms. Living cells illustrate overwhelming evidence of intelligent design due to their many irreducibly complex molecular machines. Cells are so tremendously complicated that we are only beginning to understand their internal workings, and indeed many functions within the cell still remain a total mystery.

Some organisms, such as bacteria, are unicellular, consisting of a single cell. Other organisms, such as humans, are multicellular, or have many cells—an estimated 100,000,000,000,000 cells! Each cell is an amazing world unto itself: it can take in nutrients, convert these nutrients into energy, carry out specialized functions, and reproduce as necessary. Even more amazing is that each cell stores its own set of instructions for carrying out each of these activities.

In the early twentieth century, the cell was viewed as essentially a blob of protoplasm. It was simply an unobservable collection of gelatin molecules, the inner workings of which were not yet understood. On the other hand, 21st century technology reveals that although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, the entire cell is incredibly integrated and each part works as part of a team.

An analogy sometimes used, is the comparison of a cell to a city. For instance, the workers can be compared to the protein, the powerplant to the mitochondria, the roads to the actin fibres and microtubules, the trucks to the Kinosin and Dynein, the factories to the ribosomes, the library to the nucleic acid, the recycling centre to the Lysosome, the police to the chaperones, and the post office to the golgi apparatus.

As technology increases, science continuously opens black boxes within already opened ones, and as more and more of these are being exposed, the phenomenal complexity of the whole system pushes evolutionary theories to breaking point."
http://creationwiki.org/Cell_biology

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something I've never understood about this Creationist theory of yours is how the creator was created. He must be immensely complex so he couldn't have just happened; someone or something must have created him. Who or what?

Jeff said...

Teddy,

You say that "someone or something must have created him," but then, who created that someone or something? That really answers nothing. It only pushes the answer farther back. Its like the theory that says humans were planted here by aliens. Well, then, where did the aliens come from?

Even Darwinian Evolutionists must concede that *something* had to have always been around, whether its the smallest particle of an atom, or whatever. The Christian understands that the *something* that has always been around is God.

God is, by nature, eternal. Nothing and no one created Him.

Anonymous said...

This is no answer at all but if it satisfies you that's fine.

Jeff said...

Here's a more complete answer:

According to the Bible:

"God is “everlasting” in nature (Isa. 40:28), which is to say, He is “eternal” as to His very essence (Rom. 16:26; 1 Tim. 1:17). His existence is “from everlasting to everlasting.” Before the material creation was spoken into existence, He always was (Psa. 90:2)."

"The Lord revealed Himself to Moses as the “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex. 3:14). The “I AM” expression is related to the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh (LORD, or Jehovah). This was the most sacred name for God. The term Yahweh occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament. The word is believed to be a form of the verb hayah, which signifies “to be,” ultimately meaning “the eternal One” or “self-existing One.” God’s existence is underived; no one made Him. He simply always was."

According to logic:

"If there ever was a time when nothing at all existed, then there would be absolutely nothing today. It is an axiomatic truth that if nothing exists, then “nothing” will be the case—always, for nothing simply remains nothing—forever! Nothing plus nothing equals nothing. If there is absolutely nothing but nothing, there cannot ever be something. “Nothing” and “something”—applied to the same object, at the same time—are mutually exclusive terms."

"Since it is the case that something does now exist, one must logically conclude that something has existed always. Let us state the matter again: If nothing cannot produce something, and yet something exists, then it follows necessarily that something has existed always. The question then becomes this. What is the “something” that has been in existence always?"

"In logic, the “law of the excluded middle” states that a thing either is, or it is not. A line either is straight, or it is not straight.

Let us apply this principle to the matter at hand. Something has existed forever. That “something” must be either material in nature, or non-material. If it can be demonstrated that the eternal “something” is not material in nature, then it must follow that the eternal “something” is non-material in nature.

Another term for the “non-material” would be “spirit.” The question now becomes—what does the available evidence reveal? Is it the case that “matter” has existed forever, or does the evidence argue that the eternal “something” is non-matter, i.e., spirit?"

"The most reputable scientists in the world concede that “matter” is not eternal. In his book, "Until the Sun Dies" (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977), Dr. Robert Jastrow, founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and himself a professed agnostic, describes his perception of the initial creation of the universe. He speaks of that moment when “the first particles of matter appear,” thus, prior to that moment, matter did not exist.

Subsequently, he declares emphatically that “modern science denies an eternal existence to the Universe.” There is not a particle of evidence that the universe has existed forever. The very fact that scientists attempt to assign an “age” to the universe is revealing within itself."

"In view of the foregoing, namely that something has always existed, and yet that “something” is not of a material nature, the student of logic is irresistibly forced to the conclusion that the “something” that is eternal is non-material—which means it must be “spirit” in its essence. The Scriptures identify that spirit Being as God. “God is spirit.” (Jn. 4:24)—an uncreated, eternal Spirit Being."

http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/who_made_god

Jeff said...

Here's a more simplistic, summarized answer:

-Everything WHICH HAS A BEGINNING has a cause.

-The universe has a beginning (as shown by the Laws of Thermodynamics, etc.).

-Therefore, the universe needs a cause.

-God has NO beginning. He is eternal and self-existent.

-Therefore, God needs no cause.

-God created the universe, and the universe includes time.

-Therefore, God created time (day and night, the seasons, the moon revolving around the earth, etc.).

-God is not limited by what He created (including the Laws of the universe that He created). He exists outside of those laws.

-Therefore, God is not limited by time.

-Therefore, God has no beginning in time.

-Therefore, God has no cause.