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3. Intelligent Designand the Origin of Life Timothy G. Standish, PhD

6. A Problem • At this point time travel is impossible • All history is either believed either: • On the basis of surviving witness accounts • Inference from data available in the present • Why believe that Gustave Eiffel ever existed? I never met him. Some Frenchman like “Eiffel” is just the kind of fictitious character the French would come up with to take credit for the Eiffel Tower • Why not credit the tower to Inspector Clouseau, the Three Musketeers or the Count of Monte Cristo?

7. A Problem • The Eiffel Tower is mostly just an arrangement of wrought iron, and iron is an abundant element • The individual parts are fairly simple • The whole thing operates according to the same laws of nature by which rocks and everything else operate • Why believe that the origin of the Eiffel Tower had anything to do with anyone at all? • Why not believe it to be a product of natural laws and chance?

8. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— Luke 14:28 NKJV

9. Highly probable? Yes Law No Intermediate probability? Yes Chance No Specified/ Small probability? Design Yes No Chance William Dembski’sExplanatory Filter Start From Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design. William A. Dembski Ed. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998. P99.

10. RandomOrIntelligently Designed? Probability: =1/2 =2-1 =0.5 Probability: =1/4 =2-2 =0.25 Probability: =1/8 =2-3 =0.125 Probability: =1/16 =2-4 =0.0625

11. RandomOrIntelligently Designed? Probability: =2-256 =8.6 x 10-78 =0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000086

12. RandomOrIntelligently Designed? Probability: =2-256 =8.6 x 10-78 =0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000086

14. Creationism and Intelligent Design • Biblical Creation: Starts from certain Scriptural claims and looks for empirically detectable signs of God’s work in nature • Intelligent Design (ID): Starts with nature and asks which causes explain what we empirically observe • Both ID and creationism converge on the same observation that the work of an intelligent being is evident in nature

15. Intelligent Design Intelligent Design is: “The study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the product of intelligence.” Discovery Institute

16. The Appearance of Design “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” Richard Dawkins 5

17. Science or Philosophy? “Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.” Francis Crick 40

18. Data Then Theory “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to fit facts” Sherlock Holmes

19. Where G-3-P Dehydrogenase Fits Into the Scheme of Life • All cells contain a biochemical pathway that converts sugar to energy • The first part of this pathway is called the glycolytic (sugar splitting) pathway • Sugar is taken in at the start of the pathway and the products are energy in the form of ATP, a chemical called pyruvate and another chemical called NADH. • Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase is one of the enzymes in the glycolytic pathway.

20. ATP Sugar 1 ATP 2 3 4 5 NAD+ 6 NADH 2 ADP+P 7 2 ATP 8 9 2 ADP+P 10 2 ATP Pyruvate The Glycolytic Pathway • Each step in the pathway is performed by a molecular machine (enzyme) • As these changes occur, energy stored in the sugar is ultimately harvested for use by the cell • Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase is a molecular machine found at step 6 in the glycolytic pathway

21. Mycoplasma genitaliumGlyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase • Mycoplasma genitalium is among the simplest known naturally occuring free living organism • Like all known organisms it contains the glycolytic pathway • The Mycoplasma genitalium G-3-P dehydrogenase protein sequence: MAAKNRTIKV AINGFGRIGR LVFRSLLSKA NVEVVAINDL TQPEVLAHLL KYDSAHGELK RKITVKQNIL QIDRKKVYVF SEKDPQNLPW DEHDIDVVIE STGRFVSEEG ASLHLKAGAK RVIISAPAKE KTIRTVVYNV NHKTISSDDK IISAASCTTN CLAPLVHVLE KNFGIVYGTM LTVHAYTADQ RLQDAPHNDL RRARAAAVNI VPTTTGAAKA IGLVVPEANG KLNGMSLRVP VLTGSIVELS VVLEKSPSVE QVNQAMKRFA SASFKYCEDP IVSSDVVSSE YGSIFDSKLT NIVEVDGMKL YKVYAWYDNE SSYVHQLVRV VSYCAKL

22. Random Production of G-3-P Dehydrogenase is Improbable • There are 337 amino acids strung together in the M. genitalium G-3-P dehydrogenase protein • At each position in the string there could be any one of 20 different amino acids • Probability of making this protein using random synthesis from 20 equally abundant amino acids is (1/20)337 = 3.5 x 10-439 or 1 chance in 2.9 x 10 438 • Even if there are a trillion trillion ways of making G-3-P dehydrogenase, the probability of making a functional protein is only lowered to 3.5 x 10-415

23. . If there are a trillion trillion ways to make G-3-P, the decimal point can be moved to here. 3.5 x 10-439 Is A Very Small Number • 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000035

24. Is This a Reasonable Estimate? • No • Amino acids do not spontaneously polymerize into proteins, especially in water • Amino acids would not be expected to exist in equal proportions on a primordial Earth • Science usually involves predicting the probable: hydrogen and oxygen react to make water… • Scientists don’t claim that the Eiffel Tower may be very improbable, but it is exactly what we would expect in a long time and a big universe

25. “But if (& oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia & phosphoric salts,—light, heat, electricity &c present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes” Charles Darwin

26. “A man who died at Yellowstone National Park back in June was completely dissolved in acidic water after trying to 'hot pot' - or soak himself - in the waters of one of the park's hot springs, an official report has concluded.” Science Alert

27. “A man who died at Yellowstone National Park back in June was completely dissolved in acidic water after trying to 'hot pot' - or soak himself - in the waters of one of the park's hot springs, an official report has concluded.” Science Alert

28. G-3-P Dehydrogenasefrom Bacillus stearothermophilus Skarzynski, T., Moody, P. C. E., Wonacott, A. J.: Structure of Holo-Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase from Bacillus Stearothermophilus at 1.8 Angstroms Resolution. J.Mol.Biol. 193 pp. 171 (1987) Picture source: SWISS-PROT

29. S NADH S NAD+ NADH S -OH H- H2-O-P H | C | C | C C | C | C C | C | C C | C | C C | C | C =O =O =O -O- -O- H- H- H- H- H- -OH -OH -OH -OH -OH H2-O-P H2-O-P H2-O-P H2-O-P H2-O-P H | C | C | C NAD+ =O S P- 1,3-Bisphosphoglycerate Glyceraldehyde- 3-Phosphate P P- From G-3-P to 1,3-BPG In Four Easy Steps NAD+

30. Evolution As Religion “Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion -- a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality.” Michael Ruse

31. Darwin and Theology “Rather than saying that evolution is antireligious, it would be more accurate to say that evolution is religious. It very much hinges on a particular type of God—one who would only create a world suited to our tastes.” Cornelius Hunter

32. Conclusions • What is the cause of life? • The data point to the need for a plan of some kind, teleology • The Bible contains at least one surviving eyewitness account (Exodus 20:11, 31:17) • Design arguments provide the first step along a path that liberates observers of nature from a worldview that blinds them to the true beauty God created and the joy He intended us to experience as part of His creation

33. Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27 NKJV

34. Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27 NKJV

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36. The END

38. You are free to use this presentation for your own personal study, or for lectures in a classroom setting. Feel free to modify and improve it for classroom use in any way that you see fit. I ask that it not be redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose without my written permission. If you would like to use it for some other purpose, or wish to share it using any media please contact me at: tstandish@llu.edu Thank you for respecting my wishes with this.