In seeking to answer the supposed proofs of evolution, one is always in danger of refuting arguments which evolutionists themselves have already abandoned on the field of battle. In fact, the history of evolutionary “evidence” is as littered with corpses as that of some cults who keep rewriting the “truth” as they feel necessary. Having shown some once-dearly-held argument to be false, the Christian is often met with a wan smile and the comment, “Of course, we don’t believe that anymore.”
One of the planks that is still utilized from the rotting remains of evolution’s platform is based on experiments reported in 1953 by Stanley Miller. Miller assembled an apparatus that supposedly simulated the conditions of the primeval earth. Injecting ammonia, methane, and hydrogen gasses into a stream of steam which was then subjected to spark discharges, he reported finding a number of what are referred to as “organic products” (carbon compounds). From this it is inferred (an inference of astronomical proportions) that life could have evolved on the planet. As one textbook author concludes his discussion of the experiment: “How else can we understand the orderly progress toward increasing interactions between molecules leading to longer survival time and the ultimate development of life forms from pre-life systems?” How else indeed! “Orderly progress” in the face of increasing randomness? “Development of life-forms from pre-life systems” contrary to the principle of biogenesis (life only comes from life)? High school and college teachers who use this experiment as proof of chemical evolution either have not done their homework or are trying to pull the wool over their students’ eyes.
Organic chemists use the term stereo chemistry to refer to the three-dimensional aspects of organic chemicals.1 Two compounds may be different simply because the arrangement of their bonds in space is different. Two such compounds that have the same constitution but differ in the spatial arrangement of their atoms are called stereoisomers. A good example of this would be seen by looking at your hands. Being mirror images of each other, they are very similar in shape, but cannot be made to match point for point if both hands are facing in the same direction.
Scientists distinguish these mirror image compounds by a prefix D and L.2 Stereoisomers, although identical in their makeup, can have totally different physical or chemical characteristics. One could be a liquid and the other a solid, or one could be nutritional for our bodies while the other could be toxic.
Take table sugar (sucrose) as an example, which is found in almost everything we eat. Both D-sucrose and L-sucrose are white crystalline powders. As mentioned, structurally they are mirror images of one another. But there is a vital–and deadly–difference. When consumed, one helps to provide the energy we need to live. The other is poisonous. D-sucrose, the nutrient, has been provided liberally for us by God in nature. Fortunately, L-sucrose–which is toxic–is not found free in nature; it must be synthesized by man.
Miller reported finding one of the simplest amino acid (alanine) as one of the products of his experiment. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, also exist in two forms, L and D. However, as James L. Hall writes: “When amino acids are synthesized in the laboratory for commercial use or when they are formed under conditions supposedly duplicating early earth conditions, there is always a 50% mixture of D and L amino acids formed. Only when intelligently controlled measures are used can D forms be separated from L forms.
“If amino acids formed in the primitive oceans spontaneously, then the resultant brew would consist of 50% L, and 50% D–and if these would in turn link up (polymerize) to form proteins, the proteins would be expected to consist of approximately equal amounts of D and L forms.3 Also, since these proteins were the ancient ancestors of today’s proteins as found in living systems, one would expect the proteins of life today to be 50% D and 50% L mixtures of amino acids.
But, on the contrary, they [the proteins] all are L forms.”4
It is a similar situation for the sugars in DNA,5 the code carrier in the human body, except that the sugars are all of the D forms. Again, God has built into the process another safeguard to keep the human race from assuming we, and all around us, are mere cosmic accidents–meaningless, purposeless, hopeless. Such arrangements point to the Arranger, the Architect of the worlds. The truth remains that every time scientists discover or uncover one more mystery, they unwillingly provide another proof that no one but God could have created the universe. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).
Endnotes:
1. The famous chemist, Charles LeBel, proposed that the four bonds to carbon were directed toward the corners of a tetrahedron.
2. For dextro-rotatory, meaning it turns polarized light to the right when such light is shone through it; and levo-rotatory, meaning it rotates polarized light to the left.
3. Amino acids can link up as L to L, D to D, or D to L.
4. History of Life, sixth ed., James L. Hall, Hall Publications, 1990
5. Deoxyribonucleic acid.