The wisest mortal who ever lived instructed us to go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. A study of these lowly creatures reveals many impressive capabilities, especially when viewed as a colony.
Ants seem to know what to do in all situations without a blueprint or anyone directing them. If rain approaches, you’ll find them busy digging deeper and burying eggs. A shovel disrupting their colony launches concerted activities to protect the queen, move larvae, and rebuild the nest. There is a clear sense of duty and purpose among them as they intuitively coordinate their different roles. No wasted efforts here!
Such is also the case with living cells. Though we’ve already invalidated evolution’s climb up the first 11 steps from chemisty to biology, for now, let’s brazenly assume it leaps up a sheer cliff. If so, we have a petri dish with a bunch of cellular parts. Now they need to operate in the right order. Just like ants work in harmony, cells need coordinated activities towards a common goal: life!
So what if there’s no coordination between cell organelles? Simply put, you get disaster. Without any synchronized effort, enzymes bounce between breaking bonds to creating bonds. DNA helicase separates a strand of DNA, but DNA polymerase is nowhere to be found to finish the job. Electrons are removed from food sources, but the enzymes required to prevent free radicals from wreaking havoc don’t do their job on time. Without a common goal, there’s a complete breakdown of everything evolution has worked so hard to create.
Dr. Change L. Tan observes that DNA has a complete set of instructions for life, but the instructions are not being followed in proper order: Is it now time to replicate the instructions or to focus on obtaining food, to grow, to remove waste products, to hibernate, to attack invading DNA, or to divide into two cells? Since evolution rejects any purpose in life, they only get unguided operations across all cellular machines. It seems Darwin’s got a chaotic job site, where the demolition crew randomly breaks things down at the same time the construction crew haphazardly tries to build. What a wreck!
Thank God our cells don’t work that way! But where do cells’ coordinated motion, direction —and sense of clear purpose— come from? It’s not found solely in DNA. Again, Dr. Tan notes that life’s inborn purpose simply cannot be obtained by random arrangement and natural selection; it must be inherited from the parent cell. Life with all its wonderful harmony is the only source of life; only a cell begets another cell. This is another impossible step for Darwinian advocates.
Truly this confirms what Scripture declares, that God Almighty is upholding all things by the word of His power, and does all things decently and in order. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. I believe this implies all His creation is built with a purpose. You’re not here by accident; there is value in every human, especially Christians. Our greatest joys must surely come as we live our lives in accordance with His perfect will; else, all they that hate me love death.
Source: Dr. Change Laura Tan and Rob Stadler, The Stairway To Life: An Origin-of-Life Reality Check, Evorevo Books, 2020, chapter 18.
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