Nature & Scripture: An Argument for God from Biochemical Design

The more we study nature, the more reasons we have to conclude that God exists. Recent discoveries in biology are no exception. What we have discovered in the field of biochemistry is a powerful argument for God; investigating nature can lead us to the reasonable conclusion that life was created by a mind. Thank you to Fazale Rana from Reasons to Believe for providing the outline that I used to write this blog.[1]

If life appeared through a purely materialistic process, there should be evidence for a prebiotic chemical soup on the early earth; we should find evidence in the oldest rock formations of some mixture of chemicals that could organize into the first life. We do not find any evidence at all to support this; instead, what we do find is strong evidence that life is designed and created. Carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratio measurements from 3.8 billion year old rock formations show that life was abundant on earth at this time.[2] Measurements of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 ratios and calculations of the abundance of ammonia on the early earth, along with the carbon ratio data all support the conclusion that there was no prebiotic soup present on the earth when life began.[3]

This early appearance of life at 3.8 billion years ago actually provides evidence for a designer. Life appeared in a geologic instant on earth. If God created life, then we would expect it to show up as early as it could and we would expect it to appear without going through a gradual, step by step process. Biochemically and metabolically complex life appeared suddenly on earth as early as it possibly could![4]

Another positive biochemical argument for a designer is that machines in living systems are the same as machines we build; biochemical systems have the same properties as systems produced by humans. One example is biomolecular motors. The protein complex F₁-F₀ ATPase is an actual motor. Found in the inner membranes of mitochondria, it is an electrically powered rotary motor complete with a cam at a right angle to it that does work to manufacture ATP. F₁-F₀ ATPase has actually been removed from the cell and used to power a human engineered nanodevice![5] If life is just a product of purely natural processes, why would our minds design things like a motor that are identical to what we find inside the cell?

Another piece of evidence for a designer is our use of biological systems as models for systems we engineer. For example, we have produced a polymer that can store digital information, which was modeled off the information storage capabilities of DNA.[6] A second example of using a beetle shell to design a frost free surface is found here: http://www.reasons.org/articles/beetles-inspire-an-engineering-breakthrough Both of these examples highlight very elegant designs in nature; designs that we model because they are way more advanced than anything we can engineer.

“Given the unguided nature of evolutionary mechanisms, does it make sense for engineers to rely on biological systems to solve problems and inspire new technologies? Is it in alignment with evolutionary beliefs to build an entire subdiscipline of engineering upon mimicking biological designs? I would argue that these engineering subdisciplines do not fit with the evolutionary paradigm. On the other hand, biomimetics and bioinspiration naturally flow out of a creation model approach to biology. Using designs in nature to inspire engineering only makes sense if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind.”[7]

One last positive argument for a designer is in the area of synthetic biology. To create an artificial cell, protein, or enzyme requires extensive planning and highly sophisticated techniques that must be carried out by intelligent minds. Recent work in synthesizing an enzyme from scratch required a large team of scientists and hundreds of hours of super computer time just to come up with the strategy to build it! Despite the best minds on the planet working in it, the created enzyme operated with ten thousand to a billion times less efficiency than a natural enzyme.[8] The more work we do in the area of artificial biology the more we see that minds are required to build the molecules required for life. Life requires the work of a designer.

Evidence for biological systems being designed by a mind includes the lack of a prebiotic chemical soup on the early earth, the fact that life appeared on earth at the very instant it was first possible, the fact that we are finding machines and processes inside of cells that are identical to machines we have built and processes we came up with before we even knew about cells and now are copying these biological materials and systems to engineer new technology, and the fact that we can’t create the materials necessary for life without using our own intelligence. From this evidence, you can reasonably conclude that a mind, which we can call God, created life on this planet.

Go here to read my earlier blog on arguments against evolution: http://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/03/arguing-evolution-with-natures-evidence.html