Unlocking the Mysteries of Life
Dean Kenyon, with co-author Gary Steinman, wrote a book called Biochemical Predestination in 1969. In the book he stated, “Life might have been biochemically predestined by the properties of attraction that exist between its chemical parts…particularly between amino acids in proteins.” He was totally convinced that they had the scientific explanation for origins. Over the next twenty years, it became a bestseller on the theory of chemical evolution. However, five years after publication, Kenyon began to doubt his own theory. The concept of Intelligent Design began to make more sense to him, as it more closely matched the discoveries of molecular biology.
In the years since his rejection of biochemical predestination, science has revealed details of an entire system of information processing that bears the hallmarks of intelligent design.
Computer animation reveals the remarkable system at work. Inside the cell are tightly wound strands of DNA, the storehouse for the instructions necessary to build every protein in an organism.
Transcription is a process in which a molecular “machine” unwinds a section of the DNA helix to expose the genetic instructions needed to assemble a specific protein molecule. Another “machine” copies these instructions to form a molecule known as “messenger RNA.” When this process is complete, the slender RNA strand carries the information through the nuclear pore complex—the “gatekeeper” for traffic in and out of the cell nucleus. The messenger RNA strand is directed to a two-part molecular factory called a ribosome. It attaches itself firmly and the process of translation begins.
Inside the ribosome, a molecule assembly line builds a specifically sequenced chain of amino acids. They are then transported to other parts of the cell and linked to chains, often hundreds of units long. Their sequential arrangement determines the type of protein manufactured.
When the chain is finished, it is moved from the ribosome to a barrel-shaped machine that helps fold it into the precise shape critical to its function.
After the chain is folded into a protein, it is released and shepherded by another machine to the exact location where it is needed.
States Kenyon: “This is absolutely mind-boggling, to perceive at this scale of size such a finely tuned apparatus—a device—that bears the marks of intelligent design and manufacture!”
