Retraction

Strong and Courageous

March 23, 2018

Retraction

I need to make a retraction today about last week’s blog post.

I usually post this blog on both our church website and on Facebook. So on the Facebook page, I received a comment from a good friend about some of the information that I had posted about how complex single celled organisms are. The comment spoke about other more primitive cells such as bacteria and viruses, having different components present inside their cells. I hastily replied that all of them still have DNA as the genetic coding. That information was wrong and I need to correct that.

Some of these types of cells use RNA as the source of information to build the necessary structures for the cell to function. Other bacteria or viruses use DNA, but in a single strand form rather than a double helix. In addition, some of these cells do not contain a nucleus.

This may sound overly technical to some who are not familiar with the differences, but I do desire to be giving accurate information. My intent is to help people see a designer’s hand at work in the beauty of creation; I would never wish to be intentionally deceptive to overstate a point.

What I should have replied to the comment is that all living cells whether virus, bacteria, single cell, or human brain cell are all amazingly complex.

That would have been a much more accurate picture of what we were talking about. 

These viruses and bacteria are less intricate than single cell organisms. However, that does not mean that they are in any way simplistic. Whether RNA or DNA is responsible for the genetic coding, the complexity factors in the workings of these cells is still way beyond any realistic probability for chance to be the causing factor.

 These puppies have unmistakable design characteristics present in the many structures found in the cell. They contain ribosomes, which are incredible miniature factories designed for folding amino acid chains into three-dimensional working structures that are required for the cell to function. The amino acid chains are also extremely complex. There are 20 different amino acids, which are the building blocks for making proteins. Each link in the protein chain has a 5% probability of being correct.  The sequence must be 100% correct from start to finish in order for the completed product to function. When you start multiplying this 5% times the number of links required, the mathematical probability gets exponential very rapidly.  (Amino acid chains vary in length, many in the range of 5-300. The longest chain found in humans is over 27,000 links long.)

These cells also have a semipermeable membrane that acts as a filter that allows some things to pass into and outside of the cell. The membrane also prevents certain harmful things from entering into the cell itself. This wall also maintains the cell shape and prevents it from bursting from osmotic pressure. These characteristics represent an extraordinary engineering challenge that could not be overcome by random variation. Design is essential for the best and most likely explanation for the existence of all living things.