How did life begin on Earth ?
The Bible teaches that God created all life
on earth.
But evolution teaches that life started by a
purely natural process.
What does the scientific evidence tell us ?
Achievements of Science
• Physics
– Law of Gravity (Newton)
– Law of Electromagnetism (Maxwell)
– Structure of the atom (Bohr, and others)
• Chemistry
– Periodic table – chemical properties
– Organic chemistry
• Molecular-biology
– DNA structure
– Cell chemistry
• How does science discover these truths ???
How science discovers the truth
•
•
Science tries to find explanations for
things we can observe
Scientific method:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Observe and gather information
Propose a theory (a “good” guess)
Devise experiments to test the theory
See if results of experiments check out
with the theory
5. If not, change theory and try again
6. If so, theory becomes a “law”
Example:
How life began: Theory of Evolution
• Science has studied the question “How
did life begin on earth”
• Science has learn a lot about “what living
organisms are made of” and “how living
organisms work” in Biology and
Chemistry
• But science has not yet discovered how
life began... Science is still guessing...
• The “scientific” theory (guess) on how life
begin is called “Theory of Evolution”
MSNBC Poll on Evolution (Jan 2003)
What do you think of the evidence
regarding evolutionary theory?
– The evidence is so strong that the
theory is beyond doubt.
56%
– The evidence is not sufficient to
support the theory.
28%
– Neither of the above.
16%
• Poll audience…
So is Evolution a proven theory ???
• A recent PBS TV series on Evolution claims
that:
– All known scientific evidence support evolution
– Virtually every reputable scientist in the world
support evolution
• School text books on evolution all proclaim
that “Evolution is a proven fact”
• Many people who once believed that God
created the world turned away from God
after they learned about the Theory of
Evolution... (anyone here ?)
Evolution is NOT a proven theory
• Immediately after the PBS TV series, 100
scientists (from well-known universities like
MIT, Yale, Emory, etc) published a 2-page ad in
the newspaper “The Weekly Standard”:
– Public TV programs, education policy statements,
and science textbooks have asserted that Theory of
Evolution fully explains the complexity of living
things. The public has been assured, most recently
by spokespersons for PBS's Evolution series, that "all
known scientific evidence support evolution" as does
"virtually every reputable scientist in the world.” ---- The following scientists DISPUTE the first claim
and stand as LIVING TESTIMONY in contradiction to
the second.. (followed by the names of these 100
scientists)
Before we discuss Evolution
• Before I can talk about Evolution, I need to
explain what living things are made of...
• I have tried to keep things as simple as
possible, but…
• If something is unclear, please stop me
anytime and ask questions !!!
What are living things made of ?
Cell
0.01 mm
Structure of a living cell
• We now know the cell is extremely complex:
• In Darwin days, they thought the cell was
simply a blob, like “dough” (bad microscopes)
What is a cell made of ?
Cell
Amino-acid molecule
Millions of
protein
molecules
Chain of 100’s of amino-acid molecules
Amino-acids: building blocks of life
• 20 different amino-acid molecules in cells:
• Each protein molecule is made of different
combinations of amino-acids:
Example protein molecule:
Another example:
• Q: How many different protein molecules ?
Protein molecules used in cells
• There can be infinitely many different
protein molecules
– Analogy:
– 10 digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
– Each number is made of different
combination of 10 digits (123, 27632, 67, …)
– We can make up infinite many different
numbers
• Living cells use over thousands of
different kinds of protein molecules
What do you need to do to make life ?
1 Cell
Lots and lots and lots of different
kinds of amino-acid molecules
Millions of
protein
molecules
Lots and lots of diff kinds of protein molecules
What do you need to do to make life ?
•
Make billions of amino-acid molecules
(of different kinds)
Amino-acid molecules come in 2 flavors: left handed
and right-handed. Life only use left-handed molecules
What do you need to do to make life ?
•
Pick the right kinds of amino-acid
molecules in the right order to make
millions of protein molecules
Put in the right order !
Pick only left-handed ones !
Some protein molecules have over 1000 amino-acids !
What do you need to do to make life ?
•
Pick the right kinds of protein molecules
and put them together in the right way
to build ONE SINGLE cell
Tens of thousands different kinds of proteins
Millions of
protein molecules
Cell: your worst 3D Chinese Jigsaw puzzle nightmare...
So can we make a living cell ?
• With all our current
advanced knowledge and
technologies, we cannot
make a living cell from
scratch...
• Suppose we would break
apart a living cell, we could
not put the cell back
together again...
Now we can talk about Evolution
• What I describe next is the “theory” or
“guess” that science has proposed to
explain how life began on earth
• I will describe the theory in its entirety
first
• As for all science, a theory (guess) must
be supported by evidence – I will
present the scientific evidence after
presenting the Theory of Evolution (and
explain what’s wrong with the theory)
Evolution: How did life begin (1)
• Early earth’s atmosphere
contains Hydrogen, Methane,
Ammonia, Nitrogen gases
• Lightning provided energy to
fuse the gases into different
Amino-acid molecules
• Amino-acid molecules collide
with one another to for
protein molecules
• Protein molecules collide with
one another to form a living
cell
Evolution: How did life begin (2)
• At first, life was very simple
and consist of “self
replicating molecules”
• Later, life learn to store
genetic information in DNA
molecules: single cell
organisms (bacteria)
• And later, single cell
organisms developed into
simple multi-cell orgasms
(Example: coral polyp)
Evolution: How did life diversify ?
Life “changes”
slowly over
long time…
Evolution: how did life diversify ?
• When more and more
living organisms are on
earth, they compete for
their food
• The stronger (faster,
smarter, etc) animals will
have a better chance to
survive and reproduce
• This process of adaptation
is called “natural
selection”
Science: always check the evidence
• A scientific theory is only a guess – it
can be wrong !
• The principle in science is to always
check the theory against the evidence
• The evidence is never wrong
• So do we have strong evidence for the
Theory of Evolution ?
“Making amino-acid” according to Evolution
• Put Hydrogen, Methane,
Ammonia, Nitrogen
together
• Use lightning (electric
sparks) to fuse the gases
into different Amino-acid
molecules
• Any evidence that this
can be done ?
Making Amino-acids: Miller’s experiment
• Miller put water, nitrogen,
methane, ammonia,
hydrogen and carbon
dioxide in a flask
• The mixture was zapped
for a week by high voltage
sparks
• Miller was able to make a
number of different types
of amino-acid molecules
• Some scientists saw this as
“proof” that life began on
earth through evolution
What’s wrong with Miller’s experiment
• When you do science,
you must get the starting
condition right;
otherwise, the result of
the experiment is flawed
• Scientists have
discovered that Earth’s
early atmosphere did not
contain hydrogen,
methane and ammonia
• When Miller’s experiment
is repeated, all it
produced were very
harmful chemicals !
More problems with Miller’s experiment
• Miller’s experiment cannot produce
enough amino-acids (electrical sparks
destroy the amino-acids !!!)
• Miller’s (and later) experiment can only
create proteins made with up to 30
amino-acids (some proteins have more
than 1000 amino-acids !!!)
• Proteins made in Miller’s experiment
contain both left-handed and righthanded variants of amino-acids (living
cells only use left-handed ones)
What some scientists say...
• The physicist Fred Hoyle had this to say:
– "This scenario (a huge number of amino-acid
molecules bouncing against each other and
creating a living cell) is about as likely as a
tornado whirling through a junkyard and
accidentally assembling a fully functional
Boeing 747"...
• In a recent debate, Miller was asked if he
believed life could have started according to
his experiment, Miller said: No comment...
Evolution: life have common ancestor
• All life started from a
common ancestor
• Is there any evidence
for this fact ???
Evidence 1 for common descend: embryos
• Haeckle showed embryos
at different stages of their
development (1874)
• Haeckle’s drawing shows
that embryos from different
species look alike at the
start of their development
• Many biology text books
claim that this shows that
all living things had a
common ancestor
Evidence 2 for common descend: structure
• The skeleton of vertebrates have a
common design: looks like coming
from one common ancestor
Non-evidence 1: Haeckle’s fraud !
• You GOTTA to smell fish
if biology text books in
2004 use a drawing
from 1874
• In 1997, Richardson
took pictures of real
embryos
• Richardson:
– “it's turning out to be one
of the most famous
FAKES in Biology…”
Many biology text books
still contain this lie !!!
More real embryos
Pictures of real embryos clearly show embryos differ
greatly at early stage
Embryos does NOT support the theory of one common
ancestor
Dubious evidence 2: one Creator ?
• We see common structure in other
things:
These common structure
shows a common designer
(humans), not necessarily a
common ancestor.
Fossils
• When some animals died a catastrophic
(quick) death (e.g., volcano eruption), their
bodies can be encapsulated in stone/dirt and
become a fossil:
Fossil Record
• Fossils are deposited in rock in layers:
Recent fossils
Millions of year
later
Ancient fossils
• The deeper a layer, the older the fossils !
Fossil record according to Evolution
• According to Evolution:
– there is one kind of
living organisms in the
beginning and animals
change slowly over time
(millions of years !)
– The number of different
kinds of animals
(species) grows slowly
over a long period of
time
Time
Fossil record in reality
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bacteria (procaryotic cells)
3,500 millions years ago
Complex (eucaryotic cells)
2,000 millions years ago
Multicellular animals (jelly fish) 670 millions years ago
Shell-bearing animals (insects) 540 millions years ago
Vertebrates (simple fishes)
490 millions years ago
Amphibians (frogs)
350 millions years ago
Reptiles (lizards)
310 millions years ago
Mammals
200 millions years ago
Nonhuman primates
60 millions years ago
Earliest apes
25 millions years ago
Modern humans
0.15 millions years ago
Over 100,000 species of insects appeared suddenly
Fossil Record in Reality
• We find the fossils buried in
the rock layers this way:
– Before a certain period
(Cambrium layer), there is
only fossils from a few
species (simple animals)
– After this period, fossils from
all kinds of animals appear
within a few million years
(very short for evolution)
• Scientists call this
“Cambrium explosion”
Time
What does the Fossil record tell us ?
• According the evolution, number of species
in fossil record changes slowly
– Actual fossils show thousands of different kinds
of insects appear at the about same time !
• The Fossil Record better supports creation
– All the fossils of species found have wellformed features (complete wings)
– Many species appear within a short time – like
someone designed them all at once !
Evidence for Natural Selection: moths
• Lighter-colored moths resting on dark tree
barks can be easily spotted by birds and
eaten
Natural selection: confirmed fact
• Good news for the Theory of Evolution:
– Natural selection is a (the only) fact that is
confirmed by scientific evidence
• Yes, animals do change to survive
• BUT !!!...
The truth about natural selection
• Natural selection is not the same thing
as evolution:
– Natural selection can make small changes
(shape and color) within one animal specie
– Natural selection cannot change one specie
into another
– Color change in a moth does not change the
moth into a butterfly or bee !!!
• Evidence for natural selection is NOT
evidence for evolution !!!
Making new animals: the great fly experiment
• Starting in 1906, for more than 40 years, Thomas
Hunt Morgan, a Columbia University zoologist tried to
create a new type of animal from fruit flies
• Fruit flies were ideal because their eggs hatch in 12
short days – ideal for evolution experiment
• Morgan used X-rays on the flies to speed up
mutations (changes in cells):
X-ray
?
Result of the Fruit Fly experiment
Bar eyes
Vestigial
wings
Curled
wings
Extra wings (immobile)
• The fruit fly never became anything but a fruit fly
• Result does NOT support the theory (guess) that one
kind of animal can change into another kind !
Is Life Designed or Evolved ?
• Morse code:
– A .-
B -...
C -.-.
D -..
E .
F ..-.
• Combination of short and long pulse identify a
unique letter
• To send the word “bad” in Morse code:
-… .- -..
“dee dot dot dot” “dot dee” “dee dot dot”
• Morse code was designed by intelligent life
forms (humans) for communication (this was
before the telephone was invented)
Is Life Designed or Evolved ?
• Remember that a protein
molecule is made up of a
number of different
Genetic CODE !
amino-acid molecules?
Just like
• Different sequence of
Morse code !!!
amino-acid molecules will
make a different protein
• How does your body
Every 3 “base”
know which amino-acid
molecule to pick to make molecule in DNA (gene)
identifies one amino-acid
the right protein ?
molecule in a protein
Created or Evolved ?
• Some things in nature are almost impossible to
have been “built” without any intelligent maker
• Suppose you see the following contraption:
• Would you believe it came about by itself ?
Is Life Created or Evolved ?
• E. Coli bacteria are one-cell
creatures that have a very
ingenious motion mechanism
• They have a flagellum (wip-like tail)
that rotates around like a propeller
• This “propeller” is driven by a
molecular electrical engine that can
revolve 20,000 RPM (car engines
can’t go faster than 8000 RPM)
Humans can’t make engines so small.
Can this ingenious machine come about by itself ?
Summary
• The Theory of Evolution is being taught in
school text books as if it is true
• But many researchers in universities are
finding problems with this theory
• Many evidence that evolutionists used to
support the Theory of Evolution are
untrue
• Only natural selection (change to survive
better) is supported by evidence
• Evolution is not a proven theory !