The Creation Narrative
Beginnings of the Universe and Life
according to modern science
David C. Bossard
19thpsalm.org
1
THE PLAN
Preliminaries
First Creation: The First Fifteen Minutes
The Elements
Milky Way Galaxy, Solar System and Earth
Second Creation: First Life – Prokaryotes (Bacteria)
Preparation of the Earth for Advanced Life
Third Creation: Eukaryotes
Fourth Creation: Animals and Plants
[End of presentation – Website done to here]
Fifth Creation: Humans
2
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
 To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
3
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
-- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
 To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science
The "God Hypothesis"
"I have no need for that hypothesis"
LaPlace, regarding the Stability of Planetary Orbits*
4
PRELIMINARIES
WHY THIS TALK?
-- To Celebrate the Triumph of Science in its Great Achievement:
Unfolding the Creation Narrative
-- To Challenge the Triumphalism of Science
 To Counterbalance this with the findings of Science Itself.
“I must confess that I was at first startled and alarmed by
rumours of changes and discoveries which, I was told, were to
overturn at once the science of geology as hitherto received,
and all the evidences which had been drawn from it in favour
of revealed religion… God with us, in the world of science
henceforth to be no more!”
Lydia Miller, 1869*
… She concluded the evidences are
still there but "removed into a more
distant and dimmer region.”
5
PRELIMINARIES
SHARP POINTS
"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a
super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with
chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces
worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one
calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to
put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Fred Hoyle, 1980
6
BEGINNING OF THE CREATION NARRATIVE – The First Genesis
THE FIRST GENESIS
LET THERE BE LIGHT: THE BIG BANG
Age of the Universe: 13.73 ± 0.12 Billion years
-- NASA WMAP project (2010)
-- EESA Planck Mission (2012)
-- Sloan Digital Sky Survey
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
7
CREATION NARRATIVE
COSMIC INFLATION AND THE COSMIC BRAKE
"The more I examine the universe and the details of its
architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe
in some sense must have known we were coming.”
Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe*
Barrow & Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle.
Primordial density at a billionth of a second:
447,225,917,218,507,401,284,016± 0.2 gm/cc
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
8
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER
• Annihilation of antimatter
• At 1 second:
Creation of Protons and Neutrons (half-life 15 minutes)
• at 100 seconds:
Creation of Deuterium by binary collision:
• Up to 15 minutes (as the universe cools further):
Creation of Helium, Lithium and a bit of Beryllium
David C. Bossard
Chapter 3
Atomic numbers 1 to 4
9
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE PRIMORDIAL MATTER cont’d
Why didn’t heavier elements form at this time?
 The Lithium Barrier
- no stable elements with P+N = 5 or 8.
Can’t get past
the barrier with
binary collisions of
lighter elements.
10
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS
The First Nine Billion Years
"It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of
life; one might as well think of the origin of matter."
Charles Darwin, letter 1863.*
• The B2FH paper (1956)†
 Described the origin of all elements.
-- It has proved accurate in the 60+ years since
11
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d)
Monkeying with Physics
 Hydrogen Burning and Long-lived Stars (e.g. the Sun)
Only H-burning lasts billions of years
- Necessary for Advanced life
12
CREATION NARRATIVE
CREATION OF THE ELEMENTS (Cont’d)
Monkeying with Physics
 Helium Burning and the “impossible” triple collision
Fred Hoyle’s ingenious prediction
 Carbon Burning and the Brake on Oxygen Formation
David C. Bossard
Chapter 4
13
CREATION NARRATIVE
A “Habitable” Solar System and Earth
Galactic Habitable Zone
Milky Way
David C. Bossard
Chapter 5
Solar System Habitable Zone
14
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 Step 1: Oxidize the Reducing (acidic) early environment
Time Needed: 2 Billion year
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
Banded Iron ore
iron oxide (Fe2O3) = dark; silica (SiO2) = light
15
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
Step 2: Build an Ozone Layer to Shield from Cosmic Rays
-Essential for life on Land and in Air
- Time Needed: 3.6± Billion years
(1.6 By after Atmospheric Oxygen Stabilized)
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
16
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 Step 3: Prepare Organic Wastes worldwide
- Most important: “Fixed” Nitrogen
- Time Needed: 3+ Billion years
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
17
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
Summary time budget for building a hospital environment:
Total time: ± 4 Billion years (BY)
± 0.5 BY from earth formation to the first Bacteria
– Cooled earth, oceans.
± 2.0 BY more to first Eukaryotes (Oxygen based)
– Oxygen atmosphere ready
± 1.5 BY more to first ocean animals
– Waste food (nitrogen) in place
± 0.2 BY more to first land plants and animals
– Ozone filter in place
18
CREATION NARRATIVE
A Hospitable Environment and the First Life
 Life Itself built the hospitable environment!!
 The Oxygen atmosphere is the result of life.
 The available Nitrogen to support life is the result of life!
“The existence of large amounts of oxygen in a planet's
atmosphere would be a strong indicator of life.”
NASA
19
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life
THE SECOND GENESIS:
CREATION OF LIFE ITSELF
 Bacterial Life arose on earth at the earliest possible time.
As soon as the Earth had cooled and stabilized
- 3.9 to 4.0 BY ago. Evidence: C-13/C-12 ratio in old rocks.
 Even the "simplest" life is vastly complex.
20
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 2
THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE
1998 NAS Conference: Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms*.
 Response to NASA’s “Mars Fossils”
 Minimum size: DNA over 200,000 bp
 Minimum volume: 1000x Mars “Fossils”
David C. Bossard
Chapter 6
21
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 3
THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE
Must have machinery to process its genetic information
Called the CENTRAL DOGMA – every cell does it!
[See the handout reproduced on the next slides]
22
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 1
• DNA. The genetic information is recorded in long ladder-like molecules of DNA. Each rung of
the ladder (a base pair) is a pair of 4 short molecules called nucleotides A,T,C and G. They
always pair in the same way: A (adenine) pairs with T (thymine), and C (cytosine) pairs with G
(guanine). The sides of the ladder are sugar molecules strung end-on-end. The size of the DNA
is expressed in the number of base pairs.
A Codon is a triplet of base pairs. Each codon corresponds to one of twenty Amino acids -- it’s
the amino acids that are the building-blocks of proteins, which do the work of the cell.
23
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 1
Translation. To every codon there is a special molecule called tRNA
that has that codon on one end and has its associated amino acid
attached to the opposite end. A given codon (virtually) always
associates with the same amino acid -- across all species. Generally a
cell must have at least 30 different tRNA molecules to make its
proteins; each tRNA must have the genes to build itself as part of the
cell's DNA. Some genes code for RNA molecules -- such as tRNA -rather than proteins. There are many RNA molecules used in
regulation.
A gene is a sequence of codons. Each gene corresponds to a
particular protein that is used by the cell to do its work.
24
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 2
• Regulatory Molecules. Hanging around the cell's DNA are a number of molecules -RNA polymerases, repressors and other regulatory molecules that determine if, when and
how often a given gene will be copied to make proteins. These molecules are part of a
complex regulatory system that is an essential for reading the DNA. Without this regulatory
apparatus -- which may be as complex as the DNA itself -- the DNA is useless.
Regulatory Molecules around DNA
25
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 3
• Messenger RNA. When a given gene is to be copied, the rungs of the DNA ladder split and
the left-half is copied into a messenger molecule called mRNA. After error checking and
correcting, this mRNA moves away from the DNA and out of the nucleus to the main part of the
cell to begin making proteins.
26
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 4
• Ribosomes. Complex motor molecules called ribosomes surround the mRNA chain and
begin to transcribe the codons and build an amino acid chain that will be the future protein. This
is done by matching a tRNA molecule to a codon, and then detaching the amino acid and
adding it to the building chain. Every living species from the simplest to the most complex
requires these complex ribosome motors to carry out gene processing.
27
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life (Handout)
THE CENTRAL DOGMA - 5
It takes over 50 genes just to form the ribosomes. See the Wikipedia article on
ribosome biogenesis.
• Folding. Once the protein chain is complete, it then detaches from the ribosome and
folds into the shape that it must have to carry out that protein's specific function.
Generally this folding uses other helping molecules called chaperones, that guide it to
make the correct shape.
28
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 4
THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE
EVERY Living Cell carries out the same “Central Dogma”
Around 200 genes are required just to build this complex
machinery.
29
TAKE A BREAK
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 5
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
The Combinatoric Paradox
The Eigen Paradox
The Levinthau Paradox
The Regulatory Paradox.
31
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 5
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Combinatoric Paradox
-- Wistar Institute Conference (1966)
“Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation
Of Evolution” (Wistar Institute Monogram No. 5, 1967).
"It is our contention that if 'random' is given a serious and
crucial interpretation from a probabilistic point of view, the
randomness postulate is highly implausible …."
Murray Eden, Inadequacies of Neo-Darwinian Evolution as a Scientific Theory
Wistar Institute Symposium, 1966, p. 109
32
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 5
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Combinatoric Paradox
-- Wistar Institute Conference (1966)
“Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation
Of Evolution” (Wistar Institute Monogram No. 5, 1967).
 Thus, if natural evolution did occur then the only plausible
conclusion is that it occurred as a result of some (to date
unknown) natural laws.
33
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 5
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Combinatoric Paradox
Four Responses:
1. Perhaps Life came here from outer space?
2. Infinity of Universes Argument: Any event, no matter how
improbable, will surely occur given enough universes.
Reply: Abuse of concept of infinity – It can be used to justify
the repeated recurrence of any event, however low the probability.
Are there an infinite number of universes with a Dr. David C.
Bossard giving lectures on the Creation Narrative?
3. Build big by starting small and combining them.
Reply: The Fallacy of Betting Systems – "there is no
combination or betting system that will turn the odds into your
favour." The odds of getting a very low probability result cannot be
helped by any “system”.
34
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 5
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Combinatoric Paradox
Four Responses:
4. There Must be Unknown Natural Laws.
Reply: Then spend your time finding them, instead of writing
books that make the lazy argument that Evolution is Fact not
Theory.
Note: Promising research is being done in this direction in the new
science of Evolutionary Development (EvoDevo for short). However this
research is directed to modifying existing gene expression, not to
creating genes in the first place.
35
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 6
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Eigen Paradox*
A gene with over 100 base pairs must be accompanied by
error-correction code (also encoded in genes) that is
more complex than the original gene.
 The implication is that it is impractical to try to “bootstrap”
the building of large functional genes by random,
undirected processes.
36
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 7
PARADOXES IN THE CREATION OF LIFE
 The
Levinthal Paradox
A large protein can fold in countless ways, most of which
by necessity have never been tried in the entire life of the
universe. There is no obvious biological way to predetermine a particular folding without the help of
“chaperone” proteins. So how do proteins (or the life
systems) “know” how to fold?
37
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 8
INVENTIONS OF THE FIRST LIVING SPECIES*
 The Central Dogma (already noted)
 Carbon Fixing
 RuBisCO
 Photosynthesis
 Chlorophyll-II: Energy Storage (ATPase)
 Chlorophyll-I: Carbon Fixing & Calvin Sugar Cycle
 Nitrogen Fixing
 Nitrogenase
 Heterocysts
David C. Bossard
Chapter 7
Chapter 6
38
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 8
INVENTIONS OF THE FIRST LIVING SPECIES
 Carbon Fixing
 RuBisCO
Smaller unit: 123 amino acids
Larger unit: 475 amino acids
39
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 8
INVENTIONS OF THE FIRST LIVING SPECIES
 Photosynthesis
 Chlorophyll-II (Photosystem II): (P680) Energy Storage (ATPase)
"The strongest biological oxidizer known."*
 Chlorophyll-I (Photosystem I): (P700) Carbon Fixing & Calvin Sugar
Cycle
"The strongest biological reducer known."*
"These are such complex biological processes,
that the complexity and early appearance on earth
seems to indicate planning and design."
PNAS - Nat'l Acad. Sci. (2006)*
40
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 8
INVENTIONS OF THE FIRST LIVING SPECIES
The ATP Synthase motor molecule
ATP
ATP Synthase
41
CREATION NARRATIVE – The Creation of Life 8
INVENTIONS OF THE FIRST LIVING SPECIES
Nitrogen Fixing
 Nitrogenase
"unique in the history of life."
 Heterocysts
Cyanobacteria
42
CREATION NARRATIVE: THE THIRD GENESIS
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
"The origin of eukaryotes is a huge enigma and a major
challenge for evolutionary biology."
Eugene V. Koonin, NIH (2010)
David C. Bossard
Chapter 8
Paramecium
43
CREATION NARRATIVE: THE THIRD GENESIS Cont.
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
Superficial differences from bacteria (prokaryotes):
• A nucleus – think of an egg yolk
• Larger size – 50x larger on average
• Greater variety of shapes – Bacteria are balloon-shaped
… these are just markers for fundamental differences.
44
45
CREATION NARRATIVE: THE THIRD GENESIS Cont.
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
Differences in more depth:
 The Nucleus protects DNA by physical isolation and by error
correction while copying genes (more than bacteria)
 DNA in Chromosomes, not circular as in bacteria
 Invention of Mitosis (asexual) and Meiosis (sexual)
cell duplication. Complex; All eukaryotes have both.
David C. Bossard
Chapter 8
46
CREATION NARRATIVE – EUKARYOTE INNOVATIONS
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
ORGANELLES
The Nucleus is one of several organelles in a eukaryote:
 Mitochondria – The power plant (make ATP)
 Endoplastic Reticulum – The factory
 Golgi Apparatus - The post office
 (+ others that depend on the cell's function)
47
CREATION NARRATIVE – EUKARYOTE INNOVATIONS
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
Innovations:
Internal structure – the cytoskeleton
Eukaryote cytoskeleton (From Wikipedia)
Blue = nucleus; green = microtubules; red = microfiliaments
48
CREATION NARRATIVE – EUKARYOTE INNOVATIONS
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
Innovations:
Internal structure – the cytoskeleton
49
CREATION NARRATIVE – EUKARYOTE INNOVATIONS
The Third Genesis: Creation of Eukaryotes
Internal structure – Motor transport system (Kinesin)
50
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants and Animals
"The magnates walk first*."
Hugh Miller (1858)
"We know, further, so far at least as we have yet succeeded in
deciphering the record, -- that the several dynasties were
introduced, not in their lower, but in their higher forms; that, in
short, in the imposing programme of creation it was arranged,
as a general rule, that in each of the great divisions of the
procession the magnates should walk first."
Hugh Miller, Footprints of the Creator (3rd. Ed. (1858) p. 325)
David C. Bossard
Magnates Walk First
51
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants and Animals
"The magnates walk first*."
Hugh Miller (1858)
"We know, further, so far at least as we have yet succeeded in
deciphering the record, -- that the several dynasties were
introduced, not in their lower, but in their higher forms; that, in
short, in the imposing programme of creation it was arranged,
as a general rule, that in each of the great divisions of the
procession the magnates should walk first."
Hugh Miller, Footprints of the Creator (3rd. Ed. (1858) p. 325)
52
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants and Animals
53
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Animals
Most marine animal phyla (body plans) appear in the
Cambrian Era (around 525 Mya). This was when the
homeobox genes were invented.
 Homeobox genes "invented"
– regulate patterns of anatomical development
(eyes, appendages, etc.)
David C. Bossard
Algorithms
54
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants
Spores give Earliest Evidence of (multi-cellular)
 ca. 470 My ago
David C. Bossard
Chapter 10
Spore Tetrads (Devonian, ca. 410 Mya)
55
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants
 Earliest Plant Fossils – Cooksonia, Ca. 416 Mya.
Cooksonia ca. 416 Mya
David C. Bossard
Chapter 10
Rhynia ca. 400 Mya
Ejecting sperm cells
56
CREATION NARRATIVE – PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The Creation of Plants
Most plant phyla (body plans) appear in the Devonian
Age(around 410-350 Mya) after completion of the ozone
layer.
David C. Bossard
Chapter 10
Devonian Scene
Carboniferous Scene
57
RECAP
THE CREATION NARRATIVE
Achievements of the past 60 years:
• Big Bang Cosmology
• Age of Universe
• How Primordial Matter formed
• Origin of the Elements (B2FH)
• Earth's Origin
• Biosphere's Formation & Dependence on Life
• Geologic Evidence of Life
• Carbon Evidence -- earliest Life
* Fossil Narrative of Speciation and Development
• Genetic Narrative
• Central Dogma
• Gene Sequencing
• Implication for Species Relationships
58
CREATION NARRATIVE – CONCLUSIONS
THE END
59