October, 2021

Volume 13

Issue #4

Feature One: Editorial

Editorial by Robert Oliver

         I am tired of so-called scientists expound their religious faith as science. It is only their arrogance that causes them to believe their “faith” in their ideas constitutes real science. True science is defined as: “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment:” New Oxford American Dictionary. It is common to hear or read statements such as:

“…researchers Martin J. Van Kranendonk, David W. Deamer and Tara Djokic in our cover story, “Life Springs.” Oceans, they write, might have spread the needed molecules too quickly for cell membranes and functions to occur. Instead they argue, land pools in an active volcanic landscape that repeatedly dried and got wet again could have cradled the seeds of life.” [Bold – RTO] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-life-begin-on-earth/ 

“Is it hard to go from these little building blocks to a full-fledged organism?

Well, we don't know how hard it is to go from the simplest bricks, if you will, in the wall of life to something that is complicated, like a living bacterium. We know that it happened, so it's possible.” [Bold – RTO] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/how-did-life-begin.html

“Chemists report today that a pair of simple compounds, which would have been abundant on early Earth, can give rise to a network of simple reactions that produce the three major classes of biomolecules—nucleic acids, amino acids, and lipids—needed for the earliest form of life to get its start.” [Bold – RTO]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/researchers-may-have-solved-origin-life-conundrum

“The continents have since repeatedly collided and been torn apart, so maps of Earth in the distant past are quite different to todays. The history of life on Earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, initially with single-celled prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria.” [Bold – RTO]  BBC Nature - History of life on Earth  www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth

         Notice in the first quotation, they are not observing or experimenting. They are “arguing” their belief, but since they are “scientists” they call this science. In the second quotation again there is no observation or experimentation. The third quotation assumes what the what to believe and the fourth quotation assumes that we start with a single-celled creature like a bacterium. It is all assumption, but they call this science. One scientist has written:

“All life on Earth evolved from a single-celled organism that lived roughly 3.5 billion years ago, a new study seems to confirm.”  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100513-science-evolution-darwin-single-ancestor/

However, keep in mind that scientists are not sure what really constitutes life. “In fact, over 100 definitions of life have been proposed, with most focusing on a handful of key attributes such as replication and metabolism. To make matters worse, different kinds of scientist have different ideas about what is truly necessary to define something as alive. While a chemist might say life boils down to certain molecules, a physicist might want to discuss thermodynamics.” http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170101-there-are-over-100-definitions-for-life-and-all-are-wrong

              One of the reasons they do not want to be pinned down to a specific definition is they don’t want to have to answer any “tough” questions, but I am going to challenge them anyway. What they mustadvocate is that life came from non-life. That is true no matter what definition they might try to hide behind. With that in mind I have listed seven things taught that are necessary for life. This quotation is from the site of an evolutionist position. [Bold – RTO] This is the quote:

“The Seven Characteristics of Living Things

1) Homeostasis - Internal regulation of the environment to maintain a constant, balanced state; ….

2) Organization - Being structurally composed of one or more cells - The basic units of life - Without cells, living organisms would not be able to carry out basic processes essential for sustaining life.

3) Metabolism - Transformation of energy by converting chemicals and energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy, usually in the form of ATP, to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life. Energy production can be in the form of either aerobic (cellular) respiration or anaerobic respiration (fermentation).

4) Growth - Maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism; A growing organism does not merely accumulate matter, but increases in size in all of its parts. Every living organism must meet this criteria of growth.

5) Adaptation - The ability to change over time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's genetics, diet, and other external factors. All creatures evolve, from the simplest of bacteria to organisms as complex as humans.

6) Response to Stimuli - A living organism must be able to respond appropriately to external/environmental stimuli; A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism to external chemicals, to complex reactions involving all the senses of multicellular organisms. An example of responding to stimuli is a bacterium forming an endospore when exposed to tough, unfavorable conditions to protect itself.

7) Reproduction - The ability to produce new individual organisms, either asexually from a single parent organism, or sexually from two parent organisms. There are advantages to both asexual and sexual reproduction. Virus are considered non-living, because they do not fit many of these criteria and also depend on a host cell to reproduce.”

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-basic-characteristics-of-life-What-has-to-be-true-for-us-to-say-something-is-alive-What-distinguishes-a-rock-from-the-moss-that-grows-on-it

              With this in mind, what is the smallest and simplest form of life we know?

“Mycoplasma genitalium has one of the smallest genomes of any free-living organism in the world with a mere 525 genes.” https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/to-model-the-simplest-microbe-in-the-world-you-need-128-computers/260198/

Mycoplasma … are very simple bacteria (they don't even have a cell wall, making them immune to most antibiotics), and are often considered the simplest and smallest free-living organisms known. [Bold – RTO]  https://top.quora.com/What-is-the-simplest-life-form

              But first, are viruses not smaller and simpler? While some have indicated viruses are smaller, and that is true, they cannot be the originator of life. The reason is that they can only reproduce inside a host cell. “A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms. Viruses can infect all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.” ^{en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus} Therefore a host must have existed for them to invade.

              So we see that Mycoplasma is both among the smallest genome of any free-living organism and also considered the simplest free-living organism. Keep in mind, it is the evolutionist responsibility to prove that “life” can arise from “non-life”. In that this is the simplest form of life we know, could it just spontaneously arise from random chemicals?

              What does Mycoplasma contain?  It contains lipids, cytoplasm, ribosomes, a nucleoid region, cell membrane, pili, and a flagellum. So what are these things? The following is the list of explanation.

Lipids are “any of a class of organic compounds that are fatty acids or their derivatives and are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents. They include many natural oils, waxes, and steroids.” 

Cytoplasm is a thick solution that fills each cell and is enclosed by the cell membrane. It is mainly composed of water, salts, and proteins. ... All of the organelles in eukaryotic cells, such as the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondria, are located in the cytoplasm.

Ribosomes are where RNA is translated into protein. This process is called protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is very important to cells, therefore large numbers of ribosomes are found in cells. Ribosomes float freely in the cytoplasm, and are also bound to the endoplasmic reticulum.

The nucleoid region is the irregularly-shaped section of a prokaryotic cell where DNA is housed. It lacks the membrane that is found around the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. In addition to DNA, the nucleoid may also contain RNA, proteins, and enzymes that can be used for cellular processes.

A bacterial flagellum has 3 basic parts: a filament, a hook, and a basal body. 1) The filament is the rigid, helical structure that extends from the cell surface. It is composed of the protein flagellin arranged in helical chains so as to form a hollow core. Bacterial Flagella: Structure, importance and examples of flagellated bacteria. Bacterial flagella are long, thin (about 20 nm), whip like appendages that move the bacteria towards nutrients and other attractants. Flagella are free at one end and attached to the cell at the other end. Apr 28, 2013

The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates the interior of all cells from the outside environment (the extracellular space). It consists of a lipid bilayer with embedded proteins.

The cell capsule is a very large structure of some prokaryotic such as bacterial cells. It is a polysaccharide layer that lies outside the cell envelope of bacteria, and is thus deemed part of the outer envelope of a bacterial cell.

Pilin (plural: pili) refers to a class of fibrous proteins that are found in pilus structures in bacteria. Bacterial pili are used in the exchange of genetic material during bacterial conjugation, while a shorter type of appendages also made up of pilin, called fimbriae, are used as a cell adhesion mechanism.

         Now, before you dismiss this believing it would be a simple thing for all of these “items” to come together in a working order, read the following:

              “Mycoplasma genitalium has one of the smallest genomes of any free-living organism in the world, clocking in at a mere 525 genes. That's a fraction of the size of even another bacterium like E. coli, which has 4,288 genes. M. genitalium's diminutive genome made it the first target for Stanford and J. Craig Venter Institute researchers who wanted to simulate an organism in software. 

              The bioengineers, led by Stanford's Markus Covert, succeeded in modeling the bacterium, and published their work last week in the journal Cell. What's fascinating is how much horsepower they needed to partially simulate this simple organism. It took a cluster of 128 computers running for 9 to 10 hours to actually generate the data on the 25 categories of molecules that are involved in the cell's lifecycle processes.

         Let’s make this conclusion simple. These scientists refuse to even consider that deity created our universe and the life within. I believe that Life created life. I believe that the God of heaven created this and everything else from nothingness. The scientist’s religious philosophy is that it just happened. From nothing came life. Think about it. You decide what makes more sense. I leave you with one scripture for your consideration.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 …when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Feature Two: an article by R. C. Oliver