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This article was originally published as a chapter in the book “Design and Catastrophe: 51 Scientists Explore Evidence in Nature"
Chemical space is an imaginary domain populated with examples of all possible molecules.[1] The number of different molecules that could be made by combining just a small set of 30 atoms in all possible ways comes to about 1024, that is 10 followed by 24 zeros! This is roughly the same as the number of stars in the known universe. Of course, the total population of chemical space, from larger assemblages of atoms, is multiple orders of magnitude greater than this. Enzyme space and DNA space, which are subdomains of chemical space, are themselves stupendously large. The incredibly vast population of chemical space is the reason why finding new antibiotics is so difficult and why the growing resistance to drugs is such a serious problem. It is gradually dawning on the scientific community that exploration of this astronomical ocean of compounds is impossible, even computationally, in the supposed lifetime of planet Earth.[2]
No undirected evolutionary origin of life process, however efficient, would be able to find, in chemical space, just the relatively small set of molecules needed for a “simple” protocell, even in billions of years. The last few decades have revealed an astounding level of organized bio-complexity in one-celled microorganisms that was utterly unforeseen and unanticipated by Darwin or his successor evolutionists. Each cell actually contains many microscopic molecular machines that are composed of matched and ordered enzyme and nucleic acid networks. These are among the most complex things in the universe.
The hopelessness of evolutionary scenarios for the origin of living things is increasingly coming to light.
In contrast, Genesis offers a highly exalted view of God as a non-material and limitless Being transcending space and time. He is able to fashion and manipulate matter, molecules, and energy according to His designs and His timetable. He creates from nothing the earth and all its living inhabitants, whole, complete, and fully functioning, in a short period of time. His is a holistic Creation characterized by dynamic interconnections linking the living organisms to each other and to their material environment.
Cycles of mutual dependence and interrelationships are found everywhere in the natural world and are fundamental to its continuance. That they reach across so many diverse plant and animal groups and into the hydro- and ecospheres implies an overall design as well as a synchronized start-up. The origin of all living things must have been very rapid and coordinated, exactly as described in Genesis.
Many examples of the beneficial interrelationships between different organisms and between them and their physical environment can be cited. We humans need hundreds of other species to survive. We rely on stomach bacteria for digestive health. We need trees and plants in great variety to supply the oxygen we breathe. We can’t eat soil, so we depend on lots of plants to extract essential components and supply them to us in tasty ways. All terrestrial life depends on lichens that help produce, during rock weathering, the soils from which plants obtain their nutrients. They live in partnership with green algae and fungi that supply food, minerals, nitrogen, and water. Plants utilize the carbon dioxide we breathe out as feedstock for their photosynthesis of carbohydrates. Legumes grow nodules on their roots containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria. They provide the bacteria with nutrients and food and, in return, the bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia that is essential for the plant’s life. Eventually, plant nitrogen ends up as nitrates in the soil that fertilize more plant growth and development. Waste is virtually unknown in nature where recycling is the norm. The waste product excreted by one organism is nourishment for another.
Many plants rely on bees for pollination. The milkweed plant offers an exquisite example of mutuality. Its roots are anchored by soil, and it derives its food by photosynthesis. Butterflies and bees pollinate it. Milkweed responds by passing them nectar for energy and food. Caterpillars use the leaves for food, water, and shelter. The oxygen released by milkweed enables bees, butterflies, caterpillars, and many other creatures to convert their food into essential energy. More than 60% of the world’s food is provided by crops pollinated by bees.
Photosynthesis is another example of how the rapidity and coordination of the Creation account make the start-up of nature’s networks and complex cycles intelligible. Photosynthesis is essential for life on planet Earth and depends on sunlight.[3] It’s a highly complex process involving approximately 100 ordered and organized proteins. Beginning in verse 3, Genesis chapter 1 rightly gives light a place of high priority. Plants, sunlight, and animals rapidly appear in succeeding days. Genesis gets the timing just right. It describes a harmonious plan in which photosynthesis was built into the fabric of plants and activated by sunlight just hours later for the benefit of animal life.
God’s design is a harmonious brotherhood of living creatures where sharing, mutual support, and help give the advantage to all, and where altruism makes sense. This creation of grace stands in beneficent contrast to chance, the uncoordinated emergence of selfish genes from chemical space. The significance for us is to emulate God’s purpose by caring for our environment and taking responsibility for the creatures with whom it is shared.
Though God is not part of the material universe, He is never represented as remote, unreachable, or uninterested. He appears as a Being vitally interested in His creation and desiring to interact with the first human pair. Adam and Eve were created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), thereby promoting empathy with God so that not just a meaningful but an actually loving relationship could develop.
NOTES
[1] J-L Reymond. The chemical space project. Accounts of Chemical Research 2015; 48(3):722–730.
[2] P Ball. Navigating chemical space. Chemistry World 2015; 12(10):58–61.
[3] M Denton. Children of light—the astonishing properties of sunlight that make us possible. Seattle (WA): Discovery Institute Press; 2018, Chapters 2 and 4.
John C. Walton is a research professor of chemistry at the University of St. Andrews. He holds a DSc in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy. He has published over 300 articles in learned journals as well as three books. He is currently writing a book on compact time.