"Cell metabolism and reproduction rely on cooperation between nucleic acids and proteins. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules are long chains made up from a set of four different nucleotides (A, G, C, T) linked linearly which provide an information store instructing cells how to build their own characteristic sets of proteins. Proteins (also enzymes) are large molecules made up of many amino acids, chosen from a basic set of 20 and also linked together in linear fashion. For proteins to function they need to fold into specific 3-dimensional shapes, which are determined by the order in which the amino acids are linked.
The interdependence of DNA and proteins is remarkable. The coded information in the genomic DNA sequence is useless without the protein-based translation machinery to transform it into cell components. And yet the instructions for production of this translation machinery are themselves coded on the genomic DNA. This presents a chicken and egg paradox. Which came first? The DNA information is needed to build the protein machinery but only the specific protein machinery can read the instructions. Thus far the mechanism by which this might have happened has proved insoluble, but it shouts ‘design’.
Far more fundamental is the problem of the origin of amino acids. Elaborate solutions including ‘meteorite deliveries’ and ‘prebiotic soups’ are highly speculative when the most sophisticated laboratories are unable to produce human life’s 20 amino acids let alone the smallest functional enzymes. In a prebiotic soup environment the total probability of a functional 150 unit protein forming would be 1 in 10 to the 164th – an impossibly small chance given that the chance of finding one particular atom in the whole observable universe would be only 1 in 10 to the 80th." CMC
.....stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Job 37:14
