Hard Starboard

Excerpted from the January 2007 edition of Acts & Facts, a publication of the Institute For Creation Research, by Dr. Duane Gish. (Part 5 of 5)

~ ~ ~

DNA, as is true of messenger-RNA, transferRNA, and ribosomal-RNA, is destroyed by a variety of agents, including ultraviolet light, reactive oxygen species, alkylting agents, and water. A recent article reported that there are 130 known human DNA repair genes and that more will be found. The authors stated that "Genome [DNA] instability caused by the great variety of DNA-damaging agents would be an overwhelming problem for cells and organisms if it were not for DNA repair (emphasis added)." Note that even water is one of the agents that damages DNA. If DNA somehow had evolved on Earth it would have dissolved in water. Thus water and many chemical agents, along with ultraviolet light, would have destroyed DNA much faster than it could have been produced by the wildest imaginary process. If it were not for DNA repair genes, the article effectively states, DNA could not survive even in the protective environment of a cell. How then could DNA have survived when subjected to brutal attack by all the chemical and other DNA-damaging agents that would have existed on the hypothetical primitive Earth of the evolutionists?

What are the cellular agents that are necessary for DNA repair and survival? DNA genes. Thus, DNA is necessary for the survival of DNA. But it would have been impossible for DNA repair genes to have evolved before ordinary DNA, just as it would have been impossible for ordinary DNA to have evolved before DNA repair genes. Here we see another impossible barrier for evolution.

Furthermore, it is ridiculous to imagine that DNA repair genes could have evolved even if a cell existed. DNA genes encode the sequences of the hundreds of amino acids that constitute the proteins that are the actual agents involved in DNA repair. The code in the DNA is translated into a messenger RNA. The mRNA must then move to and be incorporated into a ribosome (which is made up of three different ribosomal RNAs and fifty-five different protein molecules). Each amino acid must be coupled to a transfer RNA specific for that amino acid, and the coupling requires a protein enzyme specific for that amino acid and transfer-RNA. Responding to the code on the messenger RNA and utiltizing the codes on transfer RNAs, the appropriate amino acids, attached to the tranfer-RNAs, are attached to the growing protein chain in the order prescribed by the code of the messenger RNA. Many enzymes are required along with appropriate energy.

This is only a brief introduction to the incredible complexity of life that is found even in a bacterium.