Cell's Design (Reasons to Believe)

Fazale Rana

Description

Armed with cutting-edge techniques, biochemists have unwittingly uncovered startling molecular features inside the cell that compel only one possible conclusion--a supernatural agent must be responsible for life. Destined to be a landmark apologetic work, The Cell's Design explores the full scientific and theological impact of these discoveries. Instead of focusing on the inability of natural processes to generate life's chemical systems (as nearly all apologetics works do), Fazale Rana makes a positive case for life's supernatural basis by highlighting the many biochemical features that reflect the Creator's hallmark signature.This breakthrough work extends the case for design beyond irreducible complexity. These never-before-discussed evidences for design will evoke awe and amazement at God's creative majesty in the remarkable elegance of the cell's chemistry.

Sujets

• Chemistry
• Christian theology
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441200938
• Langue: English

Extrait

In Darwin s day, a living cell was thought to be quite simply-for all practical purposes-little more than a microscopic blob of gelatin. Today we know that the cell is among the most organized, complex structures in the universe. Through clear and engaging writing, Fuz Rana lays out what contemporary science has learned about the cell s design, and he poignantly and provocatively shows that it is the handiwork of not only an Intelligent Designer but specifically the God revealed in Scripture.
- Hank Hanegraaff , president, Christian Research Institute; host, Bible Answer Man broadcast
As I sat in a class on cell biology at MIT, a thought kept going through my head: This cannot have just happened; someone must have made it this way! I am not the only one who ever thought this. In this book Dr. Rana takes us on a far more detailed tour of the inner chemistry of the cell and shows why that intuition is indeed well-founded; in fact, many new discoveries in biochemistry only make the conclusion stronger. Like William Paley s Natural Theology , which aimed to overwhelm the skeptics with example after example of contrivance, or design, Dr. Rana s book builds a strong cumulative case for design, and thus a Designer, from the way the cell works. Those of us who know the Designer can rejoice with awe at the magnificence of these designs, and we can pray that this book will help those who do not know the Designer to seek after him.
- C. John Collins , professor and chairman, department of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary
Zoologist Richard Dawkins defines biology as the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. Fazale Rana s book plausibly argues that we are dealing with more than the appearance of design. In his well-researched, carefully argued book, he further advances the case for the complex cell s actual design. The remarkable phenomenon of the cell is one that naturalism is profoundly hard-pressed to explain.
- Paul Copan , Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics, Palm Beach Atlantic University
Fazale Rana s welcome sequel to Origins of Life makes a significant contribution to the growing scientific literature pointing to intelligent design. This comprehensive and clearly written book develops a panoply of converging biochemical arguments that demonstrate that the best explanation points to a mind of unimaginable proportions. The Cell s Design aptly uses the metaphor of an artistic masterpiece in its development of an analogy between human and biological designs.
- Kenneth Boa , president, Reflections Ministries, Atlanta; president, Trinity House Publishers, Atlanta
THE CELL S DESIGN
HOW C HEMISTRY R EVEALS THE C REATOR S A RTISTRY
F AZALE R ANA , P H D

a division of Baker Publishing Group Grand Rapids, Michigan
2008 by Reasons To Believe
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rana, Fazale, 1963- The cell s design : how chemistry reveals the Creator s artistry / Fazale Rana. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8010-6827-0 (pbk.) 1. Cytochemistry-Religious aspects-Christianity. 2. Intelligent design (Teleology). I. Title. BL255.R36 2008 215 .7-dc22 2007052069
Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
In Memory of Abdul Rahman Ray Rana
For Arlene and Freddie
C ONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Rare Find
1. Masterpiece or Forgery?
2. Mapping the Territory
3. The Bare Essentials
4. Such a Clean Machine
5. Which Came First?
6. Inordinate Attention to Detail
7. The Proper Arrangement of Elements
8. The Artist s Handwriting
9. Cellular Symbolism
10. Total Quality
11. A Style All His Own
12. An Elaborate Mosaic
13. Coloring Outside the Lines
14. The Masterpiece Authenticated
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary
I LLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 The Explanatory Filter
2.1 The Cell ( with inset )
2.2 Protein Structure
2.3 Phospholipid Structure
2.4 Phospholipid Bilayer Structure
2.5 Membrane Proteins
2.6 Fluid Mosaic Model
2.7 DNA Structure
2.8 Chromosome Structure
2.9 Central Dogma of Molecular Biology
4.1 The Bacterial Flagellum
4.2 F 1 -F 0 ATPase
4.3 Assembly of the Bacterial Flagellum
4.4 The AcrA/AcrB/TolC Complex
4.5 Virus Structure and Life Cycle
4.6 Viral DNA Packaging Motor
4.7 The Myosin Linear Motor
4.8 Dynein
4.9 Brownian Motion and Brownian Ratchets
4.10 The BiP Brownian Ratchet
5.1 DNA Replication and Cell Division
5.2 mRNA Splicing
5.3 Ribosome Structure
5.4 Chaperone Activity
6.1 Aquaporin Structure
6.2 Amino Acid Side Groups
6.3 Proton Wire
6.4 Collagen
7.1 Nucleotide Structure
7.2 DNA Backbone and Side Chains
7.3 The Phosphodiester Bonds of RNA
7.4 Differences between Deoxyribose and Ribose
7.5 Gene Structure
7.6 High-Energy Bonds of ATP
8.1 Carbohydrate Structures
8.2 The Lac Operon
8.3 Base-Pairing Rules and the Even Parity Code of DNA
9.1 Error Minimization Capacity of the Genetic Code
9.2 The Histone Octamer
10.1 tRNA Structure
10.2 Protein Synthesis at the Ribosome
10.3 RNA Polymerase Production of mRNA
11.1 LUCA and the Tree of Life
11.2 Semiconservative DNA Replication
11.3 DNA Replication Bubble
11.4 The Proteins of DNA Replication
12.1 Bilayer Assemblies
12.2 Fatty Acids and Micelles
13.1 The Futile Cycle of Glycolysis
13.2 Pseudogenes
13.3 Two Metabolic Fates of Proteins
Tables
3.1 Genome Sizes of Life s Simplest Organisms
3.2 Minimum Genome Sizes for Photoautotrophs
3.3 Estimates of the Essential Genome Size
8.1 Cellular Sentences
8.2 Parity Bit Assignment
9.1 The Genetic Code
11.1 Examples of Molecular Convergence
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book represents the sacrifice and hard work of many people, not just the author s. I want to thank my wife, Amy Rana, and my children-Amanda, Whitney, and Mackenzie-for their love, encouragement, and understanding when this book project took priority over family matters.
Each member of the Reasons To Believe team has supported me with their friendship and encouragement in this endeavor and I am grateful. Kathy and Hugh Ross deserve a special mention for their inspiration and the opportunities they have given me.
I especially want to acknowledge the editorial department (staff and volunteers) who dedicated themselves to this book as if it was their own labor of love. Thank you Patti Townley-Covert, Sandra Dimas, Marj Harman, Linda Kloth, Kristi Sandberg, and Colleen Wingenbach for your expert editorial guidance and help with all the little chores that must be done during a book project. Thank you Jonathan Price and Phillip Chien for designing the many figures found in this book.
The critical peer-review of scholars Dr. Matt Carlson, Dr. Russell Carlson, Richard Deem, Dr. Lyle McCurdy, Amy Rana, Kenneth Samples, and Dr. Jeff Zweerink was invaluable, and this book is better for it. Still, I assume all responsibility for any errors found herein. I m indebted to Joe Aguirre, Ken Hultgren, Dr. Dave Rogstad, Dr. Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Dr. Jeff Zweerink for our many stimulating conversations in the hallway and during lunch. These discussions helped to directly and indirectly shape the contents of this book.
I also want to thank my friends at Baker Books, especially Bob Hosack and Paul Brinkerhoff, for their efforts on this project and for their belief in our work at Reasons To Believe.

Charles Marion Russell, Riders of the Open Range (Reproduced by permission from Private Collection/ Peter Newark Western Americana/The Bridgeman Art Library)
I NTRODUCTION A Rare Find
What would you like to be when you grow up? As a child, I usually answered, I don t know.
Yet deep down inside I knew exactly what I wanted to be-an explorer. I never told anyone my desire though, because I was convinced there weren t any new territories left to discover and explore.
By the time I entered college and was ready to choose a career path, I decided (at my father s urging) to enroll in a premed program. Not long afterwards, I began taking courses in chemistry and biology. That s when I realized I d been wrong as a youngster. An abundance of scientific lands remained to investigate! For me, the most exciting of all was the molecular world inside the cell.
My fascination with life s chemical systems prompted me to change my course of study and launched my career as a biochemist. I joined a band of scientific explorers who-with the aid of electron microscopes, spectrometers, chromatographs, ultracentrifuges (and an assortment of other laboratory techniques)-made available new vistas on the inner workings of the cell.
The Most Fascinating Discovery of All
The forays made by biochemical adventurers into the cell s molecular environs have opened up windows on life at its most fundamental level. Scientists have fairly complete knowledge about the chemical composition of the cell s structures and contents. We know, for the most part, how living systems extract energy from the environment and convert it into a form that the cell can use for its operations. We are beginning to grasp the relationship between the structure of biomolecules and their function. And, we understand how the cell stores and manages the information needed to carry out life s activities. The molecular basis for inheritance and