Proteins are especially troublesome for the God-deniers. This is because thousands of proteins are necessary for even a single cell to exist. However, there is no known process for producing proteins without the DNA from an already living cell. It’s a real “Catch-22”. Without proteins there is no life, but without life there are no proteins.
The total number of different proteins that are estimated to exist in the human body is around 50,000. “The common bacteria, E-coli, is predicted to have a total of 5,000 organic compounds of which 3,000 are proteins.” [2] The sum of proteins in biological organisms exceeds 10 million, but nobody has a clear picture of this. [3]
Proteins are very complicated molecules. If a simple bacteria requires 3,000 in order to live, then it’s impossible that a simple bacteria occurred by accident because you cannot get even one protein by accident, let alone 3,000.
It is estimated that the human body has the ability to generate 2 million different types of proteins. However, the Human Genome Project concluded that there are only 20,000-25,000 genes, i.e. sections of DNA, used to make proteins. How is this possible? The human body clearly is not using 1 to 1 coding to make the proteins from genes. Some process way more complex and intelligently designed must be at work.
Proteins are made up of amino acids, the building blocks, linked together. There are about twenty different amino acids commonly found in plants and animals. A typical protein contains 300 or more amino acids. Especially important to note is that each protein has its own specific number and sequence of amino acids. One mistake in the sequence and it doesn't work, or even worse causes disease.
Yeast proteins are on average 466 amino acids long. The largest known proteins are a component of the muscle fibers with a total length of almost 27,000 amino acids. Do you really think that the thousands of proteins that exist could have accidentally formed with the correct number and configuration of amino acids? Even the simple yeast protein has exactly the right 466 amino acids (of a possible 20) in exactly the right place in the sequence.
Proteins are long chains of molecules, but they are “folded” around on themselves many times making specific, unique 3-dimensional shapes that allow them to do the work they do.
Once a protein is formed, it only exists for a certain period of time and then is degraded and recycled by the cell's machinery. They can exist for minutes or years, having an average lifespan of 1–2 days in mammalian cells. Abnormal and or incorrectly folded proteins are degraded more rapidly.
Proteins are essential elements for growth and repair, good functioning and structure of all living cells. Hormones, such as insulin, control blood sugar levels. Enzymes are a type of protein crucial for digestion of foods. Antibodies, another type of protein, help us fight infections. Muscle proteins allow for contraction or muscles would not work. Hemoglobin, an iron containing protein, transports oxygen via the bloodstream.
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| From the National Institutes of Health [4] |
Protein has a range of essential functions in the body, including the following:
- Required for building and repair of body tissues (including muscle)
- Enzymes, hormones, and many immune molecules are proteins
- Essential body processes such as water balancing, nutrient transport, and muscle contractions require protein to function.
- Protein is a source of energy.
- Protein helps keep skin, hair, and nails healthy.
- Protein, like most other essential nutrients, is absolutely crucial for overall good health. [5]
Every one of the above processes is almost a miracle of design in itself. For example, every single cell needs nutrition to exist, but the cell membrane is impermeable to food particles. How does a cell eat? The cell membrane has thousands of proteins actually embedded right in the wall. These types of proteins are called “receptor proteins” because they have an exact shape that fits a particle of nutrition that comes along. When that particle fits into the protein, the protein becomes something different and absorbs that particular nutritional element into the inside of the cell. It’s awesome! Clearly it acts more like a designed machine than a random accident.
Here is another additional and more gigantic problem for the God-deniers. “A cell needs over 75 ‘helper molecules,’ all working together in harmony, to make one protein as instructed by one DNA base series. A few of these molecules are RNA (messenger, transfer, and ribosomal RNA); most are highly specific proteins.” [6]
Think about that. Just to make a protein in the first place, you have to have 75 other proteins and specialized molecules already there in place and available to play their role. Try to get that to happen accidentally. Any type of evolution is impossible.
All those 75 "helper molecules" must be present in the right places at the right times in the right amounts and with the right structures or else cells cannot make proteins by using the DNA’s base series coding. If all those requirements are met, then the cell can line up the amino acids at the rate of about two per second. It takes a living cell only about four minutes to “crank out” an average protein (500 amino acids) according to the DNA coded specifications. Wow.
Now I’ll give you one more last insurmountable problem for the God-deniers concerning proteins. For over 50 years, even aided by the super-computers of today, researchers have what is called the "protein folding problem". They are able to determine easily what is the amino acid sequence inside a long chain protein, but every protein is a folded up three-dimensional shape and they have failed to find where are the instructions for the folding. They can't crack the coding. It does not seem to exist in the physical, material realm. [7]
There are all kinds of issues associated with protein folding. Why does the protein fold the way it does? Where are the instructions, i.e. the code? What is the mechanism for the folding process? How can they fold so fast? Is there any way to predict how they will fold? The ongoing research is getting better at describing what is going on in the mechanism and the orderly arrangement of the molecules, but the big secret that they are not talking about is that this totally exhibits characteristics that had to be designed. It’s impossible to have occurred without an intelligent guiding force.
One parting shot. You may have heard about Stanley Miller and his experiments in a spark chamber creating what the media called “building blocks of life” or “life in a test tube.” Many school textbooks even proclaim his experiments. Please read up on the latest truth as explained by Prof. Gary Parker in his article “The Origin of Life.” Here’s the summation of what scientists now know about Miller’s experiments. "He had the wrong starting materials, used the wrong conditions, and got the wrong results." [8].
There must be God.
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[a] a. "Protein in the body", Iowa State University, Human Sciences Dept., http://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/protein
[2] “How many Proteins exist in human body?”, http://www.innovateus.net/health/how-many-proteins-exist-human-body
[3] Dr. Gary Parker, The Origin of Life: DNA and Protein, https://answersingenesis.org/origin-of-life/the-origin-of-life-dna-and-protein/
[4] What are proteins and what do they do?, National Institutes of Health, http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/howgeneswork/protein
http://www.brighthub.com/science/medical/articles/6050.aspx
[6] Dr. Gary Parker, The Origin of Life: DNA and Protein, https://answersingenesis.org/origin-of-life/the-origin-of-life-dna-and-protein/
[7] Ken A. Dill and Justin L. MacCallum, The Protein-Folding Problem, 50 Years On, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6110/1042.short
[8] Dr. Gary Parker, The Origin of Life: DNA and Protein, https://answersingenesis.org/origin-of-life/the-origin-of-life-dna-and-protein/
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