© 10 Colin Melbourne
Have scientists finally created life?
Q: The news media are saying that scientists have created synthetic life for the first time. Is it true?
A: You refer to the work published in the May 2010 Science journal by the J. Craig Venter Institute entitled, Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesised Genome, Gibson et al.
I have carefully studied the original scientific paper in full.
The answer to your question is no it is not true, and no honest scientist would make that silly claim. However, that won’t stop many from uttering such a boast, nor the media reflexly amplifying the deception; simply because that is what the world wants to hear. It is the itching ears syndrome. 2 Tim. 4:3.
The case against evolution has massive scientific proof that proponents choose to blindly ignore. Here are some excellent Creationist tools to help you convince sceptics.
No man or woman ever has created, or ever will create, life of any kind.
Only Almighty God, The Creator, has created life, and every living thing exists solely because of the power of God’s Living Word: The LORD Jesus Christ.
C’mon you saints, don’t let the Devil’s children rob our Lord of His Glory!
What does God’s word declare?
Col. 1:16-17 KJV Altogether now…
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,… all things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
God’s word created all life in the beginning exactly as stated in Genesis chapter 1, and on the seventh day, God ceased creating and rested from His labours.
It is a wonder-some fact of His creation that He invested in each life-form the ability to reproduce itself indefinitely, and it is His power alone that continues its preservation and provision to this day.
The power was in the original command: “Let there be…” there was, and there still is.
That is why a real Christian praises God when they see an oak tree, a ladybird, or a daisy.
All creation bears His beautiful signature, and is sustained by His might.
In just the same way, a word from God will stop the Universe instantly, but let’s not get distracted from the question.
Have scientists created life at last?
No, God created all life forms, and He endowed them with the ability to reproduce after their kind. Everywhere you look you see a magnificent creation reflecting His self-evident wisdom and power. (Ro. Ch.1).
So what have these scientists done?
They have copied a biochemical component of a very simple organism that causes mastitis in goats. (Mastitis is inflammation of the mammary glands.)
That inert chemical is called DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid.
It is not living, it has no life in it whatsoever, it is utterly dead, just like a teaspoon of salt is lifeless.
Making simple DNA strands is not new; biologists have long used chemical processes for linking nucleotide base pairs into simple sequenced oligonucleotides.
These are tiny bits of the strands that make DNA. This particular experiment began by using 1000 base pair “cassettes”, as the oligonucleotides are called.
Now here comes the sleight-of-hand whereby the magician works his deception, and the media hold a respectful hush, so as not to give the trick away.
These primitive strands cannot reproduce themselves, or produce a living organism of any kind. They just lie there, dead, inert, utterly lifeless, and useless.
In order to transmit the biological data the base sequence contains they must first be formed into DNA molecules, and then into chromosomes which are found in all living cells.
The scientists were hobbled, so they injected their crude nucleotide pieces into normal living yeast cells and those cells carefully stitched the basic strands into DNA and then into chromosomes for the scientists. During this process the bacterium E. coli was also used to facilitate the DNA transplant.
Notice, that what these “brilliant god-like scientists” could not do, a single-celled living organism did in a jiffy for them.
Think about that fact. It should tell you something significant.
Next, these chromosomes, assembled by living yeast and E. coli cells, were then extracted and transplanted into other living cells from which their own chromosomes had been removed.
The already living cells continued to function using the data in the transplanted DNA the scientists had copied. The cells reproduced themselves, just as you would expect.
The scientists claimed they had performed a “breakthrough” and had created synthetic life.
Dr. Craig Ventner, well known for his media hyperbole, went so far as to make the ludicrous claim that the parent of the “synthetic life” was a computer. This is pure nonsense.
The media unquestioningly accepted his claims at face value and splashed the story as, “Artificial life created for the first time”, “Artificial life breakthrough announced by scientists”, and so on. Numbskulls, infidels, and atheists rejoice in reverential awe.
What a pathetic sham!
Notice:
- No life was created at all.
- Already living cells performed the complex process of making the oligonucleotides into DNA, and then into chromosomes.
- The scientists also depended entirely upon already living cells, in which they switched the chromosomes, to duplicate those chromosomes, and the cells.
To perceive the point more clearly, consider this:
If the simple nucleotide strands had been inserted into dead cells, would they have been made into DNA and then into chromosomes?
Of course not, because life comes from life, and life comes from God alone.
Similarly, if they had transplanted the manufactured chromosomes into dead cells would those cells have come to life and reproduced themselves?
Not in a trillion, trillion years.
You see, the life was not in the DNA, nor in the chromosomes, it was in the cytoplasm of the already living cells.
The ones Almighty God created and sustains by His powerful Almighty Word.
Got it?
In the discussion at the end of Dr. Venter’s scientific paper he implicitly admits his claim is bogus with some literary foot-shuffling;
Dr. Venter concedes;
We refer to such a cell controlled by a genome assembled from chemically synthesised pieces of DNA as a “synthetic cell”, even though the cytoplasm of the recipient cell is not synthetic.
However, he failed to mention this, or restrain the juvenile hype, when presenting the news to the world.
Any honest scientist would have begun by making this point loudly, not hiding it in embarrassed small-print at the end of a scientific paper that journalists will never read.
I hope the next time you hear scientists spouting godless tosh in the media, and it won’t be long, you will see through their deception, recognise they are instruments of deceiving spirits, the spirit of the world, and do not have the Spirit of God.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Jn. 1:3-5 KJV;
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; but the darkness comprehended it not.
You may also be interested in reading my response to Sir David Attenborough, and How to Witness to Atheists and Humanists
© 10 Colin Melbourne
