The Odds of a Cell Forming by Chance
In each cell, there is a nucleus that holds a very important part within it is called the chromosomes. These structures are microscopically small, rod-shaped structures that hold the genes. Within the chromosomes is a smaller structure called DNA. It is one of the very essential chemical substances in any living thing. In humans, the DNA directs the formation of life, starting with just a single fertilized egg.
The DNA is a super-molecule that saves coded hereditary information. It compromises of two long “chains” of chemical “building blocks” paired together. In the human body, the strands of DNA are almost 2 yards long, yet less than a trillionth of an inch thick. The information is so compactly stored that the amount of DNA necessary to code all the people living on earth may fit in a space of an aspirin tablet!
The DNA stores and transfers encoded information and instructions. The human DNA stores enough information code to fill 1,000 books — each with 500 pages of very small print. The DNA code is far more complex than any computer. Even the DNA of a bacterium is highly complex, containing at least 3 million units, all aligned in a very precise, purposeful sequence.
Many scientists are persuaded that cells that contain such complex chemical structures could never have come into existence by chance. No matter how chemicals are mixed, they do not create DNA spirals or any intelligent code whatsoever. For only DNA reproduces DNA.
Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe calculated the odds of life forming by natural processes. They estimated that there is less than 1 chance in 10 to the 40,000power that life could have originated by random trials. 10 to the 40,000power is a 1 with 40,000 zeros after it! – Evolution from Space [Aldine House, 33 Welbeck Street, London W1M 8LX: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1981), p. 148, 24,150,30,31).
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