Table Of ContentWishful experiments After one week he analysed the resulting
yellowish brown liquid and found that 10-
15% of the carbon was now in the form of
In 1953 Stanley Miller, a PhD student un-
organic compounds, of which 2% was ami-
der Harold Urey at the University of Chica-
no acids such as glycine and alanine. Ami-
go, published a paper on his experiments to
no acids are the building blocks of proteins,
test evolutionary theories on the origin of
which are essential for life.
life. He had constructed a sealed apparatus
in which water and a mixture of gases
His results were seized upon by evolution-
thought to have been present on the young
ists and were given huge publicity by the
Earth were subjected to electric sparks to
media, with some irresponsible reports go-
simulate lightning bolts (see figure).
ing so far as to claim that he had created
life in the laboratory! But the truth is
very far from this hyperbole. Miller's
apparatus did not produce all the ami-
no acids necessary for the construc-
tion of the proteins in a living cell,
and those it did produce were a 50:50
mixture of laevo and dextro optical
isomers ("lefthanded" and
"righthanded" forms). In virtually all
living organisms proteins are built up
from only laevo amino acids; any
departure from this would lead to a
mis-shaped protein which would be
extremely unlikely to function proper-
ly. The order of the amino acids is
also vitally important: haphazard ar-
rangements do not produce working
proteins. Furthermore, Miller's exper-
Schematic of Miller’s apparatus. Image: Yassine Mrabet, iment was fundamentally flawed in
on Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons Attribution terms of demonstrating the origin of
ShareAlike license version 3.0. life by chance because the apparatus
1
had to be carefully designed, showing the by Wikipedia (accessed 18 October 2008;
necessity of intelligent input. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller-
Urey) but no such cautious constraint as the
There the matter ought to rest, but unfortu- word “might” has been included there. The
nately evolutionists don't give up their article boldly states, “The secondary exper-
worldview easily. On 16 October 2008 the iment conducted by Miller was never pub-
BBC News website reported that renewed lished; yet it offers significant evidence of
attention was being given to some of Mill- how life started on Earth.” So now we know.
er's subsequent experiments in which he
had injected "hot steam" (an interesting
tautology) into his initial mixtures to simu- Darwin 200
late conditions in a volcano. Reanalysis of
Miller's resulting samples by Prof Jeffrey
In celebration of the bicentenary of Dar-
Bada, of the University of California, has
win's birth, the Open University is offering
revealed that they contain greater concen-
a new level 1 course 'Darwin & evolution'.
trations of amino acids, and of greater vari-
With the use of an OU-authored book, '99%
ety, than in Miller's classic experiment.
Ape - How evolution adds up', as the core
material to the teaching, the course also
At this point any sensible creationist will
examines the alleged flaws in 'intelligent
say, "So what?" for clearly the major flaws
design' - the contention that God is the
indicated above still apply. However, Prof
creator behind the universe and all crea-
Bada is quoted as saying, "What we sug-
tures. The OU says that "prior knowledge
gest is that volcanoes belched out gases just
of the sciences is not a necessity". Perhaps
like the ones Stanley had used, and were
they think a little scientific knowledge
immediately subjected to intense volcanic
might be a disadvantage for such a course!
lightning. And so each one of those volca-
noes could have been a little, local prebiot-
Over 90 organisations across the UK are
ic factory. And so all of that went into
hosting events and exhibitions over the
making the material that we refer to as the
next year to mark Darwin's bicentenary.
prebiotic soup". The article then adds,
The Darwin200 celebrations are spearhead-
"That material could then have been washed
ed by London’s Natural History Museum.
down the flanks of volcanoes into pools or
Lord Rees from the Charles Darwin Trust
coastal bays, where the building blocks of
says, "As an iconic figure, Darwin is
life might have kick-started evolution".
matched only by Newton and Einstein".
The OU and the BBC are partners in a
One cannot help but notice the constraints
series of programmes honouring the man
hedged around these comments: words
who made it socially acceptable to be ag-
such as "suggest", "could have been" and
nostic.
"might". Is this really an "And so" story or
is it more of a "Just So" story? Somehow I
In the face of this onslaught, creationist
thought science was supposed to be based
organisations such as CSM will be holding
on hard facts...
a number of meetings up and down the UK,
as we have been doing for 77 years. The
This latest turn in the tale of the Miller-
Genesis Expo, the only permanent creation-
Urey experiments has also been picked up
2
ist exhibition in the country, will also be Now scientists at CERN have fired a
expanded to reach passers-by in this pre- stream of antiprotons at hydrogen gas in an
mier tourist area. Please pray for us - II aluminium cylinder and found that al-
Corinthians 10:4-5. though they were all annihilated within the
cylinder, some survived long enough to
Please also consider putting on your own bounce off the aluminium walls. The result
local creationist event. Wouldn’t it be great encourages the workers to wonder whether
to have 200 such events taking a stand some clusters of antimatter could be surviv-
against Darwin 200. ing in isolated regions of the universe. If
half of the original ‘creation’ was antimat-
David Rosevear ter, this idea seems to be clutching at straws.
9 August p.5 Intelligence isn’t all
it’s cracked up to be [Editorial]
with
p.28 Law and disorder
Super-complex systems such as the
flow of two-way traffic around ob-
stacles in narrow roads is best al-
lowed to sort itself out, here
designated as random evolution,
rather than happening by intelligent
planning.
The editorial manages to reason
from this observation that: “You
might say supporters of intelligent
design have it backwards: the
more we observe the complex
workings of our universe, the
more we must conclude that no
single intelligence could have cre-
ated them.” The article on page 28 choos-
Cuttings & Comments es some strange examples to illustrate not
using intelligence.“And in the middle of
New Scientist
from the night, lights keep stopping cars even
when there is no need. The self-organis-
by Dr David Rosevear
ing traffic scheme eliminates these prob-
lems because the lights remain
2 August p.5 Oh dear, what’s the matter
responsive to local demands, for in-
with antimatter
stance sensing an approaching car and
“In theory, matter and anti-matter
changing to green to let it through.”
should have been created in equal
Hardly self-organising since some engineer
amounts after the big bang, and the ab-
used his intelligence to design the sensor
sence of antimatter in the universe re-
and write the necessary software.
mains a mystery.”
3
The editor’s main concern seems to be to When researchers inhibited the expression
score doubtful points against the ID move- of theFOXP2 gene in young finches,“the
ment birds had difficulties in developing new
tunes and their songs became garbled.”
16 August p.38 More than words Bats, which use various systems of sonar
There are unfortunate people, sometimes navigation, have“incredible diversity” in
whole families, who have severe language this gene.
difficulties. “They have trouble with This suggests complex design rather than
grammar, writing and comprehension, evolution, yet the article concludes:
but above all they find it hard to coordi- “Though talkative mice are likely to re-
nate the complex sequences of face and main in the realm of cartoons for the
mouth movements necessary for fluid foreseeable future, theFOXP2 story has
speech. Thanks to a single genetic muta- already taught us important lessons
tion, the conductor cannot conduct, and about evolution and our place in the
the result is linguistic chaos. In 2001, natural world. It shows that our much
geneticists looking for the root of the vaunted linguistic skills are more the
problem tracked it down to a mutation result of genetic redeployment that out-
in a gene they namedFOXP2. Normally, and-out innovation. It seems that the
FOXP2 coordinates the expression of quest to understand how we stand apart
other genes.” from other animals is instead leading to
Other species such as bats, birds and bees a deeper appreciation of what unites us.”
have their own versions of this gene, many Coincidentally, the following article (p.42)
remarkably similar to our own. This obser- was an interview with an encryption agent
vation prompts the article to say “Speech working to safeguard electronic transac-
and language didn’t just pop up out of tions by using codes that are hard to break.
nowhere. They’re built on very highly Should we perhaps leave nature to develop
conserved and evolutionarily ancient these codes by natural evolution? No-one
pathways.” would suggest anything so silly!
Evolution’s mechanism is supposed to be
mutations acted on by natural selection, yet 16 August p.45 We’re special and you
the mutation in this gene wreaks havoc know it
with language expression. Creation often This is a review of the book ‘Human: The
shows economy. The protein FOXP2 cod- science behind what makes us unique’ by
ed for by the FOXP2 gene in mice differs Michael S. Gazzaniga. The book“explores
from that in men by only three amino acids recent research that shows that human
in 715, (a mere whisker) coordinating hun- brain structure, from gross anatomy
dreds of different genes. down to the molecular scale, is signifi-
Moreover, the identical gene was found in cantly different from that of other spe-
remains of Neanderthal men, suggesting cies ... This is a useful cognitive tool for
that these post-Babel men could speak. forward planning, and it may also under-
Zebra finch protein FOXP2 is 98 per cent lie the uniquely human impulses to cre-
identical to ours, and is active in an area of ate art and engage in scientific enquiry.”
the brain involved in song learning, espe-
cially in chicks learning chirping patterns.
4
human? And why did the Bolsheviks
encourage him? When Ivanov put his
proposal to the Academy of Sciences he
painted it as the experiment that would
prove men had evolved from apes. ‘If he
crossed an ape and a human and pro-
duced viable offspring then that would
mean Darwin was right about how close-
ly related we are’ says Etkind. When
Ivanov approached the government, he
stressed how proving Darwin right
would strike a blow against religion,
which the Bolsheviks were struggling to
Northern polar region of the moon Enceladus. stamp out. Success would not only bol-
Image: NASA (in the public domain).
ster the reputation of Soviet science but
provide useful anti-religious propagan-
23 August p.7 Fountains of life? da to boot.
“The Cassini spacecraft has finally locat- Ivanov could see more clearly the divide
ed the geysers on the moon Enceladus between biblical Christianity and Darwin-
that are spewing water, ice and organic ism than our present Archbishop of Canter-
molecules into Saturn’s ring system... bury Rowan Williams!
“One of the puzzles surrounding Ence-
ladus is that it seems too small to gener- 30 August p.26 Power up
ate enough heat to melt its water. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is
Nevertheless, the presence of liquid wa- about to go ballistic. Some are predicting
ter has led to speculation that conditions the end of the world!
there make it ripe for life.” “The LHC’s microscopic fireball is the
Evolutionary thinking dates the solar sys- closest we can get to recreating condi-
tem at 4.7 billion years old, so a small tions last seen less than a trillionth of a
moon of Saturn should have radiated away second after the big bang, when the par-
any initial heat by now. However, a created ticles and forces that shaped today’s uni-
universe only some 6,000 years old could verse began to emerge...
retain sufficient heat to have hot geysers. “The LHC might help us to finally crack
Moreover, water alone cannot create life. what are arguably the biggest mysteries
as Louis Pasteur demonstrated. in physics, starting with the origin of
mass and the disappearance of antimat-
23 August p.48 How to breed a model ter. It could reveal what makes up the
citizen majority of matter in the universe, the
In 1926 Soviet biologist Ilia Ivanov went to so-called dark matter that is invisible to
West Africa to produce an ape-human hy- our telescopes. And it might tell us about
brid by artificial insemination.“Five wom- the very nature of space-time itself. Do
en offered to carry half-ape babies in the extra dimensions of space exist in addi-
interests of science... tion to the three we live in? Are there
“So why did Ivanov want so badly to mini black holes? The LHC is more than
produce a baby that was half-ape, half-
5
a machine. It is the intellectual quest of years ago about whether intelligent de-
our age.” sign should be taught in schools along-
But then again: side evolution.”
“Or the theory could turn out horribly Kevin McCandless, a reporter with the
different. ‘The nightmare scenario is no American CNS News, interviewed your
Higgs, no supersymmetry, no anything reviewer, and the CSM got a mention on
apart from known particles,’ says Chi- the CNS website.
ara Mariotti, co-leader of the search for
the Higgs on CMS. That would mean 13 September p.13 How big-brained Ne-
rethinking everything from scratch’... anderthals lost breeding battle
‘and we’d probably never listen to theo- “Adults today have smaller brains than
rists again.’” both early modern humans and Nean-
So, it’s not all bad news. derthals, and Zolikofer says that less
time and energy spent growing a brain
30 August p.38 Welcome to the viro- sped up sexual maturation and led to
sphere more babies... We have beaten the Nean-
Viruses come in all shapes and sizes – derthals not because we were smarter,
possibly 100 million varieties. They are but because we bred like rabbits.”
found everywhere from hot springs to All the evidence from bones and tools
deserts to polar lakes. They contain genes, shows that Neanderthals were as smart as
and up to 80 per cent of these viral genes we are. They were fully human but living
are previously unknown and their function under hard climatic conditions during the
a mystery. [This is hardly surprising since ice age that followed the great flood. They
genomics is a new science.] Although they were short of the sunshine vitamin D.
can only reproduce as parasites within a The descent of man towards a smaller
host cell, they sometimes take up perma- brained modern version is hardly the for-
nent residence. ward march of evolution. Accumulated
Could our genes have originally been viral mutations lead us ever further from the
genes? After years of supposing that neo- perfect brain and body of the first Adam.
Darwinism explained evolution, it is here We cannot of our own willpower spend less
postulated that viruses are“a creative evo- time and energy growing big brains; any
lutionary force of unparalleled reach more than by taking thought can we add
and power.” one cubit to our stature. Nor is there evi-
The article asks: “How did natural selec- dence that the children of larger families
tion come up with a marvel as complex have smaller brains.
as the human brain?” Well, if mutations This is a prime example of an evolutionary
can’t do the trick, maybe viruses can. Muta- Just So story.
tions carry a health risk. But so do viruses.
13 September p.46 Myths, morality and
6 September p.12 Soundbites persuasion
“’Healthy debate is so important and val- This is a book, The Noble Lie, by Barry
uable in our schools. I am a proponent of Greenberg, reviewed by the moral philoso-
teaching both’ – Sarah Palin, who was pher Mary Midgley.
this week selected as Republican candi- “For instance, Greenberg explains how
date for US vice-president, talking two alcoholism’s transition from vice to dis-
6
ease was a welcome one, especially fol- natural world, and our uncanny ability
lowing Prohibition. It was long viewed as to uncover its hidden details.” At the
an allergy, though the specific allergen moment it has been shut down by an acci-
persistently failed to appear. Even today, dent. It cost $9billion to build.
neither its disease-nature nor any possi-
ble cures have manifested themselves. 20 Sept P.4 Creating a controversy
Regardless, people are happy to accept “A week of rows over creationism in the
the idea that addiction is a medical ill- UK’s scientific establishment has
ness, perhaps, Greenberg suggests, be- claimed a prominent casualty as the Roy-
cause of our ambivalence towards the al Society’s director of education,
role of pleasure and our uncertainties Michael Reiss, stepped down on Tues-
about free will and self-determination... day. Speaking at the British Association
“Sometimes the noble lie works the other for the Advancement of Science (BA)
way round. In a chapter on homosexual- festival last week, Reiss called for crea-
ity, Greenberg shows how humane con- tionism to be discussed in UK science
cerns first led people to prefer a medical classes. Reiss, an evolutionary biologist
to a criminal definition, but conflict fol- who is also an ordained Church of Eng-
lowed concerning the disrespect medical land priest, said the rise in religious fun-
definition implied toward what should damentalism in the UK means that
perhaps be viewed as a free life choice... ‘creationism is best seen by science teach-
a move decided not by scientific facts but ers not as a misconception but as a world
by political and moral attitudes.” view’.
Greenberg cites a clear-headed and callous “Although the Royal Society rapidly reit-
murderer who should not have been forced erated its opposition to teaching crea-
to accept the defence of schizophrenia at tionism as science, sharp criticism
his trial because he was evil and not sick. If ensued, with Nobel prizewinners Rich-
he is a madman “he is not one of us. But ard Roberts, John Sulston and Harry
he is.” Kroto urging that Reiss resign. He did.”
The unpopular lesson of this book is that What Rev Prof Michael Reiss actually said
we need to take responsibility for our ac- was that if a school pupil challenged evolu-
tions and attitudes, and offer clear moral tion, the teacher would get nowhere by
guidance and discipline to our children. rubbishing creationism. The teacher should
engage in discussion in order to show that
13 September p.48 A Cathedral for the evolution was science and Creation faith.
21st century Richard Dawkins opined that having a
The New Scientist resident atheist Law- priest in charge of education policy for the
rence Krauss here exults in the commission- Royal Society was worthy of a Monty Py-
ing of the Large Hadron Collider, set to thon sketch. Press reports said the RS
discover the hypothetical Higgs Bosun should not have asked for Reiss’ resigna-
commonly called the ‘God particle’.“This tion. Science education should be about
is guaranteed to change our understand- open discussion. One good outcome for
ing of what makes the universe tick, and CSM was a visit by a BBC journalist to the
to shed real light on its origins. Genesis Expo in Portsmouth, with an inter-
“Cathedrals celebrate the glory of God: view with curator Ross Rosevear (with
the LHC will celebrate the glory of the Ross’ photo in front of a display) all report-
7
ed on the BBC web site. As a result cated from wolves from the Middle East.
www.csm.org.uk and our newly created Near to Mount Ararat, maybe?
www.genesisexpo.co.uk both received an
unusual number of hits. 27 September p.14 Their will be done
“US presidential candidates are vying for
20 September p.9 Genes tell plants when the evangelical vote. Where does that
to wake up and stretch leave science and science education?
“Genes have been discovered that trigger “Asked at what point human rights
a plant’s growth spurt just before dawn... should be assigned, John McCain re-
The timing of the early-morning growth plied with confidence: ‘At the moment of
spurt is choreographed by a plant’s cir- conception’.” Barack Obama gave a
cadian ‘clock’, which is reset by changes woolly response to the same question.
in light at dawn and dusk. The clock “A failure on his part to win evangelical
dictates when most physiological proc- votes could have a significant impact on
esses happen throughout the day, such the way that some science is done and
as the uptake of water and the break- taught in the US... For some religious
down of starch... The wake-up call voters, Obama’s support for gay mar-
works by triggering a flood of hormones riage and abortion rights represents an
before dawn that stimulate growth... insurmountable barrier.
They found that 71 hormone genes were “What would it mean for science? Re-
turned on in the early morning after searchers might find that current restric-
being activated by light.” tions limiting the number of embryonic
The researchers found that 55 of the 71 stem cells that can be used in federally
genes had an identical region of DNA that funded research would stay in place.”
when bound by a specific protein, triggers The US Supreme “court shifted to the
the production of hormones. right after two recent Bush appoint-
Here we have a large number of genes and ments, and McCain has pledged to con-
a protein making specific hormones regulat- tinue this trend, which would create a
ed by the daily light changes. Getting a part favourable climate for overturning abor-
of this concerted process right would have tion laws and other religiously motivated
no advantage, so it could not have evolved issues.
piecemeal. The whole system, like all such “By assigning rights to the embryo, it
plant and animal systems, was designed by would probably make both abortion and
an unimaginable Intelligence – the Lord stem cell research illegal... The train-
Jesus Christ Himself (John chapter 1). wreck strategy could also reshape the
teaching of evolution. McCain has said
27 September p.12 A wolf’s dark pelt is that intelligent design (ID), the idea that
a gift from the dogs a divine force guided evolution, should
The article argues that dogs are descended ‘probably not’ be taught in science class-
from grey wolves, Canis lupus, and some es. When running for governor of Alas-
have further interbred with wolves. The ka in 2006, Palin talked about the need
black fur is thought to have been from a to teach both creationism and evolution,
mutation in dogs, since passed on to a few but she later said that she would not
wolves. The team looked at 53,000 genetic push school boards to add the former to
variants to confirm that dogs were domesti- their curricula.” She said “‘Stem cell
8
research that would end in destruction It damps wobbles that would otherwise
of life, I couldn’t support.’” cause Earth’s axis to tilt wildly.”Quite a
coincidence that, like Goldilocks’ supper
27 September p.28 Unknown Earth: our and bed, everything is just right! And
planet’s seven biggest mysteries DNA’s blueprint doesn’t sound like chance
“It’s the place we call home, but there is either.
much about planet Earth that remains
frustratingly unknown. How did it form 11 October p.16 Seals have scuba tank
from a cloud of dust? How did it manage built in
to nurture life?...” “An oxygen reservoir within seals’ mus-
The fundamental differences between the cles could explain how they can dive
eight planets of our solar system show that under water for up to 80 minutes at a
we did not condense from the same cloud time without taking a breath.
of dust, apart from the problem of how the “Seal muscle contains 20 times as much
dust got to stick together. The fact that our myoglobin – a protein that stores and
best informed efforts have failed to get transfers oxygen within their cells – as
close to making life tells us that life humans. Seals also stop breathing for 20
couldn’t be nurtured by chance. And did minutes at a time while asleep on land,
the conditions on Earth come about by which probably helps them conserve en-
chance?“We know that its distance from ergy.”
the sun provides the right amount of During breathing, haemoglobin in the
heat and light to make the planet habita- blood bonds to oxygen in the air. Circula-
ble, but that alone is not enough. With- tion carries the blood from the lungs to the
out the unique mix of carbon, hydrogen, muscles, where myoglobin, that has a great-
nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sul-
phur that makes up living things, and
without liquid water on the planet’s sur-
face, life as we know it could not have
evolved.” Not that umpteen laboratory ex-
periments with optimal conditions and in-
gredients have managed to evolve or create
life, as Urey, Miller and their followers
have found. “Darwin envisaged life
emerging in a ‘warm little pond’; in fact,
it was almost certainly a hot, briny caul-
dron.” Such confidence! “Here we are
faced with a chicken-and-egg situation:
for DNA to do its thing it needs proteins,
yet the blueprints for those proteins are
provided by the DNA.”
“Our planet’s climate is remarkably sta-
ble, and has remained in a narrow livea-
ble range for almost 4 billion years ... On
Earth, the moon has played an addition-
A seal at Lincoln Zoo, UK.
al role in keeping the climate habitable. Image: J. Lin at www.sxc.hu
9
er capacity for bonding oxygen than haemo- between diverse mammalian species...
globin, takes it on. As the muscles do work, Though they can relocate within an
sugar is oxidised by the bonded oxygen, individual’s genome they were not
giving up carbon dioxide. This product is thought able to switch species.”
passed to the haemoglobin and expelled A team of geneticists have found near-iden-
into the lungs. The acidity of carbonic acid tical lengths of SPIN, a jumping gene, in
aids its take-up by the blood. creatures as diverse as opossums, frogs and
The globins are precisely structured orga- a “hedgehog-like relative of elephants”
no-metallic complexes. In humans, it only (not comfortable to ride upon).
takes one small mutation in haemoglobin Firstly, we should note that bacteria have a
to give blood the shape of a sickle and spoil special apparatus, known as a pilus, for
its ability to fully do its job. transferring lengths of DNA between them-
Not only does the haemoglobin have to be selves. Multi-celled creatures, including
exactly right, but it is of no use without the mammals, have no such thing.
myoglobin. A seal without this extra sup- Secondly, similar genes are common to
ply of myoglobin would have to resort to a many mammals because mammals have
rod and line to catch its food! many proteins in common.
To claim that the presence ofSPIN, a jump-
11 October p.18 Sick as a dog ing gene, in several diverse mammals is
“Last month...a BBC documentary ar- due to sharing of genetic information be-
gued that winners of dog shows are se- tween them is spin indeed, a jumping to the
lected chiefly on appearance and wrong conclusion.
movement, at the expense of their health
and well-being...Pedigree breeders use a 1st November p.48 Will unreason or rea-
closed studbook system, in which only son prevail?
descendants from an initial population On the eve of the US presidential election,
of animals can be bred, but this inevita- Lawrence Krauss takes a last opportunity
bly increases the risk of inherited disor- to snipe at the republican team of McCain
ders... Many dogs now have inherited and Palin. “Faith lies in the realm of
disorders that inflict so much suffering it human activity that has little to do with
is unkind to keep them alive.” reason...” he writes, lampooning Senator
This BBC programme has highlighted the Palin’s belief in creationism and McCain’s
fact that there are limits to the amount of doubts that climate change is largely due to
variation possible within a kind of creature. human activity. Both are against human
Evolution theory postulates that this micro- embryonic stem cell research that destroys
evolution, or variation, if carried to ex- potential people.
tremes leads to new kinds evolving. Rather This stark stacking of evolutionism against
it leads to suffering and death. biblical faith (“dinosaurs and humans
See also CSM’s latest pamphlet, no. 372, cohabited”) must be an embarrassment to
“Pedigree Dogs Refute Darwinism”. Christians who imagine that the Creator
must have used evolutionary processes so
25 October p.15 ‘Jumping gene’ leapt that His invisible power and Godhead
into ancient mammals’ DNA could be clearly seen (Romans 1:20). Our
“Mobile DNA that can jump between mission as creation scientists is to show
plant and bacterial species once hopped that true science is in line with biblical
10
