The Wondrous Code

Peace be upon you Dear viewers in the last episode, we saw the incredible length of the genome in the human body Today we'll see what's even more amazing! We'll see how this genetic material is translated into fat, flesh, and blood; another evidence for design by Allah Who perfects everything The topic is not easy and may seem dry and scientific, at first but it is very important! I highly advise you to be patient till the end and the benefit will be great Allah willingly We will give a simple analogy and then apply it to our bodies Imagine a library: From the information in its books we will build a big city That is, the whole city is encoded in these books Each book contains a workflow for building one of the building units: bricks, arches, columns, beams, wood planks, blocks of marble, and so on It is not allowed to take any of the books out of the library So, the library staff make copies of the books and deliver them to workers outside the library The workers outside read these copies and construct the building units accordingly Then another group of workers places each unit in its place The result is a large city! Next to this library there is another one containing the same books and its staff also make book copies; some of which are identical to those in the first library and some are not These copies go to the workers outside who construct the building units Then another group of workers comes to put the new units in place and the result is another city similar to the first city in some aspects and different in others A large number of adjacent cities forming a vast world! Let's apply this analogy to our bodies Your body is this vast world and the neighboring cities represent the different cells in your body: Bone cells, muscle cells, cells that secrete hormones such as insulin, and so on All of these cells contain the same library; meaning they contain the same books The library is the cell nucleus and the entire set of books constitutes the genome The genome is comprised of small building blocks: Nucleotides There are four different nucleotides which are represented by the letters: A, T, G, and C as if the books in the library are written in a language made up of four letters These nucleotides are ordered in different sequences The sequence results in genes separated from each other just as the books in the library are separate from each other Hence, each gene comprises a large number of nucleotides arranged in a specific way In a human being, there are about twenty thousand genes Each gene is translated into a specific protein just like a book is translated into a specific building unit: a brick, arch, etc. For example, one gene is translated into insulin: the blood-sugar regulating hormone Another gene is translated into collagen which is the building block of bones and skin. All of these are proteins! How is a gene translated into protein? A gene is like readable letters and a protein is actual matter built from amino acids i.e. a group of amino acids linked together form a protein What is this process that acts like an intelligent entity; reading the letters, decoding them and making proteins accordingly? Readers (RNA polymerase) target the specific gene to be translated These readers are a group of molecules which unwind the two strands of DNA, transcribe one of them, and form a complementary RNA strand These molecules that resemble hammers are the different nucleotides found in the cell nucleus; which the readers arrange in order according to the gene i.e. the RNA polymerase uses the gene as a template to form the RNA strand copy For simplicity, let's say that the RNA strand is a copy of the gene just like the library clerks in our example copy the books All of this takes place within the cell nucleus; i.e. inside the library Next, the copy leaves the nucleus and a worker that —in the cell— is called a ribosome comes to read the copy and build according to its instructions Herein lies the complexity of converting the copy into proteins The copy is made up of nucleotides; much like letters and words and the protein is made up of amino acids; i.e. actual matter How will this worker (the ribosome) build a protein by reading a nucleotide strand? There are molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA) which bind to the RNA copy —much like lego— from one side and carry an amino acid on the other side Each tRNA carries a different amino acid The ribosome arranges tRNAs according to the sequence of the copied strand and connects the amino acids together at the other end to form a long chain of amino acids This chain then detaches and undergoes many modifications in order to produce a specific protein Hence, we can say that the protein product is encoded in the genome i.e. the information necessary to produce it is stored in the genome; in a special language which needs transcription readers to decode it After the protein (the building unit) is formed special molecules deliver it to the appropriate location in the cell; just like the workers who place building units in their designated place in order to build the city For example, there are proteins that aggregate to form bundles which, in turn form what looks like a road network for intracellular transport Other proteins are stored inside large vesicles and are, in turn, transported by other proteins: motor proteins using the 'cellular road network' Everything is guided to its proper place! “...Our Lord is He Who gave each thing its distinctive form and nature, then guided [it]." (Quran Translated Meaning 20:50) It's all encoded in the library books i.e. in the genome: The road networks, transporting and transported proteins, RNA polymerase in the nucleus, ribosomes, etc. Everything needed to build the city (the cell) is in the library (the genome) Okay! What makes a skin cell for example different from a pancreatic cell even while they both use the same library and books? It's because the library clerk in the skin cell makes a copy of the collagen book i.e. the collagen gene which helps to strengthen the skin; while the library clerk in the pancreatic cell makes a copy of the insulin gene secreted by the pancreas Since your body contains many different types of cells —each type with its many details— the genome contains a massive amount of encoded information: more than 3.5 billion base pairs! Meaning more than seven billion nucleotides! In other words, if we imagine a sheet from the city blueprint packed tightly with nucleotide symbols as in the figure we would need about 2.7 million papers of this size to write the genome information contained in a single cell! A paper pack contains 500 sheets of paper So, we would need 5,423 packs of paper which, when stacked on top of each other, would be approximately 300 m high! As high as a skyscraper! This is the genetic material in a single cell So, ask yourself Who designed all of this? Atheism answers, "It is nothing; nihility! 'Nothing' created nucleotides and sequenced them into organized genes. 'Nothing' compacted this vast amount of data, encoded it, and packed it into a minute nucleus. It is 'Nothing' which produced the readers that head to a specific gene and copy it. Moreover, it is 'Nothing' that moves the copy out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm. Then 'Nothing' creates the ribosomes to decipher the genetic code by translating —with the help of tRNAs— what resembles a sequence of stacked letters into the required protein Then 'Nothing' carries the produced protein to its proper location in the cell. It is 'Nothing' which creates the transported protein, the motor protein and their 'cellular road network'. It is 'Nothing' that produces all that and produces it all by chance! Don't you dare think that any of this needs a Great, All-Knowing, Capable, and Wise Creator Who [has] perfected everything! Rather, it is just a matter of time! Billions of years for 'Nothing' to try out all the probabilities in confused randomness, produce all this from 'Nothing', and organize it in this splendid order! You know, dear viewers! While preparing the episodes of "The Journey of Certainty" it's only when I got to the examples of fine-tuning in creation that I froze, hesitated, and ran out of words! Because, in truth, while I sense the greatness of Allah in every detail of His creation, I do not relish the idea of trying to persuade anyone that all of this obviously requires a Creator! Yet, I do it, "... to be free from blame before your Lord, and so that these might also become mindful of Him."(QTM 7:164) May the peace of Allah be upon you