← Back to The Journey of Certainty
This content has been automatically translated. View original in Arabic
Peace be upon you, brothers and sisters. This segment is a continuation of the episode "A Goat, Even If It Flew," which is episode (22) of the Journey of Certainty.
Followers of the myth say to you: The engine of evolution is random processes, the most important of which are mutations in genetic material. Bacteria, for example, they say: It developed a new beneficial trait for itself through random mutations in a limited time, and therefore, with billions of years, bacteria could have evolved into all types of living organisms through random mutations as well.
We will postpone discussing these billions of years and their validity, and we will postpone the assumption that if it is proven that randomness gives bacteria beneficial traits, this means the possibility that it can also turn into all the organisms we see through randomness. We will postpone this and focus on the root of the matter: Did bacteria actually develop new beneficial traits for themselves through randomness?
The most famous experiment they cite is Richard Lenski's "Richard Lenski" experiment on E. coli bacteria, "Escherichia Coli" or shortened as E. coli, which Lenski's team cultivated in a lab. What they focus on the most in this experiment is that some of these bacteria, after years of cultivation, were able to capture citrate to feed on it.
What is the story of citrates? E. coli, like any organism, needs food. Suppose it has glucose and citrates in front of it; which will it use as food? If the bacteria are in a place with oxygen, such as the human intestines, they feed on glucose and do not feed on citrates. It has the necessary transporters to introduce glucose through its membrane, and it does not have the necessary transporters to introduce citrates.
Lenski placed these bacteria in test tubes, provided them with glucose and citrates, and all of this was in the presence of oxygen. Therefore, it is assumed that they would feed on glucose only. However, Lenski was surprised to find that these bacteria in one of the test tube groups, after many years had passed, grew and increased in number rapidly, faster than the other test tubes. He searched for the reason and found that they were able to consume and digest citrates, in addition to glucose, and published these results.
What did the followers of the myth conclude? They concluded that the bacteria developed the necessary transporters to transport citrates across their membrane through random mutations, to then digest it. Therefore, here are random mutations adding a new trait to bacteria that helps in its evolution, and all of this in a few decades. Therefore, over billions of years, bacteria could not only have developed new traits but also evolved into new organisms, and these evolved into others, until we have these millions of types of living organisms, all thanks to random mutations that nature selected from. The followers of the myth held a celebration on this, flew with the experiment, and their pages were filled with the title: "Here is evolution happening before our eyes!"
Before we continue the story, do you know, brothers, what it means for a citrate transporter to be produced through random mutations? This citrate transporter consists of (487) amino acids, meaning its genetic code is present in (1462) nucleotides. Its formation through randomness means that these nucleotides - these units - lined up randomly in the exact required order, then the required transporter was produced, took the exact necessary three-dimensional shape, and this transporter was located in the required place in the bacterial cell membrane. This random process repeated itself in the same random way many, many times.
And all of this happened randomly without intention, without any trace of the billions, trillions, zillions of failed attempts that randomness is supposed to have tried on the way before reaching this transporter protein, which would not be enough for all the atoms on Earth. I am not exaggerating; as we will explain in detail, God willing, that if the bacteria were the size of the Milky Way galaxy, it would not be enough to contain the results of the failed attempts of the nucleotides aligning before reaching this gene consisting of (1462) nucleotides in a certain order, and the protein produced from it with certain three-dimensional dimensions. How much more so if we know that bacteria are so small that millions of them can be placed on the head of a pin?
Therefore, every rational person knows that producing a citrate transporter through randomness is mentally impossible. But the followers of the myth say to you: "This is impossible to the mind, it has been scientifically proven!" Meaning, they accuse your mind and believe the priests of the myth. Leave your mind and believe in science! Does the mind contradict correct experimental science, as these enemies of the mind try to make us believe? Come, let's continue the story, brothers, to know the answer.
After the followers of the myth flew in joy with the experiment, they hit a wall! In (2012), Lenski, the owner of the same experiment, published in the journal Nature what exactly happened in these bacteria. It is (in English) "Gene duplication which was activated by a promoter that is activated in the presence of oxygen to produce a citrate transporter that was originally present but inactive." And they explained this with this important diagram.
What does all this mean? And pay close attention, my brothers - if you would be so kind; if we take the E. coli bacteria as an example, and this is part of its genetic material (the genome). Normally, if this bacteria is in a place with oxygen, it captures glucose and does not capture citrates, as we said, because glucose produces more energy for it than citrates. So, how did it manage to capture glucose without citrates?
There is an area in the bacteria's genome called a promoter "Promoter," where readers gather to read the genome in this direction - to the right - and after complex processes, it produces certain proteins such as glucose carriers. Oxygen activates this promoter while it inhibits this promoter, meaning it prevents the readers from reading the citrate carrier gene. Therefore, the bacteria cannot benefit from citrates in the presence of oxygen.
In Lenski's experiment, the bacteria grew until they exhausted the glucose. Bacteria, in general, are extremely flexible creatures, found everywhere, decomposing corpses, cleaning the planet Earth - this is their job. They can adapt to different circumstances. What did E. coli do to adapt to the condition of glucose deficiency? Some of them managed to copy the citrate carrier gene and insert it between the genes that are read in the presence of oxygen, meaning after the oxygen-sensitive promoter. The bacteria inserted it in the exact right place, because if it had inserted it in the middle of gene (1) or gene (2) for example, it would have broken it and the bacteria would die. Therefore, the readers read the citrate carrier gene and produced citrate carriers, and thus the bacteria became able to capture citrates. So, it captured them; what does it do with them? Don't worry, all the necessary enzymes to benefit from the citrates are already present in the bacteria.
Of course, we say: the bacteria copied the gene and placed the copy in the right place. These abbreviated phrases refer to processes that are still being studied to discover their details, and what has been discovered, or something similar to it, is extremely complex, precise, and wondrous, as we studied in advanced biochemistry courses in the doctorate.
What do we call that? What would any rational person call it? What would any rational person call it?! Wouldn't he say it is an amazing adaptation that indicates a Creator whose greatness is beyond limits? What did Lenski, who discovered it, and his followers "a goat even if it flew" with him, call it? They called it pre-adaptation "Exaptation," a term invented by the followers of superstition, as an alternative to the word "Pre-adaptation," meaning (the intended adaptation) because this word (in English) is theologically saturated, meaning it indicates intentionality and purpose in existence. So that you do not draw the correct conclusion from the word (in English) intended adaptation, and so that you do not use your mind; they mislead you with terminology. So, Lenski concluded that his experiment indicates the importance of (pre-adaptation) in the occurrence of evolution. A goat even if it flew... And we seek refuge in Allah from knowledge that does not benefit its owner.
This is the story of Lenski's experiment. And with this, you understand the meaning of their saying: (in English) "Gene duplication which was attached to a promoter activated by the presence of oxygen, to produce a citrate carrier that was already present but inactive." So, where is the randomness in all this?
Dawkins "Richard Dawkins" in his book titled "The Greatest Show on Earth; Evidence of Evolution" uses this experiment and lies to his readers. He is a doctor of evolutionary biology and misleads them by saying that E. coli does not have the ability to deal with citrates, nor does it have anything necessary for that, and that what happened in Lenski's experiment is random mutations, which introduced new genetic information into the bacteria's genome without the intervention of a designer. He said verbatim: (in English) "New information introduced into genomes without the intervention of a designer." As if the nucleotides of the bacteria's genome aligned like this by blind randomness, to produce everything necessary to deal with citrates that E. coli had no basis to benefit from. He lies shamelessly, as Dawkins does throughout his book titled "The Greatest Show." And his poor readers think they are reading science that enlightens their minds, while Dawkins laughs at them and mocks their intelligence.
And you see from the fabricators of superstition among our own people; those who still describe Lenski's experiment as one of the strongest evidence held by atheistic evolutionists who say: chance brings about complex composition.
So, this is the story of Lenski's experiment, and we ask Allah to make it easy for us to stand with it for a long time in another station, for what it contains of great signs of the ability of the Creator, may He be glorified and exalted. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.