Episode 34 - Zaid Ate Dog Meat - Is Genetic Similarity Evidence For or Against Evolution Theory?

Greetings

Peace be upon you.

If the media ever tells you an urgent news: "The success rate of the country's president in his 20th presidential term is (99%), and therefore, all the good, righteousness, superiority, success, progress, and prosperity in the country, morning and evening, are thanks to His Excellency the President."

I think you won't take long to realize that the leader's propaganda lies about the percentage and also lies about the conclusion. This is exactly what superstition propaganda does when it claims that the similarity between humans and chimpanzees in genetic material is (99%).

We have shown in the previous episode how this lie was manufactured in the kitchen of superstition through several steps, and the episode was a big shock to many. The shock today - brothers - is when we see the conclusion that the propaganda of superstition wants to build on this false percentage. A distinguished chapter from the chapters of the contempt of the priests of superstition for the minds of people, we see with it chapters of greatness, creativity, and divine power, so follow with us...

The Misleading Conclusion from the Similarity Percentage

Let's assume that the similarity percentage is (99%). What do you want people to conclude from this, oh priests of superstition?

Do you want them to conclude that man is a chimpanzee or an ape by (99%) as suggested by the title of your book published by the Natural History Museum in London, in cooperation with the University of Chicago Press in America?

Do you want to mislead people into thinking that the matter is easy for your random mutations and blind selection? Where all they had to do was cause a difference of (01%), so the similarity in genetic material remained (99%), and then the rest of the operations proceeded automatically, automatically like dominoes without the need for an All-Knowing Creator?

Did the proteins resulting from the genetic material also have a similarity of (99%)? And the body's organs by (99%)? And then the mental abilities and feelings that you attribute to material causes by (99%) between humans and chimpanzees?

Gene Similarity Does Not Mean Organism Similarity

According to the well-known evolutionary journal "Nature," when we see that (99%) of the genes of one type of mice have counterparts in humans, does this mean that humans - oh priests of superstition - are mice by (99%)?

And when the U.S. National Institutes of Health mentions that (60%) of our genes and fly genes are similar, does this mean that humans are flies by (60%)?

And when we see that the X chromosome - which distinguishes the female - is similar by (69%) to the chimpanzee, and the Y chromosome - which distinguishes the male - is similar by (43%), does this mean that women are closer to chimpanzees one and a half times more than men?

The Importance of Order and Context in Meaning

If we compare two books and find a similarity of (99%) in the words of the two books, without considering the order of the words and their use in context, can we say that the two books reach the same conclusion by (99%)?

If I say to you: "The dog ate Zaid's meat," is it the same meaning as "Zaid ate the dog's meat"? A (100%) match in words, yet the meaning is completely different.

If I say to you: "I eat, drink, get up, sleep, go, return, and so on," and then put "لا" (no) before it, so that the similarity in the words of the two sentences is (90%), are the two sentences similar in meaning by (90%)?

Is this what you mean, oh priests of superstition? Otherwise, what do you want people to conclude from this (99%)?

The Significant Difference from a Minimal Percentage: Is It Randomness?

Or perhaps you want to say: No! We did not intend that humans are 99% chimpanzee, but rather that the 1% difference between humans and chimpanzees caused the significant physical, intellectual, and civilizational differences between the two beings. Similarly, the significant differences between organisms are the result of these minor differences in genetic material.

Ah, well then, our question to you at this point: Is this the work of randomness and blind natural selection?

If you saw on a computer a long poem describing humans in a complete, accurate, detailed manner, describing their lives, body parts, emotions, and instincts, a balanced, beautiful poem with no flaws. And you saw on the same device a complete poem describing the chimpanzee in a complete manner, a balanced poem but with a different meter and word order. And you found a poem describing the mouse, another describing the horse, another describing the whale, and so on...

And you found that there is a similarity in a large number of words between all these poems, yet each word was used differently each time, appropriate to the context to produce a different meaning, and there was no nonsensical or mixed speech on the device. Is this evidence of random, frivolous randomness that produced the poems from one another? Or is the similarity in words with the significant difference in meaning evidence of artistry, skill, and mastery from the author? How much more so if millions of beautiful, harmonious poems were written, with many words shared?

The Difference Between the Cells of a Single Body

Come, let us concede to you the furthest extent, O priests of superstition. If we assume that the percentage is 99%, and that the enormous difference between humans and chimpanzees is the result of only 1%, and that randomness and blind selection are the creators of these two beings and the differentiators of their characteristics through this 1% difference.

Then answer us: How do you explain the difference between the cells of a single body, with no difference in genetic material between them? Not 1%, nor one in a thousand! Does not a middle school student know that the percentage of similarity in genetic material between the cells of a single human is exactly 100%? Yet, is a bone cell like a nerve cell? Is a brain cell like a cell at the end of the intestines?

If the answer is "no," what do you want people to infer from this 99%? And how do you build upon it the validity that randomness and blindness are the cause of every creature in the universe, as the leader's media concluded that every success in his country is due to him?

Pose these questions to the priests of superstition, then leave them in their tyranny, blind. And come with us to see how the letters of genetic material are only the beginning of a story, while more details of wisdom, power, and miracle lie in the translation of these letters.

The Secret of Diversity: From Genes to Proteins and Organisms

How does the great diversity in the cells of a single body occur with the matching of genetic material? And how does the great diversity between organisms occur with the similarity in genetic material? This is a topic among the most wondrous and beautiful, and in it are many stories of the greatness of creation. We will now together glimpse a small part of it.

Your body is primarily composed of proteins, which gather in different forms to create small particles, each with its function within the cell. A group of cells gives a tissue, a group of tissues gives an organ, and a group of organs gives a system such as the digestive system, and thus the different systems of the body are formed, and from their totality, the human body is composed.

Well, what is the number of proteins that can exist in the human body, including antibodies with their immense diversity that the body produces against invading microbes? This paper published in 2018 in a journal from the Nature group answers that the number reaches the billions! Billions! Meaning thousands of millions of different proteins. These proteins are produced from reading the genetic material that the priests of superstition talk about the percentage of similarity between organisms.

Well, how many genes are read to produce these proteins? About 20,000 genes only, according to the same 2018 paper. And this, by the way, was a shock when the Human Genome Project was completed that the number of genes was much less than expected.

How can billions of proteins be produced from only 20,000 genes? I will give you an illustrative example first, then link it to the answer to this question.

You entered a computer and saw in it three files titled: The Story of Man... The Story of Birds... and The Story of Fish. You opened these files, and at the beginning of each, you saw lines of cut-up letters, among them the following line... the same line is exactly present in all these files.

In the file of The Story of Man, on its first page, you saw the following copies of this line... this copy is the same as the original; but with the removal of the spaces or dashes. This copy is the same as the original; but with the removal of the spaces in addition to some letters in the middle. This copy is the same as the original; but with the removal of the spaces in addition to some different letters as well.

Then you found under each of these copies a useful sentence. This sentence is a combination of the cut-up letters in the copies with some of them and the addition of the necessary diacritics.

The first sentence: The man eats the birds and the large and small fish. The second: The man eats the large and small birds. The third: The man eats the small fish.

Three useful, meaningful sentences, suitable for humans. In the following pages of the file of The Story of Man, you saw sentences composed of other lines.

Then, on the first page of the file: The Story of Birds, you saw the following copy of the same line, and under it the following sentence composed of combining some of the letters with the modification of the letter "ya" to "ta" and placing a "damma" on the "ra," resulting in the following sentence: The birds eat the small fish. A useful sentence with a correct meaning suitable for birds.

On the first page of the file: The Story of Fish, you saw the following copy of the line, and under it the following sentence: The fish eat the large and small. With the placement of a "damma" on the "kaf" and "ta" to make the meaning correct and suitable for fish. And you did not find on the computer any sentence without meaning from the same line, for example, you did not find a sentence like this... without meaning.

Now let us apply this example to the world of biology. The genetic material of living organisms contains genes that are sequences of letters like the letters of the line we spoke about.

The Five Processes of Diversity

Peace be upon you. What determines which genes are read in a specific cell of the human body? The answer is: the need of that cell. For example, a pancreas cell reads the genes specific to the insulin hormone, an intestinal cell reads the genes specific to digestive enzymes, and a brain cell reads the genes specific to neurotransmitters, and so on... Although all these cells have the exact same genetic material, just like different lines read from the pages of a human story file in our example.

This is the (first) reason for the diversity among the cells of a single body, even though they are identical in their genetic material.

Also... if you get injured, for example, dozens of small particles in your skin cells gather at the line specific to the collagen gene to be read, and collagen protein is produced to heal the wound. Here comes another wonder: do you remember the parts of the genetic material that were previously described as junk? One of their tasks is to bind to small particles to help produce collagen in a beautiful way.

So, this is the (second) reason for protein diversity: the formation of protein according to your need at a certain time, in a certain amount, in certain cells.

Okay, in conclusion, a gene has been copied in a certain cell. This copy is called (mRNA) "messenger RNA," and it resembles the copy of the line of letters in our example. These letters are distributed in the numbered regions from (1) to (6) with spaces in between.

Here comes the (third) and very wonderful reason for diversity. Some cells remove the spaces and join the letters together, forming a long meaningful sentence: "Man eats birds." This sentence is a specific protein suitable for a specific cell.

In another cell, the spaces and some letters present in region (2) are deleted, forming a second messenger, and this messenger is translated into a protein suitable for this cell and not the first cell. This protein is like the sentence: "Man eats large and small birds."

In a third cell, the spaces and the letters present in region (5) are deleted, forming a third messenger that is translated into a protein suitable for this cell and not the first two cells: "Man small fish."

This process is called in biology "alternative splicing," and more accurately, we can call it "varied splicing," meaning that cutting and deletion occur in different places in the messenger. You might say: Okay, what determines where this cutting occurs? These spaces, which are copies of what is known as introns "introns," which the followers of superstition thought were empty, have many important functions, as modern research has published: determining where the splicing occurs specifically. That is, there is no piece in the cell that goes in vain.

Thus, through the process of "varied splicing," the human body can produce many proteins from a single gene, just as many sentences can be produced from the same line. One of the most wonderful examples of this is proteins known as neurexins "neurexins." These proteins are present in the human brain to help build a competent brain for a responsible human capable of thinking. How many of these proteins are there? Thousands. Okay, these thousands of sentences, how many genes were they read from? That is, how many lines of letters? The shocking answer is: (03) only! Thousands of proteins were produced from (03) genes only! It is as if you produce thousands of correct sentences from (03) lines. The credit for this goes mainly to "varied splicing."

Proteins resulting from "varied splicing" need modifications that resemble changing some letters and changing the movements of words in our example. Modifications on proteins are called: "Post Translational Modifications" abbreviated as "PTMs," meaning: modifications after translation, translation of messengers into proteins. This is the (fourth) station for diversity in proteins resulting from genetic material.

The same raw protein can have different movements; different sentences with different meanings are produced from it. Why was this movement placed here, for example, and not here? Although we have many places and many possibilities. A protein like: titin "titin" consists of more than (34) thousand amino acids, meaning like these creatures. What is the meaning of this movement being placed here, for example, and not in another place? We have (34) thousand letters, each of which can be formed with a number of movements. If the matter is left to chance and randomness, the known space of the universe will not be enough to produce the required titin specifically and repeatedly in every muscle cell.

Thus, this PTMs process produces us formed sentences, each of which suits a specific cell in a specific organism. The difference in movement may make this protein suit the story of an organism, and not the story of another organism. These movements in the appropriate places in the proteins are what lead to their taking the determined appropriate three-dimensional structures "three-dimensional structures."

Here comes the (fifth) step, which is the assembly of these proteins in different ways to form larger and more complex proteins. This assembly takes many forms according to the cell, the organism, or the condition that this organism is exposed to. This is the (fifth) reason for diversity.

Five processes we have explained to you, brothers:

1. Copying different genes to produce proteins according to the cell in the organism.
2. Copying different genes at the appropriate time and quantity according to the circumstances to which the organism is exposed.
3. The process of "varied splicing," which produces many sentences from the same line.
4. PTMs processes that place the appropriate movements on the words of the sentence.
5. And the gathering of proteins in different shapes and compositions to produce more complex proteins.

With these processes and others, it has become possible to produce billions of different proteins from only (20) thousand genes! Without them, we would have needed billions of genes to produce billions of proteins.

With these processes, human cells have diversified into thousands of types, although they all have the exact same genetic material with a match rate of (100%).

With these processes and others, man becomes man, the ape becomes an ape, the chimpanzee becomes a chimpanzee, the fly becomes a fly, and the mouse becomes a mouse, no matter how much their genetic material is similar (70), (80), (90), more, less, it doesn't matter.

With these processes, you understand why, no matter how similar the genetic material of humans and chimpanzees is, (80%) of their proteins are different according to this research, meaning only (20%) are similar. That is, even if we assumed that the percentage of difference in the genetic material is (01%); what then? If we know that the difference in protein is (80%).

With these processes, genetic material and the extent of its similarity become only the beginning of the story, and the ability to diversify, synthesize, and distinguish becomes a miracle that the hearts submit to and the tongues glorify for a people who understand.

Summary: The Greatness of Creation in Unity and Diversity

Do the great doctors and "Professors" of the priests of superstition not know all of this? I myself learned a lot of this in my first year of university in a course on "Biology." Do the great doctors of superstition not know all of this when they repeat the number (99%) similarity with the chimpanzee? Either they were cheating on their university exams and took their degrees fraudulently, or they were preoccupied with preaching superstition rather than updating their outdated information from decades ago, or they are laughing at people and deliberately mocking their intellects.

When we see the percentage of similarity between organisms, at the level of genetic material letters and at the level of the messenger, it is not (70) nor (90) nor (99%), but (100%). All of them are composed of four nitrogenous bases, meaning something like four letters from which words are formed that translate into more than (20) amino acids. From these, billions of proteins are formed. From these, according to a recent shocking paper: billions! Meaning thousands of millions of precise, integrated living organisms. Billions... if we take bacteria and their types into account. Billions of organisms that have a food chain and natural balance, with no room for nonsense, no room for meaningless camels, or for failed random attempts, but all of them are precise. "What do you see in the creation of the Most Merciful of differences?" [Al-Mulk:3]. Is this evidence of randomness and lack of intention? Or is it precision and creativity that ties the tongue?

Allah the Most High said: "And on the earth are adjacent plots and gardens of grapes and crops and palm trees of one kind and another, watered with one water. And We prefer some of them over others in eating. Indeed in that are signs for a people who reason." [Ar-Ra'd:4]. For whom? Again, for people who reason.

We saw in a previous episode how plants resemble each other in shape but are actually very different in their genetic material, such as olives and pomegranates. Today we see the opposite: a match in the letters of the genetic material and a great diversity in shape. Greatness and creativity for people who reason.

If there were no similarity in the genetic material between organisms, the supporters of superstition would say: If there is a Creator who created these organisms by will, why did He make their genetic material completely different, even though they have a great similarity in the basic operations at the cellular level? All cells... all organisms need their cells to manufacture proteins, to divide, to produce energy, and so on... Wouldn't it be the case that if they had one Creator, He would unify them in these basic shared elements, just as a designer unifies the basic components of different devices? Yes... they would say that.

But in reality, they are similar, and this similarity makes them similar in the building blocks of their bodies: proteins, which allows some of them to feed on others to complete the cycle of life with the completion of the food chain, and balance is achieved. If the genetic material - and therefore the building blocks - were completely different, the organisms would become poison to each other, as they would not be able to benefit from the elements of each other. And it would be said at that time: If there is a Creator, why did He not make them similar so that they could benefit from each other? Glory be to Him who unified to a certain extent! And diversified to a certain extent! "And everything with Him is in a certain measure." [Ar-Ra'd:8].

With this, brothers, we have completed the story of the (99%) that the priests of superstition sing about. We have learned how they lie in the number, in the interpretation of the number, and in the dedication of superficiality and scientific naivety in people's minds, and they blind people to the amazing and wonderful facts in this universe. All of this is for the sake of superstition, so that later in the night, other liars come to you saying: "Molecular inheritance" is the strongest evidence of evolution, the file is closed, and that's it, relying on the fact that it is difficult for people to follow their rantings and verify their secrets.

We ask Allah that we have been successful in this episode to reveal an aspect of the greatness of creation that encourages you to more contemplation in response to the command of the Creator, the All-Knowing, Who says: "Do they not look at the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what Allah has created of things and that perhaps their end has come near? Then in what statement after Him will they believe?" [Al-A'raf:185].

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.