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The collection of scumbags known as Creation Ministries International recently put out
a pamphlet called “Question Evolution” containing 15 questions that supposedly attack
the basis of evolutionary theory, and that’s being brazenly peddled by the group of tosspots
known as PPSimmons. Lapkine77 has organized a collaborative response from a collection
of excellent Youtubers, and this is my contribution. Please check out the video description for
links to all the other users and their responses and consider subscribing to them.
I’m responding to question five and this particular piece of crap goes as follows:
How did new biochemical pathways, which involve multiple enzymes working together in sequence,
originate? Every pathway and nano-machine requires multiple protein/enzyme components
to work. How did lucky accidents create even one of the components, let alone 10 or 20
or 30+ at the same time, often in a necessary programmed sequence? Evolutionary biochemist
Franklin Harold wrote, “we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian
accounts of the evolution of any biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful
speculations.” creation.com/motor (includes animation)
It really is difficult to express the number of levels on which this question fails. In
fact it’s so loaded with ignorance and misinformation that it wouldn’t surprise me if, at any
minute, it collapsed under the gravitational field generated from the sheer weight of stupid
that it contains. Of course none of this comes as a shock since
the question originates, in part, from the despicable Youtubers known as PPSimmons, who
I’ve demonstrated time and time again in previous videos are nothing by dishonest,
dishonorable purveyors of vile and disgusting lies. The fact that these con-artists have
now teamed up with the equally reptilian group known as Creation Ministries International
to produce this pamphlet of extra glossy toilet paper perhaps explains its unusually intense
concentration of crap. So with that said, I’ll now explain why
this question is fails in every way imaginable and why you’d be better off not reading
the rest of this document and instead putting it to much more productive use.
Firstly, the question itself commits the logical fallacies of the arguments from ignorance
and personal disbelief. This again is no surprise, since this faulty reasoning is a favorite
approach of most creationists. The fact that the questioner is unaware of how such biochemical
pathways may have evolved says absolutely nothing on whether they did or did not, it
only speaks to his colossal ignorance on the subject and/or his willingness to blatantly
lie about it. In fact just the most cursory of searches
in the scientific literature reveals dozens of peer reviewed publications in exactly this
field. So while creationists might consider this to be a deep and intractable mystery,
it seems that the professionals who’ve dedicated their lives to training and working in these
areas do not. Of course in response the creationist will
predictably find an intricate biochemical pathway whose evolutionary heritage has not
yet been mapped out in detail and claim that it’s impossible to believe that the said
pathway arose via evolution. The creatard’s incredulity at this possibility once again
has no bearing on the truth content of their claim, but again this is a typical creationist
tactic. Instead of attempting to generate evidence to demonstrate that such pathways
cannot evolve, creationists merely assert that they cannot and expect to be taken seriously.
Secondly, the implication that such metabolic pathways arose solely by “lucky accidents”
clearly demonstrates either an Olympian levels of dishonesty from the creationist or that,
when it comes to evolutionary biology, he can’t distinguish his gluteus maximus from
his articulatio cubiti. Since we’re at least in part dealing with
PPSimmons here, both possibilities may equally apply, but there is little doubt that this
statement is indeed seasoned with a generous sprinkling of deceit. In reality no scientist
claims that evolution is a random process because the random element of mutation is
shaped by the distinctly non-random process of natural selection, something which professional
liars like these are determined to ignore. I’ve personally pointed this out to PP a
number of times in my rebuttals to the seemingly endless torrent verbal sewage emanating from
their Youtube channel, and yet they seem intent on ignoring this critical linchpin of evolutionary
theory and instead propagating their grotesque mischaracterization of it.
Thirdly, it’s perhaps understandable why the idiot asking the question cannot understand
how multi-step pathways arose “at the same time” because creationists are the only
ones who believe that complex biological systems can pop into existence ex nihilo, fully intact
and functional. Their inability to distinguish their belief in magic from the tenets of evolutionary
bioloy therefore only serves to highlight the sheer magnitude of their intellectual
atrophy. Of course such systems didn’t appear fully
formed, but evolved gradually by discreet steps that built on pre-existing metabolic
functions to provide competitive advantages to their organisms. We’ve observed the appearance
of such discreet functions in the present day; both in the laboratory by the development
of the ability to utilize citric acid as an energy source in bacteria grown under the
appropriate selective pressures; and in the wild by the appearance of novel enzymes capable
of allowing bacteria to utilize nylon oligomers as carbon sources.
Furthermore in the latter case this evolution has not only been replicated in the laboratory,
but two new and distinct nylonase enzymes have been identified in one bacterium in the
wild, therefore clearly showing the evolution of a two-step pathway in barely one human
lifetime. With such demonstrable and empirical evidence in hand, how big a leap is it really
to imagine the evolution of more complex pathways over periods measured in billions of years?
Fourthly, this argument also hints that evolution of sequential pathways is impossible because
such systems are irreducibly complex. This argument completely ignores the fact that
irreducible complexity is a description of the current state of any given biological
system and not of its evolutionary heritage. For example, consider a cell that requires
two compounds, A and B, from its environment to survive. A new function arises that allows
the cell to convert A to B and since A is abundant and B is not, the cell gains a competitive
advantage and the function is propagated in future generations. Imagine now that the cell
loses the function to take up B. Since it can still produce B from A, this loss-of-function
mutation is silent and may eventually become fixed in the population due to genetic drift.
At this point the metabolic pathway of A to B becomes irreducibly complex, but of course
has not always been so. These concepts are not very difficult to understand
and yet creationists absolutely refuse to recognize or acknowledge their existence,
and instead insist on building their ludicrous straw men and attacking weaknesses in evolutionary
theory that simply aren’t there. Because in the end of the day they’re simply not
interested in the truth, only in affirming their own pre-established and absolutely immovable
position. Finally, if you happen to a creationist with
a genuinely open mind, or someone who’s undecided on the matter, I’d like you to
consider the quote from Franklin Harold given at the end of this passage. While at face
value it does indeed seem damning, notice that it begins with a lower case “w” and
yet doesn’t indicate any preceding text with an ellipsis. There’s a reason for that,
because presumably because the authors of this deceptive little rag didn’t want you
to realize that this line from Harold’s book, “The Way of the Cell” is preceded
by the words: “We should reject, as a matter of principle, the substitution of intelligent
design for the dialogue of chance and necessity but…”
This putrid and foul quote-mine should quite clearly demonstrate that these individuals
are willing to plunge neck-deep into the sewage of their own making in order to perpetuate
their filthy little lies, and underscores the dishonesty and ignorance I’ve been pointing
out throughout this video. But I don’t want you to take my word for
it. I urge you to take some time to sit down at a computer and check for yourself using
reliable and unbiased sources. If you do that with a truly open mind you’ll very quickly
discover that your God is a lot more impressive that the petty conjurer being peddled by these
charlatans who are lying to you in order to propagate their archaic and demonstrably ludicrous
beliefs, while quite possible picking your pockets into the bargain. �