Biochemically, all cells are essentially the same.
From the single cell bacterium to anyone of the trillion cells of the human body,
all have the same key components.
Enzymes, hundreds of them, each catalyzing exactly one chemical reaction needed for life, and made from a 20 amino acid alphabet, made into impossibly long chains of some 500 amino acids.
DNA, with the code to tell the cell how to put the amino acid chain together.
Energy source, ATP needed for most reactions.
This is to say, there is no primitive cell. So it is unimaginable to think this amazing cell came about just through random chemical reactions from simple molecules like water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas, oxygen gas…It had to be created.
Hi Doug, and welcome to the forum! I hope you find it a good place for robust discussion on faith/science topics.
As to your post, I think you’ll find “unimaginable” is not going to hold up as an argument around here. There are lots of things I struggle to understand, but that’s not an argument against any of them existing – just a statement of the limits of my own understanding.
But in that vein, the topic of protocells looks interesting for those curious about exploring the possible origins of cells: Protocell - Wikipedia
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Good evening, @biochemist . Welcome!
Just a clarification, please–you’re discussing abiogenesis, not evolution–right?
Also, there are a wide variety of cells–prokaryotes, eukaryotes, etc. I’m curious as to what you think would be irreducible complexity? How would you classify a virus, or a prion?
With regard to that, I hesitate to say that God is the only one who could do it, though I’m a Christian. I would certainly think there are tons of reasons we rely on God–not only for designing the laws of the universe that could start everything, but as being the ultimate source of justice, including the One to whom we are ultimately responsible, but also in whom we find our ultimate hope.
Thanks again, and welcome!
Randy
(BTW as an introduction–I am a lowly family doc in West Michigan with a bachelor’s in biology in undergrad. I love science, but am not a scientist. My favorite class was organic chem, though I found evolutionary biology and cell and molecular biology really interesting, too. I grew up in a missionary family in West Africa, and count learning about others’ points of view and cultures as one of my greatest enjoyments!).
Thank you.
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That reminds me, I have The Song of the Cell somewhere that I have not gotten around to reading.
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