29. Proteins
Living matter is composed largely of proteins, which are long chains of amino acids. Since 1930, it has been known that amino acids cannot link together if oxygen is present. That is, proteins could not have evolved from chance chemical reactions if the atmosphere contained oxygen. However, the chemistry of Earth’s rocks, both on land and below ancient seas, shows that Earth had oxygen before the earliest fossils formed.a Even earlier, solar radiation would have broken some water vapor into oxygen and hydrogen. Some hydrogen, the lightest of all chemical elements, would then have escaped into outer space, leaving behind excess oxygen.b
To form proteins, amino acids must also be highly concentrated in an extremely pure liquid.c However, the early oceans or ponds would have been far from pure and would have diluted amino acids, so the required collisions between amino acids would rarely occur.d Besides, amino acids do not naturally link up to form proteins. Instead, proteins tend to break down into amino acids.e Furthermore, the proposed energy sources for forming proteins (Earth’s heat, electrical discharges, or solar radiation) destroy the protein products thousands of times faster than they could have formed.f The many attempts to show how life might have arisen on Earth have instead shown (a) the futility of that effort,g (b) the immense complexity of even the simplest life,h and (c) the need for a vast intelligence to precede life.
Finally, all organisms, from bacteria to humans, produce their proteins in tinyi manufacturing plants called ribosomes that are in most of their cells. Because proteins comprise almost half of each ribosome, how were ribosomes created? j Obviously, living cells and their ribosomes had to be created simultaneously.