Debate: Intelligent design is necessary to account for life on Earth

I will begin this debate on Intelligent Design and the origin of life with the following statements, arranged thus:

1. Protein Primary Structure
2. Metabolic Pathways
3. Amino Acids
4. The Genetic Code
5. Other Factors

Protein Primary Structure

All biologically active organisms demand functional proteins. We hold that the first life form that arose is no different: all empirical evidence suggests that life demands proteins. How, then did extremely complex protein tertiary and primary structures arise through unintelligent processes? Certainly, shorter proteins could feasibly arise through unintelligent processes. However, it is most improbable that longer and more complex proteins (for example, those belonging to the alpha/beta classes) could arise through unintelligent and chaotic processes.

In explaining a hypothetical model whereby such a/b class proteins can arise, we must take several things into consideration:

“There is a key difference between the evolution of organisms vs. the evolution of proteins: the current model of evolution of organisms has the absolute requirement of reproduction of organisms and, thus, all present-day organisms ultimately come from one common ancestor organism. However, the evolution of proteins, therefore genes, does not need to follow the evolutionary path of organismic reproduction. Rather, the evolution of proteins is directly related to improved, unaltered, or diversified molecular functions, and the protein function is directly related to protein structure.”

[Choi, “Evolution of Protein Structural Classes And Protein Sequence Families.”]

Is there any feasible paradigm for the evolution of alpha/beta class proteins?

Metabolic Pathways

To examine whether a complex biochemical system can evolve through natural selection, one must simply understand what the ultimate function of that system is.

In the case of glycolysis, a metabolic pathway that is a sine qua nons to all living organisms, the ultimate function is the net gain of two ATP molecules from an ADP molecule. To achieve this function, a series of small-scale reactions must take place.

Now, in order for such a reaction to be able to evolve in a cellular organism, every step along the way must have an advantage (or at least not be detrimental), or else it would be weeded out by natural selection.

In the case of glycolysis, the cell invests an ATP molecule to make glucose-6 phosphate. This first step in glycolysis is entirely counterproductive to the cell; that is, until an enzyme comes along and makes use of the glucose-6 phosphate.

Thus, such a cell, valiantly attemtping to evolve the process of glycolysis through natural selection, would be weeded out by natural selection, as it sacrifices an ATP molecule for no functional reason; this means the cell would waste energy that could be used for various metabolic processes.

How far then, could life advance without glycolysis? True, the first cells did not depend on glycolysis, but this demonstrates the difficulty of metabolic pathways evolving.

Amino Acids

All life is composed of L amino acid proteins. The Miller-Urey experiment demonstrated that amino acids can arise through unintelligent processes; however the amino acids that did come about in the above experiment were composed of both L and D amino acids. When L and D amino acids are together, then they are detrimental and toxic; they make the process of protein folding most difficult. I ask how the first life arose managed with L and D amino acids all in one configuration, and how it eventually got rid of D amino acids and kept only L amino acids? What kind of process or mechanism would this entail?

The Genetic Code

Lastly, one must ask how DNA and RNA could have feasibly formed; how the entire processes of replication, translation, and transcription formed. The existence of a genetic code is perhaps one of the most devastating arguments against Darwinians who believe life can arise through unintelligent processes.

Other Factors

There are other factors which must be taken into consideration when one deliberates on the origin of life, of course, though I will not attempt to outline them here.

Livingstone M.