Self-Replication of DNA

As known, cells multiply by dividing. While the human body is initially composed of a single cell, this cell divides and reproduces by folds with a ratio of 2-4-8-16-32..

The DNA molecule shown here is in the process of replication, separating down the middle. When strands separate, each attracts base pairs in the same sequence carried by its opposite half.

What happens to DNA at the end of this dividing process? There is only one DNA chain in the cell. However, it is evident that the newly formed cell will also require a DNA. In order to fill this gap, DNA completes an interesting series of operations, every phase of which is a different miracle. Finally, soon before the cell divides, it makes a copy of itself and transfers this to the new cell.

The observations regarding the cell division show that the cell has to reach a specific size before dividing. The moment it exceeds this particular size, the division process automatically starts. While the shape of the cell begins to get smoother so as to accommodate the division process, DNA starts to replicate itself as mentioned earlier.

This means that the cell 'decides' to divide as a whole and the different parts of the cell start to act in accordance to this decision of dividing. It is evident that the cell is devoid of the consciousness to accomplish such a collective action. The division process starts with a secret order and the entire cell, foremost DNA, acts by this order.

First, DNA divides into two to replicate itself. This event takes place in a very interesting manner. The DNA molecule which resembles a spiral ladder divides into two like a zip from the middle of the rungs of the ladder. From now on, DNA divides into two portions. The missing halves (replicates) of both of the two portions are completed with the materials present in the milieu. In this way, two new DNA molecules are produced. In every phase of the operation, expert proteins called "enzymes" that function like advanced robots take part. Though it seems simple at first sight, the intermediary processes taking place throughout this operation are so many and so complicated that to describe the whole event in detail would take pages.

The new DNA molecules that emerge during replication are checked repeatedly by inspector enzymes. If there is any mistake done - which can be quite vital, it is immediately identified and corrected. The erroneous code is removed and replaced by the correct one. All these processes take place at such a dazzling speed that while 3.000 base pairs are produced in a minute, on the other hand, all these pairs are checked repeatedly by the enzymes in charge and the necessary amendments are made.

In the newly produced DNA molecule, more mistakes can be done than normal as a result of external factors. In this case, the ribosomes in the cell start to produce DNA repair enzymes upon the order given by DNA. Thus, as DNA protects itself, it also guarantees the preservation of the generation.

The cells are born, they reproduce and die just like human beings. Yet the life spans of cells are much shorter than the life of the human they constitute. For instance, the majority of the cells that used to make up your body six months ago do not exist today. However, you are now able to survive because they have divided on time to leave their places to the new ones. For this reason, highly complex operations like multiplication of the cells and replication of DNA are vital processes which cannot tolerate even a minor mistake in regards to man's survival. However, the multiplication process runs so smoothly that the rate of error is only one in 3 billion base pairs. And this one error is eliminated by the higher control mechanisms in the body without causing any problems.

All through the day, while you are unaware, numerous operations and controls are made, many measures are taken in your body in an incredibly fastidious and responsible manner for you to lead your life without any problem. Every single thing carries out its duty successfully and completely. God has given to your service countless atoms and molecules, from the biggest to the smallest, from the simplest to the most complex, so that you may live a good and healthy life. Is even this blessing and favour alone not sufficient for you to give thanks? Or should one always wait for problems to occur in this perfect system before coming to one's senses?

The most interesting point is that these enzymes which help the production of DNA and control its composition are actually proteins produced according to the information coded in DNA and under the command and control of DNA. There is such an intertwined, perfect system at work that it is by no means possible for such a system to have attained this state by gradual coincidences. Just as DNA has to exist for the enzyme to exist, so the enzyme has to exist for DNA to exist, and for both to exist, on the other hand, the cell has to exist completely, down to its membrane and all other complex organelles it contains.

The theory of evolution asserting that living beings evolved 'step by step' as a result of 'beneficial coincidences' is explicitly refuted by the above mentioned DNA-enzyme paradox. This is because both DNA and the enzyme have to exist at the same time. And this shows the existence of a conscious Creator, that is, God.

Evolutionists Can not Explain How the Information in DNA
Originated and How It Differs in Every Species

While evolutionists can in no way bring any explanation to the subject of how DNA originated, there is yet another point where they reach an impasse. How come fish, reptiles, birds, human beings etc. have come to possess different DNAs and different types of information?

Evolutionists answer that question by saying that the body of information in DNA developed and diversified over time by means of coincidences. The coincidences they refer to are "mutations". Mutations are changes which take place in DNA as a result of radiation or chemical action. Sometimes radioactive radiation happens to fall on a DNA chain and destroys or displaces several base pairs therein. According to evolutionists, living things have reached their present perfect state as a result of the diversification of a single DNA due to these mutations (i.e., accidents).

Mutations are defined as breaks or replacements taking place in the DNA molecule. These breaks or replacements are the result of external effects such as radiation or chemical action. Every mutation is an "accident" and either damages the nucleotides making up the DNA or changes their locations.

To show that this claim is unreasonable, let us compare DNA to a book again. We have already mentioned that DNA is made up of letters lined up sideways just like in a book. Mutations are like the letter errors that occur during the type-setting of this book. If you like, we can do an experiment on this subject. Let us ask for a thick book about the history of the world to be type-set. During the type-setting, let us intervene several times and tell the type-setter to press one of keys blindfolded and at random. Then let us give this text containing letter errors to someone else and have him do the same thing over again. Using this method, let us have the book type-set from the beginning to the end several times, thus having a few more letter errors added to it at random each time...

Could this history book ever develop by this method? For instance, would an additional chapter named "The History of Ancient China", which previously was not present, emerge?

To be sure, the letter errors we have added to the book would not develop it, but rather ruin it and distort its meaning. The more we increase the number of faulty copying processes, the more spoiled our book will be.

Yet the claim of the theory of evolution is that "letter errors help develop a book". According to evolution, mutations (errors) occurring in DNA have led to beneficial results by accumulating and thus furnishing living beings with perfect organs such as eyes, ears, wings, hands and consciousness-related qualities such as thinking, learning, and reasoning.

Unquestionably, this claim is even more unreasonable than the above example of the addition of the chapter called "The History of Ancient China" to a book on world history as a result of the accumulation of letter errors. (Moreover there is no mechanism in nature that causes regular mutations as in the example of the type-setter making regular mistakes. The mutations in nature take place much more rarely than the letter errors that would occur during the type-setting of a book.)

Left: A normal fruit fly (drosophila) Right: A fruit fly with its legs jutting from its head; a mutation induced by radiation.

Every "explanation" put forward by the theory of evolution on the origin of life is unreasonable and unscientific. One outspoken authority on this issue is the famous French zoologist Pierre Grassé, the former president of the French Academy of Sciences. Grassé is also an evolutionist, but he states clearly that Darwinist theory is unable to explain life and makes his point about the logic of "coincidence", which is the backbone of Darwinism:

The opportune appearance of mutations permitting animals and plants to meet their needs seems hard to believe. Yet the Darwinian theory is even more demanding: A single plant, a single animal would require thousands and thousands of lucky, appropriate events. Thus, miracles would become the rule: events with an infinitesimal probability could not fail to occur… There is no law against daydreaming, but science must not indulge in it.⁴

Indeed, the theory of evolution, which claims that lifeless matter came together by itself and formed living beings with such glorious systems as DNA, is a scenario totally contrary to science and reason. All this leads us to an evident conclusion. Since life has a plan (DNA) and all living beings are fashioned according to this plan, it is evident that there is a superior Creator Who devised this plan. This simply means that all living beings are created by God, the All-Powerful, All-Wise. God states this fact in the Qur'an in this way:

He is God – the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr: 24)

Today, what people have achieved by means of technology can at best be described as 'an approach to the understanding of a tiny fragment of God's knowledge, as manifested in human DNA.'

On the other hand, the theory of evolution which tries to explain the origin of life as a series of coincidences, loses all validity in face of the question: "How then, did DNA originate?"

4 Pierre-P Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms, New York: Academic Press, 1977, p. 103. 3