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Enzymes That Perform 36 Million Processes A Minute
by: Harun Yahya
Every second, more processes than can be counted are carried out in the bodies
of all living things. So complex and detailed are these processes that at every
stage, the intervention of “super-regulators” is essential to control the whole
system that maintain order and accelerate events. These super-regulating
chemicals in the human body are enzymes.
Every living cell contains thousands of enzymes, each of which performs its own
tasks, such as assisting with the copying of DNA, breaking down foodstuffs and
producing energy from them, and constructing chains of compounds from simple
molecules.
Enzymes are produced by mitochondria inside each cell. Large parts of enzymes
consist of proteins, the rest of are vitamins and vitamin-like substances. Were
it not for these enzymes, none of our functions, from the simplest to the most
complex, could take place, or else would occur so slowly as to stop altogether.
In either case, the result would be the same—death. We could not speak, eat,
digest, see or even breathe– in short, we could not live.
Enzymes’ most important tasks are to initiate, halt and accelerate various
chemical reactions in the body. As the cells perform their functions, the
chemicals inside them must react accordingly. Higher temperatures are needed to
initiate most chemical reactions. Yet such high temperature could pose a danger
to living cells, causing them injury or death. The solution to this dilemma lies
in enzymes.
An obvious miracle of creation, enzymes manage to initiate or accelerate
chemical reactions even in the absence of high temperature, yet as catalysts,
they do not enter into—or are themselves changed—by these reactions. Take one
example from your daily life of how enzymes accelerate the processes taking
place within your body: Thanks to an enzyme involved in the removal of carbon
dioxide from the blood as you inhale, you do not suffocate. An enzyme known as
anhydrase accelerates the process of cleansing carbon dioxide by a factor of 10
million times! At this speed, the anhydrase can transform 36 million molecules
every minute.
The Body’s Rapid and Economical Production
Vehicles
Enzymes permit vital reactions to take place as quickly as possible, and also to
exploit the body’s energy in the most efficient way. If you compare the human
body to a factory, with the many enzymes working within its cells as various
means of production, no source of energy would be able to run with that factory.
Because the level of electricity needed to power trillions of machines, of 2,000
different types, all working perfectly at such high speeds would be enormous. In
a laboratory environment, therefore, an exceedingly high level of heat and
energy are needed in order to carry out even a simple reaction in the cell.
However, the cell’s working enzymes carry out their tasks silently and
faultlessly in the relatively low heat from the body and with the energy they
obtain from nutrients. Just one of these characteristics is sufficient to show
how enzymes have been specially designed to make every reaction occurring place
in the body perfect yet completely efficient.
Even as you read these lines, a large number of enzymes are controlling
reactions taking place throughout your body and providing the nourishment and
energy your cells need to stay healthy and functioning. Even though a person has
no knowledge of everything that is happening inside his body, enzymes are not
only aware of it, but also intervene in all processes in a most vital and
accurate manner. Moreover, every enzyme accelerates specific chemical reactions
in the body. No enzyme does the tasks of another, nor makes a mistake in
performing its own, because each enzyme is specially formulated for performing
its own task.
For example, while a large number of enzymes can be effective in fluids with a
neutral pH, those enzymes charged with digesting foodstuffs in the stomach can
work effectively only under a highly acidic environment. Again, saliva contains
the enzyme amylase, which breaks starch down into maltose and accompanies food
along the esophagus, but it is neutralized when it reaches the acidic
environment in the stomach. But once it arrives there, in any case, its work is
done. 1
Enzymes’ Lock-and-Key Compatibility
The molecular shapes of enzymes are completely in conformity with whatever
substance they are designed to act upon. Each enzyme—and the substance it will
affect by combining with it—fit together precisely in a three-dimensional
complex geometry. The way enzymes detect the substance they match, then head
towards and combine with it is exceedingly deliberate behavior. Moreover,
enzymes resemble conscious hunters, in that they lie in wait, making a shelter
for themselves to hide in, where they remain ready to join with their
appropriate substance. Each one is in the right place that matches its design
and characteristics. They avoid environments in which they might be harmed or
become ineffective.
The way they assume the responsibility of initiating or accelerating reactions
is a matter worth reflecting on. Unless some agent is present to prevent them,
various enzymes will constantly initiate and accelerate all of the various
chemical reactions in the body. This could eventually lead to over-production of
particular proteins or certain damaging imbalances within the cell. And so, it
is the cell itself that regulates the enzymes’ activity. When the cell decides
an enzyme to halt in its actions, it distracts it with an extraordinary act of
conscious planning. To do so, it sends to the enzyme a substance similar to the
one it normally combines with, and the enzyme attaches to this substitute
instead. Therefore, this “imitative” substance keeps the enzyme occupied and for
a while, forestalls it from unwanted activity.
In order to snare the enzyme, however, this imitation substance must also
compete with its genuine counterpart. This inhibition of the enzyme is therefore
known as a competitive inhibitor. By means of this method, enzyme activities are
thus halted until such time as whatever substance is produced as a result of the
reaction triggered by the enzyme falls below a specific level.
This information is not to be read once and then forgotten. First of all, it
will be useful to realize that proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins
composed of unconscious atoms are making the calculations, taking the decisions
and implementing the plans just described, and not trained human beings with
consciousness and a sense of responsibility. The cell determines the amount of
substance produced, as if were doing a control of inventory. And when it decides
that production needs to be halted for a while, it implements an exceedingly
sophisticated procedure in order to do so.
How the cell produces the imitation substance to occupy the enzyme and releases
it at just the proper time is highly planned behavior.
Because if these imitation substances always existed in the cell at all times,
they would then also halt production by distracting enzymes when they’re most
urgently required. But the cells’ timing is always perfectly accurate. Such an
organized, intelligent form of behavior that is performed in sequence, one after
the other, by molecules too small to be seen with the naked eye, is just one of
the countless signs of the superior nature of God’s creation. Obviously, these
apparently conscious substances behave under our Lord’s command.
Scientists Reject Evolutionist Claims of Chance
As more and more details emerge about the structure of enzymes, proteins and
other similar structures, the invalidity of the theory of evolution becomes even
more apparent. These structures in the micro-world lead scientists, willingly or
otherwise, to accept the fact that there is a flawless design in life.
One such scientist is the microbiologist Malcolm Dixon:
Every minute the enzyme system does what chemists working a full shift cannot.
Could anyone believe that naturally occurring enzymes became aware of themselves
and hundreds of their counterparts as the result of chance? Enzymes and enzyme
systems are touchstones of the same genetic mechanism. The more advanced
research is carried out, the more detailed a design emerges. 2
Enzymes’ structure is too complex to have emerged by chance—a fact that is
expressed in the famous biochemist Michael Pitman’s probability calculations:
As we know, there are some 1080 atoms in the universe and 1017 seconds have gone
by since the Big Bang. Two thousand basic enzymes are essential if life is to
survive. The chances of a single enzyme coming into being by chance are greater
than 1020. The chances of them all emerging as the result of chance is 10 40000.
Even if we think of the whole universe as an organic soup it is still impossible
for such a minute probability to come about. 3
As these scientists have said, it is impossible for even a single enzyme to form
spontaneously by chance. Yet 50 “pre-enzymes” work together to produce a single
enzyme. Yet another enzyme requires nine different other enzymes before it can
synthesize a single amino acid. This raises a very difficult question for any
reasonable scientist: How did the first enzyme come into existence in the
absence of the others? This is a question for which evolutionists can never
provide an answer.
In addition to the problems posed by enzymes’ chemical production, they have
another extraordinary feature: Once enzymes form, they can easily dissipate
again or become passive unless just the right conditions are maintained. In
other words, they cease to function until and unless they are needed.
In short, to enable any single enzyme to function, all the other requisite
enzymes, cells, systems and structures have to be already in place, in full
working order. So how did the first enzyme come into being? The answer is
obvious. Almighty God, the flawless Creator, created every living thing and its
cells in one single moment, together with all their necessary enzymes and
proteins.
(1) Harun Yahya, The Miracle of Protein, Istanbul, Vural Publishing, March 2001.
(2) Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, London, River Publishing, 1984, p.144.
(3) Pitman, Ibid., p. 148.
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About The Author
Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works.
His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these
books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory
of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has
written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites
http://www.harunyahya.com
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