The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18

My earlier post on the subject focused on the immensity of the universe and the amazing complexity and functionality at the micro-biological level. In this essay I would like to focus on a concept I’ve labeled as “Massively Complex Synchronicity.”

My purpose in this essay is to summarize evidence of design across the spectrum from the micro to the macro level and thus encourage you, the reader, to investigate further. After all, if there is design, then there must be a designer, and if there is a designer, then what is his claim on your life? Much like the researchers looking for the “God particle”, my hope is to show you something similar to finding the fossilized imprint of a dinosaur: “You see the footprints and the shadow of the object, but you don’t actually see it.” My motivation is to cause you to seek the God of the Bible, and His Son Jesus Christ.

(See my Bio below at the end of this essay:)

By synchronicity I mean the relationship between two or more things resulting in something mutually beneficial, or in some cases a new thing arising from the synchronicity.

In the debate between Darwinian Evolution and Creation and Intelligent Design, the concept of “irreducible complexity” comes into play where it is claimed that some things are sufficiently complex such that if any component is removed from the system, then the whole thing ceases to exist in it’s accepted form. The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. The mousetrap is often cited as a simple analogy where if any of it’s component parts is removed it ceases to be a mouse trap. Biological systems cited as having irreducible complexity characteristics include the light-sensing mechanism in eyes, the human blood-clotting system, and the bacterial flagellum.

Critics of the irreducible complexity stance counter with various experiments/studies which they claim falsify the concept of irreducible complexity.

Although the debate is very interesting, my intent in this essay is not to contribute to this debate, but rather to elevate the discussion to a higher level, and illuminate the massive complexity we observe in all systems whether they be cosmological, biological or micro-biological in nature. My premise is that in this complexity there exists a majestic synchronicity that is necessary for life to exit at all.

The ID proponents will continue to point out new discoveries that point to an intelligent designer, and the Darwinists will continue to counter point by point, often with pointed rebuttals of the particulars involved, but most often with a shotgun approach claiming Darwinian evolution as settled science … end of discussion!

So lets move beyond the point by point example/counter-example and look at an admittedly very partial picture of the Massively Complex Synchronicity present all around us; a synchronicity which is necessary for our very existence as an individual person on this very individual planet in this very large universe.

Our human body is the first stop on our trip through the synchronicity of the universe, and we begin at the cellular level with a quote from Dr. Michael Behe in his book Darwin’s Black Box.:

The entire cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines. . . . Why do we call the large protein assemblies that underlie cell function protein machines? Precisely because, like machines invented by humans to deal efficiently with the macroscopic world, these protein assemblies contain highly coordinated moving parts.

Now take a look at some of the Molecular Machines that Scientists Have Argued Show Irreducible Complexity. For brevity’s sake I have listed only the names of the machines, but have left a few descriptions to whet your appetite (Note: Not all of the items listed exist in human cells, nor do they exist in all cells). My thanks to Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute for this list.
1. Bacterial Flagellum: The flagellum is a rotary motor in bacteria that drives a propeller to spin, much like an outboard motor, powered by ion flow to drive rotary motion. Capable of spinning up to 100,000 rpm,¹³ one paper in Trends in Microbiology called the flagellum “an exquisitely engineered chemi-osmotic nanomachine; nature’s most powerful rotary motor, harnessing a transmembrane ion-motive force to drive a filamentous propeller.”¹⁴ Due to its motor-like structure and internal parts, one molecular biologist wrote in the journal Cell, “[m]ore so than other motors, the flagellum resembles a machine designed by a human.”¹⁵ Genetic knockout experiments have shown that the E. coli flagellum is irreducibly complex with respect to its approximately 35 genes.¹⁶ Despite the fact that this is one of the best studied molecular machines, a 2006 review article in Nature Reviews Microbiology admitted that “the flagellar research community has scarcely begun to consider how these systems have evolved.”¹⁷
2. Eukaryotic Cilium: 4. Blood clotting cascade: 5. Ribosome:
6. Antibodies and the Adaptive Immune System: Antibodies are “the ‘fingers’ of the blind immune system—they allow it to distinguish a foreign invader from the body itself.”³⁰ But the processes that generate antibodies require a suite of molecular machines.³¹ Lymphocyte cells in the blood produce antibodies by mixing and match portions of special genes to produce over 100,000,000 varieties of antibodies.³² This “adaptive immune system” allows the body to tag and destroy most invaders. Michael Behe argues that this system is irreducibly complex because many components must be present for it to function: “A large repertoire of antibodies won’t do much good if there is no system to kill invaders. A system to kill invaders won’t do much good if there’s no way to identify them. At each step we are stopped not only by local system problems, but also by requirements of the integrated system.”³³
II. Additional Molecular Machines
7. Spliceosome:
8. F₀F₁ ATP Synthase:
9. Bacteriorhdopsin: Bacteriorhodopsin “is a compact molecular machine” uses that sunlight energy to pump protons across a membrane.³⁹ Embedded in the cell membrane, it consists of seven helical structures that span the membrane. It also contains retinal, a molecule which changes shape after absorbing light. Photons captured by retinal are forced through the seven helices to the outside of the membrane.⁴⁰ When protons flow back through the membrane, ATP is formed.
10. Myosin:
11. Kinesin Motor:
12. Tim/Tom Systems:
13. Calcium Pump: The calcium pump is an “amazing machine with several moving parts“ that transfers calcium ions across the cell membrane. It is a machine that uses a 4-step cycle during the pump process.⁴⁷
14. Cytochrome C Oxidase:
15. Proteosome: The proteosome is a large molecular machine whose parts must be must be carefully assembled in a particular order. For example, the 26S proteosome has 33 distinct subunits which enable it to perform its function to degrade and destroy proteins that have been misfolded in the cell or otherwise tagged for destruction.⁵⁰ One paper suggested that a particular eukaryotic proteasome “is the core complex of an energy-dependent protein degradation machinery that equals the protein synthesis machinery in its complexity.”⁵¹
16. Cohesin:
17. Condensin:
18. ClpX:
19. Immunological Synapse: .⁵⁶
20. Glideosome:
21. Kex2:
22. Hsp70:
23. Hsp60:
24. Protein Kinase C: Protein Kinase C is a molecular machine that is activated by certain calcium and diacylglycerol signals in the cell. It thus acts as an interpreter of electrical signals, as one paper in Cell wrote: “This decoding mechanism may explain how cPKC isoforms can selectively control different cellular processes by relying on selective patterns of calcium and diacylglycerol signals.”⁶²
25. SecYEG PreProtein Translocation Channel: 26. Hemoglobin:
27. T4 DNA Packaging Motor:
28. Smc5/Smc6:
29. Cytplasmic Dynein: Cytplasmic dynein is a machine involved with cargo transport and movement cell that functions like a motor with a “power stroke.”⁷⁰ In particular, it transports nuclei in fungi and neurons in mammalian brains.⁷¹
30. Mitotic Spindle Machine:
31. DNA Polymerase:
32. RNA Polymerase: Like its DNA polymerase counterpart, the function of the RNA polymerase is to create a messenger RNA strand from a DNA template strand. Called “a huge factory with many moving parts,”⁷⁸ it is a “directional machine and, indeed, as a molecular motor” where it functions “as a dynamic, fluctuating, molecular motor capable of producing force and torque.”⁷⁹
33. Kinetochore:
34. MRX Complex:
35. Apoptosome / Caspase:
36. Type III Secretory System:
37. Type II Secretion Apparatus:
38. Helicase/Topoisomerase Machine: The helicase and topoisomerase machines work together to properly unwrap or unzip DNA prior to transcription of DNA into mRNA or DNA replication.⁹⁰ Topoisomerase performs this function by cutting one DNA strand and then holding on to the other while the cut strand unwinds.⁹¹
39. RNA degradasome:
40. Photosynthetic system: The processes that plants use to convert light into chemical energy a type of molecular machines.⁹⁵ For example, photosystem 1 contains over three dozen proteins and many chlorophyll and other molecules which convert light energy into useful energy in the cell. “Antenna” molecules help increase the amount of light absorbed.⁹⁶ Many complex molecules are necessary for this pathway to function properly.

I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14

So you see we have massive complexity at the molecular level, and science being what it is, we can be reasonably assured that the above list is nowhere near complete. Sure, other scientists can chip away at some individual items on the list and “debunk” claims of irreducible complexity, but how can you escape the overall imprint of complexity and the underlying argument for design?

These sophisticated molecular machines, of course, reside in the various organs making up the human body, and there are many such machines in each organ, and these organs are themselves machines and marvels of specialty and functionality.

But as marvelous as these organs are, they do not exist alone, but in synchronicity with others that make up a human body. And these organs do indeed represent irreducible complexity. A heart that fails kills many a person, as does a failed kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, brain, spleen or lung, although some of these organs are redundantly created in pairs and a body can function with only one of the pairs.

Redundancy of body parts and organs is another example of being “wonderfully made.” Redundancy in our eyes, ears and the inner ears give us a keen sense of place in our three dimensional world that add greatly to our human experience in a “wonderfully made” universe, though not necessary.

So now we have a very complex human body made up of millions of machines at the molecular level, and dozens at the organ level. Each machine has a specific purpose and thus a specified design to carry out that purpose.

But this body does not live in isolation, but rather in massive synchronicity with other such assemblages. At the very basic level, the body must be able to replicate itself in order that the species is able to live beyond one generation; this of course is the mating up of one very specific “male” cell with a correspondingly specific “female” cell resulting the creation of a new and unique body called a child. And notice that this union is accompanied along with a phenomenon known as “pleasure”; a phenomenon which Darwinists are hard pressed to explain or categorize into the materialist viewpoint in which their theory of necessity resides. So we have here a sort of “Irreducible Complexity”, not within the same cell or even among organs, but a complexity requiring an equal contribution from two independent and completely functional persons; a mother and a father.

From here on out I am going to put the camera of life into a time lapse mode and take glimpses of the massively complex synchronicity required to sustain the three lives I’ve just pictured.

The three lives; mother, father and child (a family) must have some sort of life support system available to take in the continual stream of new energy required to replenish the energy expended just simply to stay alive. This is called food and takes on the basic form as described above; a complex assemblage of cells, machines and organs making up the vast selection of fruits, vegetables, fish and animals that make up our daily diet. Again, the strange, but not quite material phenomenon of pleasure comes into play as we enjoy the many flavors and textures of the daily diet; mush or gruel would seem to suffice here, but yet we have much more.

All of these life forms required for human existence of course require an exquisitely balanced eco system or it is all for naught;

An atmosphere with just the right sort of mixture of gasses required for the plants and animals to breath and live.
A weather system sufficient to distribute water across a very large planet, and to maintain a livable habitat.
A series of oceans containing an abundance of living creatures usable for food; a mechanism for moderating the climate around the world; a system for distributing warming currents to all area of the earth; ….
A system of fresh water rivers and lakes containing all manner of food stuffs; a system for replenishing the oceans of the world; a delightful place to spend a morning, afternoon, day or longer (there’s that pesky emotional thing again that won’t be explained away by any kind of “Unified Theory of Everything . Sorry Steven Hawking!”)
A system of magnetic bands which protect the fragile earth life from the ravages of solar radiation.
. . .

So that pretty much sums up (but not completely of course) the massively complex synchronicity required for the creation and sustainment of life on earth, and we can now zoom out to the solar system and universe that supports all of this and the laws and physical constants that undergirds the whole thing;

Underlying what we observe in nature are an array of “constants” which describe natural phenomena and behaviors such as gravity, vacuums, speed of light and many others. I include lists of such constants here not for you to read and study in detail, but to show you the scope and number of such constants. Most likely you are not, nor am I, experts in these fields of science associated with these constants, but I encourage you to peek at a few of them just to get a feel, and perhaps ask yourself questions such as; “what would be the impact if one or more of these constants changed or went missing?” Others have researched such questions, and I refer you here to Design in Nature: The Anthropic Principle by Donald B. DeYoung, Ph.D.

Constants in the category ” Universal constants “…

characteristic impedance of vacuum
electric constant
magnetic constant
Newtonian constant of gravitation
Newtonian constant of gravitation over h-bar c
Planck constant
Planck constant in eV s
Planck constant over 2 pi
Planck constant over 2 pi in eV s
Planck constant over 2 pi times c in MeV fm
Planck length
Planck mass
Planck mass energy equivalent in GeV
Planck temperature
Planck time
speed of light in vacuum

Constants in the category ” Electromagnetic constants “…

Bohr magneton
Bohr magneton in eV/T
Bohr magneton in Hz/T
Bohr magneton in inverse meters per tesla
Bohr magneton in K/T
conductance quantum
elementary charge
elementary charge over h
inverse of conductance quantum
Josephson constant
magnetic flux quantum
nuclear magneton
nuclear magneton in eV/T
nuclear magneton in inverse meters per tesla
nuclear magneton in K/T
nuclear magneton in MHz/T
von Klitzing constant

Constants in the category ” Atomic and nuclear constants “…

Constants in the category ” Physico-chemical constants “…

atomic mass constant
atomic mass constant energy equivalent
atomic mass constant energy equivalent in MeV
Avogadro constant
Boltzmann constant
Boltzmann constant in eV/K
Boltzmann constant in Hz/K
Boltzmann constant in inverse meters per kelvin
Faraday constant
first radiation constant
first radiation constant for spectral radiance
Loschmidt constant (273.15 K, 100 kPa)
Loschmidt constant (273.15 K, 101.325 kPa)
molar gas constant
molar Planck constant
molar Planck constant times c
molar volume of ideal gas (273.15 K, 100 kPa)
molar volume of ideal gas (273.15 K, 101.325 kPa)
Sackur-Tetrode constant (1 K, 100 kPa)
Sackur-Tetrode constant (1 K, 101.325 kPa)
second radiation constant
Stefan-Boltzmann constant
Wien frequency displacement law constant
Wien wavelength displacement law constant

I hope I have created a clear enough picture that has kindled some interest and curiosity in a topic of continuing and universal interest and importance, though not a topic at your average dinner party.

And finally, consider this: scientists can be a strange breed. On the one hand we have those who claim we know only 4% of all there is in the universe and are ignorant of Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Dark Force comprising the remaining 96%. On the other hand are those such as Sagan, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking, who assert with 100% certainty that there is no god and no creation. I suggest that while we treat science and scientists with the respect due them, we should be wary and not buy into their every preaching with little or no skepticism.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Psalm 14:1

My Bio:

I am not a cosmologist, a paleontologist, an astronomer, a physicist, or a micro-biologist or a college professor.

What I have been by trade and profession for close to 40 years is a software developer … a computer programmer. I’ve been directly involved in writing software for some very complex systems; a computer controlled automated warehouse system inputting and outputting orders and transferring products via conveyors and stacker cranes. For close to 30 years I was involved in the programming of a system that tracks, records and displays the maneuvers and activities of up to 100 high performance fighter aircraft.

So I have developed a keen sense of and appreciation for complexity, a sense gained from many years of getting my hands dirty on a daily basis and experiencing the frustrations of debugging less that perfect systems while trying to perfect them. I have also developed an appreciation for the fact that complex systems require intelligence; the architects, designers and builders of systems … they do not appear from nowhere contrary to what Darwinists would have me to believe.

I have also studied the debate over the years and have read much on Darwinism, Creation Science and Intelligent Design having come from a Darwinian background myself.

6 Responses to The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

Don Johnson | July 18, 2012 at 11:27 am | Reply

This comment is from Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute http://www.discovery.org/p/188

Very eloquently stated Don. And very ambitious and very thorough. Your second post accurately states ID theory, although obviously it mixes up a lot of theology in there as well which is not a part of ID. It’s fine if you want to talk about both, but you might want to note that the arguments for design are scientific, not religious in nature.

Very thorough. Thanks for sharing.

Sincerely,

Casey
Pingback: Are The Laws Of Nature Accidental? | A Yearning for Publius
Pingback: The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 3 … Even more “Massively Complex Synchronicity” | A Yearning for Publius
Pingback: Did the Universe Create Itself? | A Yearning for Publius
Pingback: Who Made God? A Response From The Author | A Yearning for Publius
Pingback: Maybe We Should Pay More Attention To The Bible … Part 5: Can we trust the Bible as truth? | A Yearning for Publius

The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

6 Responses to The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Blog Hits

Sign up to my Blog via Email

A Book By Don Johnson

Recent Posts

Blogroll

Books

Goodreads

Archives

Follow “A Yearning for Publius”

The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

Share this:

Like this:

6 Responses to The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Blog Hits

Sign up to my Blog via Email

A Book By Don Johnson

Recent Posts

Blogroll

Books

Goodreads

Archives

Follow “A Yearning for Publius”