Why Darwinism makes no sense in the light of the history of life.

If Darwin was right wouldn't the history of life look very different?for instance would any multicellular organism's(including humans) have evolved?If,as its apologists claim,natural selection conserves only the fittest replicator of a selfish gene.Then it does seem that the process should have stopped at the unicellular asexual autotrophs at the dawn of life,at the very least natural selection should prohibit the emergence of any multicellular organisms. 

The emergence of multicellular life meant that  the proto-replicators had to trade their independence and virtual immortality to become  mere components of a far less efficient and less survivable compound replicator,this makes very little sense from the Darwinian perspective of a selfish gene seeking out the most efficient means of replication.

   The Larger and more intricate the multicellular organism in question the less sensible it would be for our selfish gene to select it as a vehicle.Needless to say the emergence of sexual reproduction adds a further layer of mysticism to the matter.In light of the above we can only conclude that if Darwin were right,there would be no Darwinism(i.e the theory).

Still in denial over design

Mechanical Gears Discovered on Planthopper Insects Provide an Opportunity to Recognize, or Deny, Design

Casey Luskin September 18, 2013 9:44 AM

 

 

History has long attributed the development of the gear to the ancient Greeks, over two thousand years ago. But now it turns out that human beings did not, in fact, invent the gear. Whether natural selection or intelligent agency deserves the credit may be up for dispute, but mechanical gears have recently been discovered in the biological realm. Ladies and gentleman, meet the planthopper insect Issus.

The gears in question are found on a structure near the top of each of the insect's hindlegs, called the trochanter. Humans have a trochanter, which is near the top of the femur connecting to the hipbone. When people have hip replacement surgery, part of what is normally replaced is the trochanter. Arthropods have an analogous structure in their legs, which is rigidly attached to the femur, and articulates with the insect's version of the hip, called the coxa. This Wikipedia image below labels the basic anatomy of an arthropod leg:

Now that you know a little about arthropod leg anatomy, next time you eat crab legs, you can impress your friends (or gross them out) by naming the parts, including the trochanter!

In any case, the trochantera of the hindlegs of Issus nymphs have interlocking gears, so that one leg can't move without the other moving as well. Some beautiful images from National Geographic and elsewhere are seen below:

 

The technical paper in Science explains how the gears coordinate movement to ensure that the little bugs jump straight:

When one leg moves first at the start of a jump, its gear teeth will engage with and transmit power to the other stationary leg inducing it to move. The left and right power-producing muscles are innervated by independent sets of two motor neurons each, but all four motor neurons carry highly synchronized spike patterns that should help to ensure that the same amount of force is generated in each leg. This neural mechanism assists the synchrony of the leg movements but cannot deliver the level of synchrony measured during jumping. Thus, the primary role of the gears is to ensure that the hind legs move synchronously within microseconds of each other.

Popular Mechanics adds some further details about the gear:

The gears themselves are an oddity. With gear teeth shaped like cresting waves, they look nothing like what you'd find in your car or in a fancy watch. (The style that you're most likely familiar with is called an involute gear, and it was designed by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th century.) There could be two reasons for this. Through a mathematical oddity, there is a limitless number of ways to design intermeshing gears. So, either nature evolved one solution at random, or, as Gregory Sutton, coauthor of the paper and insect researcher at the University of Bristol, suspects, the shape of the Issus's gear is particularly apt for the job it does. It's built for "high precision and speed in one direction," he says. "It's a prototype for a new type of gear."

At National Geographic, Sutton explains that by mimicking these gears in human technology, we may be able to improve machine function and minimize friction between gears:

Modern machines, such as 3-D printers, could easily create gears with these shark-fin teeth. Sutton is really excited by the prospect, and suspects that they may perform better in very small machines. "Modern machinery often doesn't work at very small scales," he says. "Friction doesn't matter so much when you have two big gears next to each other but when you get small, friction starts killing you." The planthoppers might help to solve that problem. "We're still being impressed and shocked by what we find in the back garden," says Sutton.

So are these gears the only ones in known in nature? It turns out there are other examples, as paper in Science explains:

Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, apparently ornamental cogs occur on the shell of the cog wheel turtle Heosemys spinosa and on the pronotum of the wheel bug Arilus cristatus (Hemiptera, Reduviidae). The hearts of crocodilians have a cogwheel valve that closes during each heartbeat and can increase the resistance in the pulmonary outflow. In some insects, a row of regularly spaced protrusions work like clockwork escapement mechanisms to produce sound. In such stridulation mechanisms, a plectrum is moved across the row of teeth at a rate of 2500 to 5000 teeth per second, whereas the similarly sized gear teeth of Issus spin past each other at almost 50,000 teeth per second. Despite working under very different mechanical conditions, the similar tooth morphologies of the two structures suggest constraints that enforce a particular geometry.

Despite the fact that there are other gears in nature, Smithsonian Magazine has an article titled This Insect Has The Only Mechanical Gears Ever Found in Nature, which observes that "This seems to be the first natural design that mechanically functions like our geared systems." What's that about a "natural design"? Worried that readers might start to think that "natural design" implies actual design, the magazine is quick to add:

"We usually think of gears as something that we see in human designed machinery, but we've found that that is only because we didn't look hard enough," Sutton said. "These gears are not designed; they are evolved -- representing high speed and precision machinery evolved for synchronisation in the animal world."

The paper in Science tried to head off the same kind of dangerous ID-friendly thoughts, stating: "The gears in Issus, like the screw in the femora of beetles, demonstrate that mechanisms previously thought only to be used in manmade machines have evolved in nature."

Wait a minute. How do we know these gears evolved, as opposed to having been designed? Because we know that everything in biology evolved. And how do we know that everything evolved? Because we know that nothing was designed. Right. But how do we know that nothing was designed? Because we know everything evolved.

Ah, got it now. Everyone clear?

Paul's epistle to Titus New World Translation(2013 Edition)

1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the accurate knowledge of the truth that is according to godly devotion 2 and is based on a hope of the everlasting life+ that God, who cannot lie,+ promised long ago; 3 but in his own due time, he made his word known through the preaching entrusted to me+ according to the command of our Savior, God; 4 to Titus, a genuine child according to the faith we share:
May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
5 I left you in Crete so that you would correct the things that were defective* and make appointments of elders in city after city, as I instructed you: 6 if there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children who are not accused of debauchery* or rebelliousness.+ 7 For as God’s steward, an overseer must be free from accusation, not self-willed,+ not quick-tempered,+ not a drunkard, not violent,* not greedy of dishonest gain, 8 but hospitable,+ a lover of goodness, sound in mind,*+ righteous, loyal,+ self-controlled,+ 9 holding firmly to the faithful word* as respects his art of teaching,+ so that he may be able both to encourage* by the teaching that is wholesome*+ and to reprove+ those who contradict.
10 For there are many rebellious men, profitless talkers, and deceivers, especially those who adhere to the circumcision.+ 11 It is necessary to shut their mouths, because these very men keep on subverting entire households by teaching things they should not for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 A certain one of them, their own prophet, said: “Creʹtans are always liars, injurious wild beasts, idle gluttons.”
13 This witness is true. For this very reason, keep on reproving them with severity so that they may be healthy in the faith, 14 paying no attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 All things are clean to clean people;+ but to those who are defiled and faithless, nothing is clean, for both their minds and their consciences are defiled.+ 16 They publicly declare that they know God, but they disown him by their works,+ because they are detestable and disobedient and not approved for good work of any sort.

 2 You, however, keep on speaking what is consistent with wholesome* teaching.+ 2 Let the older men be moderate in habits, serious, sound in mind, healthy in faith, in love, in endurance. 3 Likewise, let the older women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous, not enslaved to a lot of wine, teachers of what is good, 4 so that they may advise* the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sound in mind, chaste, working at home,* good, subjecting themselves to their own husbands,+ so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.
6 Likewise, keep on urging the younger men to be sound in mind,+ 7 showing yourself to be an example of fine works in every way. Teach what is pure* with all seriousness,+ 8 using wholesome* speech that cannot be criticized,+ so that those who oppose may be put to shame, having nothing negative* to say about us.+ 9 Let slaves be in subjection to their owners in all things,+ trying to please them, not talking back, 10 not stealing from them,+ but showing complete trustworthiness, so that in every way they may adorn the teaching of our Savior, God.+
11 For the undeserved kindness of God has been manifested, bringing salvation to all sorts of people.+ 12 It trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly desires+ and to live with soundness of mind and righteousness and godly devotion amid this present system of things,*+ 13 while we wait for the happy hope+ and glorious manifestation of the great God and of our Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us+ to set us free*+ from every sort of lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people who are his own special possession, zealous for fine works.+
15 Keep on speaking these things and exhorting* and reproving with full authority.+ Do not let anyone look down on you.
3 Continue reminding them to be in subjection and to be obedient to governments and authorities,+ to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak injuriously of no one, not to be quarrelsome, but to be reasonable,+ displaying all mildness toward all men.+ 3 For we too were once senseless, disobedient, led astray, being slaves to various desires and pleasures, carrying on in badness and envy, detestable, hating one another.
4 However, when the kindness of our Savior, God,+ and his love for mankind were manifested 5 (not because of any righteous works we had done,+ but because of his own mercy),+ he saved us by means of the bath that brought us to life+ and by making us new by holy spirit.+ 6 He poured this spirit out richly* on us through Jesus Christ our Savior,+ 7 so that after being declared righteous through the undeserved kindness of that one,+ we might become heirs+ according to a hope of everlasting life.+
8 These words are trustworthy, and I want you to keep stressing these matters, so that those who have believed God may keep their minds focused on maintaining fine works. These things are fine and beneficial to men.
9 But have nothing to do with foolish arguments and genealogies and disputes and fights over the Law, for they are unprofitable and futile.+ 10 As for a man who promotes a sect,+ reject him+ after a first and a second admonition,*+ 11 knowing that such a man has deviated from the way and is sinning and is self-condemned.
12 When I send Arʹte·mas or Tychʹi·cus+ to you, do your utmost to come to me at Ni·copʹo·lis, for that is where I have decided to spend the winter. 13 Carefully supply Zeʹnas, who is versed in the Law, and A·polʹlos so that they may lack nothing for their trip.+ 14 But let our people also learn to maintain fine works so as to help in cases of urgent need,+ so that they may not be unproductive.*+
15 All those with me send you their greetings. Give my greetings to those who have affection for us in the faith.

May the undeserved kindness be with all of you.

It's design all the way down IV

Spectacular Discovery Reveals Power Grid in Muscle Cells; Design Implications Are Profound

Evolution News & Views August 4, 2015 3:32 AM

A new finding announced in Nature is a blockbuster for intelligent design. We knew about ATP synthase -- that rotary engine that uses proton flow to create "batteries" of energy-packed ATP molecules. Those motors in the mitochondria are arranged along folds (cristae) in the mitochondrial membranes to maximize their output.

Now researchers have learned that the mitochondria themselves are connected by electrical wires in a vast intracellular network. This allows us to see, for the first time, another level in the hierarchy of design in the cell.

The findings are bound to revolutionize our understanding of muscle. Skeletal muscle cells were known to have many mitochondria, but it was not clear how the products of ATP production, called metabolites, became distributed throughout the cell. Many assumed it was by diffusion, or simple spreading out of molecules from regions of high concentration to areas of low concentration. The truth is far more exciting. Research news from the National Institutes of Health explains:

A new study overturns longstanding scientific ideas regardinghow energy is distributed within muscles for powering movement. Scientists are reporting the first clear evidence that muscle cells distribute energy primarily by the rapid conduction of electrical charges through a vast, interconnected network of mitochondria -- the cell's "powerhouse" -- in a way that resembles the wire grid that distributes power throughout a city. The study offers an unprecedented, detailed look at the distribution systemthat rapidly provides energy throughout the cell where it is needed for muscle contraction. [Emphasis added.]

Diffusion is too slow for a fast-acting muscle cell. Electricity, though, is fast. The same proton-motive force that powers ATP synthase is conducted along cellular wires, the researchers found. You've heard of the endoplasmic reticulum. They're calling this one the "mitochondrial reticulum" -- a conductive pathway for energy distribution. The Editor's Summary of the paper puts it this way:

How is energy distributed within the cell? In the skeletal muscle, energy distribution has been proposed to occur through metabolite-facilitated diffusion, although genetic evidence has raised questions about the importance of this mode of distribution. Using various forms of high-resolution microscopy, Robert Balaban and colleagues explore whether the mitochondria themselves -- as well as actually generating the energy -- also have a role in its distribution. They find that they do, by forming aconductive pathway throughout the cell in the form of a proton-motive force. Throughout this network, the mitochondrial protein localization seems to be varied, allowing optimized generation and utilization of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Thisenergy distribution network, which depends on conduction rather than diffusion, is potentially extremely rapid, thereby enabling muscle to respond almost instantaneously to new energy demands.

Not only is the system extremely fast, it is well organized. The Abstract states:

Within this reticulum, we find proteins associated with mitochondrial proton-motive force production preferentially in the cell periphery and proteins that use the proton-motive force for ATP production in the cell interior near contractile and transport ATPases. Furthermore, we show a rapid, coordinated depolarization of the membrane potential component of the proton-motive force throughout the cell in response to spatially controlled uncoupling of the cell interior. We propose that membrane potential conduction via the mitochondrial reticulum is the dominant pathway for skeletal muscle energy distribution.

The mitochondrial reticulum was known before, but this is the first time scientists have seen that it conducts electricity. The potential of this discovery to shed light on muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and other disorders is apparent.

The images in the paper even look like a power grid. More:

For the current experiments, the NIH scientists collaborated in a detailed study of the mitochondria structure, biochemical composition, and function in mouse skeletal muscle cells. The researchers used 3D electron microscopy as well as super-resolution optical imaging techniques to show that most of the mitochondria form highly connected networks in a way thatresembles electrical transmission lines in a municipal power grid.

It's clear why this is a superior design to diffusion. Strenuous exercise can raise the power demands of a muscle cell by 100-fold. "Researchers havesuspected that a faster, more efficient energy pathway might exist but have found little proof of its existence -- until now," we read. That's a case of design prediction!

Robert Balaban of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a co-leader of the team, tells more about how well-optimized the organization of this power grid is.

The study provides unprecedented images of how these mitochondria are arranged in muscle. "Structurally, the mitochondria are arranged in such a way that permits the flow of potential energy in the form of the mitochondrial membrane voltage throughout the cell to power ATP production and subsequent muscle contraction, or movement," Dr. Balaban explained. Mitochondria located on the edges of the muscle cellnear blood vessels and oxygen supply are optimized forgenerating the mitochondrial membrane voltage, while the interconnected mitochondria deep in the muscle are optimized for using the voltage to produce ATP, Balaban added.

This implies another level in the design hierarchy: not only is the power grid well organized inside the cell, but the cells are organized in the muscle tissues for the optimum utilization of the power where it is needed most.

Implications

The implications of this spectacular discovery for intelligent design are profound. To see why, we must remember that muscles first appear in the Cambrian explosion. Many of the Cambrian phyla that burst on the scene had muscles for contraction (jellyfish), crawling (worms), fin movement (Anomalocaris and Metaspriggina, the vertebrate fish), and coordinated action of jointed appendages (trilobites and other arthropods). Most of the Cambrian animals used muscles in various ways. Muscles are but one of many new cell types that appear suddenly, fully functional, across multiple phyla in the early Cambrian.

As Stephen Meyer emphasizes in Darwin's Doubt, these new cell types are arranged in a hierarchy: tissues, organs, systems -- and ultimately, integrated body plans. This hierarchical arrangement of complex parts for unified function challenges all undirected mechanisms such as natural selection. It takes foresight -- a plan for a functional goal and the means to achieve it -- to bring parts together into a hierarchical arrangement that works. The filmDarwin's Dilemma illustrates this point as well. In our uniform experience, Meyer argues, the only cause capable of doing that is intelligence.

Now we can extend this hierarchical thinking into the arrangement inside one new cell type in a Cambrian animal: a muscle cell. That optimal hierarchical arrangement, furthermore, extends downward into the intracellular environment and upward into the tissue in which the cell resides. It's hierarchy all the way down.

The design inference keeps getting stronger! This is an exciting confirmation of intelligent design that should be kept in mind as you read our new book,Debating Darwin's Doubt. Remember, for a limited time you can get a 35 percent discount off the cover price by entering the code 4DXTSYJU at checkout here.