“On
the earth are signs for those of assured faith. And in yourselves. Can you not
see?” (Qur’an 51:20-21)
• The human body is composed of approximately 100
trillion cells divided into over 200 different types of specialized cells, such
as skin cells, muscle cells, bone cells, brain cells and so on.
• Every human starts as one cell, unique in every way
(each human is unique and unrepeatable). That one cell, a fertilized egg, turns
into the trillions of cells that make up a complete human being.
• As the first cell multiplies, it forms a mass of
undifferentiated cells. As the embryo grows, the cells become differentiated.
This means they specialize to form different organs with vastly different
functions.
• How can the cells in a human body start out exactly
the same, then some of them decide to become brain cells, heart cells, or liver
cells?
• All cells in a person’s body contain exactly the
same genetic material (DNA) as the parent cell. How can a number of newly
divided cells, each containing identical DNA, differentiate into different
types of cells and therefore into different organs?
• Each cell has the same number of genes (24,000). A
skin cell turns on the genes that make it a skin cell, while a bone cell would
leave these genes turned off. How do cells switch their genes on and off? And,
more importantly, how do they ‘know’ which genes to switch on and which genes
to switch off? How do cells decide which proteins to make, how much, when, and
where?
This amazing flow of facts about the cell leads us to
inevitably ask the questions: Who designed the cell? Who taught it exactly what
to do?
“Mindless, blundering atoms have conspired to make,
not just life, not just mind, but understanding. ... This (universe) can be no
trivial detail, no minor by-product of mindless, purposeless forces. We are
truly meant to be here.” – Physicist Paul Davies, The Mind of God.