The Cilium-Simply Complex
As an honest and fair-minded person begins to study the issues related to the creation, evolution, and intelligent design debate they may be left to wonder, "Why is there an actual debate?" One honest look at the complexity of even the simplest organisms yields a micro-universe that is incredibly complex. So complex in fact that to infer a force other than a super intelligent designer that crafted this system is to call upon multiple assumptions that fail logical support. Just take a look at the Cilium. The cilium is a fine hair-like projection emanating from a cell. This function is especially useful in the respiratory tract. Cilia are used to help sweep away fluids and particles. Some single-celled organisms use the rhythmical motion of cilia for locomotion. In essence, cilia looks like a hair and beats like a whip. In humans, for example, epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract each have about 200 cilia that beat in synchrony to sweep mucus towards the throat for elimination. A cilium consists of a membrane-coated bundle of fibers called an axoneme. An axoneme contains a ring of 9 double microtubules surrounding two central single microtubules. Each outer doublet consists of a ring of 13 filaments (subfiber A) fused to an assembly of 10 filaments (subfiber B). The filaments of the microtubules are composed of two proteins called alpha and beta tubulin. The 11 microtubules forming an axoneme are held together by three types of connectors: subfibers A are joined to the central microtubules by radial spokes; adjacent outer doublets are joined by linkers that consist of a highly elastic protein called nexin; and the central microtubules are joined by a connecting bridge. Finally, every subfiber A bears two arms, an inner arm and an outer arm, both containing the protein dynein. [1] While this article is not a discussion on how the Cilium works, the above paragraph does show that the Cilium is made up of many parts that must work together to make the Cilium work. This is what is called an 'irreducibly complex' system. In other words, all parts must be present and in place for the apparatus to function. Take one part away, the system breaks down and cannot perform its intended purpose. It's amazing how much has been written about this incredibly small, but important part of the bodies of both human and other animal life. Over the past several decades, multiplied thousands of articles have been published concerning cilia. With such a vast array of information you would think someone would be able to explain 'how' the cilium has evolved through evolutionary processes. However, a search of the professional literature indicates that no one has an answer. Evolutionists will attempt to cloud the issues, but the truth is they just don't know. Most evolutionists are not willing to look in the direction these issues lead, namely intelligent design. Why? Evolutionists don't want intelligent design to be true. No other reason could possibly cause evolutionists to passionately deny that these complex systems are designed. As biochemists have examined the 'simple' structures of the cilia, they have discovered incredible complexity. In that complexity they have discovered possibly hundreds of precisely engineered parts. Remember, we are talking about one of the more simple structures found in the human body. The real problem is that if the scientific community at large cannot come up with a reasonable explanation as to how these 'simple' structures evolved, why would anyone believe them when they say whole complex bodies evolved? This is tantamount to a quantum leap in assumptions. Perhaps the Cilium looks designed because it is designed. YOU CAN DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE HERE References: [1] http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/behe/MM.html
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