best thing you will ever see
There’s this age-old argument that the development of a complex cell from simple molecules is about as likely as a clock self-assembling within a jar of gears, springs, metal hands, and clock faces. This kind of stuff is sometimes promoted by scientists who may know better, but have an agenda, and once it reaches the masses it becomes a favorite sound-byte of bulletproof refutation of evolutionary theory. I don’t want to rant about the (lacking) ethics of creation scientists, so let me just say, imo, this analogy is completely misleading and this is why: A jar of metal parts is not a dynamic environment, while even the simplest membrane bound collection of molecules suspended in solution absolutely is. These molecules can move around, interact, and alter one another’s structures. What’s more, the way molecules move and interact varies with the environment that the cell finds itself in. If you pick up a jar of clock parts and put it in a hot water bath, its behavior will not change at all, because it never had any behavior to begin with.
At the molecular level, just like at every level all the way to the whole organism, structure dictates function. Sure, it’s true that in a clock structure also dictates function, but assembling that structure requires an intelligent third party. This is where the analogy fails completely. There is no third party requirement for molecules to self-assemble. They may not assemble in a way that expands the functional capabilities of the cell, but they can assemble. And they can disassemble. And they can reassemble into a new conformation depending on the diversity of the molecular population. If you can come up with a jar of clock parts that can do that, then feel free to try to make this argument again.
And then I’ll give you another reason why it’s invalid.
Please leave any sanity you may be carrying at the door.
