Species of bacteria come in very different forms. Some prefer oxygen-rich environments, while other, so-called anerobic ones survive in oxygen-free ones. Some create their own food by means of photosynthesis, while others obtain nutrients by breaking down organic substances. Although bacteria consist of a single cell, their metabolisms may exhibit considerable differences. |
In contrast to plants and animals, bacteria's swift reproduction and biochemical effects help maintain the equilibrium of the living world. They can live just about anywhere, for which reason they are much more numerous than any other class of organism—actually, the most numerous on Earth. The entire ecosystem depends on the activities of bacteria
3, and they impact on human life in a wide variety of ways.
Their abilities reach way beyond present-day technology. Many of them can assume a new form every day, and their numbers can reach thousands in a matter of minutes. Some prefer oxygen-rich environments, while others can live underground without oxygen. Some obtain nutrients by performing photosynthesis, while others acquire energy by breaking down organic substances. Bacteria are generally assumed to be identical to one another, but when examined, they can be seen to actually consist of very different species.
Bacteria are known as prokaryotes in the living world. Their single cells contain a nucleus and free-ranging data banks of DNA. In their rather complex structures, these creatures possess a cell membrane and ribosomes. As you shall later see in detail, the majority of the vital functions of the living things on Earth depend, on the effects of these prokaryotic cells.
Bacteria possess two cell covers. Above the inner cell membrane is a cell wall consisting of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. In addition to their cell wall, some bacteria also have a protective capsule consisting of sugar molecules. The reason for these special coverings around the cell is to protect the bacterium from outside influences. The task of protecting a human being, undertaken by our skin, is assumed by the cell membrane in bacteria. However, the protective nature of the cell membrane is incomparably more powerful than that of human skin. Due to this resistant cellular structure, bacteria are able to adapt to very high or low temperatures, thrive beneath the soil, float through the air, live in toxic chemicals or at the bottom of the ocean, and even resist radiation. The bacterial cell membrane arises and generally consists of amino acids combined with sugar and lipid plus polysaccharide.
This complex polymer substance, known as peptidoglycan, is composed of two varieties of sugar. This structure's fine, complex covering varies according to species. It is so thin that it sometimes cannot even be seen under a microscope, because it consists of a web of fibrous structures just 1 to 3 nanometers in diameter.
4 A great many of the features possessed by bacteria are still unknown, because their minute size (around 0.001 millimeter, or 0.000039 of an inch) makes it impossible to study their internal structures properly.
In relative terns, the protective qualities of a bacterium's cell membrane are incomparably stronger than those of your skin. Bacteria are able to adapt to very different conditions, thanks to their resistant cell membranes. |
Contrary to what evolutionists suggest, bacteria possess, not primitive structures, but very complex ones, which certainly proves that there is no spontaneous evolution.
In addition to their cell membrane, bacteria also possess microscopic hairs known as cilia and an organelle called the flagellum, both of which lets them move. When these microscopic hairs are examined close-up, we encounter a real miracle. The flagellum—which has a different molecular structure from that comprising the bacterium's sheath and cilia—is the only organelle capable of truly moving backwards in the whole living world. The cilia hairs set up a wave motion towards from the root to the end, and thanks to the engine in its roots the fibers of the flagellum arranged in spiral (helezon) rotate like a propeller.
5 The structure that enables the bacterium to move consists of two sections. In addition, instead of energy already present in the cell, a flow of acids in the cell membrane is employed as the energy source. The flagellum is a self-contained complex structure, whose organic structure consists of 240 separate proteins.
The complex structure seen in the flagellum is an example of irreducible complexity—a feature common to all living systems. The bacterium's membrane, the chemical engine mounted beneath it and the flagellum have all been created together so that the bacterium can move. Evolutionist scientists, who regard the bacterium as a simple living thing, are unable to account for its highly complex structure.
Under appropriate conditions, bacteria can double their numbers in 10 to 30 minutes. A single bacterium divides itself first in two, which two become four, then eight, and continues doubling in that way. Millions of bacteria can thus arise from a single one in 10 to 12 hours. Some varieties of bacteria are unaffected by temperature changes. They can live at -271oC (-455.8F) and adapt to environments that change from -190oC (66.2F) to +250oC (482F) in a matter of hours. Some species of bacteria are able to withstand 2,000 times the level of atomic radiation that would be fatal to humans.
6 Some cause various diseases, while others serve vital roles in human and plant metabolism. Some are able to oxidize foodstuffs, by which means bacteria provide nourishment for other living things. Their millions of different functions lead to just one conclusion: This all shows that bacteria possess exceptionally detailed properties.
The evolutionist James A. Shapiro admits that that these detailed features they possess make bacteria complex living things:
Bacteria are equipped with various means of locomotion. Among these are the micro-hairs known as cilia. Another is the flagellum, the only structure in the living world able to literally move backwards. |
Although bacteria are tiny, they display biochemical, structural and behavioral complexities that outstrip scientific description. In keeping with the current microelectronics revolution, it may make more sense to equate their size with sophistication rather than with simplicity. . . . Without bacteria, life on Earth could not exist in its present form.
7
The Australian professor of biochemistry Michael Denton expresses the inconsistency and impossibility of evolutionist claims regarding a bacterium cell, with its various effects, forming as the result of a combination of coincidences:
The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle.
8
The so-called accidental coming into being suggested by evolutionists is of course impossible. As we shall soon be seeing in detail, a single bacterium's structure and features both disprove the claim that they could have come into existence spontaneously. These organisms, described as "simple" by Darwinists—perform, in the words of the British zoologist Sir James Gray—more activities than an entire laboratory:
A bacterium is far more complex than any inanimate system known to man. There is not a laboratory in the world, which can compete with the biochemical activity of the smallest living organism . . .
9
The bacterium's superior structure basically includes a DNA molecule and few organelles. Allah has installed this laboratory and its superior technical equipment and unbounded data into a single DNA molecule, a small part of a cell that is itself invisible to the naked eye.
Now let us examine the DNA molecule, the most important part of the complex bacterial structure.
One Fact Darwinists Cannot Explain: The Structure of Bacterial DNA
The information in the DNA in a single bacterium is equivalent to 20 novels of 100,000 words each.
10
There are 5,000 genes in the chromosome of a single Escherichia coli bacterium. |
Bacteria possess not only hundreds of different features, but also DNA that exhibits a superior Creation. There are 5375 nucleotides in the DNA of the smallest known bacterium, theta-x-174.
(Nucleotides are the building blocks of the amino acids that regulate all inherited features in living things.) In a normal-sized bacterium, There may be up 3 million nucleotides.
11 There are 5,000 genes in a single chromosome of the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, the subject of research and studies since the early 1990s. (Genes are special sections constituting the DNA belonging to a particular organ or protein.) All the features of the bacterium are encoded in these 5,000 genes.
This coded information is essential to the bacterium's survival, and its slightest change may be fatal. The length of the helix that carries this information is 1,400 microns—in a cell only 2 to 3 microns in size.
12 Don't forget that 1 micron is a unit equivalent to just 0.001 millimeter (0.000039 of an inch). This data chain, the product of a special Creation, is squeezed into an organism thousands of times smaller than itself. The processes that take place inside this marvel of Creation show the existence of a perfect organization and a conscious whole.
The anthropologist Loren Eiseley offers the following observation:
Complex processes during cell division—such as DNA copying, copy production, transformation, cell division and chromosome division—are all flawlessly coordinated. |
To grasp in detail the physio-chemical organization of the simplest cell is far beyond our capacity.
13
Again, such comprehensive data are necessary for the life of just one cell. Bearing in mind that bacteria are spread all over the world, it is astonishing that such information is arranged with the same care and in the same order in every one of them.
Could such a system come into being by chance? Of course not. Let us have a closer look at the DNA molecule in order to appreciate this better. Dr. Lee Spetner, an expert on biophysics and on the information contained within the bacterial genome, states:
The genome can hold a lot of information. The genome of a bacterium for example, is string of a few million symbols. The genome of a mammal has from two to four billion. If you were to print those symbols in a book in ordinary type, the book for a bacterium would have about a thousand page. . . All this information is in the tiny chromosomes of each cell.
14
Similarly, in his book Darwin Was Wrong, I.L. Cohen sets out the inconsistencies and impossibilities in the theory of evolution, and the impossibility of a bacterium's DNA coming into being by chance:
Any species known to us, including the smallest single-cell bacteria, have enormously larger number of nucleotides than 100 or 1,000. In fact, single-cell bacteria display about 3.000.000 nucleotides, aligned in a very specific sequence. This means that there is no mathematical probability whatever for any known species to have been the product of a random occurrence or random mutations.
15
To replicate, bacteria employ various mechanisms. They may multiply by dividing into two, by turning into spores or by replicating sexually. These different reproductive processes are another proof of the bacteria's complex structure. Before the bacterium divides, first it divides into a structure known as a chromatin. The young bacteria make themselves ready to divide by reaching their full size within 30 minutes. During replication, an intelligently created system goes into operation, and the copying of the DNA that takes place is another example of irreducible complexity: For the system to function, all its components need to be fully formed and present at the same time. This totally undermines the basic claim of the theory of evolution, the idea of chance and gradual development. Recent research has revealed that this system is far more complex than had previously been thought.
For example, it has been shown that one reaction-regulator protein known as CtrA coordinates DNA replication within the cell of the bacterium C. crescentus. . CtrA, controls and alters a great many biological structures while carrying out cell division. Interestingly, CtrA is itself controlled by two elements known as phosphorylation and proteolysis. In other words, systems that appear to act independently in this system actually work together in a coordinated manner for the task to be performed. Complex processes such as replication of DNA and chromosome division must all be fully coordinated during cell division. The failure of any one system will lead to a halt in the cell-division process and the death of both new-formed cells. The presence of factors like CtrA to ensure coordination inside the cell is an important proof of the irreducible complexity of bacterial cell division.
Division of an E. coli bacterium. |
We encounter a similarly complex structure in the bacterium E. coli. Its cell division system depends on a structure known as FtsZ—another example of irreducible complexity. E. coli too contains many side components linked to the system, and if any one is removed or its concentration levels altered, cell division will be impaired. Therefore, there is no way this system could have emerged gradually by means of natural selection.
The workings of many free-living bacteria shows the existence of a common nucleus cell-division system. In addition, a protein that separates the two DNA strands also forms part of this mechanism.
16
Evolutionists, still unable to account for the structure of microorganisms, have no explanation to offer for the appealing aesthetic appearance in these creatures' structures. |
As can be seen from these examples, bacteria are not the simple, primitive living things that evolutionists would have us believe. Like all "higher" living organisms, bacteria possess complex structures and mechanisms, and the processes that take place inside these single-celled creatures work in considerable harmony. Bacteria possess the ideal structures for the tasks they perform, and the evolutionists' error stems from their comparing a bacterial cell to a structure like the human cell, equipped for very different purposes. Only through such faulty comparison does the bacterial cell emerge as more primitive than the human one, because each system possesses the maximum complexity within itself. Each cell is merely differentiated according to the tasks it undertakes.
An article titled "The Artistry of Microorganisms" by Eshel Ben-Jacob and Herbert Levine, known for their studies into bacteria, appeared as the cover story of Scientific American magazine no. 1098 in 1998. They reveal another little-known miracle regarding bacteria and other single-celled organisms. Each of these living things, though invisible to the naked eye, possesses the most aesthetic appearance. Microorganisms such as diatoms, bacteria and plankton in their various shapes and colors turn the microscopic world into an art museum.
It appears that these aesthetic forms emerge not as the result of random coincidences, but according to various laws that apply within those creatures' structures. Eshel Ben-Jacob and Herbert Levine make the following comment:
Simple bacteria, coping with adverse growth conditions, show unexpected sophistication. When examined closely this behavior is much more impressive. It seems as if the bacterial colony can not only compute better then the best parallel computers we have, but can also think . . .
17
As you have seen, bacteria and other microorganisms are living refutations of the myth related by the theory of evolution because it is unable to account for life in the first place. These organisms possess DNA, a data bank, but evolutionists are unable to explain where this came from. These organisms possess complex systems that function together, but evolutionists cannot explain how complex systems came into being. These organisms possess aesthetic shapes like snowflakes, but evolutionists are unable to explain the presence of attractive forms in these blind entities' structure. Despite the presence of so many mysteries and unanswered questions, evolutionists have produced myths and scenarios as a result of their dogmatic mindsets. Yet none of these bear any relation to the scientific facts. Without doubt, the intelligent artistry manifested in a single cell is a wonderful opportunity to see the miracles created by Allah, Whose omniscience endowed a microscopic structure with these wondrous features. One verse states:
He is the Knower of the Unseen, Whom not even the weight of the smallest particle eludes, either in the heavens or in the Earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that which is not in a Clear Book. (Surah Saba', 3)
The Consciousness Exhibited in a Single Cell
Bacteria are present everywhere, all over the world. There may be billions of them, of millions of different species, in a single garden. Bacteria may display various effects depending on their locations, yet we remain generally unaware of most of them because only under an electron microscope can we see the superior intelligence manifested in the microworld.This tiny, yet widespread world that we cannot see directly consists of responsive entities that perform their responsibilities flawlessly, take precautions when danger looms, and carry out the most complex chemical processes. Each bacterium has been perfectly created as the work of Allah. Let us now examine the features of this superior Creation, under various headings.
The microworld consists of seemingly conscious individual cells that flawlessly fulfill their own tasks, take precautionary measures when necessary or when danger looms, and which carry out the most complex chemical procedures.
|
Bacteria Produce Spores to Preserve and Reproduce Themselves
Bacteria take many different forms, whose appearances vary according to their environment. Many of them sporulate—that is, develop resistant forms known as spores, which can withstand excessive heat, cold or dryness. That's why some bacteria are so difficult to destroy. So what is this thing we refer to as sporulation?
Bacteria can thrive under very different conditions according to their species, but begin dividing when conditions are impaired. Under normal conditions, this division results in two offspring with exactly the same inherited features as the original cell. However, when conditions are disrupted or nutrients become limited, bacteria realize that the environment has become more difficult, and take precautions to ensure their descendants' survival. Division into two still takes place, but now, cells emerge that are not identical.
The reason for this inequality is the fact that only one of the two cells will live.
Living bacteria in the form of spores have been found on the exterior bricks of the 3,400-year-old Temple of Luxor in Egypt, and also in 720-million-year-old blocks of ice. |
The larger, main cell absorbs its sibling, just like a protector. For 10 hours it will use all its energy to nourish it and permits the formation of a special protein sheath that will assist the protection of the smaller cell. In this way, the bacterium that develops inside one of the two parts forms a strong individual able to look after itself. The other dies, having given all its protective features to its sibling and turns into a protective sheath. This resistant structure that results is referred to as a spore.
18 Therefore, in addition to normal division, bacteria are easily able to disseminate themselves all over the world by means of such spores.
Here we are faced with an example of a special Creation that single-celled living things possess to ensure their descendants' survival. A bacterium that senses that the prevailing conditions are not suitable for life immediately realizes it is time to divide and acts in a self-sacrificial manner. The main cell constituting the spore has no qualms about becoming a protein sheath. It cannot foresee the survival of its line or know beforehand how to ensure that survival. But can bacteria make such a decision? How is the bacterium selected that will have to die in the process? How does it bacterium know that conditions have worsened and that the other bacterium needs to be strengthened accordingly? By what division of labor, and most importantly, with what consciousness do they do this? The way that a living thing too small to be seen with the naked eye engages in such rational and altruistic behavior, acting with such astounding determination, is sufficient evidence that it was created. It merely acts on the inspiration placed in it by Allah.
By this conscious process known as sporulation, bacteria can easily enter a wide range of habitats and spread across wide areas. Indeed, bacteria are even found in radioactive uranium mines! In much the same way that living bacteria have been found in bricks on the facade of the Temple of Luxor, built in Egypt 3,400 years ago, 200-million, 320-million and even 720-million-year-old living bacteria have also been discovered in blocks of rock salt. Bacteria have even been encountered at heights of 20,000 meters (65,620 feet) above sea level.
19
The most astonishing example is the bacterial spores from a 25-million-year-old fossil bee, trapped in pine resin, that have survived down to the present day. These spores, extracted under sterile conditions in the laboratory, were placed in culture and began growing and multiplying even after such an enormously long period of time.
20
Bacillius species enable spore formation by surrounding their offspring cells in a protein sheath. The cells whose interiors are shown in green are those that will develop into spores. |
The sporulation process is a method of protection employed by nearly all microorganisms. When conditions become unsuitable, some of them use sporulation to rise into the air to protect themselves among the clouds. The atmosphere contains a great many minute spores hoping to spread or seek protection. These spores that remain in the dry cold air live in a state of literal suspended animation, and descend to earth again with the rain produced by clouds. On their return, they may establish new colonies. Clouds are actually full of tiny, living microorganisms. As they crystallize and rise up with evaporation from the ground, they carry with them nutritional compounds such as methane, phosphate, carbon, and sulfur dioxide.
21
Recent research has revealed another fact that has amazed scientists. One group of scientists researching in the Austrian Alps discovered colonies of bacteria living in the clouds. It was already known that bacteria were borne by clouds, but this new study also revealed that these colonies lived and bred in them. These same scientists also noted that these bacteria could cause rain or other climatic changes. It has also been reported that algae-like microorganisms that lived in the seas long ago played a regulatory role in keeping the climate stable by producing a gas called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). This gas enters into a reaction with oxygen at sea level and forms minute, solid particles. This sulfate layer concentrates water vapor and thus forms clouds. Finally, these clouds keep the Earth cool by reflecting solar radiation.
22 In a statement to New Scientist magazine, Birgit Sattler of Innsbruck University said that it was previously thought that bacteria could not live at such elevations, and so these findings came as a complete surprise. The freezing cold, high levels of ultraviolet rays and lack of nourishment had led scientists to believe that life would not be possible up there. Yet it was thus demonstrated that bacteria can live in the clouds, as they do everywhere else.
Differently-shaped bacteria in 1,500 different sizes were identified in each specimen of cloud water taken from a meteorological station near Salzburg. According to scientists, high levels of bacteriological activity in clouds can affect the climate, depending on the their level of production or consumption of alcohol, organic acid and other substances. Scientists are continuing to investigate how bacteria live in the clouds, what they feed on and what compounds they produce.
23
How can a microorganism suddenly adapt to the highest levels in the atmosphere, where there are such very different conditions? How does it know that it needs to be protected there, and why does it select such a difficult and complex method as rising through the air? Even more interestingly, how does it manage to do so? How did it obtain the ability to control crystallization and air currents, and how does it know that the clouds will be able to protect and nourish it, and that one day when it starts raining, it will return to earth in a healthy state? How does this single-celled creature actually manage to do this? How do these microorganisms manage to do this, despite having totally different structures and features? Could a single-celled microorganism think of all this, learn by experimentation and inform all other members of its species? That being of course impossible, all these details once again point to the magnificent artistry manifested by Allah. It is Allah Who, in addition to creating the bacteria that carry out all these activities, also created the air that raises them, the clouds and atmosphere that shelter them, the rain that brings them back down, and the Earth that enables them to multiply and spread. For that reason, all these details have been created to be totally compatible with one another, and have remained in that state of equilibrium for millions of years.
Allah states in the Qur'an that:
In the Creation of the heavens and Earth, and the alternation of the night and day, and the ships which sail the seas to people's benefit, and the water which Allah sends down from the sky—by which He brings the Earth to life when it was dead and scatters about in it creatures of every kind—and the varying direction of the winds, and the clouds subservient between heaven and Earth, there are signs for people who use their intellect. (Surat al-Baqara, 164)
Bacteria Perform Photosynthesis
We generally look at bacteria as germs that reproduce very quickly in our bodies or in food that has spoiled. Yet they also possess a great many features essential to life and with the organelles inside them, perform exceedingly important activities to maintain the equilibrium on Earth.
The carbon cycle on Earth takes place thanks to bacteria. |
Bacteria play an enormously important role in supplying countless vital elements, from the air we breathe to the food we eat, and from the views around us to the antibiotics we use. In fact, every bacterium is an expert chemist, using nature as a laboratory. Chemical formulae are foreign to most of us, and indeed, it is impossible to understand chemical reactions without special training. Bacteria also deserve respect and amazement, for performing reactions of vital concern to our lives.
Even if we are even unaware of it, a chemical laboratory that works constantly and maintains our lives enfolds all of nature. This laboratory's most important activity is to provide oxygen and food for living things, and then to clean up waste products or produce new beneficial products that living things can use. During the course of this difficult and complex duty, many complicated chemical reactions are repeated, some of which are not yet been fully understood, some of which remain undiscovered, and only some of which have been replicated in modern laboratories.
Bacteria head the list of the chemists serving in this giant laboratory. The most important functions are carried out by these unicellular machines, regarded as simple and primitive by evolutionists. For bacteria, reactions that even the cleverest chemists cannot solve, and processes that not even the most advanced technology can replicate, are child's play. The scientists who discovered photosynthesis—the process of producing nutrients using carbon dioxide from the air and water—were amazed by it, and imagined that by decoding the system, they would find an answer to all the problems facing mankind. Yet decades have since gone by, and still the system is not fully understood and has not been imitated. However, this miraculous reaction is just one of the daily tasks that bacteria have performed , non-stop, for billions of years. With photosynthesis, these living things break down carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and give off oxygen, thus meeting life's most urgent need. Moreover, they possess the ability to use light energy from the Sun in order to separate carbon molecules from CO
2. The way that carbon obtained in this way represents the basis of Earth's carbon-based life forms. As you know, life is based on carbon. All the basic organic molecules such as amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids are formed by carbon atoms combining with certain other atoms. No other element in nature can replace carbon. (For details see, The Creation of the Universe by Harun Yahya, Al-Attique Publishers Inc., Toronto Ontario, 2000) Therefore, Allah has made all of life dependent on organisms that perform photosynthesis. By Allah's will, the greatest share of this process belongs, to bacteria.
By the phenomenon of photosynthesis, plants can make direct use of solar energy to turn out complex organic molecules for other living things to use. Such a transformation is necessary because human beings and animals lack any mechanism by which to make direct use of the Sun's energy. They can obtain that energy only in synthesized form as the result of photosynthesis performed by green plants and microorganisms.
Species known as cyanobacteria produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere
.
24 The mechanism these bacteria use is very similar to that used in plants' chloroplasts. The great majority of cyanobacteria contain only chlorophyll. The energy they produce from sunlight is stored in the form of simple sugars. The amount of sugar and oxygen formed by means of photosynthesis varies between an estimated 150 and 200 billion tons (330,700,000 million and 440,900,000 million pounds) a year.
25 This sugar and free oxygen that form is essential for living organisms on Earth to survive and grow, and also to respire.
Cyanobacteria assume an important role in stabilizing the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. These bacteria are very small in size, but their numbers are very great. There are more than 100 in a liter of water, and they represent 10% to 20% of the productivity of the oceans. Despite being too small to see, they exist over a large part of the world. Their enormous numbers are of the very greatest importance due to the energy they produce with photosynthesis.
The particularly complex and delicate mechanism of photosynthesis is is not yet fully understood. Also, the process is one of the best examples of irreducible complexity. In other words, in order for photosynthesis to take place, a great many special structures have to be present at the same time and work together in a coordinated way. For example, in photosystem I, which evolutionists maintain to have evolved first, reaction centers and antennae were brought together to catch the rays from the Sun. Photosystem I had been regulated to trap only a particular wavelength of light. Stimulated by photons with a wavelength of 700 millimicrons, the antennae contain trapping chlorophyll molecules known as K1 a1. To support these antennae, there are also assistant pigments such as carotenoid.
Moreover, photosystem I is a joint activity, performed by an electron chain ready to transfer the trapped energy, a kind of power station used to break down this energy and water, and a separate chemical factory taking in carbon from the air with substances separated from water to produce nutrients. The lack of just one of the components making up this system, still not yet fully understood, would render it totally useless.
For example, energy cannot be absorbed without antennae. Without the electron chain, H2O atoms could not be broken down. If the assistant pigments failed to share the high electrical burden, then intense energy levels would break down the entire structure to. The subject can be more clearly understood if we think of this structure as a factory and the electrical power station that runs it. The factory cannot produce anything without electricity, raw materials and workers. Similarly, the lack of just one of these elements will rule out any possibility of photosynthesis at all. Neither would the components coming into being one by one be any use. Even if we assume for a moment that the very complex photosynthesis antennae did come into being by chance, clearly they would be unable to transmit the trapped energy and be torn apart. The Turkish evolutionist Professor Ali Demirsoy comments:
The pictures show three types of cyanobacteria. (a: Nostoc, b: Oscillatoria, and c: Gleocapsa). These bacteria, which live in clean waters, have exceptionally complex chlorophyll. Thanks to these systems, which are almost as complex as plant chloroplasts, cyanobacteria perform the process of photosynthesis in nature. Nostoc cyanobacteria also play an important role in nitrogen transformation and the "fixing"of atmospheric nitrogen. |
Photosynthesis is a most complex phenomenon, one which appears impossible to emerge in the organelle inside a cell. That is because it is impossible for all the stages to form at once, and meaningless for them to do so one by one.
26
In conclusion, this system could not come about by stages as evolutionists maintain. Its irreducibly complex structure requires all its components to be present and fully functioning at once. This, in turn, shows that the mechanism was flawlessly created at a single moment with all its separate parts.
A process like photosystem, which cannot be replicated by modern-day technology, must have been created as a whole. Not just the system that makes photosynthesis, but the Sun ideally suited to it and the atmospheric environment was also created as a whole, with the same superior knowledge and intellect.
The explanations made by the proponents of the theory of evolution regarding this mechanism are exceedingly illogical, often ridiculous. According to evolutionist claims, primitive bacteria in the primitive environment began using up the foodstuffs around and suddenly, somehow began to produce their own food. Billions of years ago, an imaginary bacterium, discovered how to obtain food from the Sun via a mechanism that mankind has been unable to do even with the advantage of 21st century technology. This most talented bacterium established the basis of photosynthesis, and by allegedly evolving in some manner, produced plants that mde possible the free oxygen and foodstuffs on Earth. Thanks to this fortuitous discovery, the wide range of other species assumed their present forms. The fact is that a single cell possessing a system capable of providing such basic needs as food and oxygen essential for human life, the development of countless chemical processes inside it and its being a part of the ecological balance can never be explained in terms of chance and unconscious events. Allah has specially created these living things to carry out this important process. Bacteria prove the existence of a superior power that created them to be flawless, in other words of Allah. The superior intellect and artistry of Allah are manifested in the functions they fulfill. All these, of course, are just a few of the examples that show the impasse facing the theory of evolution, how it is entirely based on false evidence, as well as the absolute existence of Allah.
Bacteria Perform the Nitrogen Cycle on Earth
In the same way that living things require oxygen and CO
2 in order to survive, they also need nitrogen (N2) to grow. Nitrogen is present at a level of roughly 15% in the structure of the nucleic acids, proteins and vitamins in the body.
27 It represents one of the ba sic building blocks of life. Around 78% of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen gas, but living things cannot absorb this nitrogen in the air, despite their need of it. It must somehow be turned into a form that living things can use, and then be recycled into the atmosphere so that it does not run out.
This need too is met by microscopic bacteria.
Bacteria like Rhizobium that fix nitrogen in plant roots, possess molecules such as leghemoglobin that consume oxygen |
Plants need to absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere, since they are unable to use it in gas form. Nitrogen is transformed into nitrite by bacteria, and nitrite into nitrates by different bacteria, thus making it capable of being used by plants. But how does this cycle begin?
Nitrogen reaches the Earth in various forms. Atmospheric nitrogen returns to Earth in the form of nitric acid in rain, as the result of phenomena such as lightning. Nitric acid is turned into nitrates by bacteria in the soil, and plants are able to absorb it in that form.
Another cycle is the direct absorption of nitrogen from the air into the soil. Bacteria in the roots of certain plants such as peas and beans, and other legumes take the nitrogen in the air into the soil. At this stage, we encounter a most superior Creation. Proteins, nucleic acid and the majority of organelles all need nitrogen, the most important element in the development of living organisms.. One of the world's most beneficial partnerships exists between plants, which need nitrogen in order to grow, and the bacteria that meet that need. Plants' roots give off special nutrients to attract bacteria. Later, the bacteria enter through special gaps that open in the roots, settle there, and establish nodules by multiplying to enormous levels.
We are indebted to the nitrogen cycle, essential for the maintenance of ecological equilibrium, for the greater part of the vegetables, plants and cereals we eat. As bacteria, described as "simple" by evolutionists, implement the nitrogen cycle, they work like living chemistry factories, and ever since the day they were first created have been performing chemical reactions that may not mean very much to those not closely involved with chemistry. The resolution of the nitrogen fixing reaction summarized below in chemical terms represented a major success for scientists:
N2 + 8H+ + 8e- + 16 ATP = 2NH3 + H2 + 16ADP + 16 Pi
But for this reaction to take place, there needs to be a second support reaction like photosynthesis, respiration or fermentation. These formulae, so baffling to most people, are ordinary everyday work for bacteria. Of course they have undergone no specialized chemical training in order to carry out these chemical processes. Every new bacterium that enters the world is equipped with knowledge and materials that could only belong to a specially trained chemist. In addition, these processes are not limited to bacteria in plant roots. Despite being found in very different places and having very different structures, nitrobacteria, beijerinckia, klebsiella, cyanobacteria, clostridium, desulfovibrio, purple sulphur bacteria, non-purple sulphur bacteria, green sulphur bacteria, rhizobium frankia, azospirillum and a great many more carry out the same reaction, with the same data and programming, in a prefect manner. Furthermore, with the different systems and reactions inside them, these bacteria exhibit structures that are not simple at all.
The sulfur bacteria pictured and the bacterium Rhizobium which lives in nodules in the roots of peas in the middle possess a rather complete biological laboratory for carrying out nitrogen transformation. |
For example, the nitrogenase enzyme complex that bacteria use during this process is exceptionally sensitive to oxygen. When deprived of oxygen, it stops its activity, for which reason proteins enter into reactions with iron compounds. This represents no problem for anaerobic bacteria, which are capable of living without oxygen, but a major hurdle for bacteria such as cyanobacteria that produce oxygen by photosynthesis. and azotobacter that live freely in the soil. However, these other bacteria have been equipped with various mechanisms to resolve this difficulty. For example, azotobacter species possess metabolisms with the highest known respiratory rate among all organisms, thus keeping oxygen levels in the cells low and protecting the enzyme. In addition, azotobacter species produce high levels of extracellular polysaccharide, compounds consisting of multiple sugars and especially starch used in the formation of the cell wall. Bacteria preserve water in the sticky fluid formed by these compounds and restrict the level at which oxygen is disseminated in the cell. Bacteria like Rhizobium that fix nitrogen in plant roots, possess molecules such as leghemoglobin that consume oxygen. Leghemoglobin serves the same purpose as hemoglobin in animals, regulating oxygen for the node tissues. Interestingly, leghemoglobin is found only in the root nodes and produced only after a plant-bacterium relationship is established. Bacteria that live alone or plants that live without bacteria are unable to manufacture it.
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The enzyme nitrogenase, responsible of preserving the nitrogen cycle, breaks down when deprived of oxygen. In that case, the systems that prevent oxygen from reaching the enzyme, and the organisms that produce them must have come into being at the same time as that enzyme. Otherwise, the moment that the enzyme nitrogenase formed, oxygen would have broken it down. The theory of evolution is unable to admit this, because it holds that organisms can form only through gradual mutations. Again according to that theory, either the enzyme nitrogenase or the systems that consume oxygen must have appeared first—yet that illogical sequence that permits no system at all to form. No system can control oxygen in the absence of the enzyme nitrogenase.
When these bacteria die and are broken down, ammonia is released. At the same time, saprophyte bacteria break down proteins in animal and plant remains and turn them into ammonia. The ammonia, formed in the soil in this way, is converted in the same way into nitrite by nitrite bacteria, and then into nitrate by nitrate bacteria. By this process, known as nitrification, the nitrogen cycle is completed.
29 Nitrate is a form of nitrogen that plants can absorb. This nitrate also reaches human beings and the animals that consume plants for food. By these means, therefore, the needs of all living things are met.
Thanks to bacteria, nitrogen is transformed by plants into molecules that human beings and animals can use plants as food. Therefore, one of the animals' most basic needs is ensured by the workings of bacteria. |
Creating artificial fertilizer containing nitrates gave rise to one of the major branches of industry. Combustible hydrogen, used during this dangerous and complex process, is heated at very high pressure. Although chemical factories spend great efforts on this costly and dangerous work, bacteria perform the same process at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure. Some researchers now think that they have unraveled part of the secret behind bacteria's success.
Another group of scientists have adopted bacteria as a model in producing free hydrogen, a clean and cheap fuel. According to an article in the 8 October 2001, edition of Nature magazine, scientists believe they have imitated bacterial enzymes that turn cheap acids into hydrogen. Unlike other fuels, hydrogen does not harm the environment when burned. Thomas Rauchfuss, and his colleagues in a research team affiliated with Illinois University, think they will be able to copy and use these secret formulae of bacteria.
30
These bacteria possess hydrogenases, enzymes able to produce hydrogen from acids. Scientists are trying to produce systems that can replicate this perfect mechanism. But having striven in the same way for years to replicate the photosynthesis process performed by bacteria, they have not yet achieved any success. Evolutionists regard bacteria, as primitive, yet their complex systems that have proved impossible to duplicate despite all the means of present-day technology. Bacteria have possessed secrets that have guaranteed life on Earth for billions of years. The reason is that they are the flawless work of Allah, with His superior intellect. Allah displays His astonishing artistry in such a magnificent ways so that human beings may witness it, and reflect on what they see.
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In order for plants, and therefore for all other living things on Earth, to survive, there have to be bacteria to maintain the nitrogen cycle. If the nitrogen taken out of the soil is not immediately replaced, life will soon come to an end. This process carried out by bacteria adds some 50 tons (110,200 pounds) of nitrogen to the soil each year.
31 Since all organisms directly or indirectly depend on photosynthesis to obtain energy, they also depend on nitrogen, the most fundamental element, for photosynthesis to take place.
These examples send out a clear message. Nitrogen must be turned into a specific form for the nourishment of all living things. That transformation must cover the whole world and be supported by different features. When we see in nature is not a flawed system that has emerged tshrough blind chance, but one that has been created right down to the finest detail, in the light of a specific objective. Bacteria have assumed the main role in this process, as living machines especially created for the job, rather than as primitive forms that emerged as the result of random evolution.
Rather than invent illusory scenarios based on their outdated ideology, evolutionists now need to provide scientific explanations of how such complex creatures and variety came into being at the same time, equipped with such highly advanced information. Yet since they can never give such an explanation, it is amazing that they still persist in making their claims.
Allah reveals this about such people in the Qur'an:
Then inquire of them: is it they who are stronger in structure or other things We have created? We created them from sticky clay. No wonder you are surprised as they laugh with scorn! (Surat as-Saffat, 11-12)
Bacteria Produce Foodstuffs through Fermentation
Did you know that the yogurt and cheeses you eat are the work of bacteria? You may be unaware that a great many foods on your table are provided by bacteria, ready-made on your behalf. The cheese you eat is prepared by bacteria, as well as the pickles that go with it so well.
Oxygen-breathing bacteria obtain energy by breaking down organic compounds in their environment. This process, known as fermentation, gives rise to acids as well as wine and various delicious foods. |
You have already seen that species of bacteria can live in a great many different environments and conditions. Basically, all that the bacteria that produce cheese and yogurt really want is to obtain energy for carrying on with their lives. For them, the closed environment they live in is important, because these species of bacteria breathe without oxygen. To put it another way, while other bacteria obtain energy by breathing, these bacteria obtain energy by breathing by breaking down organic compounds around them and as a result, release a great many substances. These byproducts acidify the foodstuffs containing these bacteria, or else transformed them into alcohol, or else bubbles of carbon dioxide are generated. In this way, vegetables become pickled, and sugars are transformed in a process known as fermentation.
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Fermentation has many more uses than just giving us delicious things to eat.
Once again, bacteria perform a most important essential function, by increasing the variety of foodstuffs by means of fermentation. At the same time, during the fermentation process, bacteria release various minerals and synthesize vitamins that are exceedingly beneficial, which is why yogurt and cheese are so good for us. It is also thanks to bacteria that these products provide therapeutic effects on the intestines and a great many digestive disorders, helping to maintain the body's equilibrium.
For example, the foods recommended for cholesterol problem are generally fermented ones. The reason for this is that microorganisms are able to regulate the level of cholesterol in our bodies.
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Bacteria make enormous efforts on our behalf. In fact, all they want is to be able to survive with the means in their possession. While these microorganisms live on through this magnificent equilibrium created by Allah, they also aid human beings in a great many ways. The way that a bacterium produces foods so beneficial for us shows just how important that equilibrium is. There is no doubt that a bacterium did not have to live in our food, obtain energy from it or prove harmful or beneficial to us. We might never have been aware of these bacteria, a vital component of our lives. In fact, Even if you are not aware of it, we take a great many bacteria into our bodies through foodstuffs. However, even as bacteria meet their own needs by entering the food we eat, they also create brand-new and health-giving substances for us in a way impossible by any other means. Behind the benefits imparted by bacteria is the obvious fact that Allah has created immaculate and very different systems to let us see the evidence of His superior and incomparable Mind.
Other Activities of Bacteria
The iron that forms as a result of the activities that bacteria have been carrying out for years is of great importance for mankind. Without these activities performed by bacteria, it would be impossible for us to obtain substances essential to us. |
There are very definitely other important features in bacteria, which make such a major contribution to life on Earth by making photosynthesis, protect our bodies, give rise to the most important life cycle on Earth, but which are so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, addition to displaying the superior intellect and artistry in their Creation. Bacteria also represent the source of the world's iron reserves, and even of the iron in our bodies.
Some bacteria possess the ability to separate out the iron dissolved in sea water, consuming the iron molecules and concentrating them in their own bodies. The iron thus concentrated then forms layers on the sea bed. Over the course o möf millions of years, these layers are raised up into mountains and form enormous veins of iron oxide. When these layers are dug up, a large quantity of iron molecules become released into the air. Then, all unknowingly, we breathe in this iron dust—absorbing molecules of the greatest importance to us. Because of the tiny iron molecules that enter our bodies, our red blood cells can produce the hemoglobin that carried oxygen to every cell in our bodies.
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This chemical effects of the bacteria that form this underground resource is not limited to isolating iron. Oil, one of the world's vital needs, is also largely the product of bacteria. As with the process of fermentation, anaerobic bacteria (which breathe without oxygen) meet their needs for energy by breaking down the organic compounds around them, leading to organic deposits that formed underground millions of years ago transforming into crude oil.
35 The idea that bacteria permit the production of oil may come as a surprise but the way that these microorganisms work non-stop for several million years
36 is actually evidence that they were created in the interests of human beings, meeting needs whose lack would leave us quite helpless.
Recent research on the ocean floor has revealed another hitherto unknown fact about bacteria. As we know, bacteria represent the main link in the food chain by means of photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and fermentation. Studies carried out on the ocean floor 300 meters (984,25 feet) beneath the sea have revealed another hitherto unknown fact about bacteria. Newly discovered bacteria live hundreds of meters beneath the sea, feed on rocks in the sea bed, and there perform a fundamental food function for life.
Thanks to the superior mechanisms they possess, bacteria carry out a great many miracles that human beings are unable to, and the secrets of which they are even sometimes unable to penetrate. The role they play in the formation of oil clearly demonstrates this fact. |
Hubert Staudigel, of a team affiliated to the University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography, stated that the sea bed was covered with these bacteria, and that no location was without them.
These organisms that break down rocks contribute to the food chain in the sea by breaking down necessary chemical substances, performing a fundamental function in maintaining life at the bottom of the ocean.
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Bacteria in lakes are also responsible for preparing essential minerals and nutrients over the summer months. As plants and animals in lakes become active again, having lain dormant throughout the winter, all the minerals and nutrients they now require have been released by bacteria over the cold months. Over the winter, bacteria break down organic wastes—dead animals and plants and other waste products that sink to the bottom—into their component minerals. They thus clean the lakes of debris, while various mineral products collect at the lake bottoms.
38 When living things wake up in the spring, they find their nutrients ready and available.
Bacteria perform not only a kind of spring cleaning, but prepare sufficient food for the life that re-awakens every spring. Allah, Who has unconditional mercy on all the living things He creates, has made bacteria responsible for sustaining the countless different species in lakes.
Bacteria are quite unaware of the benefits they impart to other organisms, nor do the living things that come to life again in spring wonder as to the origin of their nutrients. They merely submit to Allah, their Creator.
Perhaps the most valuable commodity that underground bacteria help isolate is gold. 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) beneath the surface, these bacteria live in veins of gold and work like alchemists secretly manufacturing gold. As they feed on rocks, they accelerate the sedimentation of microscopic particles of gold under the ground.
39 This process is very slow; in fact, the vital functions of bacteria underground are much slower than those of bacteria on the surface. A normal bacterium divides every 3 to 4 hours, whereas these underground bacteria divide once every 100 years! These organisms can live for millions of years without having any contact with the surface
40 —major evidence that these bacteria in question were specially created to refine gold, an instructive phenomenon that shows Allah's flawless Creation. Bacteria change their rate of reproduction according to their environment. Certainly no single-celled creature behaves in a conscious manner. It is Allah, the Omniscient, the Most Intelligent of all intelligent beings, Who inspires their behavior and calculations.
Bacteria in Beneficial Symbiotic Relationships With Other Living Things
By entering the bodies of a great many living things, including human beings, bacteria provide direct or indirect advantages for life. They even serve a purpose in the digestive systems of termites, some of the smallest insects that can be seen with the naked eye. Termites cannot digest cellulose on their own. They need bacteria to help them in this process, and there are some 2.7 million bacteria in the stomach of a single termite.
41 In the same way, bacteria also permit ruminants—cows and other four-footed ungulates—whose metabolisms are also unable to digest cellulose, to do so successfully.
Bacteria live everywhere in the healthy human body. According to various estimates, there are some 10 million bacteria on every square centimeter of human skin. For example, we know that 80 different species live on the tongue alone, and that the number of bacteria expelled from human body ranges between 100 billion and 100 trillion. Some 10 billion organisms live on a square centimeter of the human intestine.
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Professor of microbiology Mark Pallen, of Queen's University in Belfast, says this about the bacteria in the healthy human body:
There are some 80 different species in the mouth alone. Research performed at the Jouy-en-Josas Ecology and Physiology Laboratory in France revealed 80 kinds of bacteria in the intestines. It is difficult to give an exact figure for the micro-organisms living in the body, but we may say that some 200 kinds are involved in keeping the body healthy.
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This number of 200 that Mark Pallen cites is the number of species of microorganisms in the body. Their total numbers are in the millions. Each species of this enormous community possesses various functions in the body, of which we generally live completely unaware. But they are active every hour, every minute, on our behalf.
Many living things enjoy such symbiotic relationships with bacteria. Let us give a few examples.
You are not truly alone, even when you imagine yourself to be so. There is an entire teeming world that lives within and upon you, sharing your environment and your body. 
Selected parts from interviews by topic
