Can Life Arise by Chance?

If there is no Creator, life must have started of itself. Many think that it did. But does increasing knowledge support this view?

ANCIENT Egyptians saw scarab beetles suddenly appear out of the ground, and believed them to be self-produced. The Encyclopedia Americana says: “Tremendous numbers of scarabs were often found on the surface of the mudbanks along the Nile River, and this supported the belief in spontaneous generation.” (Vol. 24, p. 336, 1977 edition) But what really happened? Female beetles rolled up a ball of dung, laid eggs in it, and buried it. The eggs hatched, the larvae fed on the dung, and later emerged as beetles. There was no spontaneous generation after all.

The Greek philosophers taught spontaneous generation of life. In the fifth century B.C.E. both Anaxagoras and Empedocles believed in it. A century later Aristotle thought that worms and snails were products of putrefaction. As late as the 17th century C.E., men of science, such as Francis Bacon and William Harvey, taught spontaneous generation.

However, in that same century Redi showed that maggots appeared in meat only after flies laid eggs on it. Bacteria were discovered, and they were hailed as proof of spontaneous generation, until in the 18th century Spallanzani showed that they came from spores. A century later Pasteur settled matters. He proved that life comes only from life. Men of science now accept that view but many insist that life arose spontaneously some two or three thousand million years ago.

CHEMICAL EVOLUTION, THE LATEST SPECULATION

Many scientists believe that a primitive atmosphere of methane, ammonia, water vapor, carbon dioxide and a few other gases was bombarded by ultraviolet rays, thus breaking the molecules into atoms, which recombined to form amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. These and other organic compounds, we are told, agglomerated in water, acquired a membrane and became a living cell; this derived its energy perhaps first from methane, later from fermentation. Still later, it is said, the cell had to “invent” the process of photosynthesis. But could a simple cell really produce and sustain itself in this way? Why, even the finest scientists will admit humbly that they cannot understand photosynthesis completely, much less duplicate it!

SOME PITFALLS

Many scientists have theorized that the cell evolved spontaneously in this way. But the pitfalls for their theory are many, and very, very deep!

First pitfall: It is a bold assumption that earth’s primitive atmosphere contained the necessary gases in the right proportions to start the chain of reactions. There is no evidence to support this.

Second pitfall: If such an atmosphere did exist, and if the amino acids were produced, they would be destroyed by the same source of energy that split the methane and ammonia and water vapor. Amino acids are very complex molecules; therefore they are less stable and more easily destroyed​—just as it is easier to topple a stack of 10 bricks than a stack of three. Formed high in the atmosphere, such amino acids could hardly survive to reach water on earth, and, if they did, they would not endure here long enough to become concentrated into the “soup” of the evolutionary theory. The following excerpts from an article by Dr. D. E. Hull in the May 28, 1960, scientific magazine Nature confirm this:

“These short lives for decomposition in the atmosphere or ocean clearly preclude the possibility of accumulating useful concentrations of organic compounds over eons of time. . . . the highest admissible value seems hopelessly low as starting material for the spontaneous generation of life. . . . The conclusion from these arguments presents the most serious obstacle, if indeed it is not fatal, to the theory of spontaneous generation. First, thermodynamic calculations predict vanishingly small concentrations of even the simplest organic compounds. Secondly, the reactions that are invoked to synthesize such compounds are seen to be much more effective in decomposing them.”

In an experiment, when scientists subjected a carefully prepared gas mixture to a electrical discharge, a few of the simplest amino acids did accumulate, but only because they were quickly removed from the area. If these amino acids had been left exposed to the discharge, the situation could be compared to what would happen if one man is making bricks and another is hitting them with a hammer as soon as they are formed. It takes several hundred amino acids linked together in correct sequence in a chain to make an average protein, and it takes several hundred different proteins to make the simplest of organisms. So in our analogy of the man making bricks: he must cement together hundreds of bricks in a string, and accumulate hundreds of these strings of hundreds​—and do all of this while the other man is wildly swinging his hammer! This is still grossly oversimplified, for it takes much more than a chain of amino acids to make a living organism.

MORE PITFALLS

Third pitfall: When amino acids are formed at random they come in two forms that are chemically the same but one is a “right-handed” molecule and the other a “left-handed” molecule. They are all mixed together, in about equal numbers of each kind. But in living organisms only “left-handed” amino acids are used. So returning to our illustration, the man making bricks makes two kinds, red and blue, and accumulates a pile containing millions of bricks, reds and blues mixed together. (Of course, we must assume that the hammer swinger has been eliminated, just as evolutionists assume that the destructive ultraviolet rays have been removed from the action.) Now a monstrous shovel gouges into the pile of millions of red and blue bricks and scoops out several hundred thousand bricks, and, by chance, every one of them is a red brick! In the same way, by chance, every one of the hundreds of thousands of amino acids, and sometimes millions, forming a one-celled living organism must be “left-handed,” even though taken from a mixture containing millions of others that are “right-handed.”

Fourth pitfall: It is not enough to get the right kind in sufficient quantity. Each of the 20 different kinds of amino acids must link up in the protein chain in the correct sequence. If one amino acid is out of place, the organism may be crippled or killed. So the huge shovel must, not only scoop up all red bricks, but also drop each one of them into its proper place!

Fifth pitfall: The cell membrane is formed from membranous tissue. Evolutionists theorize that a film of water around a glob of proteins became a membrane, or that fatty globules enveloped proteins and became a cell membrane. The membrane is extremely complex, made up of sugar, protein and fatty molecules, and governs what substances can or cannot enter and leave the cell. Not all of its intricacies are understood. Bernal says, in The Origin of Life: ‘What we lack still, as mentioned earlier, is a plausible model for the origin of fats.” (Page 145) Without the fats there could be no membrane; without the membrane, no living organisms.

IMPOSSIBILITIES NO DETERRENT

There are literally thousands of pitfalls for the evolutionary theory, en route from a primitive atmosphere, bombarded by lightning or radiation, to a one-celled living organism able to reproduce itself. Every competent scientist knows this. He knows that the many speculations advanced to evade these pitfalls are inadequate. Laws governing energy and matter declare impossible the spontaneous generation of life. Mathematical laws of probability doom its chances.

The simplest known self-reproducing organism (H39 strain of Mycoplasma) has 625 proteins averaging 400 amino acids each. However, some contend that, theoretically, one might get by with 124 such proteins. What are the chances of one of these proteins of 400 “left-handed” amino acids forming from a mixture of both “right-” and “left-handed” ones? One chance in 10¹²⁰ (1 followed by 120 zeros).

However, for this nonexistent cell 124 proteins are needed. What are the chances of spontaneously forming that many, all from “left-handed” molecules? One chance in 10^14,880. But these amino acids cannot be tied together just indiscriminately; they must be in the right sequence. To get these 124 proteins, averaging 400 “left-handed” amino acids each, with the acids in the correct sequence, the chances are 1 in 10^79,360. If we wrote out this last number in full (1 followed by 79,360 zeros), it would take about 20 pages of this magazine to do it! Dr. Emil Borel, an authority on probabilities, says that if there is less than a 1 in 10⁵⁰ chance for something to happen, it will never happen, no matter how much time is allowed. And that number could be written in less than two of these lines.

Prominent evolutionists know the problems. Some try to push them into outer space. British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle said that ‘existing terrestrial theories of the origin of life are highly unsatisfactory for sound chemical reasons,’ and that ‘life did not originate on earth itself but, rather, on comets.’ Others grit their teeth and believe in spite of the lack of evidence. Nobel-Prize-winning biologist Dr. George Wald stated: “One only has to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are​—as a result I believe, of spontaneous generation.” On his own admission, he believes in the impossible. This kind of reasoning is comparable to that of an earlier biologist, D. H. Watson, who said that evolution was “universally accepted not because it can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.”

ARE YOU GULLIBLE OR LOGICAL?

Having no other foundation, writers on evolution stoop to the tyranny of authority: ‘All scientists of consequence believe it; no reputable biologist doubts it; informed persons don’t question it; all intelligent persons accept it; only those with religious prejudice reject it; it has been proved many times over; no further proof is needed now.’ So, on and on go the pressuring and the brainwashing.

You, however, should investigate it for yourself. Then, decide for yourself. Your life could depend on your decision. And consider this: You could jump off a 20-story building. Just before you hit the street a sudden, terrific gust of wind catches you and whisks you back up onto the top of the building. Is that likely? It is very unlikely. Do not count on it. But it is far more likely than that a living organism would form spontaneously! Do not count on that either!

The Bible says at Psalm 36:9: “With you [God] is the source of life.” It is gullible to believe that life arose by chance. It is logical to believe that it was created by an intelligent God, as the following article shows.

“Perceived by the Things Made”

If crude stone tools prove the existence of a designer, with far greater force do not living creatures of intricate design declare the existence of a wise and powerful Creator?

IF THERE is a rockslide in the mountains, we expect to see a jumble of boulders where it comes to rest at the bottom. We would not believe our eyes if all the boulders came to rest in the form of a beautiful rock house​—for a house requires design and purposeful work. And there is no design without a designer, or purposeful work without an intelligent worker. This agrees with the Bible’s statement at Hebrews 3:4: “Every house is constructed by someone.”

A scientist digs in the rubble of the earth and finds a round, oblong stone that is smooth and has a groove circling the middle. He has no doubt but that it was shaped by a primitive man. He is convinced that it was attached to a stick by a leather thong and used as a hammer or a weapon. Similarly, he finds a flat stone with a sharp edge and is sure that it was made by a “Stone Age” man for use as a knife or a scraper. Or, a small piece of sharp flint shaped like an arrowhead convinces him that it was designed by man to use on the tip of an arrow or a spear. Such purposeful, designed things, the scientist concludes, are not products of chance.

The work reflects the worker. These tools and weapons are crude. Hence, their makers are considered primitive, for apes do not make weapons, and those of modern man are of ingenious design. So the scientist places the man who made the stone items in a stone age, and speculates that his appearance and brainpower must be somewhere between ape and modern man. Hence, he envisions a stoop-shouldered, low-browed, shuffling, hairy ape-man. This one’s creations reflect more purpose and design than the stick the ape might pick up, but far less than the things modern man creates. The scientist sees the worker through his works, and judges his qualities from his works.

THEY ABANDON THEIR OWN LOGIC

However, when it comes to the teeming plant and animal life found on the earth, most scientists reverse themselves on their view that design requires a designer. Of far greater complexity than crude stone tools are the simplest of organisms. Yes, even the single-celled protozoan cannot be considered simple. For within that single cell it has the capacity for performing all the body functions that are cared for by the many organs of a vertebrate. In itself it is a complex organism. Evolutionary scientists insist that such complex organisms had no designer but popped into existence by chance. In comparison to the protozoan’s producing itself spontaneously, it would be easy for crude stone tools to be formed by a landslide or a rushing stream, or even simplicity itself for a rock house to be built by an avalanche of boulders!

When it comes to the most complexly designed creations in the universe, is it emotional prejudice that causes many intelligent persons to abandon their logical rule that purposeful work reflects the qualities of an intelligent worker? The Bible agrees with their rule, but they shy away from the Bible’s application of it: “His invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship.” (Rom. 1:20) They would never accept chance as the maker of a crude stone tool, but they readily embrace it as the creator not only of protozoa but of all life on earth, man included! They balk at perceiving in these marvels of design the great Designer and Creator of the universe. Consider a few of such wonders. Ponder whether blind chance has the qualities that they reflect.

THE SOIL BENEATH YOUR FEET

On the third creative day Jehovah said: “Let the dry land appear.” (Gen. 1:9) This opened the way for land plants. But for these plants to thrive there must be the marvel of the soil. The soil? Is that a marvel? Is it not one of the commonest things on the face of the earth? Truly, it is. However, the soil is a vital resource, and today there is concern as its erosion causes dust bowls and spreading deserts. It has often taken thousands of years for rocks to turn into fertile soil. They undergo weathering; fungi settle and germinate, sending out shoots that enmesh algae, and thus fungi and algae unite to become lichens. Lichens grow on the surface of rocks, disintegrate them, build up a thin soil that will support mosses, and the mosses, in turn, live and die and make more soil that eventually will support seedlings. Erosive forces move these soils into locations where they accumulate to depths that will support higher forms of plants, and ultimately trees.

As plants shed leaves and die, bacteria cause decay, and rich organic soils are created. Microbes break down these organic compounds into the simple nutrients needed by plants. Although we speak of solid ground, many soils are far from solid, for they are filled with air, water and multitudes of living things. An ounce of soil particles may have surfaces that would cover six acres (2.4 hectares). In temperate regions, a teaspoonful of soil may contain over 5,000,000,000 living organisms! Each one is a marvel of design and purpose and all together are needed before “the land itself will give its yield.” (Ezek. 34:27) Is the soil something merely to be trampled on? Without it there would be no life on earth!

NAVIGATORS BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION

To escape cold seasons and to find food, many birds migrate. Their navigational skills are awesome and still defy complete understanding. In the northern hemisphere when the cold starts, how do they know that warm weather and food lie south, and not east or west? And when returning in the spring, how do they know to fly north? Different hormones released in their blood tell them. Some birds migrate hundreds of miles, others thousands, to the same locality they left six months earlier. Terns and plovers make one-way trips of about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers). Young birds make the trip alone for the first time. As late as the Middle Ages naturalists refused to believe that birds migrated, but concocted fantastic explanations for appearances and disappearances in spring and fall. But as early as the seventh century before Christ, the Bible spoke of migrations: “Even the stork in the heavens​—it well knows its appointed times; and the turtledove and the swift and the bulbul​—they observe well the time of each one’s coming in.”​—Jer. 8:7.

Even after migration was accepted for big birds, naturalists argued that small ones crossed oceans by hitching rides on the backs of larger ones. But the little blackpoll warbler, like many other midgets, does it on his own. He leaves Alaska in the fall, travels in stages to the New England coast, waits for the right weather, then takes off over the Atlantic and flies from three to five days to the northeastern coast of South America. Nonstop, for days, over 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers) of ocean, by a bird weighing less than three quarters of an ounce! What awesome computer is in that tiny head that tells time, computes the movement of the sun, uses the stars, orients all of this to a map of his destination, and even enables the bird to arrive safely if skies are overcast? Can anyone, deep within himself, really believe that chance created this little blackpoll warbler?

Studies with homing pigeons have revealed another guidance system available to birds. Carried in a dark box by circuitous routes and released 600 miles (960 kilometers) from their home coop, they return home in one day. If the sun is shining, they use their guidance system. But they can also return on overcast days or during the night. They sense the earth’s magnetic field and use it as a guidance system. A flock was released; half the birds had magnets tied to their backs, and this distorted the earth’s magnetic field and made it useless. On a sunny day the entire flock returned safely. However, on an overcast day the ones without magnets returned but those with the attached magnets circled at random. For years it was thought impossible for any creature to sense earth’s magnetic field; it is so weak. Now scientists know that it is sensed not only by birds but also by honeybees. Recent experiments seem to suggest that even some snails are sensitive to it.

Not only birds migrate but whales, seals, turtles, eels, crabs, fish, butterflies and caribou do also. However, with some sleepyheads, hibernation is preferred for escaping the rigors of winter. The small 13-lined ground squirrel illustrates some of the remarkable physiological changes that occur in hibernators. Body temperature drops to within a few degrees of the cold outside the den. The heart beats only once or twice a minute. When active, this squirrel may breathe a few hundred times a minute, but in hibernation it takes a slow breath once every five minutes. Yet its blood remains saturated with oxygen, and little-used muscles retain their tone. What triggers its decision to sleep in fall and wake up in spring? Not just weather. A chemical released in the blood starts it hibernating, and another causes it to wake up. By the use of such chemicals scientists have made hibernators enter their long sleep in midsummer.

Concerning such wonders, Job admitted: “I talked, but I was not understanding things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.”​—Job 42:3.

A MISCELLANY OF INGENIOUS DESIGNS

Remember the crude stone tool that could not just happen? Keep it in mind for comparison as you decide whether the following could just happen.

Most persons know that the chameleon can shoot its tongue out several inches to pick off insects. But do you know how this creature does it? Lying horizontally in the back of its mouth is a cone-shaped bone, the point forward. At its base the long, hollow tongue is anchored. Long muscles hold the tongue, pleated like accordion bellows, compressed around this bone. At the tip of the tongue are sphincter muscles that rest at the point of the bone. The chameleon’s turret eyes, turning individually, spot an insect within range. The long muscles contract powerfully and hold the tongue over the bone like a compressed spring. Then the sphincter muscles surrounding the tip of the slippery bone suddenly tighten and, as they do, the long muscles compressing the “spring” relax, and the tongue shoots out. The insect is stuck on the gluey tip and the long, limp tongue is slowly drawn in. The action is like a boy shooting prune pits or slippery watermelon seeds from between thumb and forefinger; only in this case the slippery bone stays put and the tongue tip applying the pressure shoots out. Such an ingenious design certainly needs a designer.

The bombardier beetle uses explosives to deter predators. Three chemicals secreted by glands are stored in a reservoir. When an enemy approaches, a valve opens to let the chemicals into a strong-walled compartment. There an enzyme causes them to explode and a noxious mist shoots out of a turret that can aim in any direction. The beetle can explode repeatedly, dozens of times in minutes, with an audible “pop” each time. The enemy retreats, sometimes with seizures. This beetle has a laboratory, makes explosives, and uses them purposefully. It is an appalling little bomb factory!

The whirligig beetle has bifocal eyes to see above and below pond water, but that is the least of its marvels. It can fly, crawl, walk on water or submerge. When doing the latter, it takes along an air bubble that acts like a lung. It receives carbon dioxide wastes from the beetle and puts them into the water, and transfers oxygen from the water to the beetle. The creature can stay under water for hours. The beetle’s underparts like water, but the upper parts, including the upper halves of the compound eyes, are kept greased by glands so that water is repelled. It darts rapidly about in all directions on the surface film of the water, setting up bow waves as it does so. When these ripples hit the bank, or objects on the surface film​—maybe another whirligig or an edible insect—​they are reflected back. With two antennae held at the surface of the water, the beetle monitors their messages about its surroundings. It catches food and avoids collisions as hundreds of its fellows join it in darting erratically about, all making waves, but each one monitoring only its own. The system works day or night. The whirligig beetle does with water waves what bats do with sound waves​—what a computer encased in that tiny head!

“NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN”

People look at technical accomplishments and admire human inventors. They look at the same principles employed purposefully by living creatures and say that it just happened. For the most part human inventors are really adapters. It has been done before, as Solomon said: “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9) In the book Bionics, by Daniel Halacy, Jr., we read on page 19:

“A commercial airplane was marketed with a wing curve patterned after that of a bird. A rubber company was experimenting with a streamlining artificial ‘skin’ for boats, copied after that of marine mammals. A new ground-speed indicator for planes was patterned on the eye of a beetle, and a better TV camera simulated the mechanism of the eye of the horseshoe crab.”

Men pore over the creations of Jehovah God to discover their ingenious workings and adapt them to human inventions. It reminds us of the words of Job 12:7-9: “Ask, please, the domestic animals, and they will instruct you; also the winged creatures of the heavens, and they will tell you. Or show your concern to the earth, and it will instruct you; and the fishes of the sea will declare it to you. Who among all these does not well know that the hand of Jehovah itself has done this?” Inventors appreciate receiving credit for their clever adaptations, but so often they deny recognition to the One who “in wisdom” originated everything.​—Ps. 104:24.

The Bible speaks of the harvester ant at Proverbs 6:8: “It prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest.” For centuries the existence of ants that harvested and stored grain was doubted, but in 1871 a British naturalist discovered their granaries. Ants also tend crops, have slaves and keep livestock. Termites air-condition their nests, as bees do their hives. By a dance in the dark, honeybees also show others where nectar is, in what direction and how far. Insects display amazing abilities that men cannot duplicate. “They are instinctively wise,” as the Bible says, created so by Jehovah God.​—Prov. 30:24.

“Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink,” the saying goes about the ocean. But some seabirds have glands that desalt seawater. Some fish and eels generate electricity, up to 400 volts. Many fish, worms and insects produce cold light, to the envy of scientists whose own lights lose energy to heat. Bats and dolphins use sonar, wasps make paper, ants build bridges, beavers make dams, certain snakes have thermometers sensitive to a change in temperature of a thousandth of a degree Celsius. Pond insects use snorkels and diving bells, octopuses use jet propulsion, spiders spin seven kinds of webs, make trapdoors, nets, lassos, and have babies that are balloonists traveling thousands of miles at great heights. A female moth sprays a perfume that a male six miles (10 kilometers) away can detect if only one molecule of it touches his antennae. Salmon return to the stream of their birth, after spending years in the open sea, because each one remembers the characteristic smell of its home stream and can detect it as it swims in coastal waters.

Jehovah called Job’s attention to His many creative wonders. What was Job’s response? It was this: “I have come to know that you are able to do all things, and there is no idea that is unattainable for you.”​—Job 42:2.

It is impossible for such amazing design to exist without a designer. Evolutionists claim that ‘natural selection and survival of the fittest’ is the designer. But the problem is the arrival of the fittest, not the survival. You cannot select until there is a choice available. You cannot build a house before building materials arrive. As the Bible says: “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.” The evidence is everywhere. Many who see an ape-man reflected by a crude stone tool cannot perceive God’s qualities mirrored by all his amazing works. “They are inexcusable.” (Rom. 1:20) But let us have ‘eyes that see’ Jehovah’s existence as reflected in his creative works.​—Matt. 13:14-16.

[Picture on page 11]

CHAMELEON

hyoid bone

sphincter muscles

hyoid muscles

central bone

sticky tongue holds insects

[Picture on page 12]

bombardier beetle

[Picture on page 13]

Navigation, sonar, jet propulsion, gardening, communication​—who did it first?

The Human Brain​—Three Pounds of Mystery

Who would argue that a building could build itself, or a television set manufacture itself, or a computer design and program itself? It takes brains to do these things. Yet some argue that brains just happened. Is the human brain simpler than buildings, television sets and computers?

DAVID gazed at the starry vault above and saw the message reflected there: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.” He was awed by their immensity and wondered why God would be mindful of insignificant man: “When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man that you keep him in mind, and the son of earthling man that you take care of him?” Yet when David contemplated his own body he again marveled: “I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, as my soul is very well aware.”​—Pss. 19:1; 8:3, 4; 139:14.

What a contrast with men today! David was overwhelmed by God’s majestic power when he saw some 2,000 stars. Today men discern some hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, estimate a hundred billion other galaxies in the universe (each with billions of stars), yet deny the existence of a Creator. David marveled at the intricate design of his own body and lauded Jehovah. Today men know far more about the body’s wonders, but attribute it all to blind evolution. They are ever learning but seem unable to come to the knowledge of the truth declared by their discoveries, namely, that it takes a wise and powerful Creator to bring into existence such marvels of design.

The Scientific American magazine noted this design and said: “It almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.” The magazine attributed this preparation for us to “the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit.” However, it was not the universe but Jehovah God who knew that we were coming, and through no accidents he prepared the earth and its immediate heavens for us. No doubt we feel as David did when we view the grandeur of the earth and the vast expanse of the heavens​—small and insignificant. But when Jehovah tells us that the earth was made for man, that he expects man to be its caretaker, and that he has equipped man with the ability to meet this responsibility, then we need not feel that our smallness disqualifies us from being worthy of his attention.​—Gen. 1:14-18, 26-28; 2:15; Isa. 45:18.

THREE POUNDS OF MYSTERY

The greatest of God’s gifts to equip us to care for the earth is a gray, mushy substance slightly larger than a grapefruit. Its preciousness is emphasized by its protected location. It is enveloped by three membranes and practically floats in a cushioning fluid, and all of this is encased in solid bone​—the skull. It is what sets us apart from unreasoning animals and imparts to us the possibility of being in the image and likeness of God. We think, learn, feel, dream and remember with it​—but we cannot understand it. In spite of all the intensive scientific research to fathom its workings, it remains a mystery. British physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington wrote: “The brain is a mystery; it has been and still will be. How does the brain produce thoughts? That is the central question and we have still no answer to it.” The noted anthropologist Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote: “To my mind, the human brain is the most marvelous and mysterious object in the whole universe.”

The nervous system is of awesome complexity. Its cells are called neurons and extend throughout the body. Some are only a fraction of an inch in length; others are several feet long. The longest connects the brain with the big toe. The electrochemical impulses carrying messages to and from the brain travel from 2 to 200 miles (3.2 to 320 kilometers) an hour. The larger nerves are composed of thousands of fibers, the optic nerve having some million fibers, each carrying a separate message. The autonomic nervous system directs, without one’s conscious thought, the workings of organs, circulatory system, membranes and many muscles, such as those having to do with breathing, swallowing and the peristaltic movements in the intestines.

The brain itself has 10 billion neurons and 100 billion glia cells that form supportive structures and probably have nutritional functions. The neurons of the brain are active day and night, even during sleep, and use up energy at a high rate. In each cell the energy is derived from the oxidation of glucose. The brain is motionless, neither contracts nor grows, and is only 2 percent of the body’s weight. And yet, to keep functioning, it must receive 20 percent of the blood pumped from the heart; it requires 25 percent of the blood’s oxygen supply. If it is deprived of blood for 15 seconds, consciousness is lost; if for four minutes, irreversible brain damage may occur. Its electrical activity can be measured and recorded on paper as wavy lines, called brain waves, and this recording is called an electroencephalogram, or EEG.

The higher thought processes of the brain are centered in the cerebrum, with its various lobes, and is divided into a right and a left side. The left brain controls the right side of the body, is generally the dominant one, and is the center of logic, verbal abilities and the data processing of the millions of bits of information pouring into the brain every second. The right brain controls the left side of the body, and it is devoted to the creative and intuitive activities of the mind. But if one side of the cerebrum fails at a young age, the other side takes over most of its functions. The brain is considered to be underutilized; it has a potential for making geniuses out of plain, ordinary folk.

MESSAGES, THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS

“The hearing ear and the seeing eye​—Jehovah himself has made even both of them.” (Prov. 20:12) The ear receives sound waves and turns them into electrical triggers that touch off impulses in the auditory nerve. When they reach the hearing area of the brain, they are interpreted as sounds, and thoughts are created. Light enters the eye, and rods and cones turn this light into electrical triggers that set impulses moving along the optic nerve to the brain, where they become scenes that stimulate thinking. Similarly, Jehovah has provided sensory nerve receptors in the nose and mouth and skin that turn smells and tastes and touches and heat into electrical triggers. These send impulses to the brain, which, in turn, analyzes the messages thus received, and decides on the appropriate responses to make.

The neurons or nerve cells have on one end dendrites that spread out like the branches on a tree; the other end is a long thread called an axon. The dendrites pick up the impulses and send them along the axon, which passes them on to the dendrites of the next neuron. But axon and dendrites never touch. There is a tiny gap 1/500th as narrow as a human hair that must be bridged as the impulses race on from neuron to neuron until they reach the brain. These gaps, or synapses as they are called, are bridged usually by chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters. The messages do not travel to and from the brain like electricity in a wire. They are electrochemical in nature, travel in impulses that vary in frequencies depending on the intensity of the stimulus, and do not need to be pushed along by an outside source of power as electricity in a wire does. Each neuron is like a small battery, is its own power source, and the intensity or power of the impulse is constant all the way to or from the brain. There are no losses along the way.

The data-processing abilities of the brain defy understanding. Imagine what must be going on in the brain of the conductor of a great symphony orchestra! There are conductors who have memorized the scores for 50 or 100 instruments. As the orchestra plays, and hundreds of notes a second with their various frequencies are pouring into the conductor’s brain, he is comparing them with his memory patterns. If one of the many instruments plays a wrong note, he detects it! Or consider a concert pianist playing a difficult score with all fingers flying! What an amazing kinematic sense his brain must have, to order the exact spacial relationship of the fingers, so that they strike the right keys to match the notes in his memory!

The networks of interconnections among the 10 billion neurons in the brain reach such astronomical numbers as to be incomprehensible, meaningless. The latest research shows not only connections between axons and dendrites but also connections between axon and axon, and microcircuits between the dendrites themselves. The following quotations provide further information.

“Of the many billions of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, by far the great majority are utilized in associative memory. These cells are linked together in chains by billions of association fibers. These cells and fibers may be reused indefinitely; each time they are used, impulses cross their synapses with greater ease. Memories stored in some cells can thus associate with those stored in others, and new impressions can be compared with memories of previous impressions. Thus logical conclusions can be reached and these can further result in creative thinking.”​—Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 4, p. 423, 1977 edition.

“The brain weighs less than three pounds, yet a computer capable of handling a single brain’s output would cover the entire earth. The brain sorts one hundred million bits of data from the eyes, ears, nose and other sensory outposts each second, yet uses far less electricity than an average light bulb. . . . Since each neuron contains some two hundred thousand synapses along its numerous leaf points, and there are billions of neurons, the synapses provide the brain with an almost limitless flexibility.”​—Mainliner Magazine, March 1978, pp. 43, 44.

A thought, if strong enough, produces a feeling. The feeling, if strong enough, causes an action. You think of Jehovah’s creations, you feel gratitude, you serve him. You think of a loved one in danger, you feel fear, you take action to save him. Evil thoughts work the same way. When someone looks at a woman with adulterous thoughts, desire grows; adultery may be committed. Both Jesus and the disciple James confirm this: “Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin.” (Jas. 1:14, 15; Matt. 5:27, 28) Sensory nerves to the brain produce feelings. For example, there are pleasure centers in the brain that, when stimulated with electrodes, produce pleasure. When stimulated by electrodes other emotional centers produce rage, fear or peace. Cats thus stimulated can be made to cringe in fear at the sight of a mouse. Rats with electrodes in one spot feel rage; in another spot, feel pleasure. Pedals have been wired up so that rats, on pressing them, stimulate their pleasure centers. They pressed these pedals up to 5,000 times an hour, ignoring food and sex and sleep until they dropped from sheer exhaustion!

MANY MYSTERIES REMAIN

Much has been learned about the brain, but far more remains a mystery. By the use of electrodes, areas of the cerebral cortex have been mapped out, showing what functions are performed and where. Some false beliefs have been removed, such as phrenology​—the study of “character traits” by feeling bumps on the head. The shape of the skull is not determined by the shape of the cerebrum, nor is it possible to assign “character traits” to specific areas of the brain.

However, it is not known how the tips of nerves at sensory receptors turn the stimuli they receive into electrical triggers. It is not known how memory works. It is not known how thought arises from electrochemical impulses, or how decisions are reached, or how responses sent out on the motor nerves are initiated. Even the transmissions of impulses along the neurons are not completely understood. Beyond our understanding is how these electrical impulses cause dreams, the writing of poems, the composing of music​—or, for that matter, cause consciousness itself to exist!

Have you considered the magnitude of brainwork required for acts that we take for granted​—walking, talking, eating, swimming, riding a bicycle, or catching a baseball? A beginner weaves around under a high fly ball, and it usually lands several feet from him. In contrast, the professional takes off at the crack of the bat. The sound of the bat on the ball tells him how hard it has been hit, his eye notes its trajectory and speed, and his brain computes the general area where it will land. He races in that direction, but, as he runs, his computer brain is making continuous calculations to pinpoint the spot where he must be to catch it. Is there a wind? How strong is it? Is it pushing the ball to the right or the left? Is it slowing the ball down, or carrying it farther? Must he change direction, run faster or slower? Is the ground uneven, is there a hole to be avoided, is another fielder coming up to catch it, and should he let him have it or wave him off?

All these things he must note, yet never take his eye off the ball! To do so would “unplug his computer,” and he would miss the catch. There is no time consciously to make these many calculations and decisions. The player’s mind and muscles, trained by experiences recorded in his memory, perform automatically because his brain has been programmed by practice to do it all. How he came to have the ability to catch a baseball is in itself a mystery!

Can the intelligence of the brain be attributed to chance, as so many scientists now do? They are very inconsistent when they consider chance. They talk of beaming radio signals to stars to establish communication with a distant civilization on a hypothetical planet. How would those distant receivers recognize the signals as coming from an intelligent source and not being just chance? They might carry simple arithmetic equations, such as two times three equals six. This can be done easily. Or, the signals could be far more complicated, but having an order that would convey information, perhaps even make a picture of a man. Certainly if one of our big radio telescopes probing deep space picked up such a pictorial message scientists would never doubt that it originated from an intelligent source. Yet this is so simple compared to the brain, and far more simple than the single cell in the womb that can make not only a brain but a complete human creature! Is it consistent to say that the brain can just happen, that the cell in the womb can just happen, but that patterned radio signals prove beyond doubt that an intelligent source is behind them? Such a question needs no answer.

While conversing on the nature of God, the universe and man, Albert Einstein suddenly looked up at the sky and said: “We know nothing about it at all. Our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren.” He was asked: “Do you think that we shall ever probe the secret?” He replied: “Possibly we shall know a little more than we do now. But the real nature of things​—that we shall never know, never.”

Both Einstein and David were awed by the mysteries of the night sky and man. And we continue to be awed by that three pounds of mystery encased inside our skulls​—the human brain.