A Cell Needs a Membrane

Each cell is contained inside a two layer membrane made of lipids (fats).¹ Lipids are only formed by living cells. Here is a quote that we read earlier, when we were considering nucleotides, the building blocks of RNA and DNA. It is important here as well:

"Though a few organic substances-for instance, certain simple amino acids-can form relatively easily under prebiotic conditions, other biochemical building blocks, such as nucleotides and lipids, require for their synthesis a 'real factory.' … The synthesis of these substances involves a series of reactions, each reaction following the previous one in utmost accuracy."²

Cells can't live without lipids, and lipids are only produced by already living cells. This is important evidence for our wonderful Creator. What does the cell's membrane do?

Alberts writes:

"A living cell is a self-reproducing system of molecules held inside a container. The container is the plasma membrane - a fatty film so thin and transparent that it cannot be seen directly in the light microscope. It is simple in construction, being based on a sheet of lipid molecules…. Although it serves as a barrier to prevent the contents of the cell from escaping and mixing with the surrounding medium…the plasma membrane does much more than that. Nutrients have to pass inward across it if the cell is to survive and grow, and waste products have to pass outward. Thus the membrane is penetrated by highly selective channels and pumps, formed from protein molecules, that allow specific substances to be imported while others are exported."³

A lipid membrane without its protein pumps and channels would let water enter the cell, but would keep nutrients out, starving the cell,⁴ so proteins had to work together with the lipids from the first. This is evidence of carefully planned irreducible complexity.

If cells had really formed by themselves, we would expect their important parts to be made of substances that are easily formed under natural conditions. Amazing! Not one of the four: lipids, proteins, RNA, or DNA, can be formed in nature except by a living cell, yet for a cell to live, all four must be up and running, each one doing its job.

If God had wanted to shout to us that He is here, and show us proof that He created, can you think of a better way for Him to do it? Run, don't walk, to the nearest Bible and get to know your awesome Creator personally through His Son, Jesus Christ! Start with the book of John.

©2003 by Thomas F. Heinze Reproduced by permission

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