PIPERINE Piperine is the active component of white and black pepper (the berries of the tropical vine Piper nigrum). Black pepper is obtained by allowing the unripe fruit to ferment and then drying it. White pepper is obtained by removing the skins and pulp of the ripe berries and drying the seeds.1 Para-HYDROXYPHENOL -2-BUTANONE ve IONONE The mixture of these two molecules produces a very pleasant aroma. Butanone is the molecule chiefly responsible for the smell of ripe raspberries. The fresh new smell of the newly picked fruit is due partly to ionone, which is also responsible for the odours of sun-dried hay and violets. Ionone is the fragrant component of oil of violets.2 FURYLMETHANETHIOL This molecule is one of those responsible for the aroma of coffee. The stimulating action of coffee is due to caffeine. The colour of roasted coffee beans seen left is largely due to the browning reaction that occurs when organic substances containing nitrogen are heated. Temporarily trapped within the beans are the molecules responsible for flavour and stimulation.3 KERATIN Silk, the common name of b-Keratin, is the solidified fluid excreted by a number of insects and spiders, the most valuable being the exudent of the silkworm, the caterpillar of the silk moth. It is a polypeptide made largely from glycine, alanine, and smaller amounts of other amino acids. b-Keratin molecules do not form a helix; instead they lie on top of each other to give ridged sheets of linked amino acids, with glycine appearing on only one side of the sheets. The sheets then stack one on top of the other. This planar structure is felt when you touch the smooth surface of silk.4

The picture above belongs to an evil-smelling molecule and the one on the left to an aromatic molecule. As we can see, what distinguishes bad odour from a pleasant odour is these small differences in a microcosm which is invisible to us.

As for other living beings, some eat only grass and some different foodstuffs. Certainly, none of these smell good, or have a great taste. Even if they do, this does not mean much for these living beings as they do not have any consciousness in the sense that human beings have. We, too, could be feeding on a single type of nutrition like them. Have you ever thought how ordinary and tasteless your would life be if you had to eat a single type of food all your life and drink only water? Therefore, taste and smell, like all other blessings, are beauties Allah, possessor of infinite grace and bounty, gave man in return for nothing. The absence of even these two senses alone would make human life quite dull. In return for all these blessings given to him, what falls to man is to try to become a person with whom Allah would be pleased. In compensation for this attitude, his Lord promises him an eternal life, which is unlimitedly furnished with blessings far superior to those that are presented to us on the earth as samples of delights to come in the hereafter. However, the recompense of a life spent ungratefully, heedlessly, and neglectful of Allah, will certainly be a just one:

And when your Lord announced: "If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe." (Surah Ibrahim: 7)

How Do We Perceive Matter?

What we have told so far has revealed that what we call matter is not an entity having a specific colour, smell and form, as we believed it to be. What we imagine to be matter, that is our own body, our room, our home, and at large, the world and the whole universe, is in reality nothing but energy. What is it then that makes everything around us visible and touchable?

The reason why we perceive the things around us as matter is the collision of electrons in the orbital shells of atoms with photons, and the atoms' attracting and repelling each other.

You are not even touching the book that you think you hold in your hand right now… In truth, the atoms of your hand are repelling the atoms of the book and you feel a sense of touch depending on the intensity of this repulsion. As we mentioned while talking about the structure of atoms, they can come close to each other at most as much as the diameter of an atom. Besides, the only atoms that can come this close are those that react with each other. Therefore, when even atoms of the same substance can by no means touch each other, it is all the more impossible for us to touch the substance we hold, squeeze or lift with our hand. In fact, if we could come as close as possible to the object in our hand, we would be involved in a chemical reaction with that object. In this case, it would be impossible for a human being or another living being to survive even for a second. The living being would immediately react with the substance on which he stepped, sat or leaned, and be transformed into something else.

The final picture that emerges in this situation is extremely remarkable: we live in a world that is 99.95 % composed of a void filled with atoms consisting almost entirely of energy.5 We actually never touch the things we say, "we touch and we hold". So, to what extent do we perceive the matter we see, hear or smell? Are these substances really as we see or hear them? Absolutely not. We had addressed this point when we talked about electrons and molecules. Remember, it is literally impossible for us to see the matter we believe to exist and see, because the phenomenon we call seeing comprises certain images formed in our brain by photons coming from the sun, or from another light source, hitting the matter, which absorbs a certain portion of the incoming light, and gives out the rest, which therefore is re-emitted from the matter and strikes our eyes. That is to say that the matter we see only consists of the information carried by photons that are reflected to our eye. So, how much of the data related to matter is conveyed to us by this information? We have no proof that the original forms of the matters existing outside are fully reflected to us.

Up to here, we talked about atoms and how matter is created out of nothing. We said that atoms are the building blocks of everything whether animate or inanimate. It is important to note that atoms are building blocks of animate organisms as well as inanimate objects. Since atoms are inanimate particles, it is extremely astonishing for them to be the building blocks of living beings. This is also an issue evolutionists can never explain.

Just as it is impossible to imagine pieces of stone coming together to form living organisms, so is it impossible to imagine inanimate atoms by themselves coming together to form living organisms. Think about a lump of rock and a butterfly; one is inanimate, the other is animate. Yet, when we delve into their essences, we see that both are made up of the same sub-atomic particles.

The following example may be more explanatory regarding the impossibility of inanimate matter transforming by itself into animate matter: can aluminium fly? No. If we mix aluminium with plastic and gasoline, can it fly? Of course it still cannot. Only if we bring together these materials in a way so as to form an airplane, can they fly. So, what makes an airplane fly? Is it the wings? The engine? The pilot? None of these can fly by themselves. In fact, an airplane is manufactured by the assemblage in a special design of different pieces each of which has no ability to fly. The ability to fly is derived neither from aluminium, nor plastic, nor gasoline. The specifications of these substances are important, but the ability to fly can only be gained by bringing these substances together in a very special design. Living systems are no different. A living cell is formed by the arrangement of inanimate atoms in a very special design. Faculties of living cells, such as growth, reproduction and others, are results of perfect design rather than the properties of molecules. The design we find at this point is only Allah's creating the living from the dead:

Only Allah, the Almighty and the Wise can give life to an inanimate substance, that is, create a living being. Living systems have such complex structures that it is still not fully understood how they operate despite the technological facilities available today.

However, there is a reality that is understood by the help of the science that made outstanding progress accompanied by a powerful technology that advanced in a devastating way in the 20th century. Living beings have extremely complex structures. When the theory of evolution was advanced in the middle of the 19th century, scientific research conducted with primitive microscopes had then created the impression that the cell was just a simple lump of matter. In the 20th century, however, observation and research made by the use of advanced instruments and electron microscopes revealed that the cell, which is the building block of living things, has an extremely complex structure that could only have been formed as a result of perfect design. Most importantly, this research showed that it is absolutely impossible for life to arise spontaneously out of inanimate matter. The source of life is life alone. This fact has been proved experimentally, too.6

This is a problem evolutionists can never resolve. For this reason, instead of presenting scientific evidence, renowned evolutionary scientists, who are at a great impasse, tell tales which amount to nothing but window-dressing. They put forward totally illogical and unscientific claims that matter has a consciousness, ability and will of its own. Yet, they themselves do not believe these absurd tales either and they are eventually forced to confess that the main questions that need to be answered cannot be answered scientifically:

There was once a time before our life, when the Earth was barren and utterly desolate. Our world is now overflowing with life. How did it come about? How, in the absence of life, were carbon-based organic molecules made? How did the first living things arise? How did life evolve to produce beings as elaborate and complex as we, able to explore the mystery of our own origins?7

The outstanding evolutionary mystery now is how matter has originated and evolved, why it has taken its present form in the universe and on the earth, and why it is capable of forming itself into complex living sets of molecules.8

As the evolutionary scientist above confesses, the basic purpose of the theory of evolution is to deny that Allah created living beings. Although the Truth of Creation is obvious at every point of the universe and it has been definitively shown that each detail is the product of a design too perfect to have come about coincidentally, evolutionists turn a blind eye to this fact and flounder in intellectual vicious circles.

Instead of believing this truth, however, evolutionary scientists prefer talking about the talents of dead matter and how inanimate bodies have transformed themselves into animate organisms. While closing their eyes to the truth, these scientists unknowingly put themselves to shame. It is obvious that claiming that atoms have some kind of a gift and that they use this gift to transform themselves into animate systems has nothing to do with reason.

After reading the example we will now quote, you will decide for yourself how realistic these irrational tales are. This is the scenario evolutionists claim, describing the transformation of inanimate and unconscious atoms into animate organisms, and most significantly, into people with high levels of consciousness and intelligence.

After the Big Bang, atoms, containing precisely balanced forces, somehow brought themselves into being. While some of the atoms, adequate in number to form the whole universe, formed the stars and the planets, and some others the earth. Some of the atoms making up the earth initially formed the land and later on, suddenly decided to form living beings! These atoms first transformed themselves into cells with highly complex structures and then produced copies of the cells they formed by splitting into two, after which they started speaking and hearing. Subsequently, these atoms transformed into university professors viewing themselves under the electron microscope and claiming that they came into being coincidentally. Some atoms came together to form civil engineers who construct bridges and skyscrapers, while some others came together to manufacture satellites, space crafts and yet others specialised in the disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology. Atoms like carbon, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and iron came together to form, instead of a dark mass, perfect brains of exceptional complexity, the secrets of which have not yet been fully unravelled. These brains started seeing 3-dimensional images with a perfect resolution never yet achieved by any technology. Some of the atoms formed comedians and laughed at the jokes comedians made. Again, some atoms composed music and enjoyed listening to it.

It is possible to prolong this story but let us stop here and run an experiment to show that such a story can never be realised. Let evolutionists put atoms, as much as required of all elements forming life, into a barrel. Let them add in this barrel whatever they think necessary for these atoms to unite to form organic matter, and then let them wait. Let them wait for 100 years, 1000 years, and if necessary, for 100 million years transferring responsibility to wait from father to son. Will a professor emerge out of this barrel one day? Certainly not. Regardless of how long they wait, a professor will not come out of this barrel. Not only will there be no professor, but not even a single living being would come out of this barrel. No birds, fishes, butterflies, apples, elephants, roses, strawberries, oranges, violets, trees, ants, honeybees, nor even a single mosquito would come out, because even if millions of pieces of organic matter came together, they would not spontaneously acquire the characteristics of a living being.

Now, let us see whether unconscious atoms can spontaneously form the DNA molecule, the cornerstone of life, and proteins.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), which is located in the nucleus of the cell, contains the codes carrying the information of all organs and all characteristics of the body. This code is so complex that scientists were only able to translate it and then to a very limited extent as late as the 1940s. DNA, which contains all information on the living being it belongs to, is also able to reproduce itself. How a molecule formed by the assemblage of atoms can contain information and how it multiplies by copying itself remain one of the unanswered questions.

Proteins are the buildings blocks of living beings and they play a key role in many vital functions of the organism. For instance, haemoglobin transports oxygen everywhere in our body, antibodies render harmless microbes entering the body, and enzymes help us to digest the food we eat and convert it into energy. The formulae found in our DNA enable the manufacture of 50,000 different types of proteins. As is obvious, proteins are highly crucial for the survival of a living being and the absence of even one of these proteins would make life impossible for that living being. It is scientifically impossible for DNA and proteins, each a giant molecule, to be formed spontaneously as a result of sheer coincidence.

DNA is a series of nucleotides arranged in a special sequence. A protein is a series of amino acids arranged again in a special sequence. First of all, it is mathematically impossible for either DNA molecules or protein molecules that come in thousands of different types to sort out the appropriate sequences necessary for life by chance. Probabilistic calculations reveal that the probability of even the simplest protein molecules achieving the right sequence by chance is zero. (For more information, see the book The Evolution Deceit by Harun Yahya). In addition to this mathematical impossibility, there is also an important chemical obstacle to the coincidental formation of these molecules. If the relationship between DNA and protein were a result of time, chance, and natural processes, then there would be some sort of chemical tendency towards DNA and protein to react, as acids and bases have a great tendency to react. In that case, if chance had really played a role, sugar-acid, aminephosphoric acid, and a whole host of other natural chemical reactions would occur among any random fragments of DNA and protein and the living beings we see today would not form.

Does this natural tendency of DNA and protein fragments to react chemically, then, suggest that time, chance, and the laws of chemistry would eventually produce life from some mixture of these molecules? No. Just the opposite. The problem is that all these natural chemical reactions are the wrong reactions as far as living systems are concerned. Left to time, chance, and their own chemical tendencies, DNA and protein react in ways that destroy a living system and would prevent any postulated development of life.9

As seen, it is absolutely impossible for DNA and proteins, which can by no means form randomly, to be left uncontrolled to form life following their own formations. Jean Guitton, a contemporary philosopher, addressed this impossibility in his book titled Dieu et la Science (God and Science), stating that life could not have formed as a result of coincidences:

Following which 'coincidence' did certain atoms draw near each other to form the first molecules of amino acids? Again, through which coincidence did these molecules come together to form this extremely complex structure called DNA? I am asking this simple question just like the biological scientist François Jacob did: Who prepared the plans of the first DNA molecule to give the first message that led to the birth of the first living cell?

If one is satisfied with assumptions involving coincidences, these questions - and many others - remain unanswered; this is why, for the last few years, the biologists began to change their views. Top researchers are not satisfied by re-telling Darwin's laws without thinking, parrot-fashion; they put forward new surprising theories. These are theories based on the idea that an organizing principle that is apparently superior to matter is involved in the process.10

As Jean Guitton stated, science has reached such a point, in the light of research and scientific discoveries made in the 20th century, that it has been scientifically established that Darwin's theory of evolution has no validity whatsoever. American biologist Michael Behe addresses this in his famous book Darwin's Black Box:

Science has made enormous progress in understanding how the chemistry of life works, but the elegance and complexity of biological systems at the molecular level have paralysed science's attempt to explain their origins. There has been virtually no attempt to account for the origin of specific, complex biomolecular systems, much less any progress. Many scientists have gamely asserted that explanations are already in hand, or will be sooner or later, but no support for such assertions can be found in the professional science literature. More importantly, there are compelling reasons - based on the structure of the systems themselves - to think that a Darwinian explanation for the mechanisms of life will forever prove elusive.11

Just as the entire universe was created from nothing, so were living beings created from nothing. Just as only nothing can come into existence out of nothing by chance, inanimate matter cannot combine by chance to form living beings. Only Allah, Possessor of infinite power, infinite wisdom and infinite knowledge, has power to do all these:

Your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days and then settled Himself firmly on the Throne. He covers the day with the night, each pursuing the other urgently; and the sun and moon and stars are subservient to His command. Both creation and command belong to Him. Blessed be Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. (Surat al-A'raf: 54)