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When I was a young biology student, there was a chart in one of the labs with the impressive title of “Intermediary Metabolism.” Basically, this chart shows all the chemical processes that occur in cells. I remember wondering if I would ever understand even a small part of these complex pathways and cycles. A year of organic chemistry helped me recognize some molecular structures, and later biochemistry courses in graduate school filled in more details. However, advances in molecular and cellular biology have made our understanding of these processes even more complicated than they were when I first looked at the chart fifty years ago.

If you have never seen a chart like this, just do a Google search for “intermediary metabolism,” and you will find various versions. If looking at some of these makes you feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. Even after years of studying and teaching biology, I must admit that I still only understand a small part of these processes.

Where did all of these complex processes come from? Did it all just happen by random chance? Did the molecules arrange themselves with the proper structure, shape, and necessary functional groups attached? Did all the precursors, enzymes, coenzymes, and cofactors needed for these reactions just happen to exist and be present at the right place and time? Did the cellular structures required to support these chemical processes also just happen to assemble themselves? Is everything we know about life and living things just one big accident?

Some believe that all of this developed by chance, but personally, I think it would take a much greater faith to believe in a series of random events than in a Supreme Being who planned and created these processes. The first words of the Bible tell us that it was God who created the universe. This includes not only the physical world we live in but also the living world and the natural laws and processes that sustain it.

Picture credits:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carbon_Catabolism.png

Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website.