Written by Isaac Manly, MD

Mar 01, 2003 at 12:00 AM

Michael J. Behe, associate professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, has presented a biochemical sketch of the chemistry of sight. The sketch is extremely technical and I do not expect most of us to understand it, but I present a short résumé to acquaint us with the complexity and wonder of vision.

A photon of light strikes a retinal cell, and interacts with a molecule, 11-cis-retinal, which changes within a brief picosecond to trans-retinal. This binds to a protein, rhodopsin, which binds to another protein called transducin, which had already bonded with GDP. Several proteins and chemicals then interact and reduce the sodium ions in the retinal cell, which causes an electric current to be transmitted down the optic nerve to the brain, which interprets the vision.

The supply of 11-cis-retinal and sodium in the retinal cell would be depleted unless restored. This restoration is accomplished by a full paragraph of biochemical reactions.

The cycle is complete when trans-retinal becomes separated from rhodopsin by the action of several protein enzymes.

Darwin and millions of evolutionists have accepted the belief that the eye and vision could be formed and function by natural selection through unplanned, undirected chance. Now that we have this knowledge of how the eye works, there I no sense in believing that blind chance is our Creator.