One of the greatest arguments for the existence of God is the human cell. Science is just beginning to unlock some of the mysteries of the cell but these tiny entities, possessing no intelligence, can perform amazingly complex functions in mere nanoseconds that leave our brightest scientists baffled as to their inner workings.
When you were conceived you started your journey in life as a single cell. By the time nine months passed, your original cell at the point of birth had multiplied by a factor of thirty trillion. While science can name the different parts of each type of cell as well as understand something of cellular duplication, it is at a complete loss to describe how your one original cell knew how to form heart cells and brain cells. Just listen to how apologist Frank Turek describes this amazing mystery: “As if they had minds of their own, your new cells-some of them eventually reproducing in the womb at a rate of more than 100,000 per second-knew where to go and what to do in order to become each of your major organs. How did certain cells “know” to become heart cells, while others “knew” to become brain cells? There is no known material explanation for their goal-directedness.”1
If this were not mysterious enough an even more unfathomable mystery seems to indicate that each cell has foreknowledge of the future. Let me explain. You see your original single cell back at conception not only had an almost limitless amount of knowledge, since it must have been pre-programmed with everything needed to create all thirty trillion of your cells by birth, but also the blueprints to orchestrate the creation of all of your organs and body parts.
But here is where the magic really takes place for you see your original single cell had to know that at a future point in time certain unknown substances, i.e., the nutrients from your mother, would have to be broken down and reformatted into useful tiny substances that could generate the cell multiplication process. Not only that, but the DNA in your cells had to have an incredible storehouse of complex bio-chemical knowledge to orchestrate this entire process. And the only way that your original single cell could be coded with the instructions to perform these incredibly complicated processes on certain unknown future substances is if that cell had foreknowledge. And the only way it could have this foreknowledge is if there is a God who placed it there.
I believe that the more an open-minded scientist examines these mysteries the more he will realize that the evolutionary mantra of nobody times nothing equals everything is a vastly inferior explanation to the origin of life question than the simple biblical statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
1 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 56.
Cellular Mysteries: You Can’t Outsprint Design (And No Matter Where Ya Go, There Ya Are)
Curt Blattman’s “Cellular Mysteries” aims a spotlight at the human cell, that tiny, tireless factory doing “amazingly complex functions” faster than our brightest minds can fully explain.
It’s relevant nowadays cuz modern life keeps chanting “science explains everything,” while quietly hoping no one asks how “everything” got its instructions in the first place.
Curt argues that the cell’s complexity and the mystery of how one original cell becomes a fully formed human strongly suggest a Designer. He adds that the cell’s ability to anticipate future needs (like processing nutrients it hasn’t encountered yet) points to foreknowledge, and foreknowledge points to God.
He contrasts that with the evolutionary slogan “nobody times nothing equals everything,” then lands on Genesis 1:1 as the cleaner explanation.
Since God also created math, by the numbers we go.
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1) Wonder is the honest starting point – not smugness.
The cell is not “simple life.” It’s coordinated complexity that should produce reverence before it produces arguments.
Curt notes that these “tiny entities” perform complex operations in breathtaking timeframes, with scientists still baffled by the full inner workings.
Start with worshipful humility: when we look closely at life, we’re not looking at an accident we can sneer at. We’re looking at craftsmanship. That posture changes how we argue, how we listen, and how we treat people made in that same intricate image.
2) Differentiation isn’t just chemistry. It’s orchestration. “Stuff happens” is not an explanation when the “stuff” becomes heart cells here and brain cells there, at exactly the right time, in exactly the right place.
Curt highlights the leap from one cell to “thirty trillion” and the unresolved question of how that original cell “knew” how to form specialized organs.
This is where apologetics grows a spine. Don’t settle for magic-words explanations. If someone says, “It just emerged,” ask what mechanism accounts for goal-directed organization. Not to win a fight, but to rescue the conversation from lazy thinking.
3) The future-facing design problem: foreknowledge or fairy tale.
Curt’s sharpest move is this: cells don’t just build, they build with what looks like anticipation of what’s coming.
He argues that the original cell had to be “pre-programmed” with vast instructions and somehow prepared for future substances (nutrients from the mother) to be processed for growth, implying foreknowledge placed there by God.
This is where the slogan collapses. “Nobody times nothing equals everything” isn’t bold. It’s thin soup pretending to be a meal. If we seek a worldview sturdy enough to carry the weight of reality, start where Scripture starts: “In the beginning God created…”________________________________________
Conclusion (spiritual formation, not internet points)
The point of this isn’t to dunk on skeptics or collect debate trophies. It’s to form a soul that can see reality clearly. Creation is not a closed room with no Author. We are not a cosmic typo. And here’s the uncomfortable comfort…no matter where ya go, there ya are. We can run to distraction, cynicism, or the latest fashionable explanation, but we still wake up inside a universe soaked in order, meaning, and fingerprints.
When your best origin story is “nobody times nothing equals everything,” you’re not doing science. You’re dreaming in a lab coat.
thanks, Curt!