HORMONES BEFORE NERVES?

HORMONES TO NERVES?

Today, both interact in regulating functions of cells and organs, but which came first?

In many cases they interact to accomplish their job.  The same thing was probably true during the evolution that brought them to the way they work.  Hormones by definition operate on cells beyond the cells where they are produced.  But so do nerve cells.  The distinction is that hormones are chemical substances produced by cells but are transported to targets by the general circulation of the blood, with an exception for certain pituitary hormones noted below; neurosecretions are produced in nerve cells and transported along the axon to close proximity to the target cell.

HORMONES

Two methods are known by which hormones operate. 

In both methods the hormone is delivered to the target cell by the circulatory system and diffusion to the cell surface.  Peptide type hormones typically do not enter the cell.  They bind to a receptor that extends through the outer cell membrane and cause the inner side of the receptor to function as an enzyme that converts adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).  The cAMP then activates the cell to do the function development had programmed it to do; thus the same hormone can perform different functions if particular cells with the receptors have different functions.

Steroid hormones typically have a different method of functioning.  They pass into the cell and attach to specific locations on a chromosome’s DNA.  The gene at that site is activated to produce the RNA that leaves the nucleus to interact in producing the product the gene specified.

NERVE CELLS

Nerves cells can control action of cells remote from the nerve cell body.  A long process, the axon, extends from the cell body to the target cell.  Proper stimulation of the cell body causes a transient depolarization of the membrane of the axon to rapidly progress to a termination closely applied to the target cell where neurotransmitters are released at the gap to activate the target.

The neurotransmitter can be ATP or some other molecule depending on the location and function of the cells.  In a few instances actual hormones can be released into the blood and be delivered by a special blood vessel network to a portion of the pituitary as part of the complex hormonal control complementing neuronal control of pituitary and its responsibility of secreting a variety of hormones controlling many other body systems.

EVOLUTION

The Final Step

Hormones generally have longer term, slower developing effects.  Nerves typically have a rapid response.  Sensory nerves and motor nerves enervating muscles have the fastest transmission. The response produced rapidly ceases because an enzyme in the gap between nerve ending and target cell contains an enzyme that rapidly degrades the chemical transmitting the stimulus. Nerves with less voluntary control transmit slowly to organs for less instantaneous responses.

An Intermediate Step

Some sponges have cells with short processes containing inclusions which have staining properties similar to neurosecretions.  Sponges do not have any rapid responses.  Some slow changes in the large opening, where water passing through the sponge leaves, have been reported.  Perhaps the closing is beneficial to the sponge during disruptive events when debris is settling into the sponge’s cavity.  A mechanism to send the distress signal from cells at the bottom of the cavity to cells around the opening could have selective value for survival if cells responded appropriately.  Elongated cells that had improved ability to deliver the message quicker would have suitable variations progressively selected until many generations and many new species later both hormones and nerves would provide the coordination we see today.

The First Step

It seemed to me that the one-celled animals (protozoans) might have chemicals analogous to hormones that control a portion of the cell but are produced within the cell.  The DNA does something like that via the RNA it produces.  But can the DNA be controlled?

The Experiment

Thirty-plus years ago I suggested a related study for a student looking for a research project.  During my master’s thesis topic, 60 years ago, I investigated some aspects of lipid chemistry in a protozoan, Tetrahymena.  I had used a technique others had described for synchronizing the divisions of Tetrahymena cells in their growth phase.  Heat shocks prevented completion of the division phase of the nucleus so the whole population was stalled at the same division stage.  Following return to normal temperatures most divided in synchrony about a half-hour later.

By ultra-sonically disrupting cultures during post shock periods and treating cultures that were not shocked with the disrupted cultures we hoped to find an induced peak of divisions within a half-hour.  There was no certain peak, although a few dividing cells in one culture was inconclusive evidence that was never followed up with more precise focus.  So the first protozoan “hormone” is yet to be discovered.

PHEROMONES

Chemical substances released by one animal in minute quantities that produce some specific behavioral response in others of the species are called pheromones.  A rock thrown to get your attention is not considered to be a pheromone.  Sex attractants are among the most widely studied pheromones.  Alluring perfumes are not pheromones either.  But some synthetic insect pheromones have been used to attract pest insects to traps.  Their release from many points in an infested field has also been shown to disrupt the male’s search for a female and make it less likely for reproduction to be successful.

The sex attractant pheromones of a closely related group of species from one insect family were found to consist of variations of the percentage of the same two or three volatile chemicals uniquely characteristic for each species.  That suggests one way new species could arise without geographic isolation.  Once success in reproduction correlated with a variant concentration, a new strain could evolve in its own particular direction.

Among other pheromones are alarm pheromones.  Trail marking substances could be used by the ant that placed them, and/or by others of the species.  Human pheromones are not well studied.  Two reasons may be significant.  Our ability to smell is worse than that of many other animals.  And the other is our reluctance to interfere during the private moments of others.  Could some of our intuitive decisions about others be based on otherwise unperceived pheromones?  Does a baby’s smell aide bonding or otherwise affect the mother?  Or vice versa?  Lots of possible pheromone responses may yet be found.

Joseph G. Engemann         May 10, 2014

PSYCHOANALYSIS OF A BLOGGER

Whither this blog?

I’ve sketchily covered the things that were most important to do

1.  Convince scientists that it is OK, right, and proper that God is the ultimate cause.

2.  Show them that the annelids and pogonophorans are a very significant connection in the tree of life.

3.  Show them that the deep sea environment and bombardment from space had a role in selecting pogonophorans for extreme longevity (hundreds of thousands of years) and that explains the genetic link this group shows in the tree of life with very diverse younger groups, as well as the error responsible for their contrary findings.

4.  Convince creationists that the proper evidence for the method God used in creation of life was the natural selection that scientists accept, and that even the chance aspects of it reflect the will and awesome creative power of God.

5.  Do all the above by leaving a written and/or electronic (this blog?) record.

I’ve often thought I could not accomplish this during my life due to the inertia of science and the tendency of the status quo to be perpetuated.  Why rock the boat?

Some of the things still to do

Of lesser importance are the many examples of aspects of evolution that I have encountered, not only some of them on my own, but many suggested by others, and some accepted and well known by specialists.

1.   Details of the evolutionary events leading to our left brain, right brain dichotomy in function and thinking.

2.  The probable evolutionary pathway from protozoans to sponges to cnidarians to flatworms and the consequent origin and fate of nematocysts and rhabdites.

3.  The related evolution and connection of the endocrine and nervous systems, probably my next post.

Some self psychoanalytic aspects

As I’ve learned to respect myself, I’ve learned to respect others (at least I should) as having equal love from and access to God.  My inadequacies were part of my development essential to pursuing an erratic path to an unusual knowledge of evolution (that still is filled with knowledge gaps).

Even at 85 years of age and questionable health the mind is still working.  There were gaps of years along the way where it seemed nothing was happening upstairs.  But this morning while showering a new insight on early evolution of the first few animal phyla was developed.  Before I forget I’ll make a note here [It involves the fusilinids, that were enormous foraminiferan protozoans, whose calcareous skeletal parts may have been lost from early sediments due to anoxia and consequent acidification causing them to dissolve, their coexistence and interaction with sponges  and possible role of somewhat related events in hormone/nervous system origin].

Failure can be a breeding ground for success.

We can learn from almost everyone and almost everything.

Write it down, your memory is not as great as you think it is.

In all likelihood, today is neither the best, nor the worst, day in your life.  So enjoy it, it is what you have.

In answer to the first question, whither this blog, I now hope to go on to more interesting aspects of evolution related topics, after accessing the previous four blogs as being  progressively more boring.  OK, so maybe it won’t all be on evolution.  After all, I've gotten used to my family’s and friend’s eyes glazing over when I bring up the topic – evolution.

Joseph G. Engemann        May 3, 2014

EVOLUTION OF MACROMOLECULES

Natural Selection and Macromolecules

DNA

The larger organic molecules found in living organisms are called macromolecules because of their large size.  They are primarily proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids.  Many of them function within the cells where they were formed.  But the most important or central one to biology and evolution is DNA, a nucleic acid.

The long, linear double-stranded molecules of DNA are coiled in helices of chromosomes enclosed within the nucleus of animal and plant cells.  How the purine and pyrimidine base combinations along the molecule function, to duplicate the DNA sequence and form RNA and proteins to do the work of the cell, was a mystery until the code units were first determined by Watson and Crick in the mid 1950’s.

Determining the DNA code of humans then became a major priority for geneticists and molecular biologists throughout the world.  Francis Collins was a leader among those heading the Human Genome Project, which with others determined the sequence.  Along the way of his scientific journey he made a transition from atheism to belief in God.  He describes many aspects of the journey in his 2006 book, The Language of God*.

When I read the book in 2007 I thought he had written the book I was trying to write.  He also finds evolution by means of natural selection a basically true scientific explanation.  He does a good job of refuting creationist arguments.  He does a much better job explaining the molecular side of evolution in the genetics area than I could possibly do.  If you want to know that, please read his book.  If you don’t want the details, please read the introduction and first chapter of his book.  It is great food for thought.

Macromolecules in cells

Some macromolecules have an important structural function outside of cells.  The protein, collagen, functions as a connective tissue fiber in tendons, ligaments, and separate fibers of  loose connective tissue of many animals such as ourselves.  It, and the spongin fibers in sponge tissue, are similar proteins and are the only proteins that release the amino acid hydroxyproline when hydrolyzed.  The collagen fiber networks in bone are the primary protein portion strengthening the crystallized calcium compounds of mineralized bone.

Keratin is a protein important in hair, nails, and horns of some mammals.  Chitin is a polymer of acetyl glucosamine, the structural protein of insect and other arthropod exoskeletons.

Within the cells, DNA has functions demonstrating many of the potential functions cell molecules may have.  Slight changes in function can be eliminated or incorporated in subsequent generations depending on accompanying rates of survival.

            Localization.  The DNA can keep functional parts (genes) in close association.  Then necessary interactions can be accomplished efficiently.  It provides a better opportunity for functional clusters to be passed on to offspring during reproduction.

            Retention.  They are easily retained by the cell as well as by the nucleus.

            Storage.  The information coded can be kept and then passed on to subsequent generations.  The individual’s DNA cannot be effectively built up and depleted, like carbohydrate and fat nutrient reserves, except through cell division or cell death.

            Reduced osmotic impact.  The approximately four dozen molecules of DNA in each human cell have less osmotic impact than most other major components of the fluid portion of the cell that do not readily permeate the cell membrane.

            Reduced chemical reactivity.  Relative to size, reactivity of DNA is far below that of most small organic compounds.

            Diversity.  We are each unique in our DNA, as are most species.

            Reproduction.  DNA contains the information needed to develop within a functioning cell the machinery to duplicate itself and make the other changes necessary for reproduction of the species.  The plan is there.  All it needs is a functioning organism and a favorable environment.

Evolution

A variety of glitches in the mechanism for duplicating itself can rearrange one or more portions of the DNA molecule.  If it is a serious enough change the organism or the offspring getting the change may die or be incapable of reproduction.  A minor change will usually be passed on with little effect if it is a region of the DNA not active in producing necessary products.

But those changes or rearrangements of sequences may in rare instances be beneficial to survival of the offspring.  Over time, it may contribute to better reproductive and survival success and the new form will eventually replace the original form.  That is the simplified version of the development of the diverse community of species living on earth.

So what is good for survival?  Whatever works best!  A heavy fur coat if you live in the arctic, a skimpy or missing coat of fur if you live in the tropics.  A trim body may help if food is abundant and the environment is comfortable.  Abundant fat may help you survive if you face long winters or times without food.  Migrate to another environment and your offspring will eventually be quite different from those that didn’t migrate.

The story of evolution is in the DNA.  But it is often easier to find the story in conjunction with the details of the organisms when the intermediate forms are extinct.

*Collins, Francis S.  2006. The Language of God – A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.  Free Press, New York.  294 pp.

Joseph G. Engemann        May 2, 2014

EVOLUTION OF PROTEINS

EVOLUTION OF PROTEINS

What are proteins?

Proteins are polymers or combinations of various amino acids called peptides when they are bound in a chain.  A tri-peptide is composed of three amino acid residues, polypeptides of multiple ones; proteins have residues numbering in the hundreds and more.  Each amino acid incorporates a nitrogen atom in its structure at the site where it can be combined with the acid-like part of another amino acid, leaving similar junction sites on the resulting molecule so longer chains can be produced.  Further linkages via side chains can yield a great variety of shapes.

Why are proteins important?

They are the key to much of the structure and function of an organism.  Many of them are common to other distantly related species.  Some are unique to a species and even individuals or a subgroup of a species.

The proteins of our body have great diversity based on variations in the sequence and the resultant structure.  Enzymes are proteins useful in aiding chemical processes of the body.  Insulin is a protein type hormone.  Enzymes and hormones vary greatly in size but are typically much smaller than proteins used for structural purposes.  Both enzymes and hormones typically have their activity based on a peculiar aspect of their structure, often just a small portion of the molecule – the active site.

Hormones cause cells or organs, in various specific locations away from the sites of hormone production, to do their jobs.  Enzymes typically enable a chemical reaction to occur with minimal energy expenditure and can do so repeatedly.  Cooking deactivates enzymes and prevents decomposition until other organisms digest or invade the cooked food.

 Myosin and actin are two major proteins of muscle and each has a filament type structure. Large bundles of myosin slide past smaller bundles of actin and cause muscles to shorten and do their work.  Opposing muscles contract to cause the extension of an opposing relaxing muscle by force applied through the mechanics of the skeleton or tissue fluidity.

What evolutionary affects did the nitrogen atom of amino acids have?

When an amino acid or peptide is broken down the nitrogen atom can be released as an ammonium molecule, a toxic substance if concentrations build up in the body.  Most carbohydrates and lipids do not contain nitrogen so their residue, after use for energy, is carbon dioxide and water.  So is much of the protein but the ammonia cannot be passed into the air from fluid in the lungs very effectively.  Aquatic animals were able to accomplish much of the early evolution of life without needing special organs to dispose of nitrogenous waste.  The ammonia could diffuse from the body surface or gills into water where it would be useful for plants.

As organisms got larger those that could package ammonia into less toxic forms had an advantage.  Urea and uric acid are two of the substances that were selected for most successful animals.  Urea is soluble in water but non-toxic; it is the major compound containing nitrogen that is excreted by the mammalian kidney.  Uric acid is toxic but not very soluble and it is the main product produced by degradation of adenine and guanine from the nucleic acids, DNA  and RNA.  Biochemical processes in animals are varied in their potential to make various conversions of nitrogenous wastes.  Along the way, kidneys became more and more important for regulating levels of nitrogenous wastes in the blood as well as salt and water balance while retaining nutrients.

Uric acid made it possible for shelled eggs of animals to evolve for life on land.  It could accumulate in the egg without poisoning the embryo.  That made it possible for reptiles to lay their shelled eggs on land.  Birds continued the egg-laying process, as did early mammals (the platypus and echidna still do).  Eventually placental mammals developed and transferred nitrogenous wastes from the fetus to the mother for elimination by her kidneys. 

Why didn’t birds go that route?  Probably it has weight reducing value for flight.  It’s so important that only one ovary develops in a female bird, probably enabling larger eggs to be laid that can develop to greater maturity.  You can probably think of the survival advantage a mammal has from being able to takes its internal young with it and not be bound to a nest location and its hazards.

Proteins and the pharmaceutical industry

Hormone and enzyme activity must be well regulated by the body for health.  Too much or too little function can be detrimental to health.  Some classes of drugs are designed to have function like those items in the body.  They can supplement the body’s product or interfere with its function as needed to get the correct balance.  The critical aspect is getting an active site incorporated in a non-toxic molecule that can go to the needed area.  Alternatively, a toxic molecule designed for attraction to a cancer cell or overactive gland might be helpful.

Trial and error methods are being replaced by analysis of molecular structure for duplication of active sites in a synthetic substitute.  The active site in some cases is not dependent upon the chemical nature as much as the physical shape of the portion of the molecule.  Other parts of the molecule may affect some part of the process so clinical trials are needed to verify safety and effectiveness.

Unfortunately all possible interactions, with systems of the body at all stages of function and development, breakdown products and their role in the environment, and other possible hazards cannot be foreseen.  But we hope care in the process can minimize the hazards.

The computerized process of designing molecules based on fit with some portion of hormones, enzymes, cell membrane receptors or other entities is a likely source of valuable products.  But individuals and/or conventional research teams cannot be replaced as easily for less conventional and serendipitous discovery.

Joseph G. Engemann                April 30, 2014

EVOLUTION AND FATS

Carbohydrates versus fats

Both are utilized by the major mechanisms of storage and use of energy by animals.  For transport to and from locations of intake, storage, and use, glucose is the main blood sugar; fatty acids and triglycerides are the fats that are typically the most abundant forms in the blood.  The liver can convert glucose to fatty acids and fatty acids to glucose.

Storage of carbohydrates in the liver in the form of glycogen makes it easy for the liver to produce glucose needed by the liver or other organs.  Storage of glucose in fat cells involves its conversion to fatty acids before storage as fat.  Storage, release, and use have hormonal mechanisms regulating the processes.  Because fats are relatively insoluble in water but very soluble in other fats, oils, and waxes, they can be stored in large quantities in fat cells without adversely affecting the metabolism of those cells.

Energy content of fats versus carbohydrates

The efficiency of storage would seem to favor fats for energy storage even though liver glycogen can be more easily a source of glucose in the blood stream.  Fats store twice the energy per unit of weight than do carbohydrates.  Thus they have evolved as the energy store that enables many organisms to make long distance migrations or go for long periods without feeding.  Some birds lose most of their fat and over half of their body weight during annual migrations.  Fats need conversion to glucose in the liver or elsewhere to be used in the brain and energy production throughout the cells of the body.

Lipid is the generic term for most substances that dissolve or mix easily with other lipids and/or fat solvents.  Lipids include fats, oils, waxes, fatty acids, triglycerides and some other compounds such as steroids.  Whereas carbohydrates have the bulk of the carbon atoms of the molecule each associated with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, the chain of most lipid carbon atoms have no oxygen associated.  Most of the energy derived by the metabolic burning of the compounds comes from oxidation of the hydrogen atoms.  But half of the carbohydrate hydrogen atoms are already with oxygen atoms so the ratio of two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom is the same as in water and thus the origin of the name carbohydrate.

Uses of fats by organisms

The membranes within cells are readily formed from microscopic globules of certain lipids.  The myelin sheath insulating fibers within nerves of the central nervous system presumably functions to prevent short circuits between closely packed fibers as well as making the polarization of the fiber easier after depolarization during impulse transmission.  Fats in the diet are thought to be useful for efficient uptake of fat-soluble vitamins.  Fats secreted by sebaceous glands are useful lubricants for skin to keep it moist and pliable.  Fat can be stored at many locations in the body, but that stored under or in lower layer of the skin is especially valuable as insulation for animals living in cold habitats.

Fats having carbon chains having two adjacent carbons each lacking a hydrogen atom but sharing a second bond with each other are said to be unsaturated.  Unsaturated fats are liquid at lower temperatures than are saturated fats with the same number of carbon atoms.  We appear to be dependent on our food for necessary unsaturated fats.  Lipids with associated phosphate groups are called phospholipids and some seem to have an important role in brain function.

Steroid hormones are lipids with peculiar ring structures similar to the cholesterol molecule.  Small variations of atom clusters attached in one or more places around the rings can make big differences in their role in regulating body processes.  They are only one of the classes of hormones important in regulating life processes.

Evolution and lipids

The characteristic structure of hormones can lead to recognition of those that are the same or only have slight variation in various groups of animals.  The molting hormone of insects is recognizable as a steroid hormone.  Although we don’t have a hormone exactly like the insect’s ecdysone, it is part of an endocrine complex that seems unlikely to exist without having had a common origin from an earlier ancestor.  It is only one of many clues of chordate origin from ancient annelid ancestors (the most recent common ancestor of us and the insects).

The early evolution preceding living organisms may have been partially dependent on the insolubility of lipids in water, but lipid ability to form minute droplets (emulsify), as well as the potential of some long chain lipids to automatically form membranes in water.  Coating various mineral particles and being pulverized in countless tidal pools around the world provided much experimentation.  Along with ultraviolet light facilitating chance reactions of various concentrations of solutes produced by evaporation at low tide it was a suitable place to get some of the basics done for life to occur.  I think that might be how God did it.

Joseph G. Engemann      April 27, 2014

EVOLUTION OF CARBOHYDRATES

EVOLUTION OF AMAZING CARBOHYDRATES

The Stuff of Life

Plants and animals utilize a variety of basic materials to make the specialized parts that are so different in some ways.  Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats make up most of the volume of organic molecules and structures in the watery bath inside and/or outside the membrane bounded cells of living organisms.  Minerals make up a major part of vertebrate skeletal structures and of shells of some invertebrates.  Very important in proper functioning, and often controlling aspects of development and function, are vitamins, hormones, minerals, and trace elements in very small amounts. 

The hereditary material has a central role in perhaps most aspects of life, but little will be said about it in today’s blog.  DNA, RNA, and enzymes and the feedback mechanisms used are modified along with evolution of the things they control.

Glucose in plants versus animals

Glucose has an important role in utilization of stored energy in plants and animals.  But only a small amount can be tolerated in the cells of plants or animals.  Animals and plants can both burn it up as they metabolize it to produce energy by the same chemical pathways.  But too much in the cell would result in the cell bursting from water absorption that occurs by its diffusion into the cell from the watery bath around it.  Cells that survived are those that evolved to convert excess glucose into other compounds, especially large polymers such as cellulose in plants and glycogen in animals.

Plants can also store large amounts of glucose as starch as well.  Both cellulose and starch molecules are so large that only a few molecules can store hundreds of glucose molecules.  The generic name for such a large compound molecule is polymer.  Plants make glucose in abundance by the process of photosynthesis.  Glucose polymerized into cellulose makes a useful structural material, typically as the major part of the cell walls of plants. 

Cellulose processing was lost in the early cells that gave rise to the animal kingdom.  But animals developed a modified form of storage called glycogen that functions, as starch may do in plants at night, to quickly replace glucose when it becomes depleted in the cell from activity.

Glucose is a six carbon sugar.  Disaccharides are twelve carbon sugars such as sucrose, maltose and lactose; they are formed from particular combinations of two monosaccharides, such as glucose and fructose.  A five carbon sugar is part of the linking mechanism, for the chains forming DNA and RNA, along with one of the four purines and/or pyrimidines (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine).  Each link of the chain with one of the four purines or pyrimidines uses three links at a time to code the hereditary processes of life.

A hypothesis about a balanced diet

We know that insulin helps the body in regulating blood glucose by somehow helping balance the role of storage and utilization between blood sugar and storage or release from fats and other stores.  Plants do not have insulin to my knowledge, but many of the chemical processes involved in storage and release of glucose may be similar. Varied grains, fruits, and vegetables in the diet are likely to provide some necessary substances involved in the process that are not fully known.  They and the fiber associated also provide a valuable role in maintaining the proper gut flora and fauna needed for healthy functioning of the lower digestive tract.

The first organic molecules

Organic molecules are commonly thought of as originating in living organisms.  But a few simple ones can form when lightning passes through a gaseous atmosphere containing water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen.  Similar simple compounds can form in sea water exposed to red hot lava.  Both may have been important in contributing to the dissolved nutrients of seawater in early seas when the first life evolved.

Among those compounds formed in such circumstances are glucose, glycine, and adenine.  We have already discussed some of the role of glucose above.  Glycine and adenine are among simple amino acids utilized to make polymers, called proteins.  Additionally, adenine has an important role basic in ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) for energy transfer processes in cellular metabolism.

The big picture

The above is just a rudimentary look at a portion of the processes and materials of life.  How they interact here is probably identical to how they have acted (and are or will act) in other comparable planets scattered throughout the cosmos.  Natural selection would probably produce great similarity of results through these remarkable chance directed processes that could only be controlled by an infinitely intelligent and powerful being.  It should be truly humbling to see that such a being has promised so much to us through his Son two thousand years ago.

Joseph G. Engemann      April 25, 2014

GOD

God: Science and the Media

THE MEDIA

Was Jesus Married?

Yesterday, a major network newscaster provided one of those provocative snippets of “news” with a (snide? whimsical? embarrassed?) grin without much further comment.  It had to do with a fragment of ancient text from biblical times which associated Jesus with a term for wife.  The brief associated comments made in the newscast lead one to think it implied Jesus was or might have been married.

No!

There is little reason to think Jesus was married in the sense of having a wife or being a spouse.  But it would not make much difference if he had been anymore than the fact that at least some of the original apostles were married.  But (1) such a major fact would have been very likely to be passed on down through tradition if it were true.  And (2) the terms used for spouse and marriage are and have long been used for the association of Jesus with his church.  Even today Roman Catholic nuns typically wear a wedding ring at, and perhaps after, receiving their final vows in which they are considered “married to Christ” in a spiritual sense. So (3), the fragmentary new evidence has no compelling basis for the suggestion passed on in a newscast.

Science

Science and its methods have much to reveal about God’s creation, but little if anything to reveal about God.  Because the world and all that is in it are a product of God’s creative genius and grandeur, scientists are more likely to find the truths science is capable of finding by proper respect and love for the creator of the world and all that is in it.  What we see as chance and evil are likely misunderstood products of other natural aspects of creation such as evolution and free will that can be found to be positive aspects in some way conforming to God’s plan or direction beyond our present understanding.

The positive aspect of regressive evolutionary events

One hint of this is the profound effect of extinctions and regressive aspects of evolution that were part of the path leading to human beings.  The loss of many annelid features leading to the pogonophoran intermediates giving rise to the most successful animal phylum has been described in several previous posts (the first on 05/031/2013 shows the evidence of error in current theories), concepts that are not yet clearly understood by my peers.  Evidence was partially shown by annelid theory of chordate origin which was not was not properly reinstated in scientific credibility when the evidence used to reject it was shown to be invalid. (See also the last five posts of June 2013)

God

God works in mysterious ways beyond our present comprehension.  So are God’s attributes beyond our comprehension.  Why and how this imperfect and error prone individual could lead a life that discovers the aspect of evolution noted in the previous paragraph could only be possible with God’s grace. That is quite amazing, but even more so, are the accomplishments of the also ordinary lives of many others I know.

Joseph G. Engemann     April 12, 2014