The Chirality Argument

Chirality is a term used in geometry to describe the asymmetric properties of geometric figures. Put more practically, look in a mirror. The reflected image is said to be chiral because it is the reverse image of your physical characteristics.

Even better, look at your hands. Each is an asymmetric image of the other and thus chiral. Moreover, they are said to be non-superimposable meaning one can not be superimposed over the other. For example, the fingers of a left handed glove are non-superimposable with the right hand.

Chirality is also important to science. Virtually all molecules necessary for life exist in two non-superimposable forms. In other words, they are mirror images of each other and related like our left and right hands and like our hands, they are non-superimposable with their mirror images.

In theory, chemical reactions should combine amino acids and sugars to produce equal amounts of right and left hand images of molecules essential to life, but this is not the case at all - at least on Earth where right hand sugars combine almost exclusively with left hand amino acids.

This is important because molecules of the wrong handedness would be indigestible by our digestive systems. The food we enjoy would be poison to us - goodbye steak and baked potatoes! Life, then, depends on a specific molecular handedness.

Scientists don't know the why the Earth prefers a specific molecular right-handedness. Like everything they don't yet understand, scientists assume random chance. Ok, maybe that was a bit of a cheap shot, still, it's frustrating that well-educated, smart scientists are so closed minded and wooden in their biases. Take Biochemist David Dreamer who says the following regarding life's right-handedness, "The most plausible idea is that it was an accident."

As the English say, "Riggght".

The showstopper for evolution is that complex life would not have formed at all in an environment that is chirally opposed to it. Why? Because DNA would not stabilize and store hereditary information in its double helix if even a single wrong-handed monomer were present.

What are the chances that a specific handedness would have been randomly produced? Can anyone say with any precision? The answer is no!

The following theories have been proposed to explain the right-handedness of Earth life - all are weak and closer to speculation than verified by repeatable experimentation:

• Circularly polarized ultraviolet light
• Beta decay and the weak force
• Optically active quartz powders
• Clay Minerals
• Fluke seeding
• Magnetic fields

Part of the problem is finding a suitable environment for scientific study. Martin Quack, a physical chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich says, "It's almost impossible to find a chirally neutral environment on Earth because life's chiral excesses infect everything."

Therefore, since the chemical compounds needed to sustain life depend on a environment with a specific chirally handedness and the theories to explain the origins of the handedness are so weak...why do so many people state that macro-evolution is a "fact"?

I don't get it. Since when did an "accident" become a plausible, testable hypothesis? It's far more plausible to me to believe an intelligent force designed and created an environment with a specific chirally handedness so life would form and thrive than to assume it was by accident.