The word autophagy is Greek for “Eat Thyself” and describes the process that the body uses to sustain itself when food is scarce.
Man is not capable of Original Thought. We are quick to give ourselves a pat on the back for our brilliance, but our brilliant ideas are nothing more than applications of what already exists in different ways. An example is flight. Birds and many insects can do it so why can’t we is what started us down the road to flight. We are forever stuck on the cusp of having an Original Idea, but it is a line we will never cross.
Looking now at evolution. Quoted from Wikipedia: “Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes that are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Different characteristics tend to exist within any given population as a result of mutation, genetic recombination and other sources of genetic variation. Evolution occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection (including sexual selection) and genetic drift act on this variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more common or rare within a population. It is this process of evolution that has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms and molecules.”
The theory that man evolved through time, natural selection, genetic mutations, and random variations from a single cell organism to the complex being he is today is settled science for some. Looking back again to autophagy. We have known since animal experiments done in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that autophagy, the body eating itself during fasting and starvation events has a discretionary brilliance about the order in which it dissolves areas of the body to sustain life of the whole body. This pecking order, if you will, is the same for humans as it is for birds and all other mammals, and fish, insects, and even plants. This pecking order starts with tissues that the body does not need or should not be there in the first place. These tissues include adipose tissue (fat) cysts, dead and dying cells, old cells, tumors, etc. Quite literally autophagy first takes out the trash before it begins to dissolve needed tissues. After the trash has been taken out autophagy makes some hard choices. When protein is missing from the diet it will breakdown muscle tissue to feed some areas of the brain that cannot survive on ketones. Ketones are the energy source that comes from the breakdown of fat tissues. The muscle mass lost as opposed to fat is a ratio of 3% muscle to 97% fat tissue. This also has been known for over a century. Only after fat reserves are dangerously low, like a BMI under 18 does autophagy begin dissolving larger quantities of muscle mass. Oddly enough the heart muscle is not included in the dissolving of muscle mass until the very end when death from starvation becomes inevitable. At this point healthy nerve and brain tissue also begin being sacrificed to keep the body alive. Again, this discretionary intelligence has always been there and we have known about it for over 100 years.
Looking now at the Theory of Evolution and the discretionary intelligence of autophagy. The very definition of evolution proclaims that genetic variations are the cause of our varied lifeforms on the planet yet this discretionary intelligence of autophagy is handed down perfectly from one generation to the next for millions of generations. And this copy of a copy of a copy denigration that gives us rise to evolutionary theory also gives us a perfect imprint of autophagy in every living creature on earth? How is that possible? Doesn’t the perfect transfer of the discretionary intelligence of autophagy in every new living creature on earth cast a shadow of doubt on the fundamental premise of evolution?
Autophagy is big news in the medical industry today. The biggest hurdle for that industry is how can you take something that is free to the patient and make it economically feasible to keep our hospitals open and staffs paid. Or how can you patent a naturally occurring process. All that is for someone else to figure out.
To me the fact of autophagy gives the evolutionist a problem. How can it exist so perfectly within the metamorphosis required to make evolution plausible?
I think autophagy and original thought gives plausibility to Intelligent Design. If every new life form is an original thought by a Creator, every being and seed could indeed receive autophagy and its discretionary integral intelligence along with its unique package of DNA, chromosomes, and such that make us a new creation. To expand this possibility further, and looking at Biblical proclamations that the Creator is the “Great Physician” forgives our transgressions against him and our fellow beings, and can also purge our minds and bodies of our dietary transgressions as well? Another Biblical promise may also be at play. The Bible proclaims that the Creator’s love for His creation, “the earth and all that in them is”, is undying and unflinching. What better way to demonstrate this love with each new creation, each new original thought, with the means to repent and ask for forgiveness of sin and to purge our bodies of materials that should not be there? How could this not be the fulfillment of God’s promises of his love and of being the Great Physician?
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