A Different World From What We See: The Microworld

Are you ever really alone?

Even when you think you are sitting at home alone, you are still in the company of a great number of living things. Bacteria live on you and in your body, and constantly protect you and also, occasionally, cause you to become ill. Mites that are spread everywhere, from the chair you sit in to your carpet, to the air you breathe. Moulds and fungi begin reproducing on foods left out in the open in your kitchen for even a few hours—all of these constitute a different world with its own unique lifestyles, nutritional systems and structural features.

You are not truly alone, even when you imagine yourself to be so. There is an entire teeming world that lives within and upon you, sharing your environment and your body.

Maybe you have always thought that the humans, animals and plants you see around you represent the sole community of living things. Yet the microorganisms, members of a secret world that reach to every corner of the Earth, are far more numerous that those other, more familiar living things. These minute creatures outnumber the animals in the world by twenty to one. 1 In the same way that they are present all over the world, they are also essential to human life.

What are the members of this enormous community of microorganisms?

The living things we shall be examining in this book consist of bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and mites. You will doubtless be familiar with their names, but may be mostly unaware of how closely your life is bound up with them. For example, the nitrogen cycle—one of the basic processes that make life on Earth possible—is established by bacteria. Root fungi, on the other hand, are the most important factor in the way plants extract the minerals from the soil. Bacteria on your tongue prevent you being poisoned by foods containing nitrates, such as salad or meat. At the same time, bacteria and algae are able to perform photosynthesis, another essential process factor in the existence of life on Earth, and an ability they share with plants. In short, these microorganisms are a vital components in the balance of life on Earth.

On occasion, some of these microscopic living things also give rise to sickness. The immune and defense systems in your body exist in order to combat these organisms. Some spread through your body at great speed, employing methods that medical science has still not uncovered, while others may put an end to someone's life in mere moments, or only gradually. Some may benefit for a living creature in return for making use of its structures, in other words, living in a symbiotic (shared life) manner. Other microorganisms are able to combine together, making decisions and plans, organizing, and carrying out the most delicate processes. All these functions are performed by microorganisms, which generally consist of a single cell, and which cannot be seen with the naked eye.

These microorganisms spread around us at astonishing speed. Let us give an example in that regard: According to one study, it has been calculated that a 0.5 hectare area of farm soil contains several tons of living bacteria, around 1 ton (2.204.6 pounds) of fungi, 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds) of single-celled protozoan life, around 50 kilograms (110.2 pounds) of yeast and a similar amount of algae. 2

Knowing about the properties of these creatures and entering into this world is actually of the greatest importance. People imagine that these creatures, many of which are invisible to the naked eye, are basically very simple entities; and are therefore unaware of their powerful abilities. The proponents of the theory of evolution—itself nothing more than a deception—exploit this lack of knowledge and make little reference to these organisms' complex features. They sometimes ignore the exceedingly intelligent tasks performed by bacteria, and feel no need to account for the premeditated way that a virus invades the human body.

In this book, we shall be examining how the inhabitants of the microworld reflect the superior intelligence, artistry and might in Allah's Creation, providing striking examples of the impasse faced by the proponents of evolution who seek to account for living things in terms of unconscious coincidences.

Half a hectare of farm soil contains approximately several tons of bacteria and 1 ton (2,204.6 pounds) of fungi, 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds) of single-celled protozoan animals, some 50 kilos (110.2 pounds) of yeast and a similar quantity of algae. Each of these organisms is of great benefit to the soil in which it lives.