Human DNA contains more organized information than the Encyclopedia
Britannica. If the full text of the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer
code from outer space, most people would regard this as proof of the existence
of extraterrestrial intelligence. But when seen in nature, it is explained as
the workings of random forces. George
Sim Johnson
Einstein said, “God does not play dice.” He was right. God plays
Scrabble. Philip Gold
For more than fifty years, as scientists have studied the
six feet of DNA that’s tightly coiled inside every one of our body’s one
hundred trillion cells, they have marveled at how it provides the genetic
information necessary to create all of the proteins out of which our bodies are
built. In fact, each one of the thirty thousand genes that are embedded in our
twenty-three pairs of chromosomes can yield as many as 20,500 different kinds
of proteins. The astounding capacity of microscopic DNA to harbor this mountain
of information, carefully spelled out in a four-letter chemical alphabet,
“vastly exceeds that of any other known system,” said geneticist Michael
Denton. In fact, he said the information needed to build the proteins for all
the species of organisms that have ever lived—a number estimated to be
approximately one thousand million—“could be held in a teaspoon and there would
still be room left for all the information in every book ever written.”
What is DNA?
DNA serves as the information storehouse for a finely
choreographed manufacturing process in which the right amino acids are linked
together with the right bonds in the right sequence to produce the right kind
of proteins that fold in the right way to build biological systems. The
documentary Unlocking the Mystery of Life,
which has aired on numerous PBS television stations, describes the elaborate
operation this way:
In a process known as transcription, a molecular machine first unwinds
a section of the DNA helix to expose the genetic instructions needed to
assemble a specific protein molecule. Another machine then copies these
instructions to form a molecule known as messenger RNA. When transcription is
complete, the slender RNA strand carries the genetic information . . . out of
the cell nucleus. The messenger RNA strand is directed to a two-part molecular
factory called a ribosome. . . . Inside the ribosome, a molecular assembly line
builds a specifically sequenced chain of amino acids. These amino acids are
transported from other parts of the cell and then linked into chains often
hundreds of units long. Their sequential determines the type of protein
manufactured. When the chain is finished, it is moved from the ribosome to a
barrel-shaped machine that helps fold it into the precise shape critical to its
function. After the chain is folded into a protein, it is then released and
shepherded by another molecular machine to the exact location where it is
needed.
Where does the
Information inside DNA come from?
This issue has caused all naturalistic accounts of the
origin of life to break down, because it’s the critical and foundational
question. If you can’t explain where the information comes from, you haven’t
explained life, because it’s the information that makes the molecules into something
that actually functions. The origin of information in DNA—which is necessary
for life to begin—is best explained by an intelligent cause rather than any of
the types of naturalistic causes that scientists typically use to explain
biological phenomena.
We know from our experience that we can convey information
with a twenty-six-letter alphabet, or twenty-two, or thirty—or even just two
characters, like the zeros and ones used in the binary code in computers. One
of the most extraordinary discoveries of the twentieth century was that DNA
actually stores information—the detailed instructions for assembling
proteins—in the form of a four-character digital code. The characters happen to
be chemicals called adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Scientists
represent them with the letters A, G, C, and T, and that’s appropriate because
they function as alphabetic characters in the genetic text. Properly arranging
those four ‘bases,’ as they’re called, will instruct the cell to build
different sequences of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.
Different arrangements of characters yields different sequences of amino acids.
DNA as a library
The organism accesses the information that it needs from DNA
so it can build some of its critical components. In DNA, there are long lines
of A, C, G, and T’s that are precisely arranged in order to create protein
structure and folding. To build one protein, you typically need 1,200 to 2,000
letters or bases—which is a lot of information.
There’s a certain level of folding that a protein has to
have, called tertiary structure, that is necessary for it to perform a
function. You don’t get tertiary structure in a protein unless you have at
least seventy-five amino acids or so. That may be conservative. Now consider
what you’d need for a protein molecule to form by chance. First, you need the
right bonds between the amino acids. Second, amino acids come in right-handed
and left-handed versions, and you’ve got to get only left-handed ones. Third,
the amino acids must link up in a specified sequence, like letters in a sentence.
Run the odds of these things falling into place on their own and you find that
the probabilities of forming a rather short functional protein at random would
be one chance in a hundred thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion
trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. That’s a ten with 125
zeroes after it!
And that would only be one protein molecule—a minimally
complex cell would need between three hundred and five hundred protein
molecules. Plus, all of this would have to be accomplished in a mere 100
million years, which is the approximate window of time between the Earth
cooling and the first microfossils we’ve found. To suggest chance against those
odds is really to invoke a naturalistic miracle. It’s a confession of
ignorance. It’s another way of saying, ‘We don’t know.’ And since the 1960s,
scientists, to their credit, have been very reluctant to say that chance played
any significant role in the origin of DNA or proteins—even though, as you say,
it’s still unfortunately a live option in popular thinking.
One more example of how improbable it is for life to have
evolved from nothing.
Research all the evidences, find the truth for yourself and
remember….
Have an Intelligent Faith!!
- - Nelis
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