The Verdict of Reason
So far in this series we’ve been unpacking the evidence surrounding the Creation Event and the amazing design of the Cosmos. These first rounds have not been kind to the Materialist cause. A Universe with a beginning builds the argument for an Intelligent Source outside of time and space that somehow caused time and space and energy to come into being. There is the little matter of the fine tuning of the cosmic constants. That life can exist at all seems a miracle. Even in this amazingly vast and expanding universe the odds against it are astronomical. And that’s where we’ll start today – with the issue of ‘Life’ itself.
THE PROBLEM OF ‘LIFE’
The Materialist / Atheists have a real problem to solve. They must explain the origin of life. And that often leads to them reasoning against the evidence. Richard Lewontin is a Harvard geneticist who DOES NOT believe in a Grand Designer. He wants us all to be perfectly clear about that. But Dr Lewontin once wrote that organisms “appear to have been carefully and artfully designed.” Later he goes on to explain that the “’perfection of organisms’ is often illusory.”[i] So we mustn’t look to the evidence to draw our conclusions. But in another, perhaps more honest setting, Richard Lewontin gives us this. “Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”[ii] The only explanation allowed past the doors of Academy is Materialism. That is true even when it flies in the face of the evidence. Thus is the wsidom of ‘objective science’.
‘Life’ has 7 basic characteristics. It is composed of cells, had different levels of organization, uses energy, responds to its environment, grows, reproduces and adapts to its surroundings.[iii] One of the requirements of life is that it have proteins, or strings of amino acids. Now where could that possibly come from? What many Materialists advance is a theory of the chemical evolution of life. There was this ‘primordial soup’ and then stuff happened and like magic, life came into being. This is called Abiogenesis and is is “the theory that under the proper conditions life can arise spontaneously from non-living molecules.” Russian scientist Alexandr Ivanovich Oparin advanced this theory, widley accepted by many Darwinists. Jerry Bergman of Creation.com explains. “Oparin ‘postulated that life may have evolved solely through random processes’ in what he termed a biochemical ‘soup’ that he believed once existed in the oceans. The theory held that life evolved when organic molecules that originally rained into the primitive oceans from the atmosphere were energized by forces such as lightning, ultraviolet light, meteorites, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, hot springs, volcanoes, earthquakes, or electric discharges from the sun. If only the correct mix of chemicals and energy were present, life would be produced spontaneously. Almost a half century of research and millions of dollars have been expended to prove this idea—so far with few positive results and much negative evidence.”[iv] Evidence for the theory was hard to find. Then in 1953 came the Miller-Urey experiment which claimed to have created the first steps toward life in a test tube. Miller and Urey enclosed methane, ammonnia, hydrogen and water vapor in sealed glass, boiled the soup and zapped it with 60.000 volts of electricity. The recipe was altered and over time some very small amounts of “biologically useful amino acids were formed.”
But the longer term results were less favorable for the Abiogenesis crowd. Here’s Bergman. “It was believed that the results were significant because some of the organic compounds produced were the building blocks of much more complex life units called proteins—the basic structure of all life. Although widely heralded by the press as ‘proving’ that life could have originated on the early earth under natural conditions (i.e. without intelligence), we now realize the experiment actually provided compelling evidence for exactly the opposite conclusion. For example, without all 20 amino acids as a set, most known protein types cannot be produced, and this critical step in abiogenesis could never have occurred.” In addition the characteristics needed to produce amino acids useful for the productions of proteins were of the wrong type.[v] MIT scientist Seth Lloyd concluded that the chance of getting even “one small protein of 150 amino acids” from this type of action would be 1 in 1040,000.[vi] Another researcher found that the chances of assembling even one simple bacteria would be 1 in 1010,000,000,000. Information theorist Herbert Yockey of UC Berkley concluded: “The origin of life by chance in a primeval soup is impossible in probability in the same way that a perpetual motion machine is in probability.”[vii] And Chris Wills, a Professor of Biology and the University of California wisely concludes: “The biggest gap in evolutionary theory remains the origin of life itself… the gap between such a collection of molecules [amino acids and RNA] and even the most primitive cell remains enormous.”[viii]
The Problem of DNA
If the origin of life is a problem for atheists and materialists, the existence and nature of DNA is another. The mapping of the genome and related research that advanced our understanding of the nature of DNA has complicated the matter significantly. The issue is this: DNA is an actual language and language requires intelligence. Though not at all intending to make an argument for Intelligent Design, Bill Gates himself admitted as much when he said: “Human DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”[ix] DNA is made up of chemicals represented by the letters A, T, G, and C which provide instructions for the cell’s make-up and actions through the way in which they are arranged. This is no simple language. Within every cell in our bodies are instructions that are 3 billion letters long. Like Bill Gates, the Director of the Human Genome Project, Dr Francis Collins, believes that we should “think of DNA as an instructional script, a software program, sitting in the nucleus of the cell.”[x] Science writer Mario Seigle fleshes it out for us. “For it to be rightly called a language, it must contain the following elements: an alphabet or coding system, correct spelling, grammar (a proper arrangement of the words), meaning (semantics) and an intended purpose. Scientists have found the genetic code has all of these key elements[xi].” Human language is the only other code ever found to have these characteristics. This does not exist elsewhere in nature; not in the bellowing of whales, the chattering of dolphins or the barking of dogs. And the origin of human language has always come from an intelligent source – human beings. Information specialist Perry Marshall explains the significance of this fact. “There has never existed a computer program that wasn’t designed…[whether it is] a code, or a program, or a message given through a language, there is always an intelligent mind behind it.”[xii] [xiii] So DNA then is the medium of information, the carrier if you will of this independent genetic information. And highly complex information of this order comes only from intelligent sources. As Lee Strobel points out in The Case for a Creator: The information carried by the DNA is responsible for “the building of biological machines that far outstrip human technological capabilities.”[xiv]
Now the amount of information held by DNA is just incredible. Harvard researchers studying the use of DNA for information storage have managed to store 700 terabytes of information into a single gram of DNA.[xv] In a non-computer setting, the info contained in a human DNA has been compared to that found in 384 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This is no simple code. Molecular biologist and author of Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, lays it out for us. The genetic information found in each cell contains “artificial languages and their decoding systems, memory banks for information storage and retrieval, elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of parts and components, error fail-safe and proof-reading devices utilized for quality control, assembly processes involving the principle of prefabrication and modular construction . . . [and a] capacity not equaled in any of our most advanced machines, for it would be capable of replicating its entire structure within a matter of a few hours.”[xvi] There is no way that this vast and complex information could have evolved according to the proposed Darwinian mechanism. Professor of Information Systems, Werner Gitt sums it up. “The basic flaw of all evolutionary views is the origin of the information in living beings. It has never been shown that a coding system and semantic information could originate by itself [through matter] . . . The information theorems predict that this will never be possible. A purely material origin of life is thus [ruled out]”[xvii] It was this sort of information that convinced the very famous committed atheist, Anthony Flew to change his tune a bit. While making it clear that he did not accept the Biblical version of God; when faced with the DNA evidence he said this: “Super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature.”[xviii] There are others in the scientific community that are beginning to see the light. Lee Strobel quotes biology professor Dean Kenyon who has reversed his former position as a believer in Darwinian evolution. Looking at the amount and complexity of information found in DNA he said: “This new realm of molecular genetics (is) where we see the most compelling evidence of design on the Earth.”[xix] [xx]
Still there are many Materialists who deny even the possibly of a Divine Designer and insist that evolution must be the way in which these systems all came to be. But the evidence is increasingly against them. But there are an increasing number in the scientific community ready to answer them. Arthur L Schawlow, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics puts it this way. “It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life.”[xxi]
Yet many persist in unbelief despite the evidence. Among these there is a commitment to credit only material causes for the origin and existence of everything – even while current scientific belief in the Big Bang speaks of a time before matter & energy & time & the laws of physics – and therefore material causes ever existed. A Universe with a beginning – which the Big Bang posits – begs a beginning outside of materialism. Scripture puts it thusly: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:18-22) And fools continue to “kick against the goads.”
[i] Creation Misquotes, http://www.huecotanks.com/debunk/misquote.htm, Viewed February 24, 2015
[ii] Richard Lewontin, Billions and Billions of Demons, Review of Carl Sagan’s: The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997
[iii] The 7 Characteristics of Life, http://infohost.nmt.edu/~klathrop/7characterisitcs_of_life.htm, Viewed February 24, 2015
[iv] Jerry Bergman, Why the Miller–Urey research argues against abiogenesis, Creation.com, Viewed February 24, 2015
Bergman cites his source as: “Poundstone, W., Carl Sagan; A Life in the Cosmos, Henry Holt, New York, 1999.
[v] Jerry Bergman, Why the Miller–Urey research argues against abiogenesis, Creation.com, Viewed February 24, 2015
[vi] Don Batten, Origin of Life, Creation.com, November 26, 2013
[vii]Yockey, H., Information Theory and Molecular Biology, Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 257 – As quoted by: Don Batten,
Origin of Life, Creation.com, November 26, 2013
[viii] Quoted in, Evolution’s final frontiers, New Scientist 201(2693):42, 2009: As quoted by Don Batten, Origin of Life, Creation.com, November 26, 2013
[ix] Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, Penguin: London, Revised, 1996, pg 228
[x]Francis S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, The Language of God, (Free Press, New York, NY), 2006, p 1.
[xi] Mario Seigle, DNA: The Tiny Code That’s Toppling Evolution, Good News Magazine, June 2005
[xii] Perry Marshall, Where Did the Universe Come From? Was it started by… God?, http://cosmicfingerprints.com/,
Viewed February 25, 2015
[xiii] Is God Real, http://www.everystudent.com/wires/Godreal.html, Viewed February 25, 2015
[xiv] Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, Zondervan, 2004, pg 244
[xv] Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram, Extremetech.com, August 17, 2012
[xvi] Michael Denton, Evolution a Theory in Crisis, Burnett Books, 1996, pg 329
[xvii] Werner Gitt as quoted by: Mario Seigle, DNA: The Tiny Code That’s Toppling Evolution, Good News Magazine, June 2005
[xviii] Famous Atheist Now Believes in God, AP, December 9, 2004
[xix] Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, Zondervan, 2004, pg 221
[xx] Mario Seigle, DNA: The Tiny Code That’s Toppling Evolution, Good News Magazine, June 2005
[xxi] Margenau, H. and R. A. Varghese, eds. Cosmos, Bios, Theos: Scientists Reflect on Science, God, and the Origins of the
Universe, Life, and Homo Sapiens (Open Court Pub. Co., La Salle, IL, 1992)
Leave a Reply