Reason 4: DNA Alphabet of Life

Reason 4: DNA The Alphabet of Life

DNA-Molecule

According to Darwin’s criteria, his whole model of life falls apart.  The cell is the smallest unit of matter considered alive…less than a 1/1000th of an inch in diameter.

            In the center of the cell is the nucleolus composed of deoxyribo-nucleic acid (DNA), protein and ribonucleic acid (RNA). DNA combined with proteins is organized into structural units called chromosomes, which usually occur in identical pairs.    The DNA molecule form the infrastructure in each chromosome and is a single, very long, highly

coiled molecule subdivided into functional units called genes.  A gene occupies a certain place on the chromosome and contains the coded instructions that determine the inheritance of a particular characteristic or group passed from one generation to the next. The Chromosomes contain the information needed to build an identical working cell.

            Cells serve two functions to provide a framework to support life and to make copies of themselves.  They do this by having a communication system between the nucleolus and the rest of the cell.  Inside the nucleolus is located all the information need to function, replicate and repair the cell.  Only now is this incredibly complex system of cell communication becoming known.

            In the same way a software program uses binary code, combining 0 and 1 to communicate programs throughout a computer system the cells uses the combination of four nitrogen-containing bases to communicate inside the cell. (Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Cytosine (C) and Guanine (G).

Molecular biologists classify it as equivalent to a written language but not by analogy.

 The statistical structure of any printed language ranges through letter and frequencies, diagrams, trigrams word frequencies, etc., spelling rules, grammar and so forth and therefore can be represented by a Markov process given the states of the system…..It is important to understand that we are not reasoning by analogy.  The sequence hypothesis applies directly to the protein and the genetic text as well as to written language and therefore the treatment is mathematically identical.[1]

 

The cell has a language of its own, fully equipped with rules that govern how it communicates.  This cellular communication system has been shown to have a one-to-one correspondence with our own communication systems.

 

The genetic code is composed of four letters (Nucleotides), which are arranged into sixty-four words of three letters each (triplets or codons).  These words are organized in sequence to produce sentences (Genes). Several related sentences are strung together and perform as paragraphs (Operons). Tens of thousands of paragraphs comprise chapters (Chromosomes), and a full set of chapters contain all the necessary information for a readable book (Organism).[2]

  The probability of life

52 Cards and probabilityThe possibility of life coming into existence on its own requires two elements time and probability. David Foster illustrates the problem with a deck of 52 playing cards.

Specificity is the measure of the improbability of a pattern which actually occurs against a background of alternatives…Let us imagine that there is a pack of 52 cards well shuffled and lying face-downwards on a table.  What are the chances of picking all the cards up in a correct suit, sequence starting with the Ace of Spades and working downwards and then through the other suits and finishing with the Two of Clubs?

Well, the chance of picking up the first card correctly is 1 in 52, the second 1 in 51, the third card 1 in 50, the fourth card 1 in 49 and so forth.  So the chance of picking up the whole pack correctly is Factorial 52.

 As one chance in (About) 1068 this number is approaching that of all the atoms in the universe.

  • Number of seconds back from now to the estimated date of the Big Bang is 4 x 1017 (1018)
  • Number of atoms in the universe: 1080
  • Number of photons in the universe: 1088
  • Number of stars in the universe: 1022
  • Number of wavelengths of light to traverse the universe 2 x 1033.16[3]

 The astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramsinghe placed the probability that life would originate from non-life as one 10-40,000 and the probability of added complexity arising by mutations and natural selection very near this figure.[4]

 

To believe that life could have come from non-life would require an incredible amount of faith.

The information content of the brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among the neurons—about a hundred trillion, 1014, bits.  If written out in English, say, that information would fill some twenty million volumes, as many as in the world largest libraries. The equivalent of twenty million books is inside the heads of every one of us.  The brain is a very big place in a small space[5]

When we examine the complexity of life and the improbability of life developing from non-life, we are forced to come to the conclusion that a Super-Intelligent Designer is the source for life.     



[1] Hubert P. Yockey, “Self Organization, Origin-of-life Scenarios and Information Theory,” Journal of  Theoretical Biology, Vol. 91 (1981):16  A Markov process is a phrase used to in the discipline of statistics It concerns itself with analyzing a succession of events within certain parameters. Named after Andrei Markov (1856-1922)

[2] Lane P. Lester and Raymond G. Bohlin, The Natural Limits to Biological Change (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1984)

 

[3]  David Foster, The Philosophical Scientists (New York: Dorset, 1985)

[4] Lane P. Lester and Raymond G. Bohlin, The Natural Limits of Biological Change (Grand Rapids, Mich, Zondervan, 1984) 86

[5] Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Ballantine, 1980), 230