genetic-information

HURDLE NUMBER 19. THE INFORMATION HURDLE.

The genetic code is about the transfer of INFORMATION, “telling” the organism how to develop and function. Biological life itself is all about INFORMATION. The problem is that information cannot appear out of nothing. In order for information to reside in a system, something has to INPUT that information into the system. In the primordial soup there was nothing there holding the information, ready to input it into the life forms supposedly emerging from the primordial soup. Absent of the required information, such organisms would be unable to function. Here are some quotes from authoritative sources that substantiate this statement:-

Here is a quote from the book The Oxford Book of Modern Science, edited by Richard Dawkins, published by Oxford University Press, 2009, pages 40 to 48, excerpt from a paper by Sydney Brenner (Following his PhD, Brenner did postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. He spent the next 20 years at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge; here, during the 1960s, he contributed to molecular biology, then an emerging field. In 1976 he joined the Salk Institute in California.) (The paper being – Theoretical Biology in The Third Millennium, published in The Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London, B, 354, 1963 – 1965, 1999)

Page 44:- “Biological systems are information processing machines.”

Here is a quote from the book – No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot be Purchased Without Intelligence – by William Dembski (Dembski completed an undergraduate degree in psychology (1981, University of Illinois at Chicago) and master's degrees in statistics, mathematics, and philosophy (1983, University of Illinois at Chicago; 1985, University of Chicago; 1993, University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively), two PhDs, one in mathematics and one in philosophy (1988, University of Chicago; 1996, University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively)), published by Rowman and Littlefield, 2002, page 159:-

Dembski discusses “The Law of Conservation of Information”, ie:- “The amount of information outputted by a deterministic process never exceeds the amount of information inputted. Peter Medwar referred to this as The Law of Conservation of Information.” (Note:- Peter Medwar was Professor of Zoology at the University of Birmingham and University College London.)

(My comment:- DNA is the “software” that “tells” all the physiological processes in the organism how to proceed. DNA essentially contains INFORMATION. This information has to come from somewhere. The first self-replicating molecule required information “telling” it what would be the required sequence of nucleotides to enable the self-replicating function. However, for this information to appear FROM NOWHERE would contravene The Law of Conservation of Information. Information cannot be suddenly magicked out of thin air in a system. Information has to be inputted into the system from elsewhere. The problem is that, for the first self-replicating molecule, there was no “elsewhere” for the required information to come from. In that case, there could be no self-replicating molecule emerging from the primordial soup – unless an Intelligent Agency pre-programmed it with the required information.)

The next quote is from the book Genetic Takeover and The Mineral Origins of Life by A.G. Cairns Smith (Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at The University of Glasgow), published by Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1987, page 60:-

“Whether a useful kind of evolution is possible without some means of storing and replicating information - - - I do not think it is.”

The next quote is from the book The Spark of Life – Darwin and The Primeval Soup, by Christopher Wills (Professor of Biology at The University of California) and Jeffrey Bada (Professor of Marine Chemistry), published by Oxford University Press, 2001, page 57:-

“The genetic code is complex, and it is not obvious how it could have started out as some simpler set of instruction.”

(My comment:- The genetic code is all about the processing of information. Information processing is s complex business – too complex to emerge from a primordial soup.)

The next quote is from the book Signature in The Cell – DNA and The Evidence For Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer (Ph.D. from Cambridge University in Philosophy of Science), published by HarperOne, 2009, pages 312 to 313:-

Meyer tells us that, even if a system of RNA molecules capable of building proteins had arisen, “that system of molecules would still need information-rich templates for building specific proteins”. Meyer tells us that “RNA World advocates give no account of the origin of that information beyond vague appeals to chance.” Meyer then points out that the RNA World hypothesis “faces an even more basic information problem: The first self-replicating RNA molecules themselves would have needed to be sequence-specific in order to perform the function of replication.” Meyer tells us that “Experimental studies indicate that RNA molecules with the capacity to replicate themselves - - - - are extremely rare among possible RNA base sequences.”

The next quote is from the book Signature of Controversy – Responses to Critics of Signature in The Cell, edited by David Klinghoffer, published by The Discovery Institute Press, Seattle, 2010, page 101:-

The book quotes directly from Meyer’s book Signature in The Cell (see previous quote):-

“Experience shows that large amounts of information - - - - - invariable originate from an intelligent source - - - from a mind or intelligent agent - - - - so the discovery of the specified - - - - information in the DNA molecule provides strong grounds for inferring that intelligence played a role in the origin of DNA.”

HURDLE NUMBER 46. THE DNA/SOFTWARE HURDLE.

The following three quotes are from the book Signature in The Cell – DNA and The Evidence For Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer (Ph.D. from Cambridge University in Philosophy of Science), published by HarperOne, 2009:-

Page 12:- Meyer quotes Bill Gates:- “DNA IS LIKE A COMPUTER PROGRAM, BUT FAR FAR MORE ADVANCED THAN ANY SOFTWARE EVER CREATED.” (My capitals.)

Page 21:- Meyer quotes Chicago cell biologist James Shapiro (James Alan Shapiro (born May 18, 1943) is an American biologist, an expert in bacterial genetics and a Professor in The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago.), who describes mammalian blood clotting as “A POWERFUL REAL-TIME - - - - COMPUTING SYSTEM.” (My capitals and highlighting.)

Page 23:- Meyer quotes Richard Dawkins:- “The machine code of the genes is UNCANNILY COMPUTER-LIKE.” (My capitals and highlighting.)

My comment:- Windows 7 cannot emerge from a rock pool. Software cannot emerge from a rock pool. DNA is indeed, in a very real sense, software. Focusing on this fact highlights the implausibility of DNA emerging from a rock pool. To believe that software can emerge from a rock pool is just wishful thinking – ideology, not biology.