Information Implies Intelligence

The Importance Of Information In DNA

In the previous article, Complex Life And Its Information, we arrived at two key conclusions:

1. “Information”, for our purposes, is some set of content combinations or arrangements that can be stored, transmitted and communicated.  Different content combinations can be used in some way to produce more than one outcome
2. DNA nucleotide bases are finely tuned and can be arranged in many ways to store, transmit and communicate information that gets used to produce proteins, among other things
   • This is exactly analogous to how information is arranged, stored, transmitted, communicated and used everywhere else in the world

Admittedly, parts of the definition for “information” are a bit difficult to understand so let’s look at some common examples for assistance:

• A sentence, like this one, is comprised of letters and other symbols arranged together and used to communicate a meaningful concept between author and reader
  • This sentence is stored on this web page, transmitted thru the Internet and communicated to you as you read it
  • The same set of letters and symbols can be rearranged to communicate other concepts – as seen in these two sub-bullets
• A math formula is also comprised of symbols arranged in such a way as to communicate some mathematics concept to a reader or something that executes the formula like a calculator or computer
  • The formula is stored, transmitted and communicated via some medium like paper, computer program, keyboard input and the like
  • The symbols used in math can be rearranged in many ways to communicate and execute various formulas
• A song on the radio uses letters and musical notes to communicate the song’s message and music.  Those same letters and notes can be rearranged into other songs stored, transmitted and communicated by the radio station
• DNA stores nucleotide bases which are transmitted and used to communicate the exact sequence of amino acids required in a protein. The bases can be rearranged in many ways and used to create many different proteins

A review of some relevant examples that don’t qualify as “information”, per our definition, will help as well:

• A gibberish set of letters like “fwnwoin qwdpwe fdhgd” is not information because nothing meaningful is communicated to the reader – it produces no outcome
• The same would apply to a single tone from a musical instrument and to random set of nucleotide bases that produces no outcome within a cell – e.g., doesn’t produce a protein or other cell component

In a May 1965 article published in Nature, J. D. Watson & F. H. C. Crick, the scientists who discovered DNA’s double helix shape, were quoted as stating:

“In a long molecule many different permutations are possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise sequence of the bases is the code which carries the genetical information.”

Intelligence Is The Source Of Information In DNA

Scientists have been studying the information in DNA for decades and, as you have seen in the videos presented in other articles, they have made tremendous strides in understanding the processes and machinery involved in generating that information within the cell.

One question, however, has defied explanation from traditional scientific sources: “Where did the information found in DNA come from and how was it first created?”

Dr. Stephen Meyer has the answer to that question in this short 4 minute video.  Dr. Meyer is a Cambridge trained researcher, Director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute and a renowned author and speaker.  In the video, Dr. Meyer highlights his 2009 book, Signature In The Cell; DNA And The Evidence For Intelligent Design.

Conclusions From The Video

• Watson and Crick first determined that DNA contains information
• New information is required to produce new forms of life
• What is the origin of digital information found in DNA?
• Where does that information come from?
• Science must explain the origin of DNA information to fully explain the origin of life
• Scientific models have failed to explain this
• Darwin and colleague Lyell stated that observations should be explained by presently known causes and presently acting causes
• All uniform and repeated experience shows that “information always comes from an intelligent source”
• “Best explanation for the origin of the information necessary to build the first life is actually intelligence” – now called intelligent design

It’s important to restate Dr. Meyer’s key insight: The best explanation for the origin of the information necessary to build the first life is intelligence.  Meyer expands upon this topic extensively in Signature In The Cell; DNA And The Evidence For Intelligent Design.  For instance, in that book he also states:

“Intelligence is the only known cause of complex functionally integrated information-processing systems.  It follows, once again, that intelligent design stands as the best – most causally adequate – explanation for this feature of the cell, just as it stands as the best explanation for the origin of the information present in DNA itself.”

He goes on to say:

“Indeed, our uniform experience affirms that specified information – whether inscribed in hieroglyphics, written in a book, encoded in a radio signal or produced in a simulation experiment – always arises from an intelligent source, from a mind and not a strictly material process.”

Note the italics that Meyer uses: “only known cause” and “always”.  The emphasis there is telling.  Think about that yourself.  It’s true.  Anytime we see some specific sign of information we instinctively and subconsciously know its origin lies in some mind somewhere.  Even computer-generated information was first programmed in some manner by a programmer.

Meyer describes his points in more depth in this 15 minute video including debunking atheist attempts at simulating the creation of life in computer programs.  Watch it if you’d to get a deeper understanding of Meyer’s keen insights.

Key Insight: God Created The Information In The Cell

There’s no known physics, chemistry or biology that can explain how information was first created on the early earth yet we know, when we see signs of finely tuned information, it was created by an intelligent agent.  The only intelligence that can create such a finely tuned information design at a molecular level within every cell within every living organism is God.

Conclusion

• The information found in DNA is analogous to the information found in sentences, math formulas and songs on the radio
  • DNA stores nucleotide bases which are transmitted and used to communicate the exact sequence of amino acids required in a protein. The bases can be rearranged in many ways and used to create many different proteins
• We must explain the origin of DNA information to fully explain the origin of life
• Scientific models have failed to explain this
• Darwin and colleague Lyell stated that observations should be explained by presently known causes and presently acting causes
• All uniform and repeated experience shows that information always comes from an intelligent source
• The best explanation for the origin of the information necessary to build the first life is intelligence
  • “Indeed, our uniform experience affirms that specified information … always arises from an intelligent source, from a mind and not a strictly material process”
• There’s no known physics, chemistry or biology that can explain how information was first created on the early earth yet we know, when we see signs of finely tuned information, it was created by an intelligent agent
• The only intelligence that can create such a finely tuned information design at a molecular level within every cell within every living organism is God