What Darwin Didn't Know - Part 4: Biological Information

Here's what I have for you this week - some philosophy and some science.


Here's the philosophy:


Premise 1: All information is the product of an intelligent mind.
Premise 2: Biological cells contain and utilize information.
Premise 3: Therefore, biological cells are the product of an intelligent mind.


Premise 1: All information is the product of an intelligent mind.
To prove Premise 1, I appeal to William Dembski's work The Design Inference, which introduces and proves Premise 1 due to Dembski's idea of information being defined as comprising something called "Specified Complexity." Let's break this term down together. For information to be complex is for it to be highly improbable. For information to be specified, it must conform to a pattern. Do you remember the movie Contact starring Jodi Foster? She played the part of a radio astronomer for the SETI program. SETI stands for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. She was searching and searching and eventually came across a message of specified complexity in outer space, a highly improbable message sent from an alien intelligent source of a pattern of prime numbers. It was determined that the message came from an intelligent source (mind) because the message displayed specified complexity (a highly improbably pattern of prime numbers sent from outer space). Anything that displays specified complexity is information, so therefore Premise 1 is true: All information is the product of an intelligent mind.


I realize this may be a highly controversial topic, so here is a debate for you so you can
decide on your own.
Listen to William Dembski debate Lee Silver: Intelligent Design, is it Science?


Premise 2: Biological cells contain and utilize information.
You have probably already heard of the genetic code. Informational instructions exist inside of the DNA structure. These instructions are taken down and copied by messenger RNA in a process called transcription, which in turn takes these copies inside the Ribosomes where translation takes place. After transcription and translation, another molecular machine folds the resulting proteins into the proper shape for use inside the cell. Yet another molecular machine transports the completed protein structure to its designated place inside the cell.


Here is a short video clip taken from "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" on information processes inside the cell:

I highly recommend this video = you can purchase a DVD at Amazon.com or

through www.reasons.org

Premise 3: Therefore, biological cells are the product of an intelligent mind.

This conclusion follows logically and inescapably. William Dembski, mathematician and philosopher, explains that Darwin's mechanism, Natural Selection, cannot possibly create biological information in his paper titled: Why Darwinian Evolution Cannot Create Biological Information. He goes on to state: "The conclusion we are after is that natural selection, even if it is the mechanism by which organisms evolved, achieves its successes by incorporating and using existing information. Mechanisms are never self-explanatory."

For the pdf of the entire paper, click here

So where does information come from? It does not come from the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection. It comes before natural selection. Natural selection only can utilize existing information, but it cannot create information.

Information inside the cell is a hallmark of an intelligent designer and is another fingerprint of the God of the Bible.

Next week, I'm going to talk a bit about another problem for Darwinian Evolution: the Cambrian Explosion.

Have a great week.

Tom