Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Intelligence Behind DNA - Prime Reality, Part 3

The discussion of Prime Reality begins with the discussion of whether or not there is a God. As a believer in Jesus Christ as the incarnate God, and a believer in the Bible being the inspire Word of God, it is not hard for me to answer in the affirmative. However, I understand that there are those out there who find the question hard and struggle to find an intellectually satisfying answer. So they would probably ask me, "Why do you believe in God?" and that is a fair question.

I do not believe one can prove the existence of God. I believe one can make the case with a preponderance of evidence, but in the end one must make the choice to believe or not believe. I think the Scripture affirms this in Hebrews 11:6, which says

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is rewarder of those who seek Him. (NASB)

This verse say that, first, faith is paramount in the discussion of the existence of Go in that it says that if one is to come to Him, they must believe that He actually exists. Second, it says that the one who comes to Him must believe certain things about His character, that is, who God is. In short, for one to come to God, you must have faith in His existence and in His character. This is essentially the two questions of Prime Reality. I am not saying that God exists because I have faith He does. Obviously, things do not exist simply because we have faith they exist. I am simply saying that this issue involves faith, no matter the way one decides.

However, there is evidence of a Creator. Without dealing with mountains of material, I would simply point to the issue of DNA. I am not a scientist, but I do know that DNA contains information and in every other aspect of life, when one encounters information, one assumes intelligence behind that information. This should stagger most anyone who comes to this discovery. Even Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize winning scientist who essentially discovered DNA's double-helical structure, saw such an intelligence behind DNA he developed a theory called Directed Panspermia, which says it was possible that intelligent life on other planets seeded our planet with DNA and that we evolved from that DNA (click here for the original article - you have to at least read the abstract).

Take a minute and ponder that idea. This should bring up several questions from the thoughtful reader. First, If the answer to the source of intelligent life on this planet is that it came from intelligent life on another planet, it begs the question "Where did life from that planet come from?" If that answer was, "from intelligent life from yet another planet" then the question would be "Where did life from THAT planet come from?"

Secondly, why is belief in life on another planet easier to believe than a God who creates? Neither can be proven. There has been NO evidence that there is life on any other planet.

The point here is that even the scientist who won the Nobel prize for his work on DNA acknowledges there is an intelligence behind DNA and that chance could not account for its appearance. While this seems to be a discussion regarding the beginnings of humanity, my point is that is more about the existence of God. If the beginnings of humanity cannot be explained by natural means, and the discovery and information explosion of DNA is making that harder for unbiased scientists to do, then the question becomes "What kind of intelligence is responsible for the creation of DNA and genetic information it contains?" Many may have no problem placing their faith in a scientifically superior race of beings on another planet who could create DNA and then ship it to earth, even though this scenario does not really answer the ultimate origin of life. I find it more intellectually satisfying to place my faith in a God who creates and created humans in His own image and gave them inherent value and purpose in this life.

This is not the only evidence of the existence of God. There is so many other things. But I believe this is a crucial "clincher" for many. So the question is, "What is the intelligence behind DNA?" There is no doubt there is intelligence behind DNA. Francis Crick, in his book Life Itself, said,
An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some senses, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.

So, where do you place your faith. Intelligent life from other planets, or a Creator God? In my mind, these are the informed choices.

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