One of the more peculiar objections to the design inference is the strident, often repeated claim that the genetic code is not a code, and that DNA and mRNA are not storing algorithmic, coded information used in protein synthesis. These are tied to the string (yes, s-t-r-i-n-g) data structure, a key foundational array for information Read More…
Complex Specified Information
A conversation on a [post?]-Christian civilisation and the impact of the design inference on evidence
Peter Robinson’s Uncommon Knowledge brings three authors together, Tom Holland, Stephen Meyer and Douglas Murray: A key consideration: vs, this notorious poetic assertion: Of course, both of these reflect the rise of the skeptical mindset among the educated elites, the modern inferior good that stands in for the cardinal virtue, prudence. So, we cannot escape Read More…
At SciTech Daily: The Fountain of Life: Scientists Uncover the “Chemistry Behind the Origin of Life”
The requirement of a particular sequence of amino acids endows the protein with vast amounts of information, far beyond what could be “chanced upon” by any natural process within the history of the entire universe.
Your Designed Body: Engineering Hurdles
The body’s design:
“There remains no plausible, causally adequate hypotheses for how any series of accidents, no matter how lucky and no matter how much time is given, could accomplish such things.”
At Quora: Is it possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that intelligence was required to create life?
John von Neumann mathematically showed that the information content of the simplest self-replicating machine is about 1500 bits of information. This is a vast amount of information, far exceeding the information content of the physical (non-living) universe.
From Evolution News: Prigogine’s Self-Organization vs. Specified Biological Complexity
Self-organization, exemplified in “dissipative structures” (Prigogine), which can arise in systems maintained far from thermodynamic equilibrium, result in a decrease in information and do not constitute a natural explanation of information-rich biological systems.
At Phys.org: Chemists create an ‘artificial photosynthesis’ system ten times more efficient than existing systems
“In nature, photosynthesis is performed by several very complex assemblies of proteins and pigments.”
Researchers have not been able to approach the efficiency of the natural process with artificial photosynthesis.
At Phys.org: New study finds our ancient relatives were not so simple after all
Lacking a naturalistic mechanism for the generation of the new information of novel features, the idea of the “loss of features” is put forward as a driving factor for supposed evolutionary advance.
At Phys.org: Learning to better understand the language of algae
Communication implies the purposeful interchange of information. How does intentionality arise from natural interactions between atoms?
From The Wall Street Journal: ‘Imperfection’ Review: Unintelligent Design
Is it valid to say, “Homo sapiens are marvels of unintelligent design”?
At Phys.org: NASA announces 16 people who will study UFOs to see what’s natural—and what isn’t
What would the UFO team decide if they were fed the genetic code from human DNA, perhaps disguised in a format that didn’t reveal it as such?
At SciTech Daily: Scientists Solve an Origin of Life Mystery
So many steps in this imagined process are mediated against by the known laws of physics, that to suggest it happened naturally is to depart from scientific credibility.
At Evolution News: Origin of the First Self-Replicating Molecules
“Many variants of Stanley Miller’s experimental setup have been used in attempting to demonstrate the conversion of energy-rich, gaseous-phase chemicals into amino acids and other biomolecular monomers. But this is not nearly sufficient to generate life.”
Evolution News reports on The Electric Cell: More Synergy with Physics Found in Cellular Coding
The significant takeaway is that new research is discovering profound layers of complexity in cellular function that confounds the assumption of unguided interatomic forces as responsible for life.
Natural Sources of Information?
Sources of natural energy (sunlight, fire, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.) universally destroy complex specified information, and never create it.