This Smacks of Design!

Over the past few years I’ve read portions of a monster 1500 page standard college textbook titled “Molecular Biology of The Cell – 4th Edition”. (You can read this excellent book online for free here.) Commonly referred to by the acronym MBOC, the fourth edition was published in 2002, and the fifth edition is now out - due in part to the rapid increase (explosion) of knowledge in our current times, one of the two signs that Daniel the prophet was told would characterize the last days (Daniel 21:4). The authors are, to my knowledge, strict evolutionists. Yet these guys use all the descriptions you’d use for the greatest of engineered systems. This smacks of design! Here’s how they describe the systems and processes that run life at the molecular level:

Subclassing and Instantiation – Brainchilds of God

Subclassing and instantiation are features of modern object-oriented computer programming languages. The efficiency of this methodology allows the programmer to reuse common code to define new objects. When defining a new object, instead of reinventing the wheel, the new object can inherit properties from an existing object, leaving the programmer only to define the new object’s unique aspects. For example:

Basic Object: House
Its properties:

• Square feet
• # of bedrooms
• House style (ranch/bungalow/colonial)
• Address
• Year built

Detailed Object: Rental House
Its properties:

• Inherit all the properties of a house (sq ft, # of bedrooms, etc)
• Monthly rent
• Lease start date
• Lease expire date

Instantiation is the act of taking one of these definitions and applying it to a specific instance (such as describing a specific rental house).

Subclassing and instantiations are truly the brainchild of God. These ingenious features are evidenced in DNA. Often the DNA sequence for a single gene actually codes for multiple proteins. The way this happens is that a RNA copy of the DNA is made. The RNA copy is then spliced at precise predetermined points by various molecular editing machines. However, sometimes whether or not (or where) this splicing occurs is random (50/50 or 33/33/33). Other times the splicing points are weighted, resulting in a fairly consistent ratio of output proteins. Other times the splicing points are completely predetermined, and not susceptible to outside influence. The resulting “family of proteins” that result from this splicing often have related but separate functions. In this way, DNA code is essentially compacted, and then subclassed in its expression. In humans, the majority of proteins are reliant on this mechanism of splicing to get from gene to protein. The amazing thing about all of this is the body’s intricate feedback mechanisms that are constantly maintaining these delicate and precisely-controlled balances necessary for life to work.

The incredible universe inside the cell

Stunning new animation has been developed that visualizes the automated molecular machinery which Jesus Christ has created, and on which your life depends. Do you want scientific evidence for the existence of God? Well, first you must be honest with yourself about the information you observe, instead of artifically imposing naturalistic limits on the origin of information-rich systems. Limiting our explanatory powers to such naturalistic causes cannot account for the existence of a PC or Ford F-150, because these systems required intelligent designers to produce them. In the same way, we must not presume that an explanation that invokes intelligent design cannot account for the similarly sophisticated systems found in molecular biology. Besides, there is no empirical scientific evidence proving that life did not have a designer. So keep your mind open to the possibility as you watch this video, and ask yourself if the existence of these systems makes sense from an evolutionary worldview. 

Evolution has no vested interest in any given outcome for an organism. That is, to evolution, survival is no more desirable an outcome than nonsurvival. And nonsurvival as an outcome is extremely more likely than survival given the laws of physics, chemistry, and electromagnetism. If we are brutally honest about the living structures we observe, we must conclude that life is the most unnatural thing that exists in the universe, because life must constantly harness energy in a purposeful fashion to impose order upon the random structure present everywhere throughout the universe. Therefore, random mutations and natural selection are pitifully lacking in explanatory power when compared to the known, observed production of systems of similar sophistication (Dell PCs and Ford F-150s) created by intelligent causes.

As an aside, Dr. James Watson (co-discoverer of DNA’s structure) seemed to think that because life’s mechanics are not supernatural, there is not a God, stating “If we don’t play God, who will?” While it’s true that life’s molecular mechanisms don’t break the laws of physics or chemistry, neither do the innards of PCs or F-150s. Yet this fact does not preclude the possibility that intelligent agents designed and constructed these systems. The sophisticated and purposeful ways in which biological molecular systems harness the laws of physics reveals an imposition of structure upon matter so ingenious than it cannot be explained by random mutations. 

View the video and be in awe:

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