October 11, 2009

AUTHOR OR ACCIDENT

The dictionary defines author as, "One that originates, creates, makes or designs. The source." It defines accident as, "An event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause. Chance, fortune, or luck." These terms are antonyms, they cannot both be used to describe something. In fact, recognizing that something has an author eliminates the possibility that it came about by accident. And recognizing something as an accident, eliminates the possibility it was authored.

Our experiences quickly enable us to distinguish between authorship and accidents. As intelligent creatures who create, make and design, it is very easy for us to see when something came about by chance or by design. In fact, there is essentially zero controversy on this subject. Let me give some examples.

Here in South Carolina we have a mountain called Ceaser's Head.

In New Hampshire there is (was) "The Old Man in the Mountain"

And even as far away as Mars there is the "Face"

We can all see these rock formations and immediately recognize they came about by accident. But why? They look "like" a human face. But there is something missing. They don't look enough like a human face and they don't contain any specific information. They are generic faces. We see them as being able to come about by chance. With enough rock formations, some will look like things we recognize, but they were not authored.
But what about this rock formation?

We all immediately know that this had an author. Someone made this. Why? Because it looks too much like something. It's not only highly improbable, if not impossible for it to come about naturally, it contains specific information. Mount Rushmore has four Presidents of the United States on it. It is conveying information that we recognize. It isn't simply a rock that looks like a man.
But as obvious as these examples are, we are actually even more acute at detecting authorship. Consider the Man-Pupu-Nyor:

Amazing free standing rock formations that are grouped together on an otherwise barren plain. But we still see these as an accident. Wind and rain and years of erosion have formed these unique formations. But a very similar rock formation we know is not an accident:

Stonehenge is simply rectangular rocks in a circle. It is possible for wind and rain to make rectangular rocks. It is nothing unusual for circles to appear in nature, they are quite common actually. So why are plain rectangular rocks in a circle so obviously authored? It is because there is information contained in the rocks. They were there for a purpose. During the solstice the sun aligned perfectly between the heel stones and struck the altar stone with a beam of light. There is more here than just rocks, there is a design, and the rocks are simply the media in which the author used.

Of course authors use much more than rocks. The written word has been one of the most important tools to transfer information. By purposefully combining 26 separate letters, an author can transfer an incredible amount of information. When we look at a book, e-mail, sign, recipe, or instructions we know, without question, someone wrote them. They are there for a purpose. What is really amazing, is that the letters themselves are not really that unique. We see individual letters in nature all the time. But when even a few letters are put together on purpose, we immediately know it is no longer chance. Conversely, you can string together thousands of letters at random and get nothing but junk. I can imagine a possibility of a baby turtle crawling across a beach leaving a mark behind him. He could crawl in a way that could easily look like letters simply by chance. But what if you look on the beach and see four simple letters "HELP". With only four letters you are positive this did not come about by accident!

This brings me to the one place where author or accident is actually HIGHLY controversial. The DNA molecule.
DNA is extremely similar to letters on a page. There are 4 "letters" G, C, A, and T. Each is a nucleotide that forms the code of the DNA. These nucleotides are arranged to store information in exactly the same way letters are arranged in a book or 1's and 0's are arranged to store computer software on a disk. Human DNA contains about 750 MB of (known) used code. That is roughly equal to 750 full length novels. It is all a very complex system that is the instruction book for life. It tells the cell how to do everything, how to manufacture the proteins it needs, how to divide and grow, how to protect itself, how to react in its surroundings and how to die.

How can someone look at this incredibly complex, purposeful, information rich object that has no known method of being created by nature, and conclude that it came about by accident? Of course that would be silly. But when you naturally conclude that the DNA molecule was authored, like every other similar object we know of in the world, that leads to the existence of a CREATOR, a GOD. Modern science has foolishly started with the assumption that there is no God and everything must be explained through nature. So they come up with complex theories as to how the DNA molecule could come about on its own. It is as crazy as arguing that the wind and rain could form Mount Rushmore or natural magnetic forces could create a computer program on a disk.

When I look at DNA, I immediately recognize that it had an author. It has a purpose, a function, and is full of information.

The question science should be exploring, is not how did DNA come about without an author, but who is the author, what can we learn about him from his creation, and how do we get to know him better?!
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1 comment:

  1. Pretty awesome, that Man who is revealed everywhere by his creation (nature). CNA

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