Friday, November 6, 2015

DNA EVIDENCE FOR GOD: Resources for Study

Einstein said, “God does not play dice.” He was right. God plays Scrabble. 
~ Philip Gold
 [Quoted in 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists: Discover Why Believing in God Makes So Much Sense: Boa, Ken; Bowman, Jr., Robert M. (Kindle Locations 1012-1015). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.]

N.A.S.A.’ s search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (S.E.T.I.) presupposed that information embedded in electromagnetic signals from space would indicate an intelligent source. As yet, however, radio-astronomers have not found information-bearing signals coming from space. But closer to home, molecular biologists have identified encoded information in the cell.
~ Stephen Meyer

 [Quoted in 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists: Discover Why Believing in God Makes So Much SenseBoa, Ken; Bowman, Jr., Robert M. (Kindle Locations 1124-1126). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.]

~~ * ~~

Did you know that the smallest genome known comes from a bacterium that lives off sap-feeding insects? Its genome consists of 159,662 DNA base pairs. (1) This is equal to a paperback book of about 89 to 106 pages. (2) That's much smaller than most living organisms, but it is still a lot of very precise technical information. 

Do you think you 89 pages is enough space to pack all the instructions for building a robot that finds its own fuel and then reproduces itself? One thing is for sure: if you found such a book, you would be sure that it was produced by a highly intelligent mind and not random ink blots on a page.

(1) from an online article in Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science (October 12, 2006).
(2) Based on a figure of 1500 to 1800 characters per page, which seems to be the best answer on quora.


RESOURCES FOR DIGGING DEEPER:
My class: "Life Isn't Simple"
*MP3 Audio (45 minutes)
*PowerPoint Slideshow: When you click on this link, you will note the option at the top to "Open with Google Slides" or you may open with MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress (which is free).
*Class Handout
*I recommend opening the audio and using the PowerPoint Slideshow as you listen (and/or the handout).

RESOURCE LINKS FOR WEEK 3:
*Cooper, Brad. "ORIGIN OF LIFE: Resources for Study"
*The entire 16-week course may be found here: "HOW TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD (Apologetics 101: A Cumulative Case)"


INTRODUCTORY
Videos

*Discovery Science
"DNA Is Code: Who Coded It? (Science Uprising 03)." (6 1/2 minutes)
*Wallace, J. Warner"How the Origin of Life Points to the Existence of God." (14 1/2 minutes)
*Turek, Frank. "DNA, Information, and the God of the Gaps Argument." (1 1/2 minutes)




Articles
*Arrington, Barry. "Dawkins: DNA Is Encoded Digital Information in the 'Strong Sense'"

*Wallace, J. Warner. "Why the Information in Our DNA Points to the Existence of God."
*Rana, Fazale. "Harvard Scientists Write the Book on Intelligent Design—in DNA."


INTERMEDIATE
Videos

*Meyer, Stephen & Douglas Axe. "Information Enigma"
(21 minutes)

*Meyer, Stephen. "Centre for Intelligent Design Lecture 2011 by Stephen Meyer on 'Signature in the Cell'." (1 hour 22 minutes)
*Gitt, Werner. "Information from an Explosion?" (54 minutes)

*Sanford, John. "Genetic Entropy & The Mystery of the Genome" (20 minutes)

Articles
*The Christian Scientific Society. "Refereed scientific article on DNA argues for irreducible complexity."

Books
*Meyer, Stephen C. Signature in the Cell.
*Gitt, Werner R. In The Beginning Was Information.
Find it cheap used at the title link or read it for FREE! online here.
*Johnson, Donald E. Programming of Life.



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