THE DISCOVERY
THE DISCOVERY
The discovery was made on February 28, 1953. It appeared in Nature April 25, 2953. A talk was given about it at a medical school in London May 14, 1953. This resulted in an article in the News Chronicle of London May 15, 1953. The next day the news reached the New York Times and an article about it was published May 16, 1953. (A larger article appeared in the Times June 12, 1953). On March 19, 1953 Francis Crick wrote a seven page hand written letter to his son. The letter began: “My Dear Michael, Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery . . . ” That letter eventually sold at auction for $6,059,750. At the time this was the largest amount ever paid for a letter at auction. In 1962 Francis Crick, Jim Watson, and Maurice Wilkins received a Nobel Prize for this discovery. More than half a century later the many profound implications of this discovery are still coming to light. What was this discovery?
This amazing discovery involved the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. Dr. Stephen Meyer observed: “At the close of the nineteenth century, most biologists thought life consisted solely of matter and energy. But after Watson and Crick, biologists came to recognize the importance of a third fundamental entity in living things - ‘information’.” The above mentioned letter, for example, cannot be explained by merely analyzing the paper and ink. The intelligence of Francis Crick is an integral component necessary to understand the letter. Discovering the information in DNA was revolutionary!
The genetic code in DNA is said to contain 3.5 billion letters. Here is a quote from Dr. Meyer’s book - the Signature in the Cell: “With odds standing at 1 chance in 10164 of finding a functional protein among the possible 150-amino-acid compounds, the probability is 84 orders of magnitude (or powers of ten) smaller than the probability of finding the marked particle in the whole universe. Another way to say that is the probability of finding a functional protein by chance alone is a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion times smaller than the odds of finding a single specified particle among all the particles in the universe.” Famous British philosopher, Antony Flew, announced that he had repudiated a lifelong commitment to atheism, citing, among other factors, evidence of intelligent design in the DNA molecule.
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer is the director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. A diligent student of Darwin, Meyer claims that intelligence is the best explanation for the evidence recently discovered about DNA and the complexity of life. Darwin’s forensic methodology involved explaining events in the past based upon known mechanisms in the present. Meyer uses Darwin’s own methodology to conclude that intelligence is the best explanation of how information is generated in living cells. Computer programs do not spontaneously occur, they are produced by intelligence
Further, when a computer program is accidentally changed, the performance is not increased. Invariably accidental changes degrade or destroy. While Meyer believes in “Intelligent Design” he does not insist on God. Many in the scientific community are so prejudiced that they will do anything to keep God from getting His foot in the door. For example, some postulate that perhaps the information in the cell was brought to earth from intelligent beings from other parts of our multi- verse. Really? Is this science? Is this explaining the past by mechanisms available to us now?
We began by talking about a discovery. While God encourages exploration and discovery the world in it’s wisdom still does not know God (1 Cor. 1:21). We do not know God personally from laboratories and microscopes, but because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork, but there is no personal salvation until we personally “discover” Jesus Christ! Remember! Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).