RE: Q about arguments for God's existence.
May 4, 2015 at 7:03 pm
(This post was last modified: May 4, 2015 at 8:16 pm by Simon Moon.)
(May 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm)rsturgess Wrote: One of the most complex codes known to man is DNA, this stores all the information for the growth, functioning and reproduction of all living things. One single strand of DNA contains all the information and instructions to create a human being starting from 2 cells, over 3 billion base-pairs worth of information! Just think how complex a task it would be to encode the instructions for an unskilled person to build a simple machine like a bicycle from raw materials. How much more infinitely complex a human is, yet every single cell in our body has within it all with instructions the cell needs to create a new life, all encoded into a microscopic strand of DNA. Whatever your view on evolution it would seem evident that the DNA code within our cells could not have come about by chance, there must have been an intelligent being to create the code. And therefore since all life on earth needs DNA to function and reproduce, life itself could not have come about by chance. Proof God exists?!
DNA is not a code. It is chemistry.
It’s a bad analogy for a very simple, but often overlooked reason: is a chemical. What it does is just a function of the laws of chemistry and physics working through specific chemical interactions. If it’s a code, then so is every other chemical formula. Therefore, water (H2O) is a code.
Codes communicate a message from one intelligence to another. DNA uses chemistry to create proteins.
Just because scientists will use a term to communicate a complex subject to laypeople so as to make it more understandable. When they use the word 'code' to describe DNA, they are doing it for this purpose.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
