Order Indicates Intelligence and DNA has Order
“The strand of DNA in a single cell is six feet, six inches long. That’s a lot of code when you consider that the size of the characters in the code is microscopic. Think of the enormous amount of information packed into it. Moreover, the type of order found in DNA, which is the basis of life, is not simple, symmetric order. It is a highly complex, specified order that might be compared to the notches on a key, which are highly irregular, but also highly specified. They must be so in order to open a particular lock—a kind of specificity does not happen by accident because it is a kind of language. Consider, for example, the arrangement of the letters in this sentence, or for that matter, in this entire book. They did not and could not have happened by accident. You may not agree with what I have written, but you have to admit that putting all these letters together to communicate what I want to tell you must have required at least a minimal degree of intelligence. This kind of premeditated organization is what is found in the DNA and the RNA. Indeed, three things found in the universe that have the property of specificity are 1) human language, 2) computer code, and 3) the information in DNA and RNA. It should go without saying that whenever we see information such as that, there is always an intelligent input that accounts for it, which indicates convincingly that intelligence is behind the origin of life. Nevertheless, after more than 60 years, science teachers in schools and colleges are still teaching their students that matter is all there is. However, not everyone remains in denial, and many today are coming to the realization that the basic premise of Scientific Materialism simply cannot be correct.
“This awakening, which is now gaining speed, began more than 40 years ago. After Click’s discovery, a few brave souls broke from tradition and accepted the fact that there must be some sort of guiding intelligence responsible for the origin of life. I know this from personal experience because I read a book more than forty years ago that put forth that argument. Published in 1975, it refuted the idea that intelligence, consciousness, and awareness came about because of evolution.”
-Stephen Hawley Martin in the book Christ Consciousness
Strand of DNA
As the first sentence of the quote indicates, a single strand of DNA found in one of our cells will stretch to 6.5 feet long when uncoiled, but because it is tightly coiled, it takes up a small fraction of an inch in our cells. What Mr. Martin is telling us is that there is an enormous amount of information stored in a strand of DNA, and that information implies order and intelligence in each cell of our body.
Highly Complex Order
Martin adds that not only is there an order to the information stored in each DNA strand, but it is a complex order. He compares it to the notches in a key. While a plain key may be simple, various combinations of notches can be added to the key so that thousands of different keys can be made, each one capable of opening a different lock. He is saying that DNA works in a similar way. In other words, the strand of DNA in a blood cell is specialized so that when the cell reproduces, it will produce another blood cell, not some other type of cell.
Guiding Intelligence
Martin eventually says that some experts are now saying that this complex arrangement of DNA implies that there is a guiding Intelligence that is responsible for life. This is a reasonable conclusion, but it must be noted that we are still dealing with only the life of the physical body.
Beyond Matter
The quote does not follow on with what I think is a logical conclusion: this Guiding Intelligence had to exist before the physical universe was created. If there was some Intelligence before matter existed, that intelligence had to be spiritual. So what these studied of DNA really prove is that there must be a realm of spirit that existed before the realm of matter and the guiding intelligence of that spiritual realm is what most of us call God.
