by Tom Wacaster
The mapping of DNA is one of those little mysteries of life that astound even the most scholarly. DNA, which stands for "deoxyribonucleic acid," is a sort of genetic "code" that determines not only the color of your hair, but the very physical traits that separate you from lower animals. Every living thing, whether plant, animal, or human, contains a storehouse of genetic information, and therefore a potential 'laboratory' full of scientific knowledge. Everything about you, including life itself, is regulated by the information contained within this DNA "code." This is why the recent mapping of this code is so valuable to scientists. One of the most astonishing things about our DNA [as well as that of animals and plants] is its uncanny ability to "copy" the information contained therein from one generation to the next, and that faithfully, time after time. The Bible calls this reproduction after "kind" (Gen. 1:11-12). Why do sparrows produce only sparrows? Or dogs, dogs? The answer is simple: all organisms reproduce after their own kind! The inevitable conclusion is that this "code" or "information library" had to derive from some source. Darrel Kautz, in his book, 'The Origin of Living Things' correctly concluded that "the DNA molecule is something utterly unique and had to have an unnatural or supernatural origin...The information in the DNA molecule had to have been imposed upon it by some outside source just as music is imposed on a cassette tape." He then adds, "The information in DNA is presented in coded form as explained previously, and codes are not known to arise spontaneously." Folks, do you understand the implications of these statements? There is absolutely no way that evolution and/or random chance can provide an adequate explanation for this marvelous feature of our make up. Here is something else. We human beings have learned to store information on paper, in databases, on film, cassettes, and even microchips. But human technology has yet to discover how to store information chemically, as is the case with the DNA molecule. We can only agree with Dr. E.H. Andrews: "It is not possible for a code, of any kind, to arise by chance or accident. Even a dog or chimpanzee could not work out a code of any kind. It is obvious then that chance cannot do it. This could no more have been the work of chance or accident than could the 'Moonlight Sonata' be played by mice running up and down the keyboard of my piano! Codes do not arise from chaos" ('From Nothing to Nature,' Evangelical Press, page 28-29). But interestingly, this discovery of DNA, its "coded information," and how to "map" this new found information, was set in motion, and even referred to when God told us that everything produces "after its kind." I wonder why it is that the smarter our world gets, the dumber it acts by denying the existence of God and attributing origins to chance rather than the God Who made it all!