Language of God or Happy Accident?
Having described DNA as “the most extraordinary molecule on earth” physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies assures us that “nobody wrote the (DNA) message; nobody invented the code. They came into existence spontaneously. Their designer was Mother Nature herself, working within the scope of her immutable laws and capitalizing on the vagaries of chance” (The Fifth Miracle). And what proof does Davies have that the genetic code is the product of random material processes? His comments during an interview with Joel Achenbach, science writer for National Geographic magazine are instructive:
“How can a collection of chemicals form themselves into a living thing without any interference from outside?” asks Paul Davies, a physicist and writer. ‘On the face of it, life is an exceedingly unlikely event,’ he argues. ‘There is no known principle of matter that says it has to organize itself into life. I’m very happy to believe in my head that we live in a biofriendly universe, because in my heart I find that very congenial. But we have not yet discovered the Life Principle’ (Life Beyond Earth, National Geographic, Jan 2000).
Davies is sure that “There is no cosmic musician scrutinizing the score of life” (Miracle) but my impression is that a significant minority of scientists are prepared to challenge the naturalistic assumptions which undergird his conclusion. For example, intelligent design proponent Stephen C. Meyer has the following in the prologue to his latest book:
I have argued that certain features of living systems—in particular, the digitally encoded information present in DNA and the complex circuitry and information-processing systems at work in living cells—are best explained by the activity of an actual designing intelligence (Return of the God Hypothesis).
Is this pseudoscience or inference to the best explanation? (See Part 2)
Rex
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