THE LANGUAGE OF DNA
By Kurt P. Wise THE LANGUAGE OF CREATION In the Bible, John 1:1-3 reads “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. By Him were all things made that were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made”. According to this passage, the Creator God is a communicating God. Those things created by such a God might be expected to have evidence of having been made by a communicating God. THE GENETIC CODE OF DNA DNA (and/or the very similar RNA) is a molecule found within every organism we know of on earth. It is not only found within all animals and plants, but within the body of each animal and plant it is found within virtually every cell. It is thought that much of the information needed to build an animal or a plant is somehow carried by the DNA. But how does DNA carry all that information? Long before it was thought to be responsible for heredity, DNA was known to be strung together from nucleotide bases, of which there were only four different types (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine). At first it was a mystery how it was that only four different molecules could be strung together to carry as much information as was thought to reside in DNA. Then, it came to be realized that the nucleotide bases were elements of a code–a code that has come to be called the Genetic Code. It is probably easiest to understand how the genetic code works by reference to another code with which we might be slightly more familiar–the Morse Code. In the Morse Code there are only three different elements–a dot, a dash, and a space or gap. With various combinations of dots and dashes, separated from other dot/dash combinations by spaces or gaps, the 26 letters of (for example) the English alphabet are coded. Then the 26 English alphabet letters are strung together in particular sequences separated by spaces to define words–as many as 400,000 words in the English language. Thus three Morse Code elements code for 26 letters in the English alphabet, which in turn code for over 400,000 English words, which in turn allow virtually no limit to how many concepts can be shared with others (see Figure). DNA Nucleotide Bases (4) Amino Acids (20) Proteins (thousands) Organisms (unlimited number) Morse Code Dots, Dashes, Gaps (3) English Alphabet Letters (26) English Words (>400,000) Concepts (unlimited number)
In DNA, the four nucleotide bases (analogous to the three Morse Code elements) code for 20 amino acids used in organisms (analogous to the 26 letters of the English alphabet). These amino acids are strung together in a sequence which determines the structure of one of the thousands of proteins in an organism’s body (analogous to 400,000 English words). This nucleotide base/amino acid/protein relationship is called the Genetic Code. INFERRING DESIGN Any time an archaeologist sees something which he understands to be a complex code, he assumes that that code was designed by an intelligence (usually human intelligence). Likewise, astronomers are convinced that they can identify extra-terrestrial intelligence by receiving complex codes from them. In general, our experience is that complex codes can only be the product of intelligent design. In the DNA of every animal and plant on earth there is a precise and complex code. According to our experience, then, the complex Genetic Code should be evidence of intelligent design. But what sort of intelligence brought about the genetic code? Since the code is within and essential to the life of humans and all life on earth, neither humans nor any other life on earth can have created it in the first place. Furthermore, scientists have been trying to unravel the total complexity of the DNA system for some decades now. Yet, they have been unable so far to understand much beyond the Genetic Code. Organisms are not just a pile of proteins. Somehow those proteins have to be organized in the proper way and related with other types of molecules (e.g. carbohydrates and fatty acids) in the proper way to produce the structure of cells. How this is done is not yet understood. This would suggest that the actual total complexity of the DNA system is still beyond human comprehension to understand, let alone create. This in turn suggests that the intelligence responsible for the Genetic Code is substantially more intelligent than even humans. Additionally, a language is useless without something which interprets that language. This article would have no meaning at all if it were not interpreted by human minds. Likewise the genetic code would have no meaning at all if it were not interpreted by very complex mechanisms in the cell. The mechanism of RNA transcription, for example, copies the information from the DNA and the mechanism of protein translation constructs proteins from those RNA copies. Each of these cellular mechanisms separately are so complex that an origin by natural process without intelligent design is substantially strained. The combined complexity of the language of DNA and each of these mechanisms strains even more a non-designed theory of origin. The placing of all this complexity in a single, coordinated system in an area smaller than is possible to be seen with the unaided eye is truly best explained by a designer of the intelligence and manipulative ability of the Christian God. THE LANGUAGE OF DNA In evolutionary theory, no connection would be expected between a code of human language and the genetic code of DNA. In a Biblical world view, however, the same God Who created human language (with the creation of Adam) and human languages (at the tower of Babel) is the same God Who created organisms of all types on the earth. It might thus be expected that God (the Word Who spoke things into existence) would use similar languages in both the creation of man and in the creation of organisms. This, of course, would provide an explanation for the origin of the intelligent design evidenced in DNA’s genetic code. This in turn would suggest that God has left His ownership trademark indel-
ibly inscribed within every cell of every created organism. It could also be true that the information on the DNA is being carried in the form of a complete language–a language not only with a fundamental Genetic Code, but also with “nouns”, “verbs”, “descriptors”, “objects”, conjunctions, disjunctions, grammar rules, etc.– i.e. with linguistics. This area of study may turn out to be very productive for creation biologists in the future. It may lead to the understanding of how one gets from the Genetic Code to the building of entire organisms.
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