Bigotry: The Dark Danger

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Transcriptions of the Talks 2/8

Dr. Fazale Rana - “DNA’s Inspirational Design”

Greetings!

I am honored to be invited to take part in this year’s 2nd International Conference on the Origin of Life. I had the privilege of speaking at last year’s conference. And, like last year, I am grateful for this opportunity.

It’s exciting to be part of a project in which one of the goals is to show the world that Christians and Muslims can work together to demonstrate how scientific advance 1) points to the existence of God; and 2) undermines the evolutionary paradigm—a paradigm often used to justify atheism.

If evolutionary mechanisms can account for the origin, history of life and the design of biological systems, then the obvious question arises: ‘what role is a Creator to play?” Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins wrote in his book the Blind Watchmaker: “Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” Statements like this cause many people to conclude [mistakenly] that scientific advance makes belief in God impossible. Yet, it was science that led me to the strong conviction that a Creator must exist. When I entered college, I was an agnostic. I didn’t know if God existed or not, I simply wasn’t interested in religion. the focus of my attention was biochemistry. I wanted to do everything that I could to prepare myself to go to graduate school so that I could earn a PhD in biochemistry.

As an undergraduate, I was convinced that evolutionary mechanisms could account for the origin, history, and design of biological systems. My convictions were not based on a careful examination of the evidence. But instead, they were based on what my biology professors taught me. I admired my professors and because I respected them, I accepted their claims about the evolutionary paradigm without hesitation.

When I speak on university campuses in the United States, I often encounter students who—as I did— uncritically embrace the evolutionary paradigm, because they, too, respect and admire their professors. But, my views changed during my graduate studies. One of the goals of a graduate education is to teach the student to independently think through the scientific evidence and develop conclusions based on the evidence alone, regardless of what other experts might say. and because I was learning to think for myself, I was willing to ask questions that I did not ask as an undergraduate student. One of those questions was: How did life originate?

The elegant design, the sophistication, and the ingenuity of biochemical systems prompted me to ask that question. I wanted to know: How does the scientific community account for the origin of such remarkable biochemical systems through strictly mechanistic processes? After examining the various explanations available at that time, I was shocked. the explanations presented by the scientific community seemed to me to be woefully inadequate. I was convinced that chemical and physical processes alone could not generate life itself. This realization coupled with the elegant design and biochemical systems forced me to that conclusion– for intellectual reasons alone– that a Creator must indeed exist and must have been responsible for bringing life into being.

AFTER CONCLUDING THAT GOD EXISTS, I ASKED MYSELF: WHO IS the CREATOR? DO I RELATE to the CREATOR? IF SO, HOW? I BECAME CONVINCED THAT the ANSWER to THESE QUESTIONS WAS FOUND IN CHRISTIANITY.
Dr Fazale Rana

I reached these conclusions over 30 years ago. and in the prevailing decades, the scientific evidence has continued to confirm my convictions about God’s existence. the case that can be made for a Creator from the design of biochemical systems and the problems associated with the origin of life has become even more compelling.

The goal of this lecture is to give you a window into some of the reasons why—as a biochemist—I think a Creator must indeed exist. Towards this end, I will focus on the elegant, ingenious design of DNA and describe three ways this biomolecule’s structure and function are inspiring new nanotechnologies.

The Optimal Design of DNA Is Inspiring Technology Development in at Least Three Key Areas:

  • New Digital Data Storage Media
  • Computing
  • Nanoelectronics

The use of biological designs to drive technological advance is one of the most exciting areas in engineering. This area of study—called biomimetics and bioinspiration—presents us with new reasons to believe that life stems from a Creator, and, at the same time, raises fundamental problems for the evolutionary paradigm.

DNA’s Role in the Cell

To appreciate how DNA can inspire advances in nanotechnology, it is important to understand the role this biomolecule plays in the cell. DNA’s chief role is as an information storage system. Built into the structure of the DNA molecule is digital information. the cell’s machinery uses this information to produce the molecules needed to form the cell’s structures and carry out the cell’s operations.

DNA’s Structure Is Optimal for Data Storage

As biochemists have characterized the properties of DNA, they have come to appreciate that this molecule is optimally designed as a molecular-scale data storage system. In fact, biochemists think that DNA approaches the theoretical maximum in terms of its digital data storage capacity.

Because of time constraints, I can’t describe all the features of DNA responsible for its optimal data storage properties. For those interested, I recommend my book the Cell’s Design, in which I describe many of the just-right chemical characteristics of DNA that make this molecule uniquely suited as an information storage medium.

DNA As a Digital Storage Medium

DNA’s data storage capabilities are inspiring nanotechnologist to explore the prospects of using this biomolecule to solve the data storage crisis that confronts us.

Currently, there is 44 trillion megabytes of digital data existing in the world today. to put this number into context, assuming 10 billion people in the world, each person would have to possess over 6000 CDs to store all this data. If we continue to generate data at this pace, by 2040 there will not be enough high quality silicon to produce digital data storage devices. Because DNA approaches the theoretical maximum for digital data storage, one kilogram of DNA can store all the digital data existing in the world today.

In 2012, as proof of principle, a research team from Harvard University, headed up by George Church, encoded the entire contents of a 54,000-word book into fragments of DNA. In addition, they also encoded 11 jpeg images into the DNA fragments. These researchers also showed that they could read out the information found in the DNA fragments, using locater sequences designed into each fragment. These locater sequences function in the same way that page numbers function in a conventional book. Since then, researchers have encoded computer programs and operating systems into the DNA molecule.

Not only are researchers exploring the use of DNA as a digital storage medium, they are also gaining inspiration from DNA’s structure and function to design novel man-made polymers with the capabilities of storing digital data.

DNA Computing

Computer scientist and molecular biologist have come to realize that the cell’s machinery which manipulates DNA literally functions like a computer system at its most basic level of operation.

The similarity between cellular processes, such as transcription, DNA replication, and DNA repair, and the fundamental operation of computer systems is inspiring an area of nanotechnology called DNA computing. the idea for DNA computing is the brainchild of computer scientist Leonard Adelman, who is at the University of Southern California in the United States.

DNA computers are made up of DNA and the proteins that manipulate this biomolecule inside the cell. These computers are housed in tiny test tubes, yet, they are more powerful than the most powerful su-

per computer system we have available to us. That power largely stems from the capacity to perform a vast number of parallel computations, simultaneously.

Researchers have used DNA computers to solve problems that silicon-based supercomputer systems can’t solve, such as the Hamilton Path problems and the Knight problem.

DNA Wires

In the early 1990s, chemist Jacqueline Barton discovered an unusual property displayed by DNA: namely, this biomolecule can conduct electrical current through its interior, along the length of the double helix. Conductance of electrical current through DNA is more rapid and more efficient than through ‘standard’ wires.

A little over a decade later, Barton and her collaborators showed that charge conductance through the DNA double helix allows the cell’s machinery to efficiently detect damage to the DNA double helix that results from chemical or physical insults.

Damage detection is done by ‘surveillance’ proteins. These proteins bind to DNA. Once bound, they send an electron from an iron-sulfur redox center through the interior of the double helix, establishing a current through the DNA molecule. Once a surveillance protein loses an electron, it cannot dissociate from the DNA double helix. Other surveillance proteins bound to the DNA, pick up the electrons from the DNA’s interior at their iron-sulfur redox center. When they do, they dissociate from the DNA, resuming their migration along the double helix. Eventually, the migrating surveillance protein will bind to the DNA again, sending an electron through the DNA’s interior.

This process is repeated, over and over, again. However, if damage has occurred to the DNA molecule, it will distort the double helix, interrupting the flow of electrons through its interior. When this happens, the surveillance proteins remain attached to the DNA, signaling the location of the damage to the DNA repair machinery.

Currently, nanotechnologists are exploring the use of DNA as nanowires, allowing them to build nano-electronic devices. Researchers think that DNA nanowires may find specific use in building the next generation of medical diagnostic devices.

DNA Inspires the Case for a Creator

DNA’s optimal design not only inspires new technologies, it also inspires the case for a Creator. to more fully appreciate why this is the case, I would like to turn our attention to the Watchmaker Argument for God’s existence.

Paley’s Watchmaker Argument

Eighteenth-century Anglican natural theologian William Paley posited the Watchmaker argument. In the opening pages of his 1802 work, Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature, Paley sets the stage for his famous Watchmaker analogy:

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William Paley

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there: I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever… But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that for any thing I knew, the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not as admissible in the second case, as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive what we could not discover in the stone that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that, if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are . . . or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it... This mechanism being observed… the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker: that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer: who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.

For Paley, the characteristics of a watch and the complex interaction of its precision parts for time-keeping purposes implied the work of an Intelligent Designer. Paley asserted, by analogy, that just as a watch requires a watchmaker, so too, life requires a Creator, since organisms display a wide range of features characterized by the precise interplay of complex parts for specific purposes. According to the Watchmaker analogy, both watches and organisms display design. Watches are the product of a watchmaker. Therefore, organisms are the product of a Creator. It is straightforward to appreciate how advances in biochemistry breathe new life into the Watchmaker Argument.

As a case in point, DNA computers, inside the cell and test tube, highlight the remarkable similarities between human designs and the biochemical designs inside the cell. We know from common experience that computer systems— the pinnacle of engineering achievement in our day—require a mind (in fact, many minds) to explain their existence. and because we find computer systems operating within the cell, we can reasonably conclude that life requires a Divine Mind to account for its existence.

In light of this conclusion, consider what Adelman says about the relationship between computers and biology:

“The most important thing about DNA computing is that it shows that DNA molecules can do what we normally think only computers can do. This implies that Computer Science and Biology are closely related. That every living thing can be thought to be computing something, and that, sometimes, we can understand living things better by looking at them as computers.”

Raindrops falling on the leaves are sent to that saame place, to thus wash the dirt away.
As a result of this investigation, a German company called ISPO produced a house paint brand-named Lotusan.

A Watchmaker Prediction

In conjunction with my presentation of the revitalized Watchmaker argument in the Cell’s Design, I proposed the Watchmaker prediction. I contend

that many of the cell’s molecular systems currently go unrecognized as analogous to human designs because the corresponding technology has yet to be developed. That is, the Watchmaker argument may well become stronger in the future, and its conclusion more certain, as human technology advances.

The possibility that advances in human technology will ultimately mirror the molecular technology that already exists as an integral part of biochemical systems, leads to the Watchmaker prediction: As human designers develop new technologies, examples of these technologies, which previously went unrecognized, will become evident in the operation of the cell’s molecular systems. In other words, if the Watchmaker analogy truly serves as evidence for the Creator’s existence, then it is reasonable to expect that life’s biochemical machinery anticipate human technological advances.

Biomimetics and the Converse Watchmaker Argument

A related argument to the Watchmaker prediction can be dubbed the converse Watchmaker analogy: If biological designs are the work of a Creator, then these systems should be so well-designed that they can serve as engineering models and, otherwise, inspire the development of new technologies. In this way, the disciplines of biomimetics and bioinspiration add support for the Watchmaker argument. At some level, I find the converse Watchmaker argument more compelling than the classical Watchmaker analogy. It is remarkable to me that biological designs can inspire engineering efforts. It is even more astounding to think that biomimetics and bioinspiration programs could be so successful if biological systems were truly generated by an unguided, historically contingent process, as evolutionary biologists claim.

The Blind Watchmaker Rebuttal

I find the Watchmaker Argument to be compelling. Yet, in my experience when I present this argument to skeptics, they will argue that evolutionary processes can serve as the watchmaker. In fact, they regard these processes as the blind watchmaker. This idea is articulated by Richard Dawkins in his book the Blind Watchmaker. Dawkins says this:

“Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.”

Dawkins goes on to add:

“[Paley] had a proper reverence for the complexity of the living world, and he saw that it demands a very special kind of explanation. the only thing he got wrong was the explanation itself… the true explanation… had to wait for… Charles Darwin.”

Biomimetics and Bioinspiration: The Challenge to the Evolutionary Paradigm

Work in biomimetics and bioinspiration provide a response to the blind watchmaker challenge. to appreciate this challenge, we need to discuss the nature of the evolutionary process. Evolutionary biologists view biological systems as the outworking of unguided, historically contingent processes that coopt preexisting designs to cobble together new systems. Once these designs are in place, evolutionary mechanisms can optimize them, but still, these systems remain, in essence, kludges.

Most evolutionary biologists are quick to emphasize that evolutionary processes and pathways seldom yield perfect designs. Instead, most biological designs are flawed in some way. to be certain, most biologists would concede that natural selection has produced biological designs that are well adapted, but they would maintain that biological systems are not well designed. Why? Because evolutionary processes do not produce biological systems from scratch, but from preexisting systems that are co-opted through a process dubbed exaptation (by the late evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould), and then modified by natural selection to produce new designs. Once formed, these new structures can be finetuned and optimized through natural selection to produce well-adapted designs, but not well-designed systems. According to biologist Ken Miller:

“Evolution… does not produce perfection. the fact that every intermediate stage in the development of an organ must confer a selective advantage means that the simplest and most elegant design for an organ cannot always be produced by evolution. In fact, the hallmark of evolution is the modification of pre-existing structures. An evolved organism, in short, should show the tell-tale signs of this modification.”

If biological systems, in effect, are kludged together, why would engineers and technologists turn to them for inspiration? If produced by evolutionary processes—even if these processes operated over the course of millions of years—biological systems should make unreliable muses for technology development. Does it make sense for engineers to rely on biological systems—historically contingent and exapted in their origin—to solve problems and inspire new technologies, much less build an entire subdiscipline of engineering around mimicking biological designs?

Using biological designs to guide engineering efforts seems to be fundamentally incompatible with an evolutionary explanation for life’s origin and history. On the other hand, biomimetics and bioinspiration naturally flow out of an intelligent design/creation model approach to biology. Using biological systems to inspire engineering makes better sense if the designs in nature arise from a Mind.

Planes fly much faster than birds, but give off a lot of heat during flight. In a bird’s body, however, the air circulation works just like a cooling system. It is therefore impossible to hit a bird with a heat-seeking missile as one can with a plane.

Biomimetics and the Book of Job

As a scientist and as a Christian, I find it remarkable how the Old and New Testaments anticipate scientific advance.

When it comes to biomimetics and bioinspiration, Job 12:7-9 immediately comes to mind:

7“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”
13 “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

Adnan Oktar Says

DNA: A Glorious Marvel of Creation

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Each person has an average of 100 trillion cells, each of which contains a DNA molecule. Just one of these contains information regarding 3 billion different subjects, enough information to fill approximately 1,000 volumes of books, each one containing 1 million pages. If we were to lay these pages out side by side, they would stretch from the North Pole to the Equator. If we were to read it 24 hours a day, it would take 100 years to finish it. This glorious information belongs to a single DNA molecule, which exists everywhere in our body, such as in a single fingernail or a single hair.

How could such an incredible library have been squeezed into a minute hair too small to be seen with the naked eye? How could it have been packed into all of the cells that constitute that hair and all of the other cells that make up our body? How could so much information, which we could never carry on our own, have been installed in our bodies 100 trillion times? Could human beings manage to do this themselves? Can any known technology achieve such an amazing feat? Could this glorious information be present in the cells by chance?

Clearly, random events, human beings, and technology cannot produce such an astonishing work. This fact has been scientifically proven. This amazing work in our bodies belongs to God, Whose might makes all things according to His will:

We created humanity from a mingled drop to test him, and We made him hearing and seeing. We guided him on the Way, whether he is thankful or unthankful. (Qur’an, 76:2-3)

Volumes of Information in the Human Cell

There is an incredibly comprehensive information in the DNAs of living beings. Each person has an average of 100 trillion cells, each of which contains a dna molecule.

The information stored in DNA must by no means be underestimated. So much so that

ONE HUMAN DNA MOLECULE CONTAINS ENOUGH INFORMATION to FILL a MILLION-PAGE ENCYCLOPEDIA, OR to FILL ABOUT 1,000 BOOKS.

Note this fact well: one million encyclopedia pages, or 1,000 books.

This is to say that the nucleus of each cell contains as much information as would fill a one-million-page encyclopedia, which is used to control the functions of the human body. to draw an analogy, we can state that even the 23-volume-Encyclopaedia Britannica, one of the greatest mines of information in the world, has 25,000 pages. Therefore, before us lies an incredible picture. In a molecule found in a nucleus, which is far smaller than the microscopic cell wherein it is located, there exists a data warehouse 40 times bigger than the biggest encyclopedia of the world that includes millions of items of information. This means a huge 1000-volume encyclopedia, which is unique and has no equal in the world. Were one piece of information present in human genes to be read every second, non-stop, around the clock, it would take 100 years to complete the process. If we imagine that the information in DNA were put into book form, the volumes placed on

top of each other would reach 70 meters high. the latest calculations have revealed that this huge encyclopedia contains some 3 billion different “subjects.” If the information in DNA were to be written down on paper, that paper would stretch from the North Pole to Ecuador.

These examples are an indication of the imposing amount of information contained in DNA. Yet how can we talk of a molecule containing information? This is because what we talk about here is not a computer or a library, but just a piece of flesh that is a hundred thousand times smaller than a millimeter, simply made up of protein, fat and water molecules. It is a miracle of astounding proportions that this infinitesimal piece of flesh should contain and store even a single bit of information-let alone millions of bits.

Computersarecurrentlythemostadvanced form of technology for storing information. a body of information, which, 30 years ago, was routinely stored in a computer the size of a room, can today be stored in small “discs,” yet even the latest technology invented by human intelligence, after centuries of accumulated knowledge and years of hard work, is far from reaching the information storage capacity of a single cell nucleus. the following comparison made by the well-known professor of microbiology Michael Denton, will probably suffice to highlight the contrast between the tiny

size of DNA and the great amount of information it contains: “The information necessary to specify the design of all the species of organisms which have ever existed on the planet, a number according to

G.G. Simpson of approximately one thousand million, could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in every book ever written.”1

How can a chain invisible to the eye, made up of atoms arranged sideways, with a diameter the size of a billionth of a millimeter, possess such information capacity and memory? and to this question also add the following: While each one of the 100 trillion cells in your body knows one million pages of informa-

tion by heart, how many encyclopedia pages can you, as an intelligent and conscious human being, memorize in your entire life? Even more important, the cell uses this information quite flawlessly, in an exceedingly planned and coordinated manner, in the appropriate places, and never makes any errors.

References:
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  1. Michael Denton. Evolution: a Theory in Crisis. London: Burnett Books, 1985, p. 334

No Design Can Happen by Chance

Trillions of DNA that billions of living things have possessed for millions of years have been used in the most intelligent manner, written in the most perfect manner with no flaws, and placed in a tiny area invisible to the naked eye.

You must have seen the name of a building spelt out in flowers on the ground in front of it. Looking down at them or from far away, you can immediately make out the name of the building or company concerned. That is a sign that the flowers are not there by chance, that they have been set out by gardeners and landscape designers. You may not see the gardeners actually doing it, but you can see that it has happened from the name the flowers spell out.

Alternatively, let us imagine that you leave the tiles scattered about at random on the table after a game of Scrabble. When you return, you see that the tiles now spell out the words: “I have won,” and you immediately realize that someone has arranged them in a meaningful sequence. You would never imagine that they had come together by chance and formed those words, in just the same way that you would never imagine the name the flowers spelt out had appeared by chance. In short, if there is a design directed to a particular end somewhere, then you know that there must definitely be a designer behind it. You may not have seen the designer, yet you can be certain of his existence and intention from his work or the traces he leaves behind him.

The main idea we would like to convey with these examples is this: If there is even the slightest sign of something planned somewhere, there certainly lie the traces of a possessor of wisdom. For example, if you roll white stones down a mountain trillions of times, you will never see that they come to spell out the name of a building. If there is a word or a sentence somewhere, everyone will agree that that word or sentence must have been written by someone. Words without writers, or designs without designers are quite impossible.

The human body, on the other hand, possesses a structure trillions of times more complex than the name of a building or the words “I have won,” and it is again totally impossible to imagine that this complexity could have come about of its own accord, or by chance. Moreover, the trillions of DNA that billions of living things have possessed for millions of years have been used in the most intelligent manner, written in the most perfect manner with no flaws, and placed in a tiny area invisible to the naked eye. That being the case, there is a Creator who planned and designed the cell and the DNA inside it so perfectly. Claiming the opposite means to go beyond the bounds of reason and attack the very foundations of truth, reason and logic.

Nevertheless, many people, who would readily say that it is impossible for letters to arrange themselves to form even three little words, can listen without objection to the deceit that it was all as a result of “coincidences” that billions of atoms came together one by one in a planned sequence and formed a molecule such as DNA, which performs such a super-complex task. This is just like a hypnotized person’s submitting to the hypnotist and accepting by suggestion that he is a door, a tree or a lizard…

Flawless design samples in DNA are not limited to the above-mentioned examples. the coding of the data in DNA has been designed in a much more fascinating and amazing way.

In Response to Michael Skinner:
Epigenome Does Not Provide New Information to the DNA

On the website of AEON digital magazine, Darwinist Professor Michael Skinner came forth with a new evolutionary account. In his article dated November 9th, 2016, Skinner suggested that neo-Lamarkism and neo-Darwinism should be combined under “Unified Theory of Evolution” and the alleged effect of epigenetics analyzed from this perspective. Trying to incorporate the obsolete theories from the 1800’s into the science of epigenetics is a futile attempt. Epigenetics is a field that demonstrates the perfection in the functioning of the DNA in a more comprehensive way, and it is such a complex as well as precise mechanism, which no evolutionary claims of “chance” could ever account for.

In this article, we will elaborate once again on what epigenetics is, and we will show that environmental factors do not add any new genetic information to the organism by presenting scientific proofs.

DNA Code System in Which Information Is Written

Today, based on advancing technology, we can better understand DNA and how it works. the content of human DNA is a sea of knowledge that we can barely fit in a thousand-volume encyclopedia. Intermolecular reactions, how interactions between chemicals occur are all written in this giant databank. of course, the smallest piece of information available, whether it is a letter, a sign, or half of a sentence, is interpreted as the message from an intelligent individual. When one sees three pieces of stone in a desolate desert placed on top of one another

or arranged in an orderly fashion, the person immediately realizes that it is a message left by an intelligent individual. DNA encoded by molecules also points to the existence of a superior intelligence. Just as any sign that is a product of intelligence excites the explorers and motivates them to seek out the owner of that information, the scientist is also obliged to search for and find the intelligence that wrote the DNA. DNA is a living code system operating so perfectly that it cannot be explained by the materialist philosophy through blind coincidences.

Selective Use of Information

There is a nonstop flow of information from the DNA into the cell. What is surprising, however, is that the coded information is selectively transmitted within DNA. For example, in the human body there are about 1 trillion cells forming different tissues and organs. What renders cells different from each other despite having exactly the same DNA is that different genes in the DNA are turned on based on the tissue they are located in. For this purpose, when necessary, the DNA keeps certain genes activated, and when not, it keeps them inactivated. Genes are regions of the DNA that encode proteins. the production of different proteins causes the cell to behave differently, acting as cells with completely distinct roles such as neurons or in other words nerve cells, liver, pancreas, muscle or skin. This control mechanism, which is aware of the environment, conditions and needs of the cell, keeps the required genes turned on while keeping the others off. Here, we come across once again God’s artistry in His creation of this system with atomic precision.

Let us examine the delicate work here with an example. a neuron in the brain does not produce insulin secreted by the pancreatic cell; on the other hand, the pancreas cell does not produce electrical signals like a neuron, either. So, what determines this? Why is the gene encoding insulin production suppressed in all other cells? How is a pancreatic cell aware of the fact that it is not located in the brain, but in the ventral cavity? How does it know in the dark among 25.000 genes that a specific gene is the one encoding insulin production and how can it turn on and read that gene? Now let us briefly examine how this mechanism which is the topic of epigenetics function.

Epigenome: The Molecular Brain Ruling the DNA

Today it is understood that what determines life is not merely the DNA codes. the field of genetics that study the DNA has come to the following significant conclusion: There is a system over the DNA that governs it. Today, this system called the ‘epigenome’ is studied by epigenetics, the branch of science that makes research on it. In fact, ‘epi’ means ‘above’, which refers to the governing mechanism that has influence over the genome, in other words the DNA.

Epigenome: Decision-Selection-Production

Epigenome
‘Epi’ means ‘above’, which refers to the governing mechanism that has influence over the genome, in other words the DNA.

The epigenome concept, in short, means the activation of the genes needed according to time and environmental needs, and the production of the relevant proteins by deciphering the information written there. For example, during the development of the embryo inside the mother’s womb, stem cells multiply ceaselessly but in the meantime every single cell knows what type of a cell it will turn into. Some are turned into nerve cells, others become red blood cells in the form of a disc, while some others are formed into long filaments acting as muscle cells.

How is it possible for the DNA molecule to direct a stem cell in the darkness of a billionth of a meter size spot to turn into a heart cell which has the capacity to pump a 10-thousand tanker loads of blood and produce its own electricity through its lifetime?

Scientists initiated the Human Genome Project with a budget of millions of dollars just to carry out research for revealing this marvelous development in the human body. However, the secret of how an embryonic cell gets decided to turn into a heart cell is not revealed yet. the part that is unraveled brings forth the amazing details of God’s artistry in His creation.

Every cell contains the information of the entire body in its DNA. and a cell may function as part of the heart, pancreas or brain according to the directives it receives. During the development of the embryo, trillions of cells are aware of their roles without any complication and the entire body is formed perfectly through an astounding planning. How do the embryonic cells, turn into other types of cells? This is the topic of research of epigenetics.

How blood is to be pumped, how kidneys will filter the blood, how insulin will balance the glucose levels in the body, and all other information pertinent to the functioning of our organs are coded on the DNA. Yet, once a stem cell turns into a red blood cell, it only uses the information that describes how it will transport oxygen and carbon dioxide. the red blood turns off all the other data that are present in its DNA but are of no use. What activates certain parts of the DNA, but keeps others inactive is some chemicals found outside the DNA helix. These chemical compounds that are made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms are extended along the DNA helix. Their duty is to turn on and off the various parts of the DNA to allow for the activation of the related information on the DNA. In this process, the DNA is in place of a computer uploaded with 920-volume encyclopedia data, while the epigenome is a superb computer program that is capable of activating this stunning information on the DNA. Without the epigenome, DNA is of no use while without DNA, the epigenome is of no use either.

God has created genetics as such an intricate and breathtaking system that every step of this process functions without flaw. There is no place for even a single error or random decision in this process. However, evolutionists claim that all this punctilious operation occurs out of “coincidence.” There is no rationality in alleging that such a mechanism of superior intelligence and precision came to happen through evolution. Claims of evolution can never account for the biochemical information found on the epigenome, or the accurate pinpointing of this data to take part in the production process.

The allegation that the information in DNA appeared out of “coincidence” as claimed by evolutionists has now been completely confuted by the astonishing evidence conferred by science. In fact, what is question here is a mechanism that understands what the organism needs at that moment and then knows in which codes that need is written. This mechanism is capable of finding those codes in the wrapped up, double helix DNA chain to decipher them later. This delicate molecular process, of course, cannot be explained in any way by unconscious mechanisms that function randomly. It is very clear that the correct decision, the correct choice and the correct production steps that we observe in the epigenome constitute explicit evidence for the existence of the All-Knowing Intelligence and Power that encompasses everything. That power and intelligence belongs to God, our Almighty Lord, the Creator and Protector of all the worlds.

Can Epigenome Create New Information?

By means of the epigenome, it was discovered that the genes of an organism turned on depending on the conditions might remain activated for 10 to 100 generations. But it should not be forgotten that no new information is created here. the epigenome is merely a regulation process regarding the inclusion of the genes that already exist in the production or their withdrawal from it. However, the evolutionists claims that, in the face of changing conditions, the organism invents new solutions, and it does this by producing new genes. However, the science of genetics has shown us that no such mechanism exists. Variations resulting from the turning on and off of genes lead to changes only within the existing genetic information of that species. In no way does this mean that the species goes through change. Although the species undergoes variations based on environmental conditions, they are still able to mate with the members of the same species and bear new offspring. However, a member of the current species is formed through this reproduction, a new species does not occur.

Conclusion: Another Blow on Evolution Through the Epigenome

The epigenome is nothing more than the turning on and off of the existing genes in the DNA. In this case, epigenetics as a branch of science falsifies the claims of evolution, to the argument that organisms improve themselves over time. the genetic information is just as perfect as it was in the moment the organism first emerged, and related parts of this data is turned on for use when required. This means that the DNA code ensures that the organism operates itself in changing conditions through an intelligent system found in the epigenome. In this context, it is clear that epigenome is a program created by our Almighty Lord.

Michael Skinner has taken the groundless arguments of Lamarck and Darwin in 1900’s based on the old-fashioned understanding of science of the time as reference and made a serious mistake with his unified theory of evolution. What is more, he attempted exploiting genetics and epigenetics, the branches of science that prove God’s creation of all livingness with clear-cut evidence, as a basis of his blunder. However, Dr. Francis Collins, one of the leading geneticists of our world who was the director of the Human Genome Project and made the most comprehensive research on the DNA, stated in his own words that his discoveries made him “feel closeness to the Creator.” His words are another testament that there is no place for coincidence in genetics, and this perfect regulation seen in the epigenome.

References:
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https://aeon.co/essays/on-epigenetics-we-needboth-darwin-s-and-lamarck-s-theories

IN THIS CONTEXT, IT IS CLEAR THAT EPIGENOME IS A PROGRAM CREATED BY OUR ALMIGHTY LORD. ADNAN OKTAR

 

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