Sunday, August 6, 2017

The Argument From Biochemical Design, Revisited

“The more we study nature, the more reasons we have to conclude that God exists. Recent discoveries in biology are no exception. What we have discovered in the field of biochemistry is a powerful argument for God; investigating nature can lead us to the reasonable conclusion that life was created by a mind.”

This argument was presented in a previous blog.  Since that writing, there have been a couple developments to enhance the argument that “the more we study nature, the more reasons we have to conclude that God exists.”

The first involves work investigating DNA’s ability to transfer electrical charge.

DNA’s wire property is so remarkable that it serves as inspiration for the design of the next generation of electronic devices—at the nanoscale. 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. It paves the way for a new type of design argument I dub the converse Watchmaker argument: 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.[1]


Here is a link to all of Jacqueline Barton’s research on this topic:  http://www.its.caltech.edu/~jkbgrp/Publications.htm#1997_Science

The second development involves continuing work using DNA as an information storage medium.

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. As the names imply, biomimetics involves direct copying (or mimicry) of designs from biology, whereas bioinspiration relies on insights from biology to guide the engineering enterprise. DNA’s capacity to inspire engineering efforts to develop new data storage technology highlights this biomolecule’s elegant, sophisticated design and, at the same time, raises a troubling question for the evolutionary paradigm.[2]

Here is a link to the full article discussing this:  http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna--digitally-designed

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 anticipates human technological advances.[3]


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.