DISCOVERING INTELLIGENT DESIGN

Chapter 8: Information, Please

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Main Point
Explain how the origin of biological information requires intelligent design.

Opening Chapter Question

How does life use information?

Learning Objectives
• I can explain how all living organisms contain information stored in the form of DNA within their cells.
• I can describe how DNA consists of genes, which are segments of DNA that contain assembly
instructions for particular proteins.
• I can describe how the cell stores genetic information in the specific sequence of its four
nucleotide bases—adenine (A), cytosine (C), thymine (T), and guanine (G). I can describe the
structure of DNA as a double-helix in which two nucleotide strands wrap around each other and
are held in place by bonds between A-T and G-C.
• I can describe how commands within DNA are read in frames of three nucleotides at a time
called codons, and these commands direct cellular machinery to start or stop assembly of amino
acids into proteins as well as signify each of the twenty amino acids.
• I can explain that the origin of DNA is best explained by an intelligent cause rather than unguided
processes since the sequence of nucleotide bases in DNA is complex (e.g., unlikely) and specified
(e.g., matches a pattern)—a property known only to be produced by intelligence—and it is
unexplained by any known chemical or physical laws.
• I can identify specific “chicken and egg” problems that arise when trying to account for whether
DNA or protein evolved first, and conclude DNA and proteins must both be present for a cell to
survive because: (1) DNA replication is the process of making identical copies of DNA and this
process is carried out by special enzymes that, themselves, are encoded by the DNA, and (2) DNA
is protected within the cell by a cell membrane, which itself consists of components encoded by
the DNA.
• I can distinguish RNA from DNA in that RNA is generally a single-stranded molecule while DNA is
double-stranded, and RNA substitutes uracil (U) in place of DNA’s thymine (T).
• I can explain the process of transcription as the first stage of protein assembly in which a gene-
coding section of DNA is transcribed into a strand of complementary messenger RNA (mRNA).
• I can explain translation as the second stage of protein assembly in which an mRNA molecule is
sent to a ribosome which reads, translates, and follows instructions stored in the mRNA to make
proteins.
• I can describe how the RNA world hypothesis attempts to solve the “chicken and egg” problem
between DNA and proteins by suggesting that RNA fulfilled multiples roles, carrying information

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like DNA, and performing enzymatic functions like proteins. I can also identify specific problems
with the RNA world hypothesis, including (1) RNA cannot form without intelligent design, (2) RNA
cannot fulfill all the necessary roles of proteins, (3) the RNA world cannot explain the origin of
genetic information, and (4) the RNA world cannot explain the origin of the genetic code.
• I can provide specific reasons to support intelligent design from the standpoint of biological
information, including: (1) cells contain complex and specified information stored within DNA,
(2) DNA consists of codes much like computer programming code, including start and stop
commands, as well as commands signifying each of the amino acids that compose proteins,
and (3) the information in DNA is transcribed into RNA and then translated into proteins using
molecular machines, much like computer programming code is carried out by computer
hardware.

CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Information is necessary for life.
A. Information forms the chemical blueprint for all living organisms, governing the assembly,
structure, and function at essentially all levels of cells.
B. All living organisms carry biological information in DNA, which carries genes.
C. Gene: A basic unit of heredity, typically understood as a section of DNA that contains assembly
instructions for a particular protein.

II. Cells use information much like computers.

A. Computers use software that contains information (e.g., programming instructions contained in
the DNA molecule), and hardware that executes the programmed commands in the DNA.
B. In a similar sense, cells use DNA to store genetic information with instructions for building
proteins, and molecular machines to carry out those instructions and perform cellular functions.
C. Just as computers store information digitally in the form of 0s and 1s, the information in DNA is
stored by the ordering of four molecules: adenine (A), cytosine (C), thymine (T), and guanine
(G), making DNA like a digital code.
D. The biochemical language of DNA uses strings of three nucleotide bases (called codons) as
commands.
E. DNA uses codons to indicate start and stop commands, as well as codons that signify each of
the 20 amino acids.
F. The unlikely ordering of the nucleotide bases to match the pattern of a biochemical language
represents specified complexity, a hallmark of design.
G. Through a system of programmed commands, molecular machines in the cell interpret the
instructions in DNA and execute them.
H. Even Richard Dawkins acknowledges that “[t]he machine code of the genes is uncannily
computer-like.”

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III. The “Chicken or the Egg”: which came first, DNA or protein?
A. The free-living organism with the smallest known genome is the bacterium Mycoplasma
genitalium.
B. Yet, even this “simple” living organism has over 450 genes, which carry the instructions to make
proteins for such activities as DNA replication, transport within the cell, and metabolism.
C. Even the simplest living cells today use a system where DNA carries biological information and
proteins carry out cellular functions.
D. But the DNA and proteins cannot exist apart from one another.
1. DNA needs special proteins (called enzymes) in order to replicate and in order to produce
new copies of proteins in the cell—but these enzymes themselves are encoded by DNA.
2. Likewise, DNA needs protection provided by the cell membrane, but again, vital
components of the membrane are encoded by the DNA.
3. These fundamental components form a complex system in which all components must have
been present from the start for a cell to survive.
E. To attempt to get around this “chicken and egg” problem, some theorists have postulated the
RNA world hypothesis.
F. But in this case, neither could have come “first” because both are necessary for life to exist.

IV. RNA World

A. RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a molecule that carries genetic information much like does DNA, but
replaces the nucleotide base thymine with uracil, usually exists only as a single strand, and can
be much more mobile within cells.
B. In living cells, RNA serves as an information-transportation molecule that is vital for producing
proteins through transcription and translation.
1. Transcription is the first main step in making proteins, where cellular machinery copies the
information in a gene-coding section of DNA to a strand of messenger RNA (mRNA).
2. Translation is the second step, where the mRNA molecule is sent to the ribosome, which
reads, translates, and follows the instructions carried on the mRNA strand to make a protein.
C. Since RNA can both carry information and perform a few cellular functions, RNA world
advocates reason that perhaps it solved the chicken-and-egg riddle by performing both the
functions of DNA and proteins in early life.
D. There are major problems with the RNA world hypothesis.
1. RNA has not been shown to assemble in a laboratory without the help of a skilled chemist
intelligently guiding the process.
2. RNA molecules are not known to fulfill many of the roles that proteins fulfill in the cell.
3. The most fundamental problem with the RNA world hypothesis is its inability to explain the
origin of information in the first self-replicating RNA molecule.
• Experts suggest the first self-replicating RNA molecule would have to have been between
200 and 300 nucleotides in length.
• To explain the ordering of nucleotides in the first self-replicating RNA molecule, materialists
have no explanation other than chance.

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• The odds of specifying 250 nucleotides in an RNA molecule by chance alone are about 1
in 10150, too unlikely to be considered plausible.
• ID theorists refer to this obstacle to materialism as the information sequence problem:
Unguided and chance processes could not properly order the sequence in an
information-carrying molecule (such as RNA or DNA) to create the first life.
4. The RNA world can’t explain the origin of the genetic code.
• The genetic code is the set of rules used by cells to convert the genetic information in
DNA or RNA into proteins.
• The process of transcription and translation requires a large suite of proteins and molecular
machines—which themselves are encoded by genetic information.
• This presents another chicken-or-egg problem, where essential enzymes and molecular
machines are needed to perform the very task that constructs them.
• The RNA world can’t explain the origin of the genetic code or the matching of amino
acids to their sequencing instructions.

V. How does information arise?

A. The past two chapters have shown that life is based upon:
1. A vast amount of complex and specified information encoded in a biochemical language.
2. A computer-like system of commands and codes that processes the information.
3. Molecular machines and multi-machine systems.
B. Where, in our experience, do language, complex and specified information, programming
code, and machines come from?
C. They have only one known source: intelligence.