Page 24 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

you invariably conclude that there is a mind that undergirds that information.
So in like manner, when we see that biochemical systems harbor information
that is the first indication that these come from a mind.
But the case for a Creator doesn’t rest solely on the existence of infor-
mation in the cell. The argument is much more sophisticated. As it turns
out, information theorists who study problems in molecular biology have
come to the conclusion that the structure of the cell’s information is
identical to the structure of human language and its organization. It is not
merely the presence of information, but the fact that the information is
organized in the same way that we organize information. There is a
language inside the cell. One of the most provocative insights I have ever
learned relates to the structure and function of biochemical information.
In fact, this insight keeps me awake at night as I think through the impli-
cations. It turns out that biochemical machinery that manipulates DNA is
literally functioning like a computer system at its basic essence. Because
this insight is so critical I think to the case for a Creator, I would like to
spend a little bit of time elaborating on this point.
To understand that we need to think through theoretical construct of
a computer system. The theoretical basis for computer systems are abstract
machines called Turing machines. These are not actual machines but
rather abstract entities that exist in a mind of a computer scientist. Turing
machines are simple. They consist of 3 parts:
1) The input; which is a string of data that goes into something
called a finite control.
2) And that finite control; alters that string of data in a limited but
prescribed manner producing an output string of data and this is a
cartoon showing a hypothetical
3) Turing machine; it turns out that you can link the output of one
Turing machine to the input to another Turing machine. And in doing so,
you can take rather simple machines and combine them to perform
complex operations.
As it turns out, this is precisely what happens when the cells machinery
manipulates DNA. For example during the process of DNA replication
where the DNA which harbors digital information can be thought as
being the input and the proteins and the enzymes that manipulate