Why is it that creationists say contradictory things about information when it relates to DNA? I’ve heard creationists say for a while that DNA is information, and that information requires intelligence. The standard response of atheists is to deny that DNA is information, and I have to disagree with this. I’ve also heard creationists say that new information can’t be created, because it goes against the second law of thermodynamics, but this is also simply and demonstrably false.
How is DNA information?
Being a computer programmer, I’m going to attack it from the perspective I know best. With information processing technology, such as computers, we learn that all things are either information or data. Should DNA be considered information, or should it be considered data?
To explain this better, we need to explain what information and data are. Information is that which is derived from data, and data is just a collection of facts. Without some kind of processing method, data is just data. It can’t do anything but sit there, and can never become information.
In order to understand how DNA is information, I’m going to give a short and crude biology lesson. To oversimplify things, DNA replicates itself. Its helixes split in the middle, and two other helixes are created from new nucleotides to replace the old helixes. Adenine attaches to Thymine, Guanine attaches to Cytosine, and vice versa for each. This new helix is information, since it is derived from the data of the opposite base. I admit that it isn’t information as many consider it, like a language for instance, but it is information nonetheless, and unless we redefine the meaning of the word ‘information’, it will always be information.
DNA is actually data and information simultaneously. DNA is not information merely by analogy either. DNA is actual information that is derived from data, and I know people will get rather upset that I’m calling it information, because it seems like it plays into the hands of creationists. This isn’t true though, and there is no reason to be worried about it, especially since creationists are never going to admit to the final conclusion we must get to when we accept their premise, since it doesn’t get us to a god.
Where is the Intelligence?
Now, there was a reason that I mentioned the processing method. I’m looking for any reason that we can say that all information requires a mind to create it. With DNA replication, we have DNA polymerase that is responsible for this processing. This enzyme is only a catalyst that causes the nucleotides floating around to attach themselves to the opposing helix. So far, this process requires nothing even closely resembling intelligence, yet we have created new information every time DNA is replicated.
Now, if we are to consider DNA to be information that requires an intelligence, we must also consider any chemical reaction to be information that requires intelligence. The oxidization of hydrogen into water must therefore require intelligence. The reaction of sulfuric acid on water must also require an intelligence. It doesn’t stop at chemistry though. The pattern a pebble makes when it hits the water is also information, derived from the rock hitting the surface at a certain speed, shape, density, etc. It must also require intelligence.
An agent of change, such as DNA polymerase, can’t sincerely be considered an intelligence, but if we listen to Creationists, intelligence is required to process data into information. What about ribozymes? Are they intelligent? For those not familiar, ribozymes are RNA molecules that act as enzymes toward themselves in order to replicate. They are not to be confused with ribosomes. It doesn’t seem this is possibly what creationists are talking about being necessary either, but it does act as data, information and the processing mechanism.
Is the transcription of codons into proteins where the intelligence takes place? It is again a chemical reaction. Is it when proteins determine traits? What about when they form enzymes? Chemical reactions as well. How can anyone consider chemical reactions to be intelligence?
Conclusion
Creationists should be allowed to call DNA ‘information’. Technically it is. They must deal with the consequences though. They must accept that since information is derived from data, and that DNA polymerase is what accomplishes that goal, that either DNA polymerase is intelligent, or it doesn’t require intelligence to create information.
They must also accept that all information is new information, which throws their 2nd law of thermodynamics complaint out the window.
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