Friday, November 23, 2007

Why Darwinists Hate Information Theory

"In the Beginning Was Information" is the title of a powerful new book by Dr. Werner Gitt, the former Director of the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology and the Head of the Department of Information Technology. This book is a bombshell against Darwinism and Materialism. Dr. Gitt powerfully argues that God created the Universe and everything in it. This book is not a light read, as is the case with most German physics texts; do not expect to see it topping the best seller list any time soon, but for those willing to digest it one page at a time, it is well worth the effort. Below is an attempt to summarize his enormously complex argument.

The title is a play on John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word..." As Dr. Gitt points out: a word is information. The two terms are interchangeable in that a "word" strictly
defined is a unit of information. He further points out that modern physics recognizes
three constituents, which make up the Universe. These are Matter, Energy, and Information. Information is the organization of the matter and energy in the Universe. Without organization, the Universe would be totally chaotic, and in a totally chaotic environment, life would not be possible.

The organization in the universe is produced by the Natural Laws, which govern it. It is
agreed by all physicists that natural laws cannot be proven. They are unlike mathematical theorems and must be discovered and tested empirically. The origin of natural laws is unknown. Natural laws are the carriers of the information, which organizes the Universe. Gitt points out that the origin of the Universe cannot be explained in terms of these natural laws because they do not preexist the creation of the Universe. In the original creation event, "The Big Bang," all the information that governs the physics of the Universe today had to be in place already. The Big Bang was like a giant firework; it had to be packed just right before the “Bang” in order to produce all the stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies seen today.

This initial information can only have come from one of two sources. Either it is an inherent property of matter, or its origin had to come from an outside intelligent source. For the past forty years, some theorists have tried to find a way to ascribe this information’s origin to matter. Their efforts resulted in such conjectures as a Fourth Law of Thermodynamics, Chaos Theory, emergent intelligence from computational processes, and other proposals. These ideas have all proved utter failures in this arena because information is not a property of matter; it is a basic independent constituent of the Universe.

Dr. Gitt demonstrates that information is also the central characteristic of all
living systems. All biological processes are completely information dependent. Whether it is making a tool, collecting pollen, or digesting a sugar molecule, tremendous amounts of information and information processing power are required. The human body processes 3x10 to the 24th bits of information every day. All the libraries on the planet only hold 10 to the 18th bits or 1 three millionth as much information as the human body processes everyday. In terms of information processing, the cells of the human body legitimately can be thought of as supreme super computers.

This super computational capacity enables the body to manufacture at least 50,000 different proteins plus tens of thousands of RNAs, micro RNAs, DNAs, enzymes, antibodies, antigens, and other products needed to run the body. The DNA molecule is the primary storage medium for the information needed to manage all of this activity. A DNA molecule is a strand of amino acids that is only about two millionths of an inch thick and has achieved the theoretical limit of miniaturization for information storage capacity. Dr. Gitt finds it no accident that the DNA molecule, with the genetic code it carries, is an optimized information carrier.

This is another fact that defies Darwinian expectations. If the information stored in the genetic code arose as the result of random processes, why would the system have achieved optimization? This optimization of information storage is so efficient that it allows the DNA molecule, during cell division, to transfer all of the information it carries to another DNA molecule in as little as 20 minutes. Imagine trying to down load a large library onto your home computer in 20 minutes? The cells of your body do this all day long.

These, however, are all minor issues compared to the largest informational conundrum- the origin of biological information. DNA produces RNA; RNA in turn makes proteins and enzymes; these proteins and enzymes in turn control the synthesis of DNA. How could such an information dependent cycle possibly originate naturally? According to Dr. Gitt it cannot. A cycle where A makes B and B makes C and C makes A, cannot boot strap itself into existence because of the mutually dependent and the self-referential nature of the process. The type of information needed to initiate such an internally dependent cycle can only come from an intelligent source.

Why This Is Important

Darwinists do not like to discuss information theory because they have no adequate answers for the profound mysteries uncovered in this area. This is another dirty little secret that the media diligently ignores. Ever since the 1960s when Darwinists ran smack into the immovable obstacle of Information Theory and Technology, they have been avoiding the subject assiduously in the hope that some new piece of evidence will emerge that allows them to disprove the math. This has not happened. As a defensive measure, books like “In The Beginning Was Information” can only be ignored. It is no accident that Dr. Gitt waited until he had retired before he published this work.

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