BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #010227 - 02/27/2001
Language of the Genome: Evidence of the God Who Speaks 


The recent announcement that scientists have
deciphered the human genome has secular scientists
buzzing. And their editorials in the New York Times
and elsewhere praise, not the Creator, but Darwinian
evolution. We need to know, however, that these new
discoveries are no threat to the Christian worldview.
Rather, they are a bold verification of its
coherence.

The human genome -- the molecular-biological
blueprint of the human body -- is written in a
language of four letters (A, C, T, and G), which
represent the amino acids that produce the proteins
that make up our biology. The arrangement of these
letters in the genome account for things like hair
and eye color and a host of physical traits. Even
male pattern baldness has a genetic link.

But, much to the amazement of the translators of our
genetic code, instead of the human genome consisting
of 100,000 genes that account for biological traits,
the human blueprint is only around 30,000 genes.
Since the fruit fly possesses between 13,000 and
14,000 genes, scientists believed that, to account
for all the differences between fruit flies and
humans, our genome would have to be many times
larger. Not so.

If their measurements are accurate, the human genome
is just over twice the size of the fruit fly's. But
all this proves, of course, is that the language of
the genome is much subtler than scientists thought
previously.

This shouldn't surprise us. The fact that our biology
is written in a decipherable language testifies even
more brilliantly to a God who speaks. That he created
all living things from a relevantly similar blueprint
is, likewise, no surprise. That the language of the 
human genome is close to that of other species is no
surprise, either.

The latest research reveals that chimpanzees share
98.8 percent of our genes; mice share 85 to 90
percent; and bananas, 50 percent of our genes. Well,
for Christians whose worldview includes the
affirmation that we were made from the dust of the
earth, this hardly comes as unsettling information.
To go on to conclude, as evolutionist Stephen Jay
Gould has done in the New York Times, that the
similarities between genomes point to Darwinian
evolution requires an act of faith that is simply
breathtaking.

Subtle differences in the language of our genomes
results in profound differences between us and other
species -- and vive la difference!

The point is, interpreting the information in our
cells requires a set of worldview lenses through
which to view the information. A Darwinian sees
through Darwinian glasses. But the more we learn
about DNA, the more difficult it becomes for
Darwinists to explain what they see.

How does information, through a process of chance
evolution, become rational, coherent instruction for
the building of a body? Well, this is why Gould and
his colleagues talk about "blind watchmakers" and
other oxymorons. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of
the double helical nature of the DNA molecule, has
even declared, "Biologists must constantly keep in
mind that what they see is not designed, but rather
evolved." It's as if reminding themselves of their
own dogma will convince them that the evidence for a
Designer is a mirage in the desert of scientific
explanation.

Christians know that the Creator has left his
fingerprints on everything he created. And the God
who speaks, in his infinite wisdom, uttered the
language that brought us all into existence.