Preview - "Unlocking the Mystery of Life"

This is a preview for Illustra Media's "Unlocking the Mystery of Life." The documentary dives into the biological case for Intelligent Design, a theory which holds that certain features of the Universe and in living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not a blind process such as natural selection. http://intelligentdesign.podom... this preview, origins of life researcher Dean Kenyon (author: "Of Pandas and People," a book so challenged in the classroom it makes me want to read it just to see what the fuss is about) explains some of the molecular machines in living systems that defy explanation by chance alone. It mostly emphasizes the process in which genetic information (DNA) is translated into a protein. http://www.go2rpi.com/prodinfo... folks, all comments that add to the discussion are allowed, I do NOT block comments.In my personal opinion this video segment illustrates an interesting point in the design theory, mainly because it shows one of the problems with getting the DNA transcription process into existance by evolutionary processes alone. You need genetic information to end up with molecular parts and machines, but you need molecuar machines to make and maintain genetic information in the first place. So what we end up with is similar to the "which came first the chicken or the egg" dilema. One other way you could look at it is through the computer or mobile device you're using to watch this video. The computer/device needs information (in the form of the binary programming of 1's and 0's) in order to function and do it's various tasks. But in order to keep and maintain that information you need the hard drive, CPU, graphics card, etc. to have the functional ability to store and maintian that information. So was it the programming or the parts that maintain the programming that came first? Neither, in fact for such things to run and operate it took "intelligence" (in the form of human intervention) for it to come into usability. To me this is a far more damning example of Michael Behe's "Irreducible Complexity" since it basically poses a huge problem for abiogenesis theories, theories which attempt to explain the origin of the very first living cell. You need BOTH the DNA transcription AND the parts to decode and utilize it (such as the ribosome, or the entire nuclear pore complex) in place all at once in the cell for anything to happen. I tried to make a conservative estimate on the odds for the necessities of a working cell coming together; I came out to less then one chance in 10 to the 65,000th power (that's ten followed by 65,000 zero's), but what I failed to realize is the fact that in order for amino acids to form a protein in the first place a bonded sequence must be transported into a barrel-shaped machine that folds the amino acids into a usable protein part after that. If I took that into account the odds would be drastically more impossible then 1/10 x 65,000. This is because I was only attempting to calculate the odds of getting a usable "sequence" of amino acids (there are thousands that can work) but didn't take into account that a sequence cannot fold into a protein on it's own even after it beats the odds of coming close enough to bond on it's own. Here's my question to those who think Intelligent Design is baseless and that biogenesis can happen without guidance: Explain to me how to solve the dilema of getting the INFORMATION into place along with the PROTEIN PARTS that assemble and decode that information. You need BOTH in a cell membrane, and that poses yet another problem. A selective cell membrane is produced by protein parts inside the membrane, but for those parts to be in place... you need the membrane (chicken or egg?) to surround and keep them in place so they don't float apart and disentigrate. Explain how these all came to be by nature alone:1. Genetic information (not just the same code self replicating but NEW information as well) - How can such a thing come to be without Protein machines to maintain and utilize it? Dawkins had a hard time giving a rational response to the issue of new genetic information. http://intelligentdesign.podom... Protein parts/Machines - How can they come to be without the genetic information or the membrane that keeps them all together?3. Selective Lipid Membrane (not just a simple lipid layer forming a hollow sphere shape despite the odds, but a selective one that keeps the necessary things in, and the bad stuff out) - How can such a thing come to be without the various protein parts and filaments that help to maintain it?I really wish there were an easy answer to all this besides what is in part a philosophical implication that most people don't want to hear.

Channel: Science & Technology
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: GOPpersona

Length: 05:01
Rating: 3.67
Views: 7043

Tags: biology  cell  Design  genetics  information  Intelligent  

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