Ultimate Questions: Can Mindless Natural Forces Create Life?
Why think that a “mind” lies behind the complexity of the universe rather than impersonal natural forces? Is it even rational to talk about Somebody out there?
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Summary:
- Genes contain a large amount of functional information
- It is extremely improbable that natural processes can produce a large amount of functional information.
- The probability that a mind can produce a large amount of functional information is certain (our minds do it continually)
- Therefore, it is more probable that the information encoded in genes came from a mind, than from natural processes.
Functional Information:
Intelligent design can be defined as an effect produced by a mind (as opposed to mindless natural forces). A fundamental attribute of intelligence and what distinguishes intelligence from mindlessness, is the ability to produce significant amounts of meaningful, useful, or functional information
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We can measure the amount of information in terms of bits and bytes or, in the case of an iPod, gigabytes. The ability of intelligence to produce significant amounts of meaningful or functional information enables us to test for intelligent design.
For example, if SETI Institute scientists received a radio signal from a source outside our solar system consisting of 2 blips, a space, then 3 blips, counting out the first two prime numbers 2 and 3, that would amount to 6 bits of information, not likely enough to get scientists excited.
However, if the signal contained the first 10 prime numbers, amounting to 138 bits, scientists all over the world would likely be very excited. The 138 bits would be a strong sign of an intelligent origin. The formula for measuring functional information in terms of bits and bytes computes information as a measure of probability.
Assuming there are natural sources in space that can generate intermittent blips, the probability that they might generate the 6 bits of information required to count off the first 2 prime numbers is about 1 chance in 63, good odds indeed. However, the probability of generating the 138 bits required for the first 10 prime numbers is about 1 chance in 1042 (1 chance in 1 with 42 zeros after it). It would be the rough equivalent of the chance of marking two grains of sand, hiding them both in two different places on planet earth, and then having a blind person find both grains of sand on his firist two picks.
Kindergarten Stuff
It is easy for a mind to generate 138 bits of useful information; we do it daily. But it is extremely improbable for mindless natural processes to do it. For biological life, the average gene contains more than 500 bits of functional information.
Minimal genome researchers have concluded that the simplest life form would need at least 150 genes. This amounts to about 75,000 bits of functional information, more than enough to get SETI scientists very excited if they received that kind of functional information from deep space. The probability that mindless processes could produce 75,000 bits of functional information is about 1 chance in 1023,000, if the information is gained in a single step.(You would have a better chance of winning the Lotto 649 every week for 44 years straight.)
If the information is gained in a series of steps, the probability becomes even smaller due to the possibility of repeating the same steps. Appealing to a selected series of steps does not help, for then the required information would have to be encoded within the selective processes themselves.
It would be implausible to believe that mindless natural processes could pull off a series of events coding for each one of the necessary 150 genes for the simplest life form. Yet 75,000 bits amounts to just over 9 Kbytes of functional information, a feat that is easy for even a child to perform. The average bacterium carries much more information than this in its genome, not to mention the higher life forms. This does not prove that intelligent design was required for life, but it does make it very probable.
