An Example of Specificity
The DNA/RNA coding system must arrange the amino acids into specific sequences to form each required protein. While similar to letters of an alphabet in sentences, only a specific sequence of amino acids will produce the essential result. The precision of this sequence is its specificity. Since they involve a fixed alphabet in very specific sequence, it is quite straightforward to mathematically analyze the specificity.
One of the most important proteins - perhaps the most important - is hemoglobin. It is responsible for both the red color of our blood and for the oxygen chemistry based on our breathing. The Torah notes that "life is in the blood."
The formula for hemoglobin is detailed in Figure 2:
In the chart there is only one specific sequence of the amino acids that is hemoglobin. Hemoglobinopathy occurs if even one amino acid is replaced; it is usually lethal. (Sickle cell anemia being but one example.)
Using the formula for alternate linear arrangements of these amino acids indicates that there are about 10650 permutations possible, but only one of them is hemoglobin.
(The actual number is 7.4 x 10654. There are indications that some of the amino acid positions may be "neutral," like spaces, which are less significant. The current research indicates that these may be up to 10% of such positions, which would indicate that there are only 516 rather than 574 significant amino acid positions, in which case the specificity would reduce to 7.9 x 10503.)
This is still a pretty good finite approximation for infinity! The likelihood of this specific sequence occurring by chance is clearly absurd.
(In speculating about obtaining this precise sequence by 10500+ random trials, remember that there have been only about 1017 seconds in the generally accepted age of the universe, so you would have had to work rather quickly. Also, realize that there are only about 10 66 atoms in the universe, so you can't waste material on false tries!)
Think about it. It isn't just unlikely; it really is impossible. It was very skillfully designed. If you really want to be a skeptic, you need to practice like the Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass , who said:
"I practice believing impossible things at least twice day...[check]"
It takes a lot of commitment to blindness and fallacies to be an atheist. There are, of course, no dead atheists (James 2:19).
If someone claims to be an atheist, ask him to prove it. It must include a claim to know everything - since God could be hiding behind any area of knowledge the claimant has overlooked...
I personally don't have the guts to gamble my eternity that the Bible might be wrong.
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I am being intellectually honest in saying that I have never tried to deceive you. The more we understand, the more foolish evolution is.
(The actual number is 7.4 x 10654. There are indications that some of the amino acid positions may be "neutral," like spaces, which are less significant. The current research indicates that these may be up to 10% of such positions, which would indicate that there are only 516 rather than 574 significant amino acid positions, in which case the specificity would reduce to 7.9 x 10503.) This is still a pretty good finite approximation for infinity! The likelihood of this specific sequence occurring by chance is clearly absurd. This is an approximation to inflinity only in the mind of someone totally ignorant of statistical mechanics. As I've written previiously, in a two ounce crystal of rocksalt, there are 2^(6.022*10^23) possible ways to arrange the sodium and chloride ions. However, the ions only crystallize in one way (exactly alternating ions in three dimensions). The odds against this happening are hugely greater than the odds against getting one of the millions of functional hemoglobin sequences. Yet it happens every time.
The second red herring is this:The likelihood of this specific sequence occurring by chance is clearly absurd.
No one claims it happened by chance. It evolved from a simpler, monomeric globin protein, which evolved from a still simpler protein, etc.
I personally don't have the guts to gamble my eternity that the Bible might be wrong.
Yet he's bet the Bhagavad Gita, Koran and Diamond Sutra are wrong.
> The likelihood of this specific sequence occurring by chance is clearly absurd.
Blah. I'm always underwhelmed with claims of just how unlikely certain things are, and how that it's arguement in favor of Divinity. Well, consider this thought experiment:
You have a deck of 52 playing cards. Shuffle the deck. Now, lay out Every Single Card. What are the chances of any particular sequence of cards? Somethign like one in 8E67, which is an Astonishingly BIG NUMBER.
Nevertheless... you managed to pull it off. That sequence you produced was vanishingly unlikely, yet you did it with ease. Shuffle again, and deal again. GASP! Another virtual impossibility. Do it again and again, and so long as you don't lose cards, the chances of producing the end result remain vanishingly small... yet you'll do it every single time.
You should only be astonished if you have a specific end sequence in mind in advance, and manage to pull that out.