Interesting observation, Magnum44. This may be a good description of activities going on in the "local neighborhood"; but to me it is doubtful that DNA itself could ever be comprehensively understood in terms of its strictly "local" effects.
I'm well aware that, these days, there is a popular school of the philosophy of science that, taking a page from Newton (they think), "reduces" the universe to mechanical laws. WRT Newton, nothing could be further from the truth, in terms of Newton's own thought and convictions. But that's another story for another day....
What we really need to ask is: What is DNA? Everybody it seems just takes DNA for granted, and imbues it with whatever qualities needful to make their theories come out right. Usually it is envisioned as completely specifiable by the physico-chemical laws; and its activity is essentially random, in the limit of "natural selection."
According to this mindset, the reduction to the "machine" is the most efficient, compact, homologous, and thus most fruitful line of inquiry for the biological sciences at the present time.
Personally, I don't believe the "machine model" will get us anywhere, if we're interested in exploring the physical basis of Life. For machines have to be built and progammed before they can do anything for us. And that "anything" has been specified in advance by the builder of "the machine," otherwise he wouldn't build it.
If I'm not mistaken, science does not want to get involved with problems of just this nature. And so evidently "orthodox" science will not brook any idea of "intelligent design" whatsoever — supposedly to keep their "method", "clean."
I really do hope that we folks here at FR who are interested in this problem will continue to collaborate in the future, so to exchange insights – given the opportunity.
Thanks so much for writing Magnum44!
Thank you for your considerate response.
The origin of the universe, life, and man are clearly subjects of interest to the scientific community and I support the “clean” scientific process. They are also subjects of theology. And I believe that while some evidence may support one theory (Darwin), that does not preclude another theory. Many popular scientific theories of the day have been disproven over time.
As a Christian, I believe that we were created with the desire to understand the physical universe we live in. We will never understand it completely in this life, but we have the built in desire regardless. In the process we discover many things, including the wonders of Gods creation. And many of those discoveries have Gods fingerprints on them, if one is open to see them. Of course if ones eyes are closed to this, one does not see. God gives us the choice to see or not.
I am an aerospace engineer, quite educated, but not a practicing “scientist” in the classical sense, so, on one hand, maybe I am not adhering precisely to an academic scientific method in my thought process. But on the other, as an engineer, the DNA/RNA nano-machinery is just fascinating, and as one who understands a little about machine design, computer design, and software design, these mechanisms have higher intelligence written all over them.
It stands right up there with the Big Bang for signatures of God. (If you dont know, the Big Bang is pretty much undersood...except for how it got started, which requires you to believe it got a “push” of energy by ??? not explained in the mathematics)
Have a good nite.