Tag Archives: Intelligent Design

The Great Alien Computer Simulation

Atheist Pseudo-Science, ,

Sometimes you find something so preposterous, so deliciously inane, you almost burst out laughing. A few weeks ago I came across such an item.

I subscribe to a daily email summarizing the news. One small item, buried in a list at the end of one day’s summary, was that some scientists think we are living in a computer simulation. It appears Elon Musk shares this view, and of course everyone knows that anything Elon Musk says must be true (that’s a joke, folks).

The item included a link to an article: “How to Test If We’re Living In a Computer Simulation.”

According to the article, a variety of factors suggest we live in a computer simulation.

  • The laws and constants of physics are set exactly right for stars, planets, and life to exist.
  • Particles can be connected outside of space and time (quantum entanglement)
  • At the most fundamental level, the universe is entirely mathematical, and particles as we know them melt into probabilities; they don’t exist until you observe or measure them.

There’s more, but I’ll stop there. According to the article, this suggests we are living in a computer simulation of an extremely advanced alien civilization.

What’s amazing, to me, is that all of this is powerful evidence of God, and the writer of the article appears to have no clue. I explain this evidence in my 2014 book, Counting To God, particularly Chapters 8 (Fine -Tuning) and 14 (A Foundation of Thought).

According to the article, the scientific evidence that there is a mind behind the universe, and that we live in the creation of that mind, is being increasingly accepted. The author seems to think this is a new idea. Not so. Two thousand years ago it was written: “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28. As I suggested in Chapter 14 of Counting to God, we live in the mind of God. The universe is mental, not physical.

It is sad that so many cannot see the overwhelming scientific evidence for God. Advanced alien civilization? Seriously? Where did that come from, why does that exist? It’s utter nonsense. But with advanced aliens these people don’t have to do what God asks us to do. They don’t have to go to church, pray, or read the Bible. They can make up their own moral codes.

I suspect we are going to see more of this theory, the Great Alien Computer Simulation theory. More and more top biologists are realizing that Darwin’s theory on the origin of species is nonsense. The theory that random mutations in the coding of life built the most advanced technology in the universe – technology such as the human brain and butterflies navigating by the Earth’s magnetic field – is a perverted joke. I suspect that, as Darwin fades, the Great Alien Computer Simulation theory will grow. Perhaps it won’t be long before the pendulum shifts, and people are forced to admit life was designed. At that point only the Great Alien Computer Simulation Theory will allow people to deny God.

Thanks for reading. I hope to get back to posting more frequently. There is much to share.

I’m working on a third book, a book I am co-writing with an experienced author, a work of fiction about a rich man who gets terminal cancer and finds God. I’ve tweaked my second book, Proofs of God, and hope to come out with a new version of that book next year.

Please share the Good News that science has found God. Friends don’t let friends stay atheists.

Doug Ell

The Biological Case for God

Science, ,

In 2014, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Eric Metaxas, titled “Science Increasingly Points to God.” It received almost 400,000 “likes” on Facebook. Others challenged Metaxas’s arguments that Earth is special, and that the universe is fine-tuned for life. But those disturbed by a scientific challenge to atheism face a greater problem. New discoveries in biology, mostly in the last decade, make an even stronger case for the existence of God.

These new discoveries contradict Darwin’s theory of unguided evolution, that you can explain the origin of every species, and all of the wondrous systems and abilities of those species, by random mutations and the gradual process of natural selection. To be sure, many Darwinists are prepared to fight to the death, and they have circled the wagons, both by proclaiming ever louder that “all the evidence” supports their theory, and by attacking colleagues who dissent. But the cracks are beginning to show. Noted atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel subtitled his 2012 book “Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False.”

“Orphan genes” may be the most stunning contradiction. A gene is a section of DNA coding that life uses to build a functional protein, a biological machine part. Orphan genes, and their associated proteins, have no recognizable ancestors. They have now been found in every species on Earth. They typically make up 10-20% of a genome, and play a key role in making that species unique, such as creating toxins in jellyfish or preventing freezing in polar cod. Leaf-cutter ants have 9,361 unique proteins; next to human beings they create the largest and most complex societies.

You don’t need a PhD in mathematics or biology to realize that coding is information, and that you can’t get information by chance. Put together 100 English letters/spaces/punctuation selected at random, and ask what the odds are that you will get anything meaningful. Sure, there are billions times billions of possible coherent sequences, but the probability of getting a meaningful sequence by chance is less than one in a number with 100 zeros. You have a better chance of picking a marked marble out of a pile as big as the known universe.

The same reasoning applies to biology. DNA coding is processed by biological 3D printers that read the code three “letters” at a time, and use that information to select, snap together, and fold specified sequences of amino acids to build proteins, the machine parts of life. There are about 500 different types of amino acids, but all life uses an alphabet of the same 20 amino acids to build proteins. Functional proteins are astonishingly rare. If you randomly link together 150 of the amino acids of life, the odds that they will form a functional protein of any type are about 1 in a number with 74 zeros. You have a better chance of reaching into a pile of marbles as big as our galaxy and picking out that marked marble.

You might think that, over “billions and billions” of years, those odds could be overcome. But the math doesn’t work. The number of living organisms that have ever existed has about 40 digits. Even with that many tries your odds of picking that marked marble are about one in a number with 34 (74 minus 40) zeros, about the probability of reaching into a pile of marbles as big as the Sun and picking out the right one. Mutations at random can’t realistically “find” a new functional protein. And this greatly oversimplifies the problem; you need multiple proteins working together exactly right to create new technology.

If I had to give a single date for the death of Darwinian theory I would pick September 6, 2012. On that date newspapers around the world reported that most “and likely all” of human DNA serves a purpose. This was announced by the ENCODE project, a world-wide coalition of 440 top scientists. Three months later ENCODE reported human DNA contains more than one layer of information. Yes, we have 3.2 billion letters of coding with two layers of information. Despite attacks by Darwinists, the ENCODE scientists have stood their ground.

These findings contradict Darwin’s theory. There is no way that fully functional, or almost fully functional, DNA with two layers of information could have been created by chance. Darwinists try to argue that excess DNA makes an organism less likely to survive and reproduce, and so by the magical “power” of natural selection we end up with an efficient code. Sorry, but there is no evidence for that, and there are many organisms with dozens of times as much DNA as a human being. And even that fantasy can’t explain two layers of information.

Here’s a third new realization. Contrary to what you may have read, there is no mildly plausible non-theistic explanation for the origin of life. In 2006 Harvard launched an “Origins of Life Initiative,” but the consensus of their 2009 conference was “we just don’t know.” The problem is that, as we learn more about life and how it works, the complexity is too much to say it just arose by chance. We now know all life works off the same digital operating system. Digital technology has transformed our world – smartphones, computers, and more. Life began with digital technology. Today we have printers that build 3-dimensional objects. Life began with 3D printers. And here’s the clincher – life began with the exact correct digital code so that those 3D printers could build copies of themselves and all of the other machinery of life. This cannot be explained by chance, the resources of a trillion trillion universes would be laughingly inadequate.

The way it all works is highly optimized, such as in the chemical structure of DNA and in the selection of the particular 20 amino acids used to build proteins. This operating system was there at the beginning, it didn’t “evolve,” and there is no known way one operating system can transform into another. You can kick your windows PC all you want; it won’t turn into an iMac.

We have found information in orphan genes, human DNA, and the origin of life. We know, from all of science and all of human history, that only intelligence can create information. The new evidence points to – actually, demands the existence of – a transcendent intelligence, an intelligence that has created every species on Earth. Chance, you say? Get real.

Thanks for reading,
Doug Ell

Outside the Fishbowl

Journey of Faith

This January I went to a Sunday service at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City. The French Gothic design is incredible. The huge stone carving behind the High Altar, called the “Great Reredos,” must have taken lifetimes to carve. This link will give you a 360-degree virtual tour of the church: I was told Saint Thomas is one of only two churches in the world to have a boys’ choir composed of students at the Church’s school, and the other is Westminster Cathedral.

More than the building and music, I was struck by the sermon. The priest spoke about a “lack of theological imagination.” It struck me that he hit upon one of the key reasons why we, as a society, resist God. We are not able to imagine existence outside our fishbowl.

Imagine you are a fish in a fishbowl, and you wonder what it’s like outside your fishbowl. You probably can see out, and although images are blurred, and there is a huge difference between air and water, you sense there are creatures out there who move around like you do. Now imagine a heavy blanket over your fishbowl that blocks all light. Now you don’t know what’s out there. You do realize that periodically food is being added, so you acknowledge an existence of some type out there, although you are literally in the dark. But you would most likely assume it is some sort of creature composed of the same stuff as you – cells and DNA and a circulation system and so on.

For us, the fishbowl is our universe. We cannot see outside our fishbowl. We do know, if we’re honest about it – which admittedly most people are not – that both our universe (fishbowl) and all life were designed. We know this because chance is a pathetically inadequate explanation for the amazingly perfect design of the laws and constants of physics, and the beyond understanding complexity of life (think of the human brain). Let’s call this mind outside our universe “God.” We then ask, what does science tell us about God? Let’s put aside history and the Bible for now. Based solely on science, what can we know about God?

The answer is, not much. We know this mind out there, this God, is immensely powerful and intelligent. A being capable of creating our four-dimensional space-time universe is vastly different from the human minds we encounter in our fishbowl.

If you think along these lines, it becomes easier to see through the so-called “scientific” obstacles our culture throws up against the existence of God. Let’s start with the question “who created God”? Creation is a concept that exists in our fishbowl, where one event precedes in time another event and causes the second event to happen. But the question “who created God” incorrectly assumes that the concept of causation in time applies outside our fishbowl. Remember, God created time (and space), and created our fishbowl. God is outside of time. To ask a question that assumes our concept of time and our concept of causation apply outside of our fishbowl shows a lack of theological imagination.

Another typical, although often unspoken, barrier for many is that they literally cannot imagine a mind powerful enough to do all this – to create our universe and design all life. Again, this shows a lack of theological imagination. Just because the minds we encounter in our fishbowl – minds made up of atoms that exist in time – can’t do these things is no reason to suggest that the mind outside our fishbowl can’t do them. We cannot transfer the restrictions we see in our fishbowl to a mind outside our fishbowl. I think God has absolute control over every quantum phase state in our universe (see Chapter 14 of Counting To God). A being with that attribute could (and in my view has) done things – performed “miracles” – beyond our comprehension (like the resurrection of Jesus, which is by far the best documented event of the ancient world). How can that be? I don’t know, but to say that God can’t perform miracles shows an obvious lack of theological imagination, an incorrect assumption that what we see in our fishbowl applies outside our fishbowl.

One analogy that occurs to me is that the relationship between God and us could be similar in some ways to the relationship between us and a virtual character in a gaming program. We can create such characters and give them characteristics, but these characters, no matter how intelligent we might make them (think of powerful artificial intelligence, powerful AI), cannot appreciate us and our universe except to the extent we create them in our image – just as the Bible tells us we are created in the image of God. Yes we could give our AI characters some capacity to appreciate music and colors, but they can never experience the music and colors in our world. I use this analogy because many people who have had near death experiences, who have had a glimpse of what lies outside our fishbowl, will tell you that the colors and music outside our fishbowl are far superior and far more wonderful than what we experience.

If we make these AI characters smart enough, and give them enough ways to gain information (like our human senses) to learn about their world, they might be able to detect that we exist based on characteristics of their virtual world. But other than that, all they can know about us is what we tell them. In history, and in the Bible, God has taught us a great deal about the nature of God and how we are supposed to live our lives. The Bible is like an operating manual for life. To the extent you can follow it, your life is likely to be easier and less stressful.

Many reject the Trinity, the Christian three-in-one God, because they cannot imagine that kind of being. This betrays a lack of theological imagination, the false assumption that just because something doesn’t exist in our fishbowl it can’t exist outside the fishbowl. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that God has built into different kinds of animals the capacity to adapt, to “evolve,” into different species, many (most?) hang on desperately to a Darwinian fable of the “magic” and “power” of natural selection. This inability to conceive of a being powerful enough to build this fantastic technology into all life again reveals a lack of theological imagination.

God is outside our universe, outside our fishbowl, not limited by human concepts of intelligence and power. If we are honest, we know from science that God exists. Let us expand our minds and our theological imaginations to appreciate the wonder of God.

Thanks for reading,

Doug Ell

A Christmas Blessing

Journey of Faith,

The Discovery Institute has issued a second endorsement of my latest book, Proofs of God. You can read the review by clicking here. The title is “Great Christmas Gift — Proofs of God Translates Design Arguments for Young Students, Teenagers.” The review contains cartoons from my book. It also contains within it a second review from a middle-schooler.

Here’s a line I like: “Sometimes the best way to learn is when you’re having fun and don’t realize that you’re learning.”

Hope you are all well and safe. Here’s a post I wrote two years ago on what I believe are actual astronomical events underlying what we refer to as “the star of Bethlehem.” I keep learning more about the history and science relating to the birth of Jesus, and hopefully next season I’ll post an updated blog on that.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading. May the Lord bless you and hold you in the palm of his hand.

Doug Ell

Fine-Tuning

Science,

“Fine-tuning” is things set just right to get a special result. Imagine walking into a control room for the universe, a room with a hundred dials that each set a constant of physics – a dial to set the speed of light, a dial to set the ratio of the masses of the proton and election, a dial to set the strength of the electric charge, and so on. You see that every one of these dials is precisely set for life to exist. If you change any of the dials, in many cases by an unbelievably small fraction, life could not exist. In this sense, scientists have found the constants of physics to be “fine-tuned.” (Scientists have also found that the laws of physics themselves are designed for a universe that permits life.)

Fine-tuning in physics is a huge problem for atheists. To get around it, they invent a theory that there are lots of other universes, and then invent a theory that the physics of those universes can be different, and then say we just got lucky. It’s all pure fantasy with no scientific basis. For more on this see Chapter 8 of my first book, Counting To God.

Today I want to focus on a different kind of fine-tuning, fine-tuning in biology. I want to highlight a September 2020 paper in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. (Yes, I’ve been lax in my posting, but this is an important article I’ve been meaning to tell you about for some time.) The Journal of Theoretical Biology is a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal. The article is here if you wish to read it. Spoiler alert – lengthy and technical.

The article asks “Is it possible to recognize fine-tuning in molecular biology?” The authors begin with a summary of fine-tuning in physics. They state: “The chances that our universe should be life permitting are so infinitesimal as to be incomprehensible and incalculable.” They continue:

Like a Bach fugue, the Universe has a beautiful elegance about it, governed by laws whose mathematical precision is meted out to the metronome of time. These equations of physics are finely balanced, with the constants of nature that underpin the equations tuned to values that allow our remarkable Universe to exist in a form where we, humanity, can study it. A slight change to these constants, and poof, in a puff of gedanken experimentation, we have a cosmos where atoms cease to be, or where planets are unable to form.

The paper then turns to evidence of fine-tuning in biological systems. The authors note that functional proteins (i.e., a string of amino acids that fold into a useful part of life) are fantastically rare – the odds that a sequence of 150 or so amino acids will fold into a useful protein are between 1 in 1050 and 1 in 1074. (For more on this see pages 106 and 107 of Counting To God.) They then turn to the odds of accidentally putting these proteins together to create the structures that make life possible. As I have noted, the complexity of life is literally beyond our imagination. No one knows how the human brain really works.

The authors conclude:

A major conclusion of our work is that fine-tuning is a clear feature of biological systems. Indeed, fine-tuning is even more extreme in biological systems than in inorganic systems.

That is staggering – “even more extreme.” Biological systems are more unlikely to have arisen by blind chance than our universe being fit for life by blind chance (again, even assuming you accept the unscientific belief that there are other universes and that the physics in those other universes can be different).

This is a major paper in a prestigious journal. The conclusion is clear: life was designed. God is real. Despite all the nonsense one reads, and hears, about science being contrary to God, the truth is exactly the opposite – science points unmistakably to design in both the laws and constants of physics and in life itself.

Please share this good news this holiday season. There is cause for great joy.

Thanks for reading. May the Lord bless you and hold you in the palm of his hand.

Douglas Ell

Why Darwin’s Theory Doesn’t Work

Atheist Pseudo-Science, , ,

A new study found that 54% of Americans accept Darwin’s theory, and believe human beings descended from earlier species of animals. This is not surprising given our society’s hostility to God. But it is contrary to modern science. In this post I will try to explain, as simply as I can, why modern science shows Darwin’s theory doesn’t work.

“Survival of the fittest” is not a force; it’s the self-evident statement that the organisms most likely to survive (the “fittest”) usually do survive. Big deal. There is no “search” button; there is nothing in Darwin’s theory that builds complex structures when needed.

We know from modern science that all creatures have very complex systems. We know from modern science that these systems are built from, and operated according to, code. Human beings have 3.2 billion “letters” of DNA code. In 2012, scientists studying human DNA found it contains four million switches to turn the systems in our body on and off. Each “switch” is complex code.

Mutations can and do occur anywhere in DNA. Over 99.99% of mutations are harmful or have no immediate effect. Mutations pop up in DNA at random, like typos in the text of a book.

Now imagine random changes, mutations, occurring throughout the 4,000,000 sections of our DNA that are switches. These mutations will degrade the vast majority of those switches. The overall trend will be downward, not upward. All the computer simulations show this, as I noted in this prior blog: https://countingtogod.com/mendels-accountant/

Darwin’s theory imagines that gradual changes to just one switch will eventually result in a better switch. But, even if that occurs (and no one has ever seen that occur), the other switches are being degraded. You can’t just “freeze” one switch, and try to improve that over eons, and pretend that the other switches are not harmed. It’s a simple numbers game; overall mutations degrade systems. Think of typos in the text of a book, or random changes in the programming behind the apps on your smart phone. Not likely to make the system better, and by not likely I mean never if you do the math. I made this point in both of my books. Mutations are a downhill slope. Mutations are like rust spots on the surface of a car. A few won’t slow down the car, but eventually the car will fall apart.

And that’s it! It’s really simple, despite the mindboggling refusal of many “educated” persons to see the obvious. Random changes to complex code, that can and do occur anywhere in the code and have no purpose or pattern, will not get you a better system. They will not build a new kind of animal.

This simple and obvious conclusion is supported by:

  1. The second law of thermodynamics — All systems are running down.
  2. The fossil record – the myriad varieties of “intermediate” organisms predicted by Darwin don’t exist.
  3. Laboratory experiments on bacteria showing a decline in function over tens of thousands of generations.
  4. As noted above, complex computer simulations of the effects of mutations.
  5. The existence of structures like the human brain, so complex that we cannot begin to understand how it works, that could not possibly have arisen from random changes.

Human beings are special. Don’t let anyone claim we are descended from pond scum. God designed us.

Thanks for reading.

Doug Ell

Abraham the Astronomer

Journey of Faith, , ,

I am a fan of the website Watch Jerusalem. I copy below one of their articles. It is a fantastic story that combines astronomy, mathematics, history, and the Bible. Click here for the original article if you are interested.

History records a man who lived 10 generations after a great flood who used celestial science to prove the existence of God. He was a skilled scientist, astronomer and mathematician. His astronomical discoveries shook the foundations of Babylonian religion. He heavily influenced Egyptian and Mesopotamian scientific thought. He led armies that altered the course of world history. And all this took place before he became the forefather of the Arab, Turk and Israelite peoples!

This man’s name was Abraham. Yes, the astounding evidence of both biblical and secular history proves that the patriarch Abraham was not only real; he exerted tremendous influence on the entire ancient world!

This influence is recounted in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, the Babylonian historian Berossus, the Roman historian Eusebius and others. These records reveal that Abraham used mathematics and astronomy to discredit the pagan priesthood of his time and to prove the existence of the one true God.

Chief Scientist of the Chaldeans

Abraham was born in the city of Ur, in the land of the Chaldees, sometime in the early second millennium B.C.E. This city was then near the outskirts of the rapidly expanding Old Babylonian Empire. The pagan Babylonian priesthood publicly taught the masses to believe that the sun, moon, stars and planets were gods. These priests used their knowledge of astronomy to predict the movements of the heavenly bodies, deceiving the masses into thinking they could communicate with the gods of the Babylonian pantheon (Israel Smith Clare, The Standard History of the World, Vol. 1).

This was the political climate into which Abraham was born.

Now consider the record of third-century B.C.E. Babylonian historian Berossus: “In the 10th generation after the Flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man righteous and great, and skillful in the celestial science” (emphasis added throughout). While Berossus doesn’t give this great scientist a name, first-century Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Berossus was writing about Abraham.

There is even an ancient hymn cited by Clement of Alexandria (second century C.E.) about “a certain unique man, an offshoot from far back of the race of the Chaldeans.” This man was “knowledgeable about the path of the star and how the movement of the sphere goes around the Earth, both in circular fashion, but each on its own axis.” The poem related that this chief scientist of the Chaldeans was the only man of his era to see Zeus, “the ruler of mortal men.”

Of course, ancient Greek poets tended to call the chief god of any religion by the name Zeus. The fact that this poem speaks of a Chaldean scientist who had a special relationship with “the mighty God” isn’t coincidence!

Fourth-century C.E. Roman historian Eusebius cited an earlier source by a man named Eupolemus (second century B.C.E.), titled Concerning the Jews of Assyria. Quoting this source, Eusebius says Abraham “surpassed all men in nobility and wisdom, who was also the inventor of astronomy and the Chaldaic art, and pleased God well by his zeal towards religion.”

Josephus further records that as a young man, Abraham “determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God, the Creator of the universe” (Antiquities of the Jews, 1.7.1).

Abraham was teaching the people of Chaldea about the one true Creator!

Babylonian Mystery Religion

The Babylonian priesthood established after the Flood by Nimrod and Semiramis was teaching the masses to believe that the sun, moon, stars and planets were manifestations of the gods. They deceived people into thinking priests could communicate with these gods. In addition to being a scientist, however, Abraham was a great teacher. He taught the people physics and mathematics, and showed them that celestial bodies moved according to preordained laws.

Josephus paraphrases Abraham’s words: “If these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain, that in so far as they cooperate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to Him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving” (ibid).

Abraham taught the Chaldeans what the priests secretly knew: The movements of the stars and other heavenly bodies are one of the greatest proofs of God’s existence. The presence of law demands the presence of a lawgiver!

Abraham taught that the stars and planets were only physical objects created by the one true God. What many historians are unwilling to admit is that Abraham possessed advanced astronomical knowledge that would not be rediscovered for thousands of years. Josephus further records that Abraham wasn’t the first astronomer in his family. The study of astronomy originated with Seth, the third son of Adam. He wrote that “God gave [those who lived before the Flood] such long life that they might perfect those things which they had invented in astronomy” (Antiquities, 1.3.9).

Other records, such as Jean Lemaire de Belges’s Illustrations of Gaul and Peculiarities of Troy (1513), indicate that Noah had knowledge of maritime astronomy involving navigating by the stars, and that he established a college in ancient Armenia to teach religion and astronomy. This noble and elderly patriarch likely brought knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and other sciences from one side of the Flood to the other, passing it down from generation to generation to Abraham!

Father of the Faithful

When the pagan Babylonian priests gained power and influence, they lost patience with Abraham and his teachings about the one true God. Josephus records that the Chaldeans and other peoples of Mesopotamia “raised a tumult” against Abraham, forcing him to flee the country. Unlike the priests of this Babylonian mystery religion, Abraham refused to teach lies to receive the praise of men. These pagan religious leaders would have killed Abraham for publishing the truth and likely did kill his older brother Haran. The Bible records only that “Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees” (Genesis 11:28). Josephus adds that a monument was erected in Haran’s honor, and that “Terah [hated] Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran” (Antiquities, 1.6.5).

While Terah himself fell into idol worship, Abraham never lost faith in the existence of the great Creator of the universe.

To recount all the various histories of the things Abraham suffered during this period would fill many pages. Through his trials and tribulations, however, Abraham stayed faithful to his belief in God. And when Abraham was 75 years old, God Himself actually appeared to him and spoke to him to make a covenant that would change the course of history!

I hope you will agree this historical background on Abraham is wondrous. What resonates with me is that, around 4,000 years ago, Abraham used science and mathematics to show others the existence of God. That is what I have tried to do in my books.

May the Lord bless you and hold you in the palm of his hand.

Doug Ell

130,000 New Reasons for God

Science, , ,

To me, the 1953 discovery that DNA contains information, the discovery that all life is built from a four “letter” code, was conclusive proof, right then and there, of the existence of God. The “letters” of this code are incredible molecules. All life contains 3-D printers that read the information in DNA, how these molecules are ordered, to build proteins, the machine parts of life. All life uses the information in DNA to know how to assemble the proteins into working systems, and to know how and when to turn the systems on and off. There is no atheist explanation for how any of this, the code or any of the machinery, could have arisen by chance. There is only nonsense about life forming in some dirty pond many years ago (or raining down from outer space (I know this is ridiculous but I am not making this up)) and then somehow getting “better,” a fantasy that gets sillier each year as we reveal the sophistication of even the simplest forms of life, and as computer simulations continue to show Darwin’s mechanism doesn’t work.

But that didn’t happen in 1953. Hard core atheists like Francis Crick, one of the discoverers that DNA is code, immediately suggested the complex and beautifully designed double helix of DNA (the strong phosphate bonds of the outer helix protect the weaker bonds of the inner code, which allows the molecule to be “unzipped” for copying and to read the information inside) arose without a designer. Darwinists fantasized that, by keeping the “best” mistakes, the “best” mutations, accidental errors in coding, DNA eventually “evolved” into the 3.2 billion letter code that builds a human being, with our trillions of fantastically complex cells and the still unexplored wonder of the human brain. This also is nonsense. My new book, Proofs of God, explains, in simple language and pictures, using concepts a high school student can understand, that “evolution” can create nothing, that accidental errors in coding lose information, they don’t create it, that the arrow of evolution is down, not up.

This Darwinian delusion of complexity from chaos lead to the prediction of “junk” DNA. Darwinists predicted, since they falsely believed our DNA was formed through a random process of keeping the best mutations, that most of it is useless “junk.” To me, this prediction took a fatal hit in 2012 when the initial results from the ENCODE project were published in 30 major papers worldwide. ENCODE is an international consortium of over 400 scientists studying human DNA. They found at least 75% of the code is functional, and there are at least two layers of complexity. “It’s likely [this percentage] will go to 100%,” stated one of the lead researchers. “We really don’t have any large chunks of redundant DNA. This metaphor of junk isn’t that useful.”

But our society is hostile to God, and Darwinian delusions die hard. Even today many cling to the irrational belief that our DNA was not designed. That is why I was wondrously struck by recent articles in Nature magazine. Nature is considered the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. One article states that over 130,000 “genomic elements, previously called junk DNA,” have now been discovered. Another article notes that some of these “genomic elements” cause severe limb abnormalities if deleted.

So there you have it. 130,000 new reasons for God. 130,000 newly discovered sections of code that must exist to build a human being. Each section is complex, and the odds against it “evolving” by chance are astronomical, like picking one special marble out of a pile of marbles as big as the known universe. My new book explains the math. Human beings were designed; God is real. It’s an undeniable conclusion confirmed by new findings published in the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. Click here for more details if you are interested.

Thanks for reading. Please share the good news of modern science. Together we can defeat the atheist paradigm of a meaningless world.

Peace be with you,

Doug Ell

Can One “Prove” God?

Science,

In my last blog I noted an endorsement of my new book, Proofs of God, from the Discovery Institute in Seattle, the world’s leading proponent of intelligent design. The author of that review, David Klinghoffer, loved the book but doubted one can “prove” God. Let’s look at that today. I’ve seen other comments insisting God cannot be proved. These comments reflect confusion about the nature of proof, and a misunderstanding of what I am saying. I claim modern science “proves” the existence of God. So what do I mean by that, and what is the debate about?

To prove anything you have to start with certain fundamental truths, certain unprovable assumptions. They are sometimes called axioms, sometimes postulates. You start by assuming some things are true, then use that foundation to prove other things are true. What you can prove rests on, depends on, your starting truths.

As the third chapter of my book makes clear, my logical proof of God starts with three assumed truths. The first is that there is an objective reality. Things are real; we are not beings in some sort of computer simulation. My second assumed truth is that our senses generally provide accurate information about that reality, about our world. We can trust clear signals from our senses. If we run into a stone wall, we say that “proves” both that the wall exists and that it is hard. If scientists around the world find all living creatures contain coded groups of atoms we call DNA, we say that “proves” the existence of DNA.

These two assumed truths are the foundation of the scientific method. If you deny them, you deny all of science – all that the human race has ever figured out by observation, experiment, and reason. My first two assumed truths are so fundamental that one rarely talks about them. If you agree scientists have “proved” that DNA is real, you are agreeing with my first two assumed truths.

My third assumed truth is that if there is only one explanation for something, then that explanation is true. If, in all of science and in all of history, there is only one explanation for something, then I assume that explanation is true. In my book I give the example of a person who puts money in a securely locked safe, and comes back the next day and finds the money is gone. She would know someone had stolen the money. She would not say that an invisible money-eating monster got hungry, because there is no historical evidence of invisible money-eating monsters, and there is no scientific reason to think they exist.

With these three assumed truths, it is straightforward to prove human beings were designed. Science has found fantastic technology in all life, and especially in human beings. Plants have sensors that detect variations in both light and temperature. Some fish, turtles, and even butterflies detect both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, coupled with navigation systems that allow them to travel thousands of miles and return to the same field, stream, beach, or tree. This technology is complex almost beyond imagination – much more advanced than anything humans have created. We are only beginning to understand how DNA works, with overlapping layers of information.

In all of human history and experience, only an intelligent being can create technology. In all of science, there is no other known explanation for the existence of technology. Chance is pathetically inadequate. No one has ever seen new technology created by chance, and the odds against that ever happening are fantastic.

Therefore, using my third assumed truth, the technology of life was designed. I call that designer God. This does not prove that the God of the Bible exists, but it does prove that there is a greater intelligence that designed life. This gets one to “first base,” so to speak. You have to accept that humans are created beings.

Darwin’s theory is zombie science. As I show in my book, it is a dead delusion, it has been disproven in multiple ways. Almost all top scientists know this, and all the computer simulations show that mutations reduce information, they don’t create it. You can’t get advanced technology by keeping the best mistakes.

So there you have it. God is real, and we know that as sure as we know anything in this world. Our society is confused and hostile to God. But science tells us God is real.

Thanks for reading.

Doug Ell

ID Made Sassy

Journey of Faith,

The Discovery Institute is the world’s leading proponent of Intelligent Design. Their scientists include Stephen Meyer (Darwin’s Doubt, Signature of the Cell), Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box, A Mousetrap for Darwin), Michael Denton (Evolution Still a Theory in Crisis), and Douglas Axe (Undeniable).

I was delighted to receive their endorsement of my new book, Proofs of God.

Click here for their review: I invite you to check it out; it showcases many of my book’s best cartoons. It also understands and highlights my purpose, which was to translate the science to make it accessible to young readers, and to all others who may be uncomfortable with technical details. To date, I have not had a single person tell me they were unable to understand my book.

Thanks for reading. Together we can change the world, and free it from this pathetically depressing Atheist paradigm of a meaningless universe. God is real.

Doug Ell