Signature in the Cell: Ch1 Synopsis. (plus drive test results)

So I failed my G2 test today. For the third time. Anyone have a better record?

Not gonna lie, I cried a bit because when you fail three times, what can you do to help feeling like a failure? Hmm? What I hate the most is that this time, I did everything perfectly except for one lane change that wasn't even that bad. Grrr! Now I know what Thaddeus Johnson felt like from from this season of AI. (He did nothing wrong but there were too many talented people and they didn't pick him.)

Quickly now, since I have to be at work for 8 tomorrow, and it's like half past ten, or rather two thirds....

For anyone still interested in the science discussion, I bought the book Signature in the Cell: DNA and the evidence for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer. It arrived today, and I'd like to give my synopsis of the first chapter. (Also, I did get the other two books I said I wanted to get, but I haven't got to them yet obviously)

The first chapter is titled DNA, Darwin, and the Appearance of Design.

Meyer doesn't really make any statements, or rather give any evidence or go into any depth just yet, but hey, it's only the intro. The majority of the first chapter is spent describing how he became involved in origin sciences, and the question of the origin of life.

Briefly, he describes how in the DNA there's all kinds of genetic codes that the entire cell depends on for different functions and proteins and so on, and its vast similarities with computer codes and written languages. The DNA has specified information.

He goes over the differences between information and matter & energy, how they are in two different domains of science. With that point he gives the example of how two different CDs can have all the same matter/energy, but the arrangement of the different information is why people choose to buy certain discs over others. Something along those lines.

Meyer also mentions that some have proposed, and this is the argument he agrees with, that because of this specified information there may be a case to made for an intelligence having provided this information, since we only know information to come from intelligence and since information can also be equated to thought.

Then he mentions how Richard Dawkins and others make the case that yes, everything does appear designed therefor it might be likely to assume that there is a designer, but this appearance of design can be explained by natural processes and evolution, for which Meyer then gives a brief explanation.

Through out all these details Meyer is also telling how he got into this field of science. One scientist he was able to have many discussions with was Charles Thaxton, who was one of the people he had first heard propose an intelligent designer at some conference in 1985.

From those discussions, Thaxton shared that a proposal for a designer would fall under origin sciences, which often have unique events, only occurring once or perhaps at least very few times. He then compared this to operation sciences, which are testable and happen all the time. Operation sciences are the sciences from which laws are derived; they are also the sciences that give predictions, etc. etc.

Meyer did not, not yet - with in this first chapter, say what he agreed with what Thaxton had taught him as far as Intelligent Design as an or the origin/operation sciences.

Rather, he ends the chapter with the questions he had after having had his discussions with Thaxton: "Is it scientific?" "How strong is the evidence for it?" "Was life designed or does it merely appear designed?"

And the final paragraph reads, "Yet in all of this discussion - from Dover to Dawkins to Darwin's big anniversary - there has been very little discussion of DNA. And yet for me and many other scientists and scholars, the question of whether science has refuted the design argument or resuscitated it depends critically upon the central mystery of the origin of biological information. This book examines the many successive attempts that have been to resolve this enigma - the DNA enigma - and will itself propose a solution."

So nothing new really, for anyone interested in the discussion, just a long wordy introduction and the story of how he first got into it.

If you'd like to read the prologue, I believe it was Amazon where I read the whole the thing before I actually got the book. Nothing significant though. I don't know whether it'll be a chapter everyday that I'll be reading (it's a lot), but I would like to continue with writing synopses, if only to help me take it all in.

Grace & peace, ggirl