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'Signature in the Cell' (Chuck Colson: Intelligent Design best explanation for origin of DNA)
BreakPoint ^ | September 24, 2009 | Chuck Colson

Posted on 09/26/2009 10:23:13 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts

A landmark book about intelligent design has hit the bookstore shelves. I’ll tell you about it.

In recent years, there have been several important books about intelligent design that go to the debate about evolution and the origins of life. Bill Dembski’s The Design Inference was first. Then along came Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe, showing the irreducible complexity of the cell, which casts grave doubts on Darwinian evolution as an explanation for life and higher life forms.

Now we’ve got Signature in the Cell by the Discovery Institute’s Dr. Stephen Meyer.

I’m going to warn you up front: Signature in the Cell is not light reading. If you are not conversant in molecular biology, you might feel a bit overwhelmed at times.

But this is a profound, hugely important book for anybody interested in the scientific debate of our times—the origins of life. I feel it’s so important that we have posted an excerpt of the book at our website, BreakPoint.org, along with links to materials that will help you understand the main points of Signature in the Cell....

(Excerpt) Read more at breakpoint.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Virginia; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: belongsinreligion; catholic; christian; chuckcolson; creation; dna; evangelical; evolution; godsgravesglyphs; intelligentdesign; medicine; notasciencetopic; origins; propellerbeanie; protestant; science
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To: humblegunner
In what way is a beaver dam more natural than Hoover dam?

No doubt animals are intelligent. (All life forms on Earth are equally 'intelligent'). No doubt they imagine a nice pool, then go about cutting down natural items like trees to use to make it.

However, they do not contemplate things like 'will cutting down the trees change the environment?'

Nor do they go mix limestone and gravel, and haul it to the river to make a better dam.

41 posted on 09/26/2009 1:01:43 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: humblegunner

Dogs can’t write.


42 posted on 09/26/2009 1:03:37 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: humblegunner

Interesting analogy.

But, where are the dogs who scientifically determined that lasagna to have assembled itself by trial and error over trillions of years, and who bristle at the very notion of Humble having had anything to do with lasagna at all?


43 posted on 09/26/2009 1:04:11 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: UCANSEE2
Nor do they go mix limestone and gravel, and haul it to the river to make a better dam.

Niether did we a few hundred years ago but the dam got built.

Qibbling over structural materials aside, a dam is a dam.

The point is man's works are his natural works, same as beavers or bees.

We just do it better and with more vision because we are further up the food (intellect) chain.

44 posted on 09/26/2009 1:06:00 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: humblegunner
My word, I seem to have found a rational creationist!

Yeah. GOD created a few, here and there.

45 posted on 09/26/2009 1:08:18 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: UCANSEE2
Dogs can’t write.

Niether could early man.

Besides, these are allegorical dogs and they write quite well.

46 posted on 09/26/2009 1:09:40 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: RegulatorCountry
But, where are the dogs who scientifically determined that lasagna to have assembled itself by trial and error over trillions of years, and who bristle at the very notion of Humble having had anything to do with lasagna at all?

Dogs don't do science, either.

47 posted on 09/26/2009 1:09:51 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: GodGunsGuts

How did I know without looking this was posted by you:)


48 posted on 09/26/2009 1:10:14 PM PDT by calex59 (FUBO, we want our constitution back and we intend to get it!)
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To: humblegunner
Niether did we a few hundred years ago but the dam got built.

There are all kinds of limestone based architecture that have existed for more than a few hundred years.

49 posted on 09/26/2009 1:11:55 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: GodGunsGuts
One explanation I've read re: the extraordinary complexity of DNA and the perfect balance we see in the universe and nature:

Evolution: Take all the parts of a watch, place in a box, shake it up and you have a watch.

Intelligent Design: The watch parts are assembled inside the box to fit perfectly just as they are designed. A completed watch is discovered when the box is opened.

A bit simplistic but the point is there is so much in the universe and our own DNA that fits perfectly in a balance that cannot exist if one part is out of balance that random evolution is highly unlikely.

Add to the fact Christ's shroud has NEVER been duplicated by modern science, the evidence is actually quite overwhelming for God as our Intelligent designer.

50 posted on 09/26/2009 1:12:20 PM PDT by newfreep ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." - P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: RegulatorCountry
Those dogs get laughed at most of all.

But they are just as wrong as the ones who think I just conjoured up the lasagna out of thin air.

The point is that the evidence (geological, paleontological) and the scripture are not incompatible.

What God has told to us is that He made everything.

He did not include the recipe.

51 posted on 09/26/2009 1:14:29 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: humblegunner
Niether could early man.

I knew you were gonna say that.

You are making an assumption that has not been proven.

Man has always been intelligent enough to 'scribe' as a way of recording or remembering events of his life.

52 posted on 09/26/2009 1:15:43 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: humblegunner
Besides, these are allegorical dogs and they write quite well.

Yes, but you are just being sarcastic, and using a hypothetical premise as a means of debate.

Dogs can't do that either. Nor bees, nor beavers.

53 posted on 09/26/2009 1:17:36 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: UCANSEE2
There are all kinds of limestone based architecture that have existed for more than a few hundred years.

Surely. Look at the pyramids.. awesome engineering.

You're just being difficult.

Is this dam natural or un-natural?

And I repeat.. quibbling over construction materials aside.

Why is a beaver dam natural and a human dam isn't?

A dam is a dam.

54 posted on 09/26/2009 1:19:50 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: humblegunner
What God has told to us is that He made everything. He did not include the recipe.

And that put's us back a square one, in the discussion about YEC'ers. They say that he wrote it in the Bible. First off, I don't think that it would be possible to 'write' the exact and detailed recipe, in one chapter, nor would it be understood by even modern man. (remember, we don't even understand gravity)

55 posted on 09/26/2009 1:21:51 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: UCANSEE2
Yes, but you are just being sarcastic, and using a hypothetical premise as a means of debate.

And you are missing the point on purpose.

God said he created the world.

He did not say how.

Do you think Him incapable of using evolution to do it?

56 posted on 09/26/2009 1:22:41 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: UCANSEE2
nor would it be understood by even modern man. (remember, we don't even understand gravity)

And that puts us right back at my allegorical dogs, who
were not told about the method, just the result.

And I resent your declaring my allegorical dogs illiterate.

57 posted on 09/26/2009 1:25:24 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: humblegunner
Is this dam natural or un-natural?

Uh-huh.

Why is a beaver dam natural and a human dam isn't?

They are both natural.

However, the beaver dam is made by randomly shoving cut logs down the river, hoping they will stay in place, until enough are piled there that they 'jam' together. (Many logs don't stay in place, and sometimes it doesn't work at all).

A human dam is not made randomly.

58 posted on 09/26/2009 1:27:30 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: humblegunner
Do you think Him incapable of using evolution to do it?

If GOD created THE UNIVERSE, he created evolution. It could not exist without the Universe.

59 posted on 09/26/2009 1:30:17 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Where's this tagline thing everyone keeps talking about?)
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To: humblegunner

He included the recipe for Adam. Adama ... the red clay of Israel.

He also included a timeline. Six days and a day of rest. OK, I’m well aware of potential, alternate meanings of “yom.” Take any one of them, though, a millenia even, and you still do not get hundreds of millions or even trillions of years.

A god that was and is all-powerful and existing outside of time, as is God in the Bible, did not need any span of time at all. Being hung up on time is a diversion as a result. But, He states quite clearly, six days.

And so, I accept that. Science and God will not ultimately be shown incompatible. The current mode of scientific thought on the matter is incompatible, though. The truth will out, and the truth is with God.

I won’t deny the scientific usefulness of certain discoveries arising from evolutionary science. I will, however, deny the accuracy of interpretations of data underlying that science. It’s more explicable to me, under the auspices of common design, and common design certainly does not negate the timeline handed down to us in truth.


60 posted on 09/26/2009 1:30:42 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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