Information: The Engine of Creation
by Brian A. Catalucci, MS
Introduction
For more than a century Christians have looked for the scientific silver bullet that would destroy Darwinian evolution and prove biblical creation to be true. We already know from God’s revealed, infallible Word how the universe, the earth, and all life came into being: He spoke them into existence (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11; Hebrews 11:3). This fact alone refutes Darwinian evolution. Yet in a world where secular researchers reject the supernatural and divine revelation, many Christians still feel compelled to provide empirical (observable and repeatable) evidence to confirm the Bible’s claim.
The problem is that neither creation nor evolution is observable or repeatable. Empirical science alone can’t prove a miraculous, onetime historical event any more than it can prove evolution. Instead, we must make assumptions, and our conclusions are only as good as our starting assumptions.
Evolution is based on a faulty initial assumption, while belief in creation is based on facts revealed by the only eyewitness, the Creator Himself. The issue is not science or the evidence, but how we interpret the evidence through our worldview. Does our worldview make sense of the world we observe today? Does our worldview give us the correct interpretation of reality?
God’s Word says we should always be ready “to give a defense to everyone who asks” (1 Peter 3:15). When witnessing to unbelievers, we should challenge their worldview and show how the biblical worldview makes better sense of our world.
Information: The Engine of Life
Over the past few decades, many Christians have looked for the silver bullet that would destroy Darwinian evolution and prove Biblical creation (per Genesis 1) to be true. Sadly, this would not be possible as we would need empirical (scientific) proof of such an event to make that claim.
Empirical proof of a past event (historical science) is not possible using current “operational science”. As Christians, we should have faith that the way the universe, the Earth and all life came into being is as described in God’s Word: He spoke it into existence.[i]
Empirical evidence for creation normally will not change an unbeliever’s mind because it is not about the evidence, but how a person interprets the evidence through their worldview. Nevertheless, we should always be ready “to give an answer to every man that asketh…” (2). When witnessing to unbelieving family members, friends, and others we should always first challenge their worldview and use evidence to support the Biblical worldview. In my opinion, based on my studies and experience, the most powerful, available evidence that supports the Biblical account of creation is information. Yes, there are other great evidences, but I believe they all rest on an information foundation.
Information of Life
Life consists of more than all the physical parts working in unison—it requires the information to run the parts. Scientists still don’t understand where this information could have come from.
Explaining life requires much more than the spontaneous generation of complex new physical features, such as the first DNA, cells, organs, and brains. Life also requires something intangible—vast amounts of instructions stored in DNA. This is separate and independent from the physical world, yet just as essential for any form of life.
Where did all the information come from? As far as scientists know, information only comes from preexisting information. So this is one of the most difficult and insoluble puzzles for Darwinian evolution—and one of the most powerful evidences that confirms the biblical account of creation.
What Is Information?
So what is meant by information? Simply put, information is a conceptual, nonmaterial entity (something that exists) that conveys meaning, which can be used to make something, to do something, or to communicate something.
It is the basic ingredient of producing anything functional in this world, and the key to functionality is organization. Information is needed to build any organized system, such as a machine. It is the fundamental building block of the created universe. Without information it would be impossible to make, do, or communicate anything, and life itself could not exist.
The only place information can originate is from a higher source of information. My work as a computer scientist is a good illustration. If you want to build a computer system, all the information that goes into that system must come from a higher source of information: a computer designer and a software engineer.
To discover that higher source of information for our entire universe, we must look to the Bible for the answer. In John 1:1, God’s Word states, “In the beginning was the Word [Christ]”; and in Colossians 2:3, “in whom [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Wisdom and knowledge include information. So, according to the Christian worldview, every bit of information in our universe existed prior to the creation, because it was hidden (contained) in Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 1 and Psalm 33 the Bible clearly reveals that Jesus spoke His universe into existence through only His Word: all the mass, all the energy, and of course, all the information.
All information existed before the creation of the material universe, arising only from the nonmaterial, biblical God (John 4:24). Information is a fundamental, nonmaterial entity, separate from mass and energy. This means information has no material or physical existence. You cannot see it, touch it, smell it, or taste it. You cannot weigh it on a scale like a bag of sugar or store it in your refrigerator. Yet it is as real as and has more importance and power than any physical or material entity that exists.
Other important nonmaterial entities exist. First and foremost is God. Others are outgrowths of information, which I call the children of information, including logic, mathematics, the laws of science, thoughts, emotions, morality, truth, justice, love, hate, intelligence, and consciousness to name a few. The most important and useful things in our universe have no physical existence, yet we use them every moment of our lives. So does every plant, insect, bird, and animal in existence.
The Unseen Language of Life
Dots and dashes of Morse code are arranged into words in books. In the same way, DNA molecules store information for complex proteins using four nucleotides. Where did this language come from?
Information’s Special Connection to Matter
Because information is not a property of matter, a rock does not contain or create information. Interestingly, to store, use, or display information in our world, a material medium is needed: a piece of paper to display written words, a schematic to detail the design of a Boeing 747, a DVD to store songs and movies, DNA to record protein instructions, and your brain to know how to drive a car.
This nonmaterial characteristic of information is easy to demonstrate. For example, all cell phones require a computer that runs a software program (the information) to control all the phone’s functions. If you weigh the phone, it has a specific weight (say, 4.6 ounces or 130 g). If you delete the software program (billions of bits of information), the phone has the exact, same weight but is now just a useless hunk of metal, silicon, and plastic.
Without information, nothing in this universe would live, operate, or communicate. For example, a Boeing 747 has over six million parts but cannot fly without nonmaterial, organized information on how to design and build all the correct parts and put it together in the exact sequence allowing it to fly. Suppose that all these parts could be manufactured and assembled by chance without prior knowledge of aerodynamics and engineering—the pieces still could not fly. Even more information is needed to fuel the machine and then fly you safely from Chicago to Beijing!
An Interesting Conclusion
This leads to an interesting conclusion: information is major evidence that disproves the evolutionary, materialistic worldview and strongly confirms the biblical worldview.
You see, information is in all life: it is contained in the DNA of every living cell of every plant, animal, and human being on this earth. It is the blueprint that tells a cell how to grow, reproduce, and operate. It explains why you grew up with the body of a human and not a carrot.
DNA is the most complicated, intricately organized computer program and database system in existence. It is also the most compact information storage mechanism known to man. The question is: where did all its information and programming come from?
Evolution depends on unguided, random, and accidental processes over millions of years. Yet mutations and natural selection have never been proven conclusively to add the kind of genetic information required to produce life. At best, they merely shuffle around existing information. In fact, mutations and natural selection often remove information from DNA.
Secular scientists must answer the question, “How could a purely materialistic system like evolution add nonmaterial information to the DNA computer system to change one kind of creature into another?” Also, “How did the first cell obtain the information and control system necessary to fuel its ‘engines’ and keep them running (metabolism)?” Darwinian evolutionists have yet to answer these questions.
Material entities cannot create nonmaterial entities. Hydrogen and rocks do not create information contained within DNA molecules. In the book In the Beginning Was Information, Dr. Werner Gitt, a renowned specialist in information theory, showed that only nonmaterial entities (such as God and man’s spirit) can create new information. This gives very strong support to the biblical worldview.
So we can rest comfortably in our 747s, knowing intelligent beings built them safely from highly organized and detailed information the Creator placed in the universe for our benefit and His glory. Evidence of God’s wisdom is all around us, not just in the physical world but in the intangible information that keeps life running.
Brian A. Catalucci has a master of science in computer science and engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is currently working on his PhD in Christian Apologetics.
Resources
- Gitt, In the Beginning Was Information, third English ed. (Christliche Literatur-Verbreitung Bielefeld, 2001), 47.
- Gitt, B. Compton, and J. Fernandez, Without Excuse (Atlanta, Georgia, USA: Creation Book Publishers, 2011), 119, 124, 129, 285.
A portion of this paper appeared in Answers Magazine, July – Sept. 2015, Answers in Genesis
[i] Genesis 1, Exodus 20:11 and Heb 11:3 KJV