DNA & Design Series by Dr Gasser Hathout

Lecture 12: On Proteins and Protons.  This lecture continues the “Information Enigma” series.  It shows how and why functional proteins are so rare through looking at the importance of correct protein folding, which is very rare in random amino acid sequences.  The odds of randomly forming one functional properly folding protein are estimated to be 1 in 10^164.  In other words, it would be trillions of times easier to find one specific proton at random in the whole universe than to form a protein by chance.

This multi-lecture series takes an in depth look at DNA, the repository of genetic information, and makes the case that DNA speaks strongly for intelligent and deliberate design, and against a random origin of life on earth, which has been the prevalent dogma in the biological sciences.  The series asserts that as we learn more about the structure and function of DNA, incorporating the advances of the last two decades, the stronger this case becomes.  The series begins illustrating this paradigm—that advances in knowledge often overturn previously accepted dogmas – by looking at a macro issue where this has happened: the vertebrate retina.  The series then moves to introduce the viewer to the genetic code and how it works, and tackles such issues as the optimality of the genetic code, the  myth of junk DNA, the information enigma of DNA, and the “chicken-and-egg,” problem of DNA and proteins.  All of this is done using primary scientific source literature, and numerous papers and books are referenced.  If you love science, and are interested in how scientific advances make the case for the handiwork of a Divine Intellect, this series will be of interest to you.