DNA

God’s attribute of omniscience is seen throughout creation. One of the most dramatic illustrations of this is found in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule discovered in 1953.

There are two parts to every living system, DNA and protein. DNA is the message molecule of heredity while protein is the function and structure molecule.

DNA gets passed down from one generation to another. It serves as the instruction manual that determines how we are made. It describes every part of us. Each of our characteristics such as hair color, eye color, etc., is determined by the instructions given by the DNA molecule. In Psalm 139:14-16a we are told, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secrete...Your eyes have seen my unformed substance...” God, according to His omniscience, programmed the DNA from the very beginning for every life form including viruses, plants, animals and human beings before they were ever created or born.

Only the all-knowing Creator could have programmed the information contained within the DNA that determines the make-up of every living system. One DNA molecule contains enough information to fill 100 complete 30 volume encyclopedia sets. Assuming an average of 750 pages per volume, that equates to about 2,250,000 pages of information written in small type. With an average of 500 words per page, that equals 1,125,000,000 (1 billion, 125 million) words. Yet the DNA molecule is so small, to see it we need a powerful microscope.

All the information required to specify the exact make-up of every unique human on earth could be stored in a volume of DNA no bigger than two aspirin tablets. However, if we take the DNA from one single cell in our bodies and unraveled it, it would stretch to two meters or about 6½ feet. This becomes even more amazing when we consider that our body has between 75 and 100 trillion cells. Taking the lower figure, if we stretch out all the DNA in our body and joined it end to end, it would stretch to a distance of about 94 billion miles.

What is even more incredible is that the DNA is a dead molecule. It is simply the “instruction manual,” the medium on which the message is written. It can only copy itself and transfer the information that it contains with the help of certain protein molecules (enzymes) which, in turn, can only be produced at the direction of the DNA. Each depends on the other and both must be present for replication to take place. The chains of several hundred DNA tells the cell how to make a protein called hemoglobin, and that protein functions as the oxygen carrier in red blood cells. That relationship is the physical basis of all life on earth. If a DNA molecule could ever form by chance, it could never reproduce itself. The fact that the DNA molecule is necessary for reproduction and that it can only operate in the presence of proteins which it had to previously specify and organize points to an all-knowing Creator, not evolution. An omniscient Creator is the only answer to what scientist now know about DNA. As we are told in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.”