| The Theory of Information and the
end of Materialism
The materialist philosophy lies at the basis of the
theory of evolution. Materialism rests on the supposition
that everything that exists is matter. According to
this philosophy, matter has existed since eternity,
will continue to exist forever, and there is nothing
but matter. In order to provide support for their claim,
materialists use a logic called "reductionism".
Reductionism is the idea that things which are not observable
like matter can also be explained by material causes.
To explain this, let us give the example of human mind.
As evident, human mind is not something "touched
by the hand, and seen with the eye". Moreover,
there is no "center of mind" in the human
brain. This situation, unavoidably leads us to the conclusion
that mind is a concept beyond matter. Therefore, the
being we call "I", who thinks, loves, gets
nervous, worries,takes pleasure or feels pain is not
a material being such as a sofa, a table or a stone.
Materialists, however, claim that mind is "reductional
to matter". According to the materialist claim,
our thinking, loving, worrying and all our mental activities
are nothing but some chemical reactions taking place
between the atoms in our brain. Our loving someone is
a chemical reaction in some cells in our brain, and
our feeling fear because of a certain event is another
chemical reaction. Famous materialist philosopher Karl
Vogt stressed this logic with his famous words "Just
as liver secretes gall, so do our brains secrete thought".
Gall, however, is matter, whereas there is no evidence
that thought is matter.
Reductionism is a logical deduction. However, a logical
deduction can be based on sound grounds as well as shaky
grounds. For this reason, the question that stands forth
for us for the time being is this: What would be the
result if reductionism, the basic logic of materialism,
is compared to scientific data?
The 19th century materialist scientists and thinkers thought that
this question could be easily answered away as "science
verifies reductionism". 20th century science, however, revealed a very different fact.
This fact is "information", which is present
in nature and can never be reduced to matter.
Difference between Matter and Information
A watchmaker determines how to use these materials
to produce a watch. He pours the information in
his mind to form this watch from materials which
do not mean anything by themselves. Wouldn't it
be illogical to claim that these pieces came together
and formed this watch? The claim of evolutionists
on the origin of life is far more illogical than
this. |
We have earlier mentioned that there is an incredibly
comprehensive information in the DNAs of living beings.
In a place as small as one hundred thousandth of a millimeter,
there is some sort of a "data bank" that specifies
all the physical details of the body of a living being.
Moreover, there exists a system in the body of a living
being that reads this information, interprets it and
makes "production" according to it. In all
living cells, the information in DNA is "read"
by various enzymes and protein is produced according
to this information. The production of millions of proteins
every second in the required type for the required place
in our body becomes possible with this system. Owing
to this system, our dying eye cells are replaced again
by eye cells, and our blood cells again by blood cells.
At this point, let us think of the claim of materialism:
Could it be possible that the information in DNA be
reduced to matter as materialists say? Or, in other
words, can it be accepted that DNA is merely a heap
of matter and the information it contains came about
as the random interactions of matter?
All the scientific research, experiments and observations
carried out in the 20th
century show that this question must definitely be answered
as "no". The director of the German Federal
Physics and Technology Institute, Prof. Dr. Werner Gitt
has the following to say on the issue:
A coding system always entails a nonmaterial intellectual
process. A physical matter cannot produce an information
code. All experiences show that every piece of creative
information represents some mental effort and can be
traced to a personal idea-giver who exercised his own
free will, and who is endowed with an intelligent mind....
There is no known law of nature, no known process and
no known sequence of events which can cause information
to originate by itself in matter...13
The words of Werner Gitt are the conclusions of "The
Information Theory", which developed in the last
20-30 years and which is accepted as a part of thermodynamics.
The Information Theory investigates the origin and nature
of the information in the universe. The conclusion reached
by the information theoreticians as a result of their
long research is that "Information is something
different from matter. It can never be reduced to matter.
The origin of information and physical matter must be
investigated separately."
For instance, let us think of the source of a book.
A book is made up of paper, ink, and the information
it contains. Paper and ink are material elements. Their
source is again matter: Paper is made of cellulose,
and ink is made of certain chemicals. However, the information
in the book is nonmaterial and it cannot have a material
source. The source of the information in each book,
is the mind of the writer who wrote that book.
Is it possible to believe that "coincidences"
and "natural conditions" can produce a house like
this with all its materials, carpenty, and installations
intact? Anyone with a sound mind would know that
a house like this is a product of a conscious
design, and not chance happenings. There is always
a designer and an information where there is design.
Unquestionably, the design in life is incomparably
superior to the design of a house. |
Moreover, this mind determines how paper and ink will
be used. A book initially forms in the mind of the writer
who writes that book. The writer builds a chain of logic
in his mind, and lines up the sentences. As a second
step, he puts them into a material form, which is to
mean that he pours the information in his mind into
letters by using a type-writer or a computer. Later,
these letters are printed in a printing-house and take
the shape of a book made up of paper and ink.
Thereupon we can end up with the following general
conclusion: "If a physical matter contains information,
then that matter ought to have been designed by a mind
that possesses the information in question. First there
is the mind. That mind pours the information in it into
matter and then there is the design."
The Origin of the Information in Nature
When we adapt this conclusion reached by science to
nature, we meet a very important result. This is because
nature, as in the example of DNA, overflows with an
immense body of information and since this information
cannot be reduced to matter, it therefore comes from
a source beyond matter.
One of the foremost advocates of the theory of evolution,
George C. Williams admits this reality, which most materialists
and evolutionists are reluctant to see. Williams has
strictly defended materialism for years, but in an article
he wrote in 1995, he states the incorrectness of the
materialist (reductionist) approach which holds everything
to be matter:
Evolutionary biologists have failed to realize that
they work with two more or less incommensurable domains:
that of information and that of matter. These two domains
can never be brought together in any kind of the sense
usually implied by the term "reductionism.".
The gene is a package of information, not an object...
In biology, when you're talking about things like genes
and genotypes and gene pools, you're talking about information,
not physical objective reality... This dearth of shared
descriptors makes matter and information two separate
domains of existence, which have to be discussed separately,
in their own terms.14
Therefore, contrary to the supposition of materialists,
the source of the information in nature cannot be matter
itself. The source of information is not matter but
a superior Wisdom beyond matter.This Wisdom exists prior
to matter. Matter has come to exist with Him, molded
into a shape and became organized with Him. The owner
of this Wisdom is God, the Lord of all the worlds.
13 Werner Gitt,
In the Beginning Was Information, CLV, Bielefeld, Germany,
pp. 107, 141. 
14 George C. Williams. The Third Culture:
Beyond the Scientific Revolution, New York, Simon &
Schuster, 1995, pp. 42-43
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