A new book illustrates God's grand design

There’s a new book out by Jonathan Wells that sounds good. He is the author of Icons of Evolution, a devastating look at examples and models of evolution that have been proved wrong (or in some cases, have been shown to be frauds). His new book is called The Myth of Junk DNA. Here’s a brief overview of it, taken from his preface to the book.


At one time scientists claimed that much of our DNA was useless leftovers from evolutionary past times. They believed this because of discoveries in the 1970s that showed only a tiny percentage of our DNA codes for proteins. There were some biologists who predicted that non-protein-coding DNA would turn out to be functional, but the dominant view (obviously colored by an evolutionary worldview) said most DNA was junk.


Here’s the fun part--that view has turned out to be spectacularly wrong. Wells says that after completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 many hundreds of articles have appeared in the scientific literature documenting the various functions of non-protein coding DNA, and more are being published every week.

But many biologists who claimed most DNA was junk have not gone quietly into the night. Since 2004, biologists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Futuyma, Kenneth Miller, Jerry Coyne and John Avise have published books which still use this discredited argument. So have philosopher of science Philip Kitcher and historian of science Michael Shermer. What’s sad is the report that one other special person is in this camp--Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and present director of the National Institutes of Health. He’s a Christian who holds to theistic evolution. Wells said it’s ironic that Collins clings to this position, considering that he co-authored some of the scientific articles providing evidence against "junk DNA."

Wells points out that these authors claim to speak for "science," but they have actually been promoting an anti-scientific myth that ignores the evidence. So he believes it's time to expose the myth for what it is.

His thesis can be stated in a single sentence: “Far from consisting mainly of junk that provides evidence against intelligent design, our genome is increasingly revealing itself to be a multidimensional, integrated system in which non-protein-coding DNA performs a wide variety of functions.” Wells sees this as evidence for intelligent design.

Dr. Fuz Rana explored this idea as well in his book The Cell’s Design. I would encourage people to consider any of Wells’ books or Rana’s to see how God’s good work is being revealed.