“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” former FBI Director James Comey posted, along with a photo. The shells formed the numbers 8647 on a canvas of sand. The post kicked up some alarming chatter and got the attention of the secret service. But it’s what was NOT said that I find more interesting.
The chatter focused on the numbers and a message they might convey. No one questioned that the shells formed numbers. No one said a natural process arranged these 40 shells into a legible pattern. Pundits questioned the intended message but not the presence of information, which could have been placed only by a sentient being with knowledge of Arabic numerals.
We humans can distinguish between naturally occurring phenomena (random shells on a beach) and intelligence (shells forming numbers). Scientists rely on this innate ability. Disciplines like archeology and cryptology infer intelligent agency. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program listens for patterned signals, which would indicate intelligence elsewhere in the universe.
So, how can a biologist consider the 3 billion base pairs of DNA in the human genome, and not recognize that this detailed trove of information came from intelligence? Professor John Lennox said, “If we are prepared to look for scientific evidence of intelligent activity beyond our planet, why are we so hesitant about applying exactly the same thinking to what is on our planet?” The answer: an unwavering, prior belief in a materialistic worldview.
But scientists are questioning that worldview. Gene Meyers, a genome mapping scientist said, “What really astounds me is the architecture of life… the system is extremely complex. It’s like it was designed… There’s a huge intelligence there. I don’t see that as being unscientific.” Scientific advancements challenge belief in a materialistic worldview. Anthony Flew explained that he left atheism behind because DNA research “has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.”
A message in numbers formed from shells is not derived from random wave action, but from intelligence. We recognize information as a sign of intelligence whenever we see it. Since the Earth’s biosphere is teeming with information, from what intelligence did it originate? The Bible has told us all along about the cosmic Mind behind the universe. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:1-4).