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 19^th century materialist scientists and thinkers thought that this question could be easily answered away as "science verifies reductionism". 20^th 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 20^th 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.