DNA IS INDEED A CODE

     A code involves a group of symbols representing a message. They  need to be deciphered in order to be understood the message that they are intended to convey.  DNA meets the requirements of that definition, since it also contains specific instructions which need need to be deciphered and then followed.  Reading and following is the responsibility of RNA. If no instructions or information were present, then RNA would not know what to do. That is identical to what happens when we read a code. We are informed and take action based on that information.

      The only difference  between he information we humans decode  and the information RNA decodes  in complexity. We humans decode things such as the plans of an enemy to attack. In contrast, RNA decodes or decodes information involving the construction id such organs as the human brain-which is the most complex computer known. The construction of organs, such as the heart to pump blood and the lungs to oxygenate that blood. The construction of eyes with their optic nerves in order to make contact with the external world possible.

    Such coding and decoding, my dear friend, demands a coding mind. So I guess we simply disagree. Also, there are computer programmers who do see the similarity between DNA and codes.


I suggest that you please read the information on this website which address the subject.

evo2.org/dna-atheists/dna-code/DNA a Code?

     About your claim that DNA is not a code, well, the info below was taken from articles that refer to DNA as a code and a code is defined as the rules of communication between an encoder (a “writer” or “speaker”) and a decoder (a “reader” or “listener”) using agreed upon symbols. In fact, DNA’s definition as a literal code (and not a figurative one) is nearly universal in the entire body of biological literature since the 1960’s.


     DNA code has much in common with human language and computer languages


     DNA transcription is an encoding / decoding mechanism isomorphic with Claude Shannon’s 1948 model: The sequence of base pairs is encoded into messenger RNA which is decoded into proteins.

     Information theory terms and ideas applied to DNA are not metaphorical, but in fact quite literal in every way. In other words, the information theory argument for design is not based on analogy at all. It is direct application of mathematics to DNA, which by definition is a code.

 
    No DNA is not merely a molecule with a pattern; it is a code, a language, and an information storage mechanism.”:

     The book Information Theory, Evolution and the Origin of Life is written by Hubert Yockey, the foremost living specialist in bioinformatics. The publisher is Cambridge University press. Yockey rigorously demonstrates that the coding process in DNA is identical to the coding process and mathematical definitions used in Electrical Engineering. This is not subjective, it is not debatable or even controversial. It is a brute fact:

     “Information, transcription, translation, code, redundancy, synonymous, messenger, editing, and proofreading are all appropriate terms in biology. They take their meaning from information theory (Shannon, 1948) and are not synonyms, metaphors, or analogies.” (Hubert P. Yockey, Information Theory, Evolution, and the Origin of Life, Cambridge University Press, 2005)

evo2.org/dna-atheists/dna-code/

In fact, it took time to decipher that code.  After many attempts to decipher the code, scientists were finally successful in 1961. The man who cracked the code was Marshall Nirenberg, a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

     Marshall Warren Nirenberg (April 10, 1927 – January 15, 2010) was an American biochemist and geneticist. He shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for "breaking the genetic code" and describing how it operates in protein synthesis. In the same year, together with Har Gobind Khorana, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University.

This was the first step in deciphering the codons of the genetic code and the first demonstration of messenger RNA (see Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment).

     In August 1961, at the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow, Nirenberg presented a paper to a small group of scientists, reporting the decoding of the first codon of the genetic code

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Warren_Nirenberg

DNA code construction
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_theory_approaches_to_nucleic_acid_design

DNA CODE
www.ancestry.com/c/dna-learning-hub/dna-code-codons

     This code isn't literally made up of letters and words. Instead, the four letters represent four individual molecules called nucleotides: thymine (T), adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). The order or sequence of these bases creates a unique genetic code.

     These codon 'words' in the genetic code are each three nucleotides long—and there are 64 of them. If you do the math, this is as many three-letter combinations words as you can get with just four letters. ATG and CCC are a couple of examples of codons.

     Just as there is more to human languages like English than letters and words, such as punctuation, commas, etc., the same is true for the genetic code. For example, instead of capitalizing the start of a sentence, the genetic code almost always signals the start of new instructions with ATG, one of those three-letter codons.

     And instead of periods, genes end with one of three different codons: TAG, TAA, or TGA. There are other parts of the DNA that are not codons that can act as sort of punctuation or signals that, for example, indicate when, where, and how strongly a gene should be read. his code isn't literally made up of letters and words. Instead, the four letters represent four individual molecules called nucleotides: thymine (T), adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). The order or sequence of these bases creates a unique genetic code.

     These codon 'words' in the genetic code are each three nucleotides long—and there are 64 of them. If you do the math, this is as many three-letter combinations words as you can get with just four letters. ATG and CCC are a couple of examples of codons.

     Just as there is more to human languages like English than letters and words, such as punctuation, commas, etc., the same is true for the genetic code. For example, instead of capitalizing the start of a sentence, the genetic code almost always signals the start of new instructions with ATG, one of those three-letter codons.

     And instead of periods, genes end with one of three different codons: TAG, TAA, or TGA. There are other parts of the DNA that are not codons that can act as sort of punctuation or signals that, for example, indicate when, where, and how strongly a gene should be read.

     The DNA code is really the 'language of life.' It contains the instructions for making a living thing. The DNA code is made up of a simple alphabet consisting of only four 'letters' and 64 three-letter 'words' called codons. It may be hard to believe that most of the wonderful diversity of life is based on a 'language' simpler than English—but it’s true.

     This code isn't literally made up of letters and words. Instead, the four letters represent four individual molecules called nucleotides: thymine (T), adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). The order or sequence of these bases creates a unique genetic code.

     These codon 'words' in the genetic code are each three nucleotides long—and there are 64 of them. If you do the math, this is as many three-letter combinations words as you can get with just four letters. ATG and CCC are a couple of examples of codons.

    Just as there is more to human languages like English than letters and words, such as punctuation, commas, etc., the same is true for the genetic code. For example, instead of capitalizing the start of a sentence, the genetic code almost always signals the start of new instructions with ATG, one of those three-letter codons.

     And instead of periods, genes end with one of three different codons: TAG, TAA, or TGA. There are other parts of the DNA that are not codons that can act as sort of punctuation or signals that, for example, indicate when, where, and how strongly a gene should be read.

     One of the key ways that DNA encodes information inside of cells is through genes. Humans have around 20,000 genes. Each gene has the instructions for making a specific protein, and each protein does a specific job in the cell.

     For example, the lactase gene has the instructions for making the lactase protein. The lactase protein breaks down the sugar lactose that is found in milk. People with a turned off lactase gene are lactose intolerant.

     The instructions for making these proteins are encoded in the three-nucleotide codons discussed earlier. But just like a set of instructions which has to be read to get something built, the instructions encoded in the DNA must also be read.

     For example, the DNA with the code for making the lactase protein will not be able to break down the sugar lactose. Instead, to digest lactose, a cell must first read the gene and then make the protein lactase.

    The first step in reading a gene is to transfer the information from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) using a protein called RNA polymerase (in humans, the polymerase that reads genes like lactase is RNA polymerase II). This process is called transcription.

     The mRNA then heads over to a protein making machine in the cell called a ribosome. It is there that the mRNA is translated into the specific protein for which it has the instructions. The lactase mRNA is translated into the protein lactase at the ribosome.

     A codon is a sequence of three nucleotides on a strand of DNA or RNA. Each codon is like a three-letter word, and all of these codons together make up the DNA (or RNA) instructions. Because there are only four nucleotides in DNA and RNA, there are only 64 possible codons.

     Of the 64 codons, 61 code for amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins. Proteins are made by attaching a series of amino acids together. Each protein is different because of the order and number of amino acids it has. So the DNA code is really just the instructions for stringing together the right number and type of amino acids in the right order.

     The three codons that do not code for amino acids are called stop codons. Think of them as periods at the end of a sentence. They serve as the stop signal that tells the ribosome that it has come to the end of the protein instructions and to stop adding amino acids. In RNA, the nucleotide base thymine (T) is replaced by the nucleotide base uracil (U). The three stop codons in mRNA are UAG, UAA, and UGA.

     While 61 codons code for amino acids, humans only have 20 amino acids, so there are more codons than necessary. This is known as redundancy. An amino acid can have more than one codon that codes for it. For example, both UUU and UUC code for the amino acid phenylalanine (Phe).

Redundancy helps lessen the impact of changes in the DNA. For a protein to work optimally, it needs to have the right amino acid in the right place. Any changes in a gene that change one amino acid into another can cause a protein to stop working.

     While this might not be a big deal for the lactase gene (you just have to take Lactaid when you drink milk), for other genes the effects can be more severe. Sickle cell anemia is a case where a single amino acid change in the beta globin gene leads to the disease.

     Redundancy makes mutations less likely to lead to amino acid changes and thus possible disease because some changes in the DNA, called silent mutations, will result in the same amino acid. If a C replaces the last U in UCU to form UCC, for instance, the codon will still make the same amino acid: serine (Ser). Having more than one codon per amino acid can prevent the creation of a nonfunctional protein.




Most organisms, like humans, have similar genetic codes with 64 codons that work the same way. In fact, it even goes by the name 'Universal Genetic Code.' One example would be ACG coding for the amino acid threonine (Thr) in humans, cats, and plants.

     Imagine you’re flying over the desert, and you notice a pile of rocks down below. Most likely, you would think little of it. But suppose the rocks were arranged to spell out a message. I bet you would conclude that someone had arranged those rocks to communicate something to you and others who might happen to fly over the desert. You reach that conclusion because experience has taught you that messages come from persons/people—or, rather, that information comes from a mind. And, toward that end, information serves as a marker for the work of intelligent agency.


reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/does-information-come-from-a-mind

     About the accusation that theists us the God of Gaps argument, that is not true.  I have never heard any Christian or any other religionist say that they don't know or understand how or why things happens and that is their reason for believing in a creator. That is a very serious misunderstanding of the their position. What we theists say is that creation provides us with compelling evidence of a mind at work.

     Also, your assumption that everyone who believes in a creator is an undereducated ignoramus has absolutely no support from reality. Why? Simple. Because there have been and still are countless scientists who believe in intelligent design despite their impressive credentials in the hard sciences. That having been said, the storage and the conveying of information, even of the simplest kind, has always been identified as originating from a mind.