Not Junk DNA

Roughly 2% of our human DNA codes for Proteins (think of Proteins like the microscopic parts that are bodies are made of) and the other 98% of our DNA has often casually been called “Junk DNA”, or “non-functional DNA”. Evolutionists for a long time have considered this 98% to be unimportant evolutionary left-overs, so called “Junk DNA”, that has accumulated across hundreds of millions of years of evolution, but is now, for the most part, garbage and unimportant. This belief, however, is being absolutely destroyed by modern genetics.

There’s a very common myth out there that the human genome (genetic code) is 98% similar to that of Chimpanzee monkeys, which according to evolutionists is a huge proof that humans evolved from monkeys. What usually gets left out of such statements is that the 98% similarity is only a miniscule section of the human and chimpanzee DNA. Basically, scientists have run the genetic sequences of about 2% of the human and chimpanzee genome, the part of the genome that codes for Proteins. That’s only 2%! Then scientists have taken the genetic sequences of that 2% and re-arranged the genes (chunks of DNA) because the chimp and human genomes are in a very different order. Without this purposeful re-arrangement by scientist, the genes simply would not match up side by side. Then the scientists chopped away the parts of this 2% that do not match, and compared only the parts that do closely match each other, and declared that human and chimpanzee DNA is 98% the same between us and them…

Darwinian Logic: The Latest on Chimp and Human DNA  (by Jonathan Wells, October 27 2011)

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/10/the_latest_on_chimp_and_human052291.html

www.EvolutionNews.org

But why only compare the 2% (or so) of the genome that specifically codes for Proteins? What about the other 98%? That’s what is off-handedly called “Junk DNA”. It’s DNA that does not code specifically for Proteins, and thus, has been considered “junk” or genetic garbage. Remember folks, this is 98% of our DNA! Over the last 20 years (and especially the last 10 years), scientists are discovering that this “junk DNA” is actually vital to exactly how our genes are expressed, how our cells do what they do. “Junk DNA”, by and large, seems to actually tell the Protein coding genes how to function (what to do), when to do it, how long to do it for, how and when to change things up, and how best to use what has been built off the blue print of our DNA. Basically, as it’s turning out, the “junk DNA” is the bulk of our genetic code. More and more signs and studies are showing us that most of it has important, even critically important, functions and purpose. It is NOT junk or left-over evolutionary garbage, as some of the most enthusiastic atheistic apologists have claimed over the years.

“If Junk DNA Is Useful, Why Is It Not Shared More Equally?”

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2011)

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110131133137.htm

“DNA was originally thought to have a single function: to help cells make the proteins they need. Any DNA that is not immediately required to produce proteins was written off as "junk" and deemed unworthy of study. Recently, however, it has become clear that junk DNA performs a wide range of important tasks.”

Evgeniy S. Balakirev, and Francisco J. Ayala, Pseudogenes, "Are They "Junk" or Functional DNA?," Annual Review of Genetics, Vol. 37:123--51 (2003)

“pseudogenes that have been suitably investigated often exhibit functional roles.”

THEY MISSED THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!

One of my many hobbies is computer programming. DNA is very similar to a computer programming language, one that is highly complex and sophisticated unlike anything mankind has ever programmed before. It puts our most incredible complicated computer programs to shame. There is a very serious flaw in the assumption that the “Junk DNA” (98% of our DNA) is not really that important. To show exactly what I mean when I say that “They Missed The Most Important Part”, I want to describe this scenario by using a few metaphorical examples to help get the point across.

The Food Recipe

Imagine that the 2% of DNA that codes for Proteins in our bodies is a rather non-specific set of ingredients for making a particular meal for supper. You’ve got beef, a bunch of spices, a bunch of vegetables, and a few other ingredients. Now you’re told to cook a very specific kind of meal with these ingredients, but not given any instructions on how to do it. No specific portion sizes, no instructions on the order in which the ingredients should be added, the timing of adding each ingredient, how they are to be cooked, prepared or combined… Nothing! To make matters worse, the person who is cooking this meal has no cooking experience or knowledge at all. All of the instructions, experience and knowledge that goes into making the meal is equivalent to the 98% of our DNA that does not code for Proteins. That’s pretty important stuff, isn’t it?

The Math Equation

How about another example, this time one from math. Let’s say that X = 5 and Y = 4. Those are two set values and they won’t change no matter what we do with them. But here comes the important part. How are those variables (X and Y) arranged in a math equation? Does it make any different to the answer you get, the end result? Do the instructions (the equation) matter?

If we make the equation X + Y = Z, we know that it’ll turn out like this: 5 + 4 = 9. But if you change that “+” operator to a “-“, the equation becomes 5 – 4 = 1, a completely different answer. And what if you make it a big long equation but still only using the X and Y variables? How about, X(Y) + (X / Y) – (Y^X) = Z … Yikes, that’s getting kind of complicated isn’t it?

The point I’m trying to make is this. The instructions or operational actions (or controls) are what give you the answers. Different instructions (layouts and equations) will give you different results, different answers. So if X and Y, which represent 5 and 4, are the Protein coding part of our DNA, then the other 98% of the DNA is telling the cells of our body exactly how to use and handle X and Y. These instructions, these operators, are essential to everything working like it’s supposed to. The slightest change and the answer in the equation can be VERY different, despite using the exact same numbers (5 and 4).

The Computer Code

All computer programs are essentially made up of the exact same things, variables and computer code. Let’s imagine that the 2% of our DNA that codes for Proteins are variables. Now, knowing this, that all computer programs use variables and programming language instructions to make them work the way they’re supposed to, you brazenly announce to the world that, “All computer programs are 98% the same!”… Such an exclamation is of course ridiculous, right? Because you’re only comparing one very general aspects of what a program is and has within it. You’re completely ignoring exactly what those variables contain, how many variables there are, and ALL of the instructions or code that makes each program do what it does. You see, the instructions are the difference between a computer program used for reading your email or playing a fast paced 3D game where you blow away fictional bad guys with guns. Both use variables, probably even the same kinds of variables (numbers, strings of text) but HOW they are used makes ALL the difference.

CONCLUSION

The Protein Coding part of our DNA (2% of our DNA) is basically the tiny set of instructions for building the little bits and pieces that our body uses to do most of what it does. They are the “Lego blocks”, the “ingredients”, the materials, the tools. The other 98% is the instructions for how to use those parts and tools. That 98% controls how much of this stuff works, when it works, in what way it works, and has tons of important (even critical) information within it to make sure the whole complicated system works like it’s supposed to. That 98% of our DNA (the so called “Junk DNA”) runs and controls the whole show! These instructions are the key to what makes the vast majority of life forms on our planet so incredibly different and unique from each other, and yet so much of this DNA was until recently shrugged off as “not that important”.

To ignore this fact is like claiming that volleyball and ballet are essentially the exact same thing because both are a physical work out. No, they’re not anywhere close to being “the same thing”. You’re ignoring the huge amount of details that make them so different from each other!

The “human and chimp DNA almost identical comparison” is basically a massive case of extreme selective statistics filtering, especially when every day we’re discovering more and more about that other 98% of the genome that was ignored in that study. As more and more of the incredible importance of this “Junk DNA” is coming into the light of cutting edge modern science, scientists are finally discovering just how very different and unique we are. It’s blowing a lot of evolutionary thought and assumptions right out of the water. This, however, is no surprise at all to people who believe that God created, designed and wrote this genetic code into all living things, and that except for parts of it that have broken down over the many centuries since creation, it’s all functional and important.

The Changing Face of Pseudo Genes

http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/tis2/index.php/component/content/article/277.html

Quick Extra Points:  Why "Junk DNA"?

Part of the reason for the myth of “Junk DNA” is that some of this “Junk” looks almost identical to actual Protein coding genes, yet scientists found that this DNA (often called Pseudo Genes) was not being coded into Proteins. Since the belief was that Protein Coding genes are the important part, the fact that these other genes were not being used that way made the scientists think they were broken duplicates of the working genes, evolutionary screw ups. Though some of these Pseudo Genes could very well be no longer fully functional broken genes, scientists are now finding that many of these “Pseudo Genes” are actually being used in connection with the Protein coding genes that look so similar to them. So what’s going on here? It’s becoming clear that these “Pseudo Genes” are like identifiers, a bit like a website’s URL address. They basically contain the instructions for how to use the target gene. In other words, the part of these genes that look so similar to the functional protein coding genes are actually saying, “Do this with this target DNA.”

Why the quickly shifting perspective on Pseudo Genes and “Junk DNA”? One reason is the many studies that are discovering important functions for this DNA that were never tested or recognized before. Our modern technology allows us to study all this stuff in far more detail. The second big reason is that it makes absolutely no sense at all for biological life forms to hold onto (store and continue to pass along through successive generations) all of this genetic data if it’s “evolutionary garbage”. The amount of energy and resources it takes to keep this genetic library going is huge, and there would be no reason for life to hold onto it all if it were simply completely broken, non-functional, or junk. The fact that life does go through so much effort to preserve this vast amount of DNA (98% in humans compared to the 2% that codes for Proteins), even under pressure to get rid of it, strongly indicates that this DNA is very important and functional after all.