Somewhere between the language of DNA and the fine-tuning of the universe is another level of design that deserves our awe.
I spent yesterday afternoon tweaking the Excel case I’ve written for my students, and I will spend all this morning doing the same. It is tedious, but there is a rush when an argument (conditional formula) finally does what I intend. I have written before about the amazing assumption that the arguments expressed in DNA so far surpass what I attempt in Excel, but it just dawned on me: What about the platform?
I’m impressed with my own successes at writing a program that is executed in Excel, but this is nothing compared with the Excel platform itself. It is so exact and yet so versatile as to allow me to write these arguments, sometimes allowing me to achieve my complex commands in a number of different ways.
The parallel is there with the chemical structure of the universe. DNA is indeed amazing, but it is merely a language made possible by the innate capacity designed into atoms and molecules. They may be assembled in such a way as to both inform and carry out instructions.
Simplistically speaking, they are like Legos, designed in many different sizes and shapes for maximum assembly possibilities. But unlike Legos, atoms have no need for new foundational parts being added, such as Star Wars or Harry Potter kits, as the audience matures or gains new cultural icons. As our cultures gain information, we simply discover new ways to assemble the original parts (and ways that they are already assembled beyond our imagination).
The original “kit,” which we picture as a periodic chart, gives every indication of being inexhaustible in possibilities. This suggests not only a designer, but one that might even be inexhaustible in qualities.