Which happens purely as a result of natural selection acting on random mutation (Darwinian evolution) building up huge quantities of complex, specified information, of course.
Over at Evolution News & Views, Casey Luskin talks about that new book, Junk DNA: A journey through the dark matter of the genome (Nessa Carey), on the newfound functions of junk DNA:
A new book from Columbia University Press, Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome, by virologist Nessa Carey provides a detailed review of the vast evidence being uncovered showing function for “junk DNA.” She explains that junk DNA was initially “dismissed” by biologists because it was thought that if it didn’t code for proteins, it didn’t do anything:
Now Carey gives no indication that she’s an ID proponent and in fact she adopts many standard evolutionary viewpoints within her book. But note how, in making her case that we ought to suspect non-coding DNA has function, she employs a curious analogy. She draws a comparison to a car factory — something that obviously is intelligently designed …
“The whole organization only works when all the components are in place. And so it is with our genomes.” Doesn’t that sound exactly like irreducible complexity? So here we have a biologist, unaffiliated with the intelligent-design community, arguing that junk DNA must be functional because it’s like a car factory where all the components are needed in order for the entire system to function.
…
It’s okay, she can do apology and penance by denouncing design and praising the Sage of Down.
This researcher can likely help her get started.
Somewhere along the line, Darwinian evolutionists decided that if most of the genome were junk, that would bolster their theory. So they have resorted to all kinds of nonsense to make it junk.
Fortunately, key player Dan Graur has said,
If the human genome is indeed devoid of junk DNA as implied by the ENCODE project, then a long, undirected evolutionary process cannot explain the human genome. If, on the other hand, organisms are designed, then all DNA, or as much as possible, is expected to exhibit function. If ENCODE is right, then Evolution is wrong.
For him, that is like saying the Almighty is wrong.
The rest of us just want to know what is going on, and maybe Carey’s book is a decent start.
See also: Is “dark genome” becoming the new name for junk DNA?
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