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Extracted from our series, The New Scientific Evidence That Points to the Existence of God, Part 3. Edited for publication.
Understanding the Cambrian Explosion
Dr. John Ankerberg: Previously, we discussed how digital code in DNA creates a mystery for scientists attempting to explain the origin of life through chemical evolution. Today, we turn to another "information explosion" in life's history—the Cambrian explosion—and how it challenges not only theories regarding the origin of life but Darwin’s theory of biological evolution itself.
What Was the Cambrian Explosion?
Dr. Stephen Meyer: The Cambrian explosion refers to the abrupt appearance of most major animal groups (phyla) within a very narrow window of geologic time. While iconic fossils like the trilobite appear in the record, they emerge suddenly without evidence of ancestral precursors. Transitional intermediates are entirely missing from the fossil record.
The Conflict With Darwin’s Tree of Life
Dr. John Ankerberg: Darwin envisioned the history of life as a great branching tree, starting from a single, simple cell and gradually branching out into more complex forms. How does the Cambrian explosion fit into that model?
Dr. Stephen Meyer: It doesn't. Darwinian theory predicts a gradual tree-like progression of life. However, what we actually find are animal forms that appear fully complex from the start—with tightly integrated anatomical systems and sophisticated organs like the compound eyes found in early trilobites. It is not a story of simple to complex; it is complex from the beginning.
The Deeper Mystery: The Origin of Information
Dr. Stephen Meyer: The deeper problem raised by the Cambrian explosion is an engineering one: How does natural selection acting on random mutations generate that much new form in such a limited time? New body plans require new cell types, tissues, and organs, all of which require new proteins. Building these proteins requires a massive influx of new biological information in DNA. The question remains: is the mutation-natural selection mechanism sufficient to produce that much information, or is it fundamentally inadequate?
Neo-Darwinism and the Digital Code
Dr. John Ankerberg: You’ve mentioned that modern Neo-Darwinism relies on random mutations—essentially copying errors in the genetic code—as the source of innovation. Why is this a problem?
Dr. Stephen Meyer: Think of it in terms of computer science. If you have a functioning program and you start randomly changing the digital characters (the zeros and ones), you are far more likely to degrade the information than to generate something new and functional. The same principle applies to biology. You will degrade the code long before you achieve a new, functioning anatomical structure.
Experimental research, such as that by protein scientist Dan Tawfik, has supported this. Tawfik found that even a few random changes to amino acid sequences result in proteins that lose their function. You dip into an abyss of non-function long before you ever arrive at a new, stable protein structure. Consequently, the digital information required to build new animal life does not lend itself to random changes.
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