Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer

Obviously, if DNA contained an improbable sequence of nucleotide bases in which the arrangement of bases does not matter to the function of the molecule, then random mutational changes in the sequence of bases would not have a detrimental effect on the function of the molecule. But, of course, sequence does affect function. Eden knew that in all computer codes or written text in which the specificity of sequence determines function, random changes in sequence consistently degrade function or meaning. As he explained, “No currently existing formal language can tolerate random changes in the symbol sequences which express its sentences. Meaning is almost invariably destroyed.”