Ezekiel28 The septuagint

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 And thou, son of man, say to the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord; Because thine heart has been exalted, and thou hast said, I am God, I have inhabited the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea; yet thou art man and not God, though thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God: 3 art thou wiser than Daniel? or have not the wise instructed thee with their knowledge? 4 Hast thou gained power for thyself by thine [own] knowledge or thine [own] prudence, and [gotten] gold and silver in thy treasures? 5 By thy abundant knowledge and thy traffic thou hast multiplied thy power; thy hart has been lifted up by thy power. 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Since thou hast set thine heart as the hart of God; 7 because of this, behold, I [will] bring on thee strange plagues from the nations; and they shall draw their swords against thee, and against the beauty of thy knowledge, 8 and they shall bring down thy beauty to destruction. And they shall bring thee down; and thou shalt die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea. 9 Wilt thou indeed say, I am God, before them that slay thee? whereas thou art man, and not God. 10 Thou shalt perish by the hands of strangers among the multitude of the uncircumcised: for I have spoken it, saith he Lord. 11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation for the prince of Tyre, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou art a seal of resemblance, and crown of beauty. 13 Thou wast in the delight of the paradise of God; thou hast bound upon thee every precious stone, the sardius, and topaz, and emerald, and carbuncle, and sapphire, and jasper, and silver, and gold, and ligure, and agate, and amethyst, and chrysolite, and beryl, and onyx: and thou hast filled thy treasures and thy stores in thee with gold. 14 From the day that thou wast created thou [wast] with the cherub: I set thee on the holy mount of God; thou wast in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast faultless in thy days, from the day that thou wast created, until iniquity was found in thee. 16 Of the abundance of thy merchandise thou hast filled thy storehouses with iniquity, and hast sinned: therefore thou hast been cast down wounded from the mount of God, and the cherub has brought thee out of the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thy heart has been lifted up because of thy beauty; thy knowledge has been corrupted with thy beauty: because of the multitude of thy sins I have cast thee to the ground, I have caused thee to be put to open shame before kings. 18 Because of the multitude of thy sins and the iniquities of thy merchandise, I have profaned thy sacred things; and I will bring fire out of the midst of thee, this shall devour thee; and I will make thee [to be] ashes upon thy land before all that see thee. 19 And all that know thee among the nations shall groan over thee: thou art gone to destruction, and thou shalt not exist any more. 20 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 21 Son of man, set thy face against Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22 and say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against thee, O Sidon; and I will be glorified in thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought judgments in thee, and I will be sanctified in thee. 23 Blood and death [shall be] in thy streets; and [men] wounded with swords shall fall in thee and on every side of thee; and they shall know that I am the Lord. 24 And there shall no more be in the house of Israel a thorn of bitterness and a pricking briar proceeding from them that are round about them, who dishonoured them; and they shall know that I am the Lord. 25 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also gather Israel from the nations, among whom they have been scattered, and I will be sanctified among them, and before the peoples and nations: and they shall dwell upon their land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 Yea, they shall dwell upon it safely, and they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell securely, when I shall execute judgment on all that have dishonoured them, [even] on those [that are] round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and the God of their fathers.

ΚΑΙ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρός με λέγων· 2 καὶ σὺ υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, εἰπὸν τῷ ἄρχοντι Τύρου· τάδε λέγει Κύριος· ἀνθ' ὧν ὑψώθη σου ἡ καρδία, καὶ εἶπας· θεός εἰμι ἐγώ, κατοικίαν θεοῦ κατῴκησα ἐν καρδίᾳ θαλάσσης, σὺ δὲ εἶ ἄνθρωπος καὶ οὐ Θεός, καὶ ἔδωκας τὴν καρδίαν σου ὡς καρδίαν Θεοῦ. 3 μὴ σοφώτερος εἶ σὺ τοῦ Δανιήλ; ἢ σοφοὶ οὐκ ἐπαίδευσάν σε τῇ ἐπιστήμη αὐτῶν; 4 μὴ ἐν τῇ ἐπιστήμῃ σου ἢ τῇ φρονήσει σου ἐποίησας σεαυτῷ δύναμιν καὶ χρυσίον καὶ ἀργύριον ἐν τοῖς θησαυροῖς σου; 5 ἐν τῇ πολλῇ ἐπιστήμῃ σου καὶ ἐμπορίᾳ σου ἐπλήθυνας δύναμίν σου, ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία σου ἐν τῇ δυνάμει σου. 6 διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει Κύριος· ἐπειδὴ δέδωκας τὴν καρδίαν σου ὡς καρδίαν Θεοῦ, 7 ἀντὶ τούτου ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐπάγω ἐπὶ σὲ ἀλλοτρίους λοιμοὺς ἀπὸ ἐθνῶν, καὶ ἐκκενώσουσι τὰς μαχαίρας αὐτῶν ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ κάλλος τῆς ἐπιστήμης σου καὶ στρώσουσι τὸ κάλλος σου εἰς ἀπώλειαν· 8 καὶ καταβιβάσουσί σε, καὶ ἀποθανῇ θανάτῳ τραυματιῶν ἐν καρδίᾳ θαλάσσης. 9 μὴ λέγων ἐρεῖς· Θεός εἰμι ἐγώ, ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀναιρούντων σε; σὺ δὲ εἶ ἄνθρωπος καὶ οὐ Θεός. 10 ἐν πλήθει ἀπεριτμήτων ἀπολῇ ἐν χερσὶν ἀλλοτρίων, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐλάλησα, λέγει Κύριος. - 11 Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρός με λέγων· 12 υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, λαβὲ θρῆνον ἐπὶ τὸν ἄρχοντα Τύρου καὶ εἰπὸν αὐτῷ· τάδε λέγει Κύριος Κύριος· σὺ ἀποσφράγισμα ὁμοιώσεως καὶ στέφανος κάλλους 13 ἐν τῇ τρυφῇ τοῦ παραδείσου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐγενήθης· πάντα λίθον χρηστὸν ἐνδέδεσαι, σάρδιον καὶ τοπάζιον καὶ σμάραγδον καὶ ἄνθρακα καὶ σάπφειρον καὶ ἴασπιν καὶ ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον καὶ λιγύριον καί ἀχάτην καὶ ἀμέθυστον καὶ χρυσόλιθον καὶ βηρύλλιον καὶ ὀνύχιον, καὶ χρυσίου ἐνέπλησας τοὺς θησαυρούς σου καὶ τὰς ἀποθήκας σου ἐν σοὶ 14 ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας ἐκτίσθης σύ. μετὰ τοῦ Χεροὺβ ἔθηκά σε ἐν ὄρει ἁγίῳ Θεοῦ, ἐγενήθης ἐν μέσῳ λίθων πυρίνων. 15 ἐγενήθης σὺ ἄμωμος ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις σου, ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας σὺ ἐκτίσθης ἕως εὑρέθη τὰ ἀδικήματα ἐν σοί. 16 ἀπὸ πλήθους τῆς ἐμπορίας σου ἔπλησας τὰ ταμιεῖά σου ἀνομίας καὶ ἥμαρτες καὶ ἐτραυματίσθης ἀπὸ ὄρους τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἤγαγέ σε τὸ Χεροὺβ ἐκ μέσου λίθων πυρίνων. 17 ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία σου ἐπὶ τῷ κάλλει σου, διεφθάρη ἡ ἐπιστήμη σου μετὰ τοῦ κάλλους σου· διὰ πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν σου ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἔρριψά σε, ἐναντίον βασιλέων ἔδωκά σε παραδειγματισθῆναι. 18 διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν σου καὶ τῶν ἀδικιῶν τῆς ἐμπορίας σου ἐβεβήλωσα τά ἱερά σου, καὶ ἐξάξω πῦρ ἐκ μέσου σου, τοῦτο καταφάγεταί σε· καὶ δώσω σε εἰς σποδὸν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς σου ἐναντίον πάντων τῶν ὁρώντων σε. 19 καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐπιστάμενοί σε ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι στυγνάσουσιν ἐπὶ σέ· ἀπώλεια ἐγένου καὶ οὐχ ὑπάρξεις ἔτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. 20 Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρός με λέγων· 21 υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, στήρισον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἐπὶ Σιδῶνα καὶ προφήτευσον ἐπ' αὐτὴν 22 καὶ εἰπόν· τάδε λέγει Κύριος· ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐπὶ σέ, Σιδών, καὶ ἐνδοξασθήσομαι ἐν σοί, καὶ γνώσῃ ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος ἐν τῷ ποιῆσαί με ἐν σοὶ κρίματα, καὶ ἁγιασθήσομαι ἐν σοί. 23 αἷμα καὶ θάνατος ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις σου, καὶ πεσοῦνται τετραυματισμένοι ἐν μαχαίραις ἐν σοὶ περικύκλῳ σου· καὶ γνώσονται διότι ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος. - 24 Καὶ οὐκ ἔσονται οὐκέτι ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ ᾿Ισραὴλ σκόλοψ πικρίας καὶ ἄκανθα ὀδύνης ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν περικύκλῳ αὐτῶν τῶν ἀτιμασάντων αὐτούς· καὶ γνώσονται ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος. 25 τάδε λέγει Κύριος Κύριος· καὶ συνάξω τὸν ᾿Ισραὴλ ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν, οὗ διεσκορπίσθησαν ἐκεῖ, καὶ ἁγιασθήσομαι ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐνώπιον τῶν λαῶν καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν· 26 καὶ κατοικήσουσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς αὐτῶν, ἣν δέδωκα τῷ δούλῳ μου ᾿Ιακώβ, καὶ κατοικήσουσιν ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἐν ἐλπίδι καὶ οἰκοδομήσουσιν οἰκίας καὶ φυτεύσουσιν ἀμπελῶνας καὶ κατοικήσουσιν ἐν ἐλπίδι, ὅταν ποιήσω κρίμα ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀτιμάσασιν αὐτοὺς ἐν τοῖς κύκλῳ αὐτῶν· καὶ γνώσονται ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς αὐτῶν καὶ ὁ Θεὸς τῶν πατέρων αὐτῶν. 

Ezekiel28 The Tanakh

1.Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: א. וַיְהִי דְבַר יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר:

2. "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: So said the Lord God: Because your heart is proud, and you said, 'I am a god, I have sat in a seat of God, in the heart of the seas,' but you are a man and not a god, yet you have made your heart like the heart of God. ב. בֶּן אָדָם אֱמֹר לִנְגִיד צֹר כֹּה אָמַר | אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה יַעַן גָּבַהּ לִבְּךָ וַתֹּאמֶר אֵל אָנִי מוֹשַׁב אֱלֹהִים יָשַׁבְתִּי בְּלֵב יַמִּים וְאַתָּה אָדָם וְלֹא אֵל וַתִּתֵּן לִבְּךָ כְּלֵב אֱלֹהִים:

3. Behold, are you wiser than Daniel, that no secret is hidden from you? ג. הִנֵּה חָכָם אַתָּה מִדָּנִאֵל כָּל סָתוּם לֹא עֲמָמוּךָ:

4. With your wisdom and with your understanding did you acquire wealth for yourself, and gather gold and silver in your treasurehouses? ד. בְּחָכְמָתְךָ וּבִתְבוּנָתְךָ עָשִׂיתָ לְּךָ חָיִל וַתַּעַשׂ זָהָב וָכֶסֶף בְּאוֹצְרוֹתֶיךָ:

5. With your great wisdom in your commerce did you increase your wealth, that your heart became haughty with your wealth? ה. בְּרֹב חָכְמָתְךָ בִּרְכֻלָּתְךָ הִרְבִּיתָ חֵילֶךָ וַיִּגְבַּהּ לְבָבְךָ בְּחֵילֶךָ:

6. Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because you made your heart like the heart of God, ו. לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה יַעַן תִּתְּךָ אֶת לְבָבְךָ כְּלֵב אֱלֹהִים:

7. Therefore, behold I am bringing foreigners, the strong of the nations, upon you, and they will draw their swords on the beauty of your wisdom and profane your brightness. ז. לָכֵן הִנְנִי מֵבִיא עָלֶיךָ זָרִים עָרִיצֵי גּוֹיִם וְהֵרִיקוּ חַרְבוֹתָם עַל יְפִי חָכְמָתֶךָ וְחִלְּלוּ יִפְעָתֶךָ:

8. Into the Pit they will lower you, and you will die the deaths of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas. ח. לַשַּׁחַת יוֹרִדוּךָ וָמַתָּה מְמוֹתֵי חָלָל בְּלֵב יַמִּים:

9. Will you say, "I am a god" before your slayer? Indeed, you are a man and not a god in the hand of your slayer. ט. הֶאָמֹר תֹּאמַר אֱלֹהִים אָנִי לִפְנֵי הֹרְגֶךָ וְאַתָּה אָדָם וְלֹא אֵל בְּיַד מְחַלְלֶךָ:

10. The deaths of the uncircumcised you shall die at the hand of foreigners, for I have spoken," says the Lord God. י. מוֹתֵי עֲרֵלִים תָּמוּת בְּיַד זָרִים כִּי אֲנִי דִבַּרְתִּי נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה:

11. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: יא. וַיְהִי דְבַר יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר:

12. "Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, So said the Lord God: You are the one who engraves images, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. יב. בֶּן אָדָם שָׂא קִינָה עַל מֶלֶךְ צוֹר וְאָמַרְתָּ לּוֹ כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה אַתָּה חוֹתֵם תָּכְנִית מָלֵא חָכְמָה וּכְלִיל יֹפִי:

13. In Eden, the garden of God you were; every precious stone was [set in] your covering; ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and crystal and gold; the work of your drums and your orifices is in you; on the day of your creation they were established. יג. בְּעֵדֶן גַּן אֱלֹהִים הָיִיתָ כָּל אֶבֶן יְקָרָה מְסֻכָתֶךָ אֹדֶם פִּטְדָה וְיַהֲלֹם תַּרְשִׁישׁ שֹׁהַם וְיָשְׁפֵה סַפִּיר נֹפֶךְ וּבָרְקַת וְזָהָב מְלֶאכֶת תֻּפֶּיךָ וּנְקָבֶיךָ בָּךְ בְּיוֹם הִבָּרַאֲךָ כּוֹנָנוּ:

14. You were a cherub of great measure, that covers, and I gave that to you; you were on the mount of the sanctuary of God: you walked among stones of fire. יד. אַתְּ כְּרוּב מִמְשַׁח הַסּוֹכֵךְ וּנְתַתִּיךָ בְּהַר קֹדֶשׁ אֱלֹהִים הָיִיתָ בְּתוֹךְ אַבְנֵי אֵשׁ הִתְהַלָּכְתָּ:

15. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until wrongdoing was found in you. טו. תָּמִים אַתָּה בִּדְרָכֶיךָ מִיּוֹם הִבָּרְאָךְ עַד נִמְצָא עַוְלָתָה בָּךְ:

16. Because of the multitude of your commerce, they filled you with violence and you sinned, and I shall cast you as profane from the mountain of God, and I shall destroy you, O covering cherub, from among the stones of fire. טז. בְּרֹב רְכֻלָּתְךָ מָלוּ תוֹכְךָ חָמָס וַתֶּחֱטָא וָאֲחַלֶּלְךָ מֵהַר אֱלֹהִים וָאַבֶּדְךָ כְּרוּב הַסּוֹכֵךְ מִתּוֹךְ אַבְנֵי אֵשׁ:

17. Your heart became haughty because of your beauty; you destroyed your wisdom with your brightness; I have cast you upon the ground; I have set you before kings to gaze upon you. יז. גָּבַהּ לִבְּךָ בְּיָפְיֶךָ שִׁחַתָּ חָכְמָתְךָ עַל יִפְעָתֶךָ עַל אֶרֶץ הִשְׁלַכְתִּיךָ לִפְנֵי מְלָכִים נְתַתִּיךָ לְרַאֲוָה בָךְ:

18. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, with the wrongdoing of your commerce, you profaned your sanctity, and I shall bring forth fire out of your midst-it will consume you, and I shall make you ashes on the ground before the eyes of all who see you. יח. מֵרֹב עֲו‍ֹנֶיךָ בְּעָוֶל רְכֻלָּתְךָ חִלַּלְתָּ מִקְדָּשֶׁיךָ וָאוֹצִא אֵשׁ מִתּוֹכְךָ הִיא אֲכָלַתְךָ וָאֶתֶּנְךָ לְאֵפֶר עַל הָאָרֶץ לְעֵינֵי כָּל רֹאֶיךָ:

19. All who know you among the peoples will wonder over you; you shall be a terror, and you shall be no more, ever." יט. כָּל יוֹדְעֶיךָ בָּעַמִּים שָׁמְמוּ עָלֶיךָ בַּלָּהוֹת הָיִיתָ וְאֵינְךָ עַד עוֹלָם:

20. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: כ. וַיְהִי דְבַר יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר:

21. "Son of man! Set your face toward Zidon and prophesy about her. כא. בֶּן אָדָם שִׂים פָּנֶיךָ אֶל צִידוֹן וְהִנָּבֵא עָלֶיהָ:

22. And you shall say; So said the Lord God: Behold I am against you, Zidon, and I shall be honored in your midst, and you will know that I am the Lord when I perform judgments in her and I shall be sanctified in her. כב. וְאָמַרְתָּ כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה הִנְנִי עָלַיִךְ צִידוֹן וְנִכְבַּדְתִּי בְּתוֹכֵךְ וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי יְהֹוָה בַּעֲשׂוֹתִי בָהּ שְׁפָטִים וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בָהּ:

23. And I shall send into her pestilence and blood in her streets, and they will judge themselves as slain in her midst by the sword [coming] upon her from all around, and they will know that I am the Lord. כג. וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי בָהּ דֶּבֶר וָדָם בְּחוּצוֹתֶיהָ וְנִפְלַל חָלָל בְּתוֹכָהּ בְּחֶרֶב עָלֶיהָ מִסָּבִיב וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי יְהֹוָה:

24. And there will no longer be to the house of Israel a pricking briar or a painful thorn from all that are around them, who plunder them, and they will know that I am the Lord God. כד. וְלֹא יִהְיֶה עוֹד לְבֵית יִשְׂרָאֵל סִלּוֹן מַמְאִיר וְקוֹץ מַכְאִב מִכֹּל סְבִיבֹתָם הַשָּׁאטִים אוֹתָם וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה:

25. So says the Lord God: When I gather in the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered, and I have been sanctified through them in the eyes of the nations, then shall they dwell on their land that I gave to My servant, to Jacob. כה. כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה בְּקַבְּצִי | אֶת בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל מִן הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר נָפֹצוּ בָם וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בָם לְעֵינֵי הַגּוֹיִם וְיָשְׁבוּ עַל אַדְמָתָם אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לְעַבְדִּי לְיַעֲקֹב:

26. And they shall dwell upon it securely, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards and dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those who plunder them from all around them, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God." כו. וְיָשְׁבוּ עָלֶיהָ לָבֶטַח וּבָנוּ בָתִּים וְנָטְעוּ כְרָמִים וְיָשְׁבוּ לָבֶטַח בַּעֲשׂוֹתִי שְׁפָטִים בְּכֹל הַשָּׁאטִים אֹתָם מִסְּבִיבֹתָם וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם:

Whence the controversy?

Stephen Meyer at the University Club: Why Are We Still Debating Darwin?

Tom Bethell March 21, 2012 11:22 AM

In his "Socrates in the City" talk in Washington last week, Steve Meyer asked: "Is there a scientific controversy about the theory of evolution?" After quoting many spokesmen for official science who deny the existence of any such controversy, or any reason to doubt evolutionary theory whatsoever, Meyer showed that there are significant reasons to doubt both biological and chemical evolutionary theory.

He first addressed the problems associated with chemical evolutionary theory, which "attempts to explain the origin of the first life from simpler pre-existing chemicals." Here he explained the critical question of the origin of genetic information. This is the problem he addressed in his bookSignature in the Cell, a problem that has beset all attempts to explain the origin of life by reference to undirected chemical evolutionary processes.

The most important idea for laymen to grasp is that of biological information. It's difficult to understand "exactly what information is," Meyer has written. It's not a physical thing. He quotes the evolutionary biologist George Williams as saying that information "doesn't have mass or charge or length," and matter "doesn't have bytes." It follows that matter and information belong to "two separate domains."

Information in biology is best understood as analogous to software code. Recall Bill Gates's comment: "DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created."

Software is a set of instructions for a new program in a computer. Likewise, DNA contains a set of instructions for the assembly of parts, namely proteins, within a cell. In the 19th century the cell was thought to be simple. Darwin and his contemporaries had no way of knowing just how complex it was. The cell today is sometimes compared to a high-tech factory. (Except it's much more complex than that -- factories can't replicate themselves.)

Here is the key question: How did the requisite information get into the DNA in the first place? Without it, the first cell would never have been constructed and life would never have started. So the question about information is closely related to the question: How did life begin?

Charles Thaxton, a co-author of The Mystery of Life's Origins, told Meyer that the origin-of-life question is still unanswered. When Ben Stein asked Richard Dawkins in Expelled how life began, Dawkins said he had no idea. Stanley Miller performed a famous experiment in 1952 showing that some amino acids can be generated artificially, but that was as far as they could get. They were far short of life itself. (And even Miller's experiment has been criticized for not simulating actual conditions on the early Earth.)

Nucleotides arrayed along the backbone of the DNA molecule form triplets called codons. In the language of the genetic code, these three-digit codons are commands that the cell interprets when constructing proteins. There are codons that signify start commands, stop commands, and codons for signaling each of the 20 amino acids used in proteins. They convey information by virtue of their sequence, not their chemical properties. DNA is like written language in that respect. For example, both s-a-l-t and l-a-s-t contain the same four letters, but convey different meanings based on their sequence alone. When sequenced correctly, nucleotides in the DNA instruct the cell to use its molecular machinery to link amino acids into proteins. The precise sequence of these amino acids, specified by the DNA, is crucial to ensuring that a protein is properly assembled and functional. That's how DNA embodies functional information.

In 1953 Watson and Crick described the double helical structure of DNA but no one has yet explained the origin of the information DNA contains. This creates a problem for those trying to explain the origin of life as a result of undirected processes. If the nucleotide sequence in the DNA were different, proteins wouldn't function, or they probably would not even get built to begin with. "So the information in DNA and its companion molecule RNA is a huge stumbling block for evolution," Meyer said.

He mentioned the famous Dawkins comment that biology is the study of complex things that appear to have been designed for a purpose. But we are talking about actual, not apparent design. No undirected chemical process that we know of can produce the information necessary to account for the origin of the first living cell.

Just as useful computer code comes from programmers, so functional information comes from intelligence. It comes from mind, said Charles Thaxton. Darwin's geologist friend, Charles Lyell, said that in trying to understand events in the remote past, we should look for causes now in operation. Mind fits that bill. Intelligence, or mind, or conscious activity, is the only known cause of the kind of sequence-specific, information-rich code that we see in biology.

Thus, we infer that the ultimate origin of biological information is best explained as proceeding from the design of an intelligent agent or agents. All other proposed explanations have failed; none cites a cause that is known to produce information.

Meyer said a few words about the reaction to Signature in the Cell. No one has demonstrated that there is a better chemical evolutionary explanation for the appearance of information, said Meyer. Some critics insist that Darwinian mechanisms can get the job done. But processes such as natural selection can't take place until life is already up and running. "Invoking biological evolution is to miss the whole point of the book," Meyer said.

Until we have a living and self-replicating cell, we have no way of introducing natural selection into the picture. "Nothing I've said to this point challenges Darwin directly," Meyer added. But then Darwin himself never successfully refuted the design argument. Nor do those who cite Darwinian processes.

At this point, Meyer transitioned to the second part of his talk. Here he explained that biological evolutionary theory, which "attempts to explain how new forms of life evolved from simpler pre-existing forms" also faces formidable difficulties. In particular, the modern version of Darwin's theory, or neo-Darwinism, also has an information problem. The mutation and natural selection mechanisms have failed to explain the origin of the new information necessary to build fundamentally new forms of life, or even just new proteins.

Before going on, Meyer distinguished three meanings of evolution. First "change over time," which no one disputes. Second, the claim that this change has occurred in a continuous way, giving us the "branching tree picture" that was the only diagram in The Origin of Species. Third we have natural selection with mutation, or "copying errors in the DNA." They are analogous to copying errors in digital code.

The errors change the information in the DNA, supposedly providing the grist for natural selection. "We are expected to believe that random mutations provide the new information that is necessary to build new proteins, new cells, new traits, organs and tissues that arise in the process of evolution," Meyer said. But can natural selection generate enough information to build new forms of life?

In a "sneak preview," Meyer said his next book would be about the Cambrian explosion -- the geologically sudden appearance of most of the major animal forms and body designs. It is a dramatic event in the history of life; new body plans -- for example arthropods, chordates and brachiopods -- appeared suddenly about 530 million years ago. There's a geological stratum in China where many new animal phyla appear within a few million years. This pattern doesn't match that "continuously branching tree" that Darwin drew. Nothing that can plausibly be called a precursor appears in the strata below the Cambrian.

More importantly, the same information problem arises: What would it take to build one of those new body plans? "You need a big instruction set, just for one body part." The trilobite has a compound, lens-focusing eye. "Each new cell for each new tissue had dedicated proteins. And the proteins in turn need instructions for them to be built." It's hard to believe that mutation could generate the new information required.

Random changes in DNA are supposed to generate new sections of code. But how? Meyer discussed the 1966 Wistar Institute symposium in which MIT mathematicians and others expressed doubts about the plausibility of the story.

We have already seen that DNA and software must have something called "sequence specificity" if they are to provide functional information.

"What we know from all codes and languages is that when we are dealing with specificity of sequence as a condition of function, random changes degrade function much faster than they ever come up with something new," Meyer said.

There's a combinatorial problem. A bike lock with four dials and ten digits gives 10,000 possibilities, only one of which opens the lock. Ten dials would give us 10 billion possibilities. But the protein alphabet has 20 possibilities at each site and the average protein has about 300 amino acids in sequence.

Meyer explained that, in the case of proteins, unlike the bike lock, there are many functional arrangements of amino acids among the possible combinations. Nevertheless, the ratio of functional sequences to the total number remains prohibitively small. How rare are the functional sequences? A colleague of Meyer's, Doug Axe, with a PhD from Caltech, looked into this question while doing research at Cambridge University.

Using the method of Site Directed Mutagenesis, Axe found the ratio of functional to all possible sequences for a protein 150 amino acids in length to be an absurdly small 1 to 10⁷⁴. That search space is larger than the number of atoms in the Milky Way galaxy. So we have a "hideous search problem." Multiplying that low probability by the total number of organisms reduces the problem somewhat, but not enough to make it remotely plausible that mutation and natural selection could produce one functional protein of modest length during entire history of life on earth.

Not just any old jumble of amino acids makes a protein. Similarly, chimps typing at keyboards will have to type for a long time before they get a complete, error-free, meaningful sentence of 150 characters. They'll get letters of the alphabet because they use typewriters. The problem is they have to get the letters in the right order. The required sequence is both complex and specified.

"Lots of biophysicists are aware of the problem," Meyer said. "We have a small needle in a huge haystack. It's a problem that neo-Darwinism has not solved. And notice that there's a mathematical rigor to this which has not been a part of the so-called evolution-creation debate."

Meyer concluded by emphasizing that there is a huge disparity between the alleged consensus about contemporary evolutionary theory and the many formidable, and increasingly quantifiable, problems with the theory that are known in the technical scientific literature.