Trillions and Trillions – A Brief Look at the Mathematics of DNA
Introduction: This paper will be used in the video to explain to the viewer DNA combinations used in the Video Atheism: A Crisis of Doubt – Signs of the Presence of God.
1. Welcome. The following is a response to those who wanted to see how the combinations for the DNA were calculated.
a. Let’s begin by looking at the basics
i. Imagine we have thousands of decks of cards all shuffled together
ii. Each deck has 52 cards
iii. If I was to deal out just one card that card could be one of four possibilities: a spade, club, heart or diamond.
iv. We could write it this way 4 to the 1st power = 4 possibilities
b. Now suppose I was to put 2 cards onto the table how many different combinations would we have.
i. 2 cards would be times 4 x 4 = 16 possibilities. Therefore, we could have spade – spade or spade - club, or spade - heart, or spade - diamond. We also could have club -spade, or a club - club, or a club - heart, or a club - diamond, and this would continue with each cord.
ii. Each new card placed on the table increases the total combinations of those cards by 4 times.
c. 5 cards onto the table has 4x4x4x4x4 or 1024 combinations.
d. 10 cards = (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) = 1024 x 1024 = 1,048,576 over 1 million combinations.
e. 15 cards = (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1,073,741,824 or over 1 billion combinations
f. 20 cards = (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) = 1,099,511,627,776 or over 1 trillion combinations
2. DNA
a. The DNA can also be one of four kinds designated as A, C, T, or G.
b. 5 DNA have the same number of combinations as 5 cards = 4x4x4x4x4 = 1024
c. 20 DNA or cards = (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) x (4x4x4x4x4) = 1,099,511,627,776 or over 1 trillion combinations
d. Finally 100 DNA is over a trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion combinations
3. Let us deal out 10 cards out until the 1 million combinations are covered.
a. We could do it several ways.
b. Imagine that we had only one dealer who shuffled the cards for 1 year and on New Year’s Eve dealt out ten cards.
c. Every New Year’s Eve he dealt out another ten cards and by wonderful chance, there was always a different combination of cards.
d. To cover 1 million combinations of 10 cards in this example 1 dealer would have to deal out cards for 1 million years.
4. Another way
a. This time we have 1 million dealers who shuffle the cards all year long. On New Year’s Eve, they deal out 10 cards. Because we have so many dealers, we are done in 1 year.
5. A third way of doing it
a. We now have 1000 dealers who deal out 10 cards on New Year Eve. It would take 1000 years to cover all the combinations.
6. Let us now use 10 DNA instead of cards and ape couples having offspring rather than dealers.
a. What would be the minimum time to do one million combinations of 10 DNA if each generation was one year and each offspring had a different set of DNA combinations?
b. If we had only one ape couple begetting it would take 1 million years because (1 ape couple) x (1 million years) = 1 million combinations.
c. If we had 1 million ape couples, it would take one year because (1 million ape couples) x (1 year) = 1 million combinations.
d. If we had 1 thousand ape couples, it would take 1 thousand years because (1 thousand ape couples) x (1 thousand years) = 1 million combinations.
7. Ape creatures in the universe and 100 DNA
a. Let us apply this to evolution.
b. To get the magic intelligence protein as mentioned in the video we needed a magic protein of only 100 DNA.
c. Any creature in the universe that stumbles upon this 100 DNA suddenly has an intelligent civilization forming.
d. If each offspring had 100 mutations and each new set of mutations were different from all the other set of mutations simply by luck
e. If each generation of offspring from ape creatures is one year from conception to future offspring conception
f. THEN ---- if we round off 20 DNA to = 1 trillion combinations
g. To do all the combinations of 100 DNA would require =
h. = (1 trillion ape couples on 1 planet for 20 DNA combinations) x ( 1 trillion identical planets going around a sun for the next 20 DNA combinations) x (1 trillion identical suns in a galaxy for the next 20 DNA combinations) x ( 1 trillion identical galaxies in the universe for the next 20 DNA combinations) x (1 trillion years for the last 20 DNA combinations)
i. NOTE our universe is only 14 billion years old since the big bang.
Conclusion:
Ellie the atheist’s example from the movie Contact is irrational. When she says if 1 out of million stars had planets and if 1 out of a million had life and if out of a million had intelligent life then there would be millions of civilizations out there. This might happen if the intelligence protein was about 15 DNA long but this is absurd.
EVERY 20 DNA is "TIMES 1 trillion combinations at least. The human body has about 3 billion pairs of DNA.
If we said that the proteins were on the average 750 DNA long then we would be looking at some 4 million proteins.
In the movie contact Ellie hears the numbers from deep space coming in 2, 3, 5, 7 and says those are prime numbers – no way is this a natural phenomena – and she would be right. Yet that sequence represents the odds of only 11 DNA. The Magic Intelligence protein of 100 DNA represents the Power on High – God.
Copyright 2009 by the Franciscans of Our Lady of the Holy Family
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