The first problem I see is with the beginning stages of Evolution. Evolution says that all life must have evolved from a single-celled organism. Before we even get to this single-celled organism, however, there is a previous problem with how this organism could have come from non-living material, but since I have already covered most of that problem in a previous post (Evolution and the Origin of Life), I will not deal with that here. The problem I want to address here is the origin of the Genetic code. Our Genes are the blueprints for life. One of the things I find difficult to understand is how such a complex system of storing and expressing such a vast amount of information can be generated from non-life. If there is no intelligent source, how can you have any sort of intelligible information?
By its very definition, Information is the communication of or reception of knowledge or intelligence. If there is no intelligent being, there can be no intelligence or knowledge to be communicated or imparted as information into DNA. This is because for the information to actually be knowledge or intelligence, there must be an intelligent being who gives meaning to such information If I draw a series of scribbled lines, forming various shapes and/or figures on a piece of paper, there is no information being expressed or communicated there unless each figure, line, or shape represents something, and the agent who experiences these shapes, figures, and lines must be able to understand what information these things are meant to convey. Information can have no meaning apart from the meaning given it by an intelligent being. If there is no intelligent being, there can be no information to be transferred.
To continue this line of thought, even if there is a set or series of shapes that represent something (such as an alphabet), if the agent who is experiencing this information cannot understand what these symbols mean, there can no information passed along to that agent. What this means is, even if there is knowledge or intelligence to be passed along, the agent experiencing it must be able to make sense of that knowledge or intelligence, otherwise there can be no information passed along. Basically, there must be an intelligent being, who has knowledge that is to be passed along, a way to convey or make sense of that intelligence or knowledge , and an agent that can make sense of and utilize that information being conveyed.
In order for evolution by natural selection to work, not only do you have to believe that it is possible to generate organic material from non-organic material, but you must believe that this organic material is living (since organic material does not necessarily have to be “alive”), able to sustain its own life, and that it can generate more organic life able to do these things as well. Even if it is possible to create living material (such as strands of amino acids) from non-living material, there must be a vast array of information that would need to be stored in even a single cell that would allow that cell to be active, gathering and utilizing energy, eliminating waste material, and generating or spawning new life. This is far too much to expect a bolt of lightening striking a “primordial soup” to generate.
If you ask me, to believe that a single living cell was spawned from non-living material without an intelligent agent behind it is absolutely absurd. There is enough information in one human DNA molecule to fill a million-page encyclopaedia. To believe a naturalistic theory for the origin of this type and amount of information is absurd, and I simply do not see how an intelligent person can not find this problematic for naturalistic theories of evolution. Before natural selection can even begin, there must be genes that can be mutated, and this assumes there is information to be stored in DNA that can inform organic material, and this information requires an intelligent being. Even if evolution by natural selection is true, it would require an intelligent creator to begin the process, and therefore the theory of Evolution by natural selection is not an argument in favor of the Atheist (or more specifically, the scientific naturalist) worldview.