God & Nature Magazine
  • Winter 2023 Issue
    • Letter From the Editors
    • Braden, A Modern Bestiary
    • Garte, Assembly Theory
    • Defoe, The Heavens Declare
    • Greenberg, Bonding
    • Barrigar, God's Big Story
    • Phillippy, Overcoming Paradox
    • Bostrom, Near
    • Clifford, Hidden Figures
  • Fall 2022 Issue
    • Letter Fall22
    • Curry, Attentiveness
    • Russo, Deconstruction
    • Touryan, Four Forces
    • Mittchell, Three Words
    • Philippy, Math Theology Fall 22
    • Bostrom, Goodbyes
    • Clifford FAll 22
    • Linsley, Mystic Exile
    • Hall, A Call to Arms
  • Summer 2022 Issue
    • Letter Summer 2022
    • Engelking, Neurotheology
    • Kelley, Environmentalism
    • Garte, Sandpipers
    • Madison, Cultivating Contentment
    • Collins, Answers on Evolution
    • Touryan, Tentmakers
    • Oord, Ever-Creative God
    • Bostrom, Mentors
    • Clifford, Carbon and Sin
    • Campbell, Just, In Time
  • Past Issues
    • Spring 2022 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editors Spring 2022
      • Curry, Knowldege and Truth
      • Pinkham, On a Car Emblem
      • Murray, Candling the Egg
      • Carr, Music, Math, Religion
      • Smith, Wonder and Longing
      • Linsky, Cyber Service
      • Bostrom, Buteo
      • Obi, Coincidences
    • Winter 2022 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Winter 2022
      • Thuraisingham Pondering Invisible
      • Cornwell Mediations from Molecular Biologist
      • Fagunwa Blsck Scientist & Church Father
      • Garte A Dialogue
      • Gonzalez Being Human
      • Klein Naturalist in Two Worlds
      • Bostrom Creeds
      • Clifford Winter 2022
      • Ardern Contact Points
      • Cooper Imagine No Christmas
    • Fall 2021 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Fall2021
      • Johnson, God Winks
      • Cottraux, Ancient Aliens
      • Arveson, Anti-Vax Email
      • Gammon, Evolutionary Insights
      • Mitchell, No One Told Me
      • Rummo, Faith in the Invisible
      • Bostrom, Fall Furrows
      • Lemcio, A Franciscan Weekend
      • Funk, Plant Haiku
      • Robinson & Lim, Who is God?
    • Summer 2021 Issue >
      • Garte &Albert Letter Sum2021
      • Warren, Immunization and Salvation
      • Defoe, Bernard Ramm
      • Cornwell Canine to Divine
      • Mix, Running with Nature
      • Pinkham, Scuba Divers
      • Cao, Physics and Bible
      • Bostrom, Sugar Birds
      • Clifford Sum21
      • Oostema, Evolution of Faith
      • Hall, Generation upon Generation
    • Spring 2021 Issue >
      • Garte and Albert Letter Spring 2021
      • Loikanen, Divine Action
      • Madison, Humus and Humility
      • Lappin, Puddles and Persons
      • Cornwell, God's GPS
      • Touryan, Contolled Fusion
      • Russo, Vaccine and Salvation
      • Bostrom, Short-eared Owl
      • Redkoles, Expect Unexpected
      • Clifford, Boring
      • McFarland, Imposition of Carbon
      • Lemcio, Manis Mastodon
    • Winter 2021 Issue >
      • Winter 2021 Contents >
        • Garte and Albert Letter from the Editors
        • Burnett How iit All Started
        • Isaac Director's Corner
        • Ruppel Herrington, First Editor
        • Burnett Origin of Lire
        • Hearn Balance
        • Middleton Natural Theology
        • Story Antibodies and Randomness
        • Lamoureux I Sleep a Lot
        • Warren Overloaded Brains
        • Isaac Knowledge of Information
        • Bancewicz Wonder and Zebrafish
        • Oord Photoessay
        • Albert Hope in Winter
        • Clifford Storytelling & Drama in Teaching
        • Pohl The Column (Poetry)
    • Fall 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from Editors
      • Pohl, Panpsychism and Microbiome
      • Reyes, Communion During Loss
      • Griffin, Hands On
      • Azarvan, Science and Limits
      • Cornwell, Search Engines for God
      • Thuraisingham, Duality of Humans and Particles
      • Touryan, Prayers of Petition
      • George, Perfect Vision
      • Declare the Glory, Green: Awe
      • Bostrom Purpose
      • Oord, Theological Photoessay
      • Clifford, Food, Water, Waste
    • Summer 2020 Issue >
      • Summer 2020 Contents >
        • Editors Letter Summer2020
        • Jones, Science Faith Duopoly
        • Mix, God and the Virus
        • Warner, COVID-19 and Goodness of Creation
        • Gonzalez, Pandemic and Groaning of Creation
        • Johnson, Star Wars Food
        • Pyle, It Takes a (Medical ) Village
        • Arveson, Use for 3D Printers
        • Peterson, Pandemic and Research
        • Zeidan, Mentorship Online
        • Oleskeiwicz, Dragonfly on Water
        • Carr, COVID-19 and Climate Change
        • Nierrman, The Squirrel
        • Cornwell, COVIS-19 Bucket List
        • Bostrom, Grass Thoughts
        • Clifford, Summ20 Conflict
    • Spring 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editors SP20
      • AD
      • Murphy, Nature and Calvary
      • Dickin, The Flood and Genesis 1
      • Gruenberg, Empiricism and Christian Spirituality
      • Ungureanu, Science, Religion, Protestant Tradition
      • Russo, How does it End?
      • Siegrist, Problems with Materialism
      • Ohlman, 20/20 in 2020
      • Warren, Rock Frogs
      • Edwards, Sanctuary
      • Bostrom, Clothed
      • Clifford, The Lent of Lockdown Spring 2020
      • Hall, 1:30 AM on a Tuesday (Poem)
    • Winter 2020 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Winter 2020
      • AD
      • Wimberly Inheritance, Meaning and Code
      • Defoe; A Pastor's Journey
      • Mix The Ends of the World
      • Pevarnik Limits of Physics
      • Greenberg "Godly" Science
      • Pinkham Teleological Thinking
      • Alexanian How to Witness
      • "Declare the Glory" Neal, Cross, Gait
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Winter 2020
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays" Winter 2020
      • Salviander The Objective Man (Poem)
      • Ohlman Orphan of the Universe (Poem)
      • Lemcio Grey's Anatomy (Poem)
    • Fall 2019 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Fall 2019
      • Phillippy Mathematics and God
      • Pohl & Thoelen Databases
      • Garte Limits of Science
      • Mitroka Healthy Lifestyle
      • Sigmon Science and Revelation
      • Mariani Compatibility Creation and Evolution
      • Anders Theistic Evolution
      • Touryan Are we alone
      • Johnson Purpose and Source
      • Declare the Glory Curry, Smith, Best
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Fall 19
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays Fall 19
      • Eyte Cross Cascade "Poem"
    • Summer 2019 Issue >
      • Letter from the Editor Summer 2019
      • Arveson Is There a “Theory of Everything”
      • Anderson The History and Philosophy of Science and Faith
      • Tolsma Science in Church
      • Salviander Black Holes and Atheism
      • Johnson Practical Problems for Literal Adam
      • Hall God and the Assumptions of Scientific Research
      • Linsky Overcoming Misconceptions
      • Wilder Sanctity of Creation
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Summer19
      • Oord "Theological Photoessays" Summer 2019
      • Flaig Time and Me (Poem)
    • Spring 2019: Creation Care and Environment >
      • Letter from the Editor Spring 2019
      • Bancewicz;Sustainability Pledge: Why the Environment is My Problem
      • Lin; Environmental Problems as a Place for Compromise and Dialogue
      • Garvey; Where the Fall Really Lies
      • Lewis; Solar-Powered Life: Providing Food, Oxygen and Protection
      • Garte; Time and Human Impact on the Environment
      • Mays; Reforming Science Textbooks
      • Carr; Cosmic Energy First, Then Matter: A Spiritual Ethic
      • Kincanon; The Young Earthers and Leibniz
      • Declare the Glory Gauger
      • Clifford "Across the Pond" Spring 2019
      • Oord; Photoessay. Theological Photo Essays
      • Rivera; Photoessay. Digital Artwork: Images of Jesus
      • Albert; Poem. A Goldfish Sings a Tentative Psalm
      • Armstrong; Poem Holy Sonnet XI
    • Winter 2019: Education and Outreach 2 >
      • Letter from the Editor, Winter 2009
      • Applegate; Project Under Construction: Faith Integration Resource for High School Biology
      • LaBelle; Sidewalk Astronomy Evangelism - Taking it to the Streets!
      • Reed; Speaking to the Heart and Mind of Students about Evolution and Creation
      • Marcus; The Conflict Model
      • Rivera; The Implicit Assumptions behind Hitchen's Razor
      • Russo; Redeeming Bias in Discussion of Science and Faith
      • Fischer; Origins, Genesis and Adam
      • Clifford Column, Winter 2019
      • Gait; Photoessay - Stripes
      • Lee; Poem. In Chaos and Nothingness
    • Fall 2018: Education and Outreach 1 >
      • Letter from the Editor Fall 2018
      • Glaze; A Walk within Two Worlds: Faith, Science, and Evolution Advocacy
      • Johnson; Teaching the Controversy in Texas
      • Cootsona; Mere Christianity, Mainstream Science and Emerging Adults
      • Kindstedt; Creating a Third Culture
      • Zeidan; An Effective Way to Integrate Supportive Communication and Christian Belief into Virtual Classrooms
      • Marshall; A New Model of Causation
      • McClure; Nothing in the Bible Makes Sense Except in the Light of Grace
      • Frank; Christianity, Science and Teamwork
      • Assad/Reyes; Interview. Discovering a Renewed Sense of Awe and Wonder about God
      • Clifford Column Fall 2018
      • Menninga; Photoessay. What do These Stones Mean?
    • Summer 2018: Judgment and Peer Review >
      • Letter from the Editors Summer 2018
      • Jones; Peer Review: Avoiding Judgmentalism
      • Arnold; Discovering Spiritual Information Through Peer-Reviewed Science
      • Peterson; Peering at Double-Blind Peer Review
      • Smith; A Philosophical Influence from the Scientific Revolution on Scientific Judgment
      • Mix; The Poetry of Probability
      • Mobley; Randomness vs. the Providence of God?
      • Gordon; Chances are Good: Design and Chance in Genesis 1
      • Siegrist; But the Multiverse...!
      • Reyes; The Community Table: Interview with Marianne Johnson
      • Clifford Column Summer 2018
      • Hill; Poem. Synthesis
      • Lemcio; Poem. I Could See Where This was Going
      • Oord: Photoessay
    • Spring 2018: Chance & Design >
      • Letter from the Editors
      • Bishop; God, Love and Chance
      • Bonham; Quantum Reflections
      • Spaulding; God as Designer
      • Garte; Teleology in Evolution
      • Hall; God, Chance and Buridan's Ox
      • Pohl; Why We Need a Third Culture in Church
      • Dorman; Liturgical Brain
      • Warren; Galapagos
      • Blanchard; On Christian Science
      • Touryan; The Cross as a Cosmic Filter
    • Winter 2018: Race & Inheritance >
      • A Note from the Editors
      • Essay: “Some Pastoral Considerations of CRISPR CAS 9 Gene Editing” by Mario A Russo
      • Essay: “The Genetics and Theology of Race” by Sy Garte
      • Essay: "Grieve the Segregation of Science" by S. Joshua Swamidass
      • Poem: "Cardboard Man" by Ciara Reyes
      • Featured Interview: “Love Is Risk” with Carolyn Finney
      • Essay & Poem: “Abortion Languages: Love, fear, confusion and loss”
      • Essay: "Why the Church Needs Intersectional Feminism" by Emily Herrington
      • Essay: “Elected to Salvation (and other things?)” by Bill Leonard
      • Essay: “Local Colour: A reflection on family, history, and heritage” by Mike Clifford
      • Interview: Corina Newsome, environmentalist and animal keeper
      • Essay: “Spiritual Kin Selection” by Steve Roels
      • Photo Essay: "Trouble in Paradise: Plastic pollution in the Bahamas" by Grace Swing & Robert D Sluka
      • Essay: “Race & Inheritance: Personal reflections and annotations” by Walt Hearn
      • Interview: Carla Ramos, molecular biologist
      • Clifford Column; Discipine Hopping
      • Lemcio; Waves
      • Harris Artwork
      • Hearn; Eulogy - Beyond Science,
    • Summer 17: Cosmology & Theology >
      • Letter from the Editors: Summer 2017
      • Essay: "The News from My Home Galaxy" by Walt Hearn
      • Interview: "Deep Incarnation & the Cosmos: A Conversation with Niels Henrik Gregersen" by Ciara Reyes & Niels Henrik Gregersen
      • Photo Essay: "Breath & Dust" by Kathleen Eady
      • Essay: "Why the Eagle Nebula Just Doesn’t Do It For Me" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "The Cosmos in My Hand" by Lucas Mix
      • Interview: “What is Life? On Earth and Beyond” with Andreas Losch
      • Artwork by Missy Pellone
      • Essay: "When God & Science Hide Reality" by Davis Woodworth
      • Essay: "​In Search of Wonder: A Reflection on Reconciling Medieval and Modern Cosmology" by Monica Bennett
      • Essay: "If Christianity and Cosmology Are in Conflict, Whose Side Is Philosophy on?" by Vaughan Rees
    • Winter/Spring 17: "Flesh & Blood" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter/Spring 2017
      • Essay: "Probiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics: On microbiomes and the meaning of life" by John F. Pohl
      • Essay: "With All Your Mind" by Paul S. Kindsedt
      • Essay: "The Stuff of Life" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Experiencing God’s Love in a Secular Society: A Christian experience with socialized medicine" by Alison Noble
      • Poem: "The Problem with Pain" by Eugne E. Lemcio
      • Essay: "Thoughts of Death in a Cruel World: Job’s suicidal ideation and the “right” Christian response to depression" by Jennifer Michael Hecht and Emily Herrington
      • Essay: "Tissues at Issue" by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "The Dilemma of Modern Christianity" by Tony Mitchell
      • Poem: "Light" by Billie Holladay Skelley
      • Essay: "Some Theological Implications of Science: Revisiting the Ant" by Mario A. Russo
    • Summer/Fall 16: "Stewardship of Words" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2016
      • Levity: "Walt Being Walt: Excerpts from the ASA newsletter" by Walt Hearn (compiled by Jack Haas & Emily Ruppel)
      • Poem: "A Prayer Tribute to Walt and Ginny Hearn" by Paul Fayter
      • Essay: "Authentic Science & Authentic Christian Faith" by Paul Arveson
      • Essay: "On Modern-Day Saints & Epistles" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "​Mathematics and the Religious Impulse" by Karl Giberson
      • Poem: "The Wasteful Gene" by Eugne E. Lemcio
      • Three Poems by Dan Eumurian
      • Excerpts from: "The Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity" by Edwin Yamauchi
      • Essay: "A Comprehensible Universe: The blessing from God that makes science possible" by Bob Kaita
      • Poem: "The Epistolarian" by Emily Ruppel
    • Spring 16: "Brain Science" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2016
      • Essay: "Ancient Q, Modern A (?)" by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "Souls, Brains and People: Who or what are we?" by Gareth D. Jones
      • Essay: "A Functional Theology of Psychopathology" by Edgar Paul Herrington IV
      • Three Poems by Richard Gillum
      • Essay: "Thoughts of Death in an Unkind World: Job’s suicidal ideation and the “right” Christian response to depression" by Jennifer Michael Hecht
      • Short Story: "Malefic" by Jeffrey Allen Mays
      • Essay: "An Engineer Visits a Mindfulness Workshop" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Traces of Trauma in the Body of Christ: The case of The Place of Refuge" by Elizabeth Hernandez
      • Essay: "Did God ‘Create’ Science? Christianity and the uniqueness of the human brain" by William H. Church
    • Winter 16: "Quantum Physics/Epigenetics" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2016
      • Essay: "God and the New Evolutionary Biology" by Sy Garte
      • Essay: "Quantum Mechanics and the Question of Divine Knowledge" by Stephen J. Robinson
      • Essay: "Creation Out of... Physics?" by Joshua Scott
      • Essay: "Of Books and Bosons" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Words, Words, Words" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "Encountering Ernst Haeckel’s 'Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny'" by Eugene Lemcio
      • Essay: "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: New conversations and theological questions at the horizons of modern science" by Michael Burdett
      • Poem: "The Difference" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "Maupertuis's Ghost: Finding God in 'action'" by Colin C. Campbell
    • Fall 15: "Technology" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2015
      • Essay: "‘Braving the New World (Wide Web): Mapping Theological Response to Media" by Justin A. Bailey
      • Poem: "Entropy and Enthalpy" by Glenn R. McGlaughlin
      • Essay: "‘How Proactive Should Christians Be in Learning about Emerging Biomedical Technologies?" by D. Gareth Jones
      • Essay: "‘Can We Fix It? Erm..." by Mike Clifford
      • Poem: "To My Dear Parents" by Sarah Ruden
      • Essay: "‘Which Side, Lord?" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "The Column" by John F. Pohl
      • Essay: "‘Technology and the Church" by Derek Schuurman
      • Poem: "On the Shores of Oroumieh" by Emily Ruppel
      • Essay: "‘Technology as Discipline" by Johnny Wei-Bing Lin
    • Summer 15: "Doubt" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2015
      • Essay: "‘The Road Not Taken’: A personal reflection on careers, counterfactuals and callings" by Tim Middleton
      • Essay: "The Gift of Doubt in My Life" by Rev. Paul Herrington
      • Poem: "The Marsh Birds" by Sarah Ruden
      • Essay: "On St Brendan and the Pendulum of Postgraduate Study" by Mike Clifford
      • Essay: "Doubt: The Invisible Conversation" by Karl W. Giberson
      • Essay: "Doubt, Faith, and Crevasses on My Mind" by Peter M. J. Hess
      • Poem: "Magdalene" by Leonore Wilson
      • Essay: "Breaking Barriers, Ministering in Relationships, and Exemplifying the Gospel" by Stephen Contakes, et al.
      • Poem: "On the Extinction of Matter Near a Black Hole" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Essay: "Sometimes I Doubt..." by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "The Risks of Love and Life's Big Questions" by Thomas Jay Oord
    • Spring 15: "Animals/Imago Dei" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2015
      • Essay: "50 Years of Wilderness: a Christian perspective" by Peter van der Burgt
      • Essay: "All Creatures Great and Small " by Walt Hearn
      • Essay: "Let There Be Less: A Christian musing on nature, faith, and farmers’ markets" by Emily Ruppel
      • Poem: "The New Plant and Animal Kingdoms" by Steve Roels
      • Essay: "Of Wonder and Zebrafish" by Ruth Bancewicz
      • Essay: "The Lion, the Spider and the Image of God" by Mike Clifford
      • Cat Poem 1: "Lullaby for Stomp the Cat" by Sarah Ruden
      • Cat Poem 2: "Letting the Dog In" by Emily Ruppel
      • Cat Poem 3: "Reading on the Couch" by Carol Ruppel
      • Essay: "Angry Discussions: A Wrong Way to Stand for Creation Care or Science Advocacy " by Oscar Gonzalez
      • Essay: "Ethical Eating on a Catholic Campus: Some thoughts from a student of environmental studies" by Grace Mican
    • Winter 15: "Information" >
      • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2015
      • Essay: "What Does it Mean to Know?" by Mark Shelhamer
      • Essay: "Knowledge of Information" by Randy Isaac
      • Photo Essay: "Being Here" by Carol Ruppel
      • Essay: "Truth Anyone?" by Walt Hearn
      • Poem: "Transformation" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Interview: "Unpacking Chance, Providence, and the Abraham's Dice Conference" by Olivia Peterson
      • Essay: "On Knowledge and Information–Tales from an English childhood" by Mike Clifford
      • Poem: "Space Travel" by Ruth Hoppin
      • Essay: "Resuming the Science/Faith Conversation" by Jamin Hubner
    • Archives >
      • Past Contributors
      • Unpublished Materal >
        • Richard Graven A Vision of God
      • Fall 14: "History of Science & Christianity" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2014
        • Essay: "Orchids: Why the founders of modern science cultivated virtue" by Ruth Bancewicz
        • Essay: "Science Falsely So Called: Fundamentalism and Science" by Edward B. Davis
        • Essay: "The Other 'Atom' in Christianity and Science" by Karissa D Carlson
        • Poem: "The Hermit" by Ciara C. Reyes
        • Essay: "Players" by Walt Hearn
        • Essay: "Using Storytelling and Drama in Engineering Lectures" by Mike Clifford
        • Essay: "Is There Anything Historical About Adam and Eve?" by Mike Beidler
        • Essay: "Finding Harmony in Controversy: The early years of the ASA" by Terry Gray and Emily Ruppel
        • Levity: "Fish n' Chips" by Mike Arnold
        • Essay: "Stories" by Walt Hearn
      • Summer 14: "Christian Women in Science" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2014
        • Essay: "I Really Did That Work: A brief survey of notable Christian Women in Science" by Lynn Billman
        • Essay: "He + She = We" by Walt Hearn
        • Photo Essay: "The Faces of Nature" by Susan Limone
        • Essay: "On Grass that Withers: Overloaded brains and spiritual discernment" by Janet Warren
        • Interview: "Ancient Humans and Modern Choices" with Briana Pobiner
        • Essay: "Crystallographer, Quaker, Pacifist, & Trailblazing Woman of Science: Kathleen Lonsdale’s Christian Life 'Lived Experimentally'” by Kylie Miller and Stephen M. Contakes
        • Artwork: "Eden, Zion" by Harold Sikkema
        • Essay: "Asking the Right Question" by Dorothy Boorse
        • Interview: "Not So Dry Bones" with Mary Schweitzer
        • Essay: "Is Being a Mother and a Scientist Worth It?" by Abby Hodges
        • Essay: "Playing God: A theological reflection on medicine, divine action, and personhood" by Ann Pederson
        • Column: Great Gravity! "BNL 1976 – 2000 (Part 1)"
      • Spring 14: "G&N: The 2-year tour" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2014
        • Essay: "Political Science?" by Walt Hearn
        • Comic: "Education"
        • Essay: "Finding Hominids with Kamoya Kimeu" by Fred Heeren
        • Poem: "Ziggurat (and Helix)" by Amy Chai
        • Creative Nonfiction: "One Summer" by Dave Harrity
        • Essay: "Do the Heavens Declare the Glory of God?" by Owen Gingerich
        • Comic: "Miracle Mechanics" by Emily Ruppel
        • Essay: "I Sleep A Lot" by Denis O. Lamoureux
        • Poem: "Angels and RNA" by Walt Hearn
        • Comic: "Seminary"
        • Essay: "The Elegance of Antibodies" by Craig M. Story
        • Photo Essay: "Conversing with Nature" by Thomas Jay Oord
        • Essay: "Under the Tutelage of Trees: Arboreal Lessons on Virtue, Kinship, and Integrity" by Peter M. J. Hess
        • Comic: "Humor"
        • Essay: "Science and Scientism in Biology" by Sy Garte
        • Interview: "Biopsychology and Faith" with Heather Looy
      • Winter 14: "Health & Medicine" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2014
        • Poem: I Have a Piece of Cow in My Heart
        • Essay: Acts of God: Are all mutations random?
        • Column: Beyond Science
        • Poem: Psalm 1859
        • Essay: The Tao of Departing
        • Essay: The Tao of Departing p 2
        • Photo Essay: Walking in Winter
        • Essay: A Christian Doctor on Evolution, Faith, and Suffering
        • Opinion: Making Friends with Frankencorn
        • Poem: Chiaroscuro
        • Interview: "Biopsychology and Faith" with Heather Looy
        • Essay: "The Elegance of Antibodies"
        • Artwork: "Helix" by Harold Sikkema
        • Column: Great Gravity! "Dissertations and Revelations"
      • Fall 13: "Environmentalism" >
        • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2013
        • Poem: Time
        • Essay: Is there Hope for the Ocean?
        • Artwork: "Earthly Tent" by Harold Sikkema
        • Essay: What is Responsible Eating?
        • Essay: Are We Too Obsessed with Food?
        • Poem: Conversation on Creation
        • Essay: Creation Care from the Perspective of a Conservation Geneticist
        • Essay: Mobilizing Scientists for Environmental Missions
        • Poem: Paleocene Spring
        • Interview: Dorothy Boorse
        • Column: Beyond Science
        • Essay: New Testament Motivation for Environmental Stewardship
        • Poem: Stone of House
        • Column: Great Gravity! "Running the Data"
      • Summer 13: "Science & Creativity" >
        • Column: Beyond Science
        • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2013
        • Column: Faith on the Field
        • Poem: Trying Not to Be Too Sunny
        • Comic: "Work in Progress"
        • Essay: Do the Heavens Declare the Glory of God?
        • Essay: Science, Faith, and Creativity
        • Essay: One Summer
        • Comic: "Miracle Mechanics"
        • Featured Essay: Poetry for Scientists
        • Artwork: "Confluence" by Harold Sikkema
        • Column: Great Gravity! "The Great Ungainly Journey West"
      • Winter 13 >
        • Letter from the Editor: Winter 2013
        • Column: Faith on the Field
        • Comic: "Apples to Apples"
        • Creative Nonfiction: "One Winter"
        • Column: Clearing the Middle Path
        • Essay: Science and Scientism in Biology
        • Poem: "Angels and RNA"
        • Feature Article: I Sleep A Lot
        • Poem: "Fragile"
        • Column: Beyond Science
        • CiS 2012 Student Essay Contest: Runner Up
        • Essay: Why Awe?
        • CiS 2012 Student Essay Contest: First Place
        • Column: Great Gravity! "A Bit of Perspective"
        • Column: Modern Frontiers, Ancient Faith
        • Column: Time Capsule
      • Fall 12 >
        • Letter from the Editor: Fall 2012
        • The Director's Corner
        • Column: Faith on the Field
        • Comic: "Education"
        • Interview: Greetings from Mars!
        • Column: Clearing the Middle Path
        • Photo Essay: "Conversing with Nature"
        • Comic: "Abe"
        • Essay: Evolution and Imago Dei
        • Poem: "Locus Iste"
        • Levity: Beyond Science
        • Essay: God, Occam, and Science
        • Opinion: Humility and Grace
        • Levity: Great Gravity! "The College Years"
        • Poem: "Q.E.D."
        • Essay: My Overlapping Magisteria
        • Column: Time Capsule
      • Summer 12 >
        • Table of Contents
        • Letter from the Editor: Summer 2012
        • Director's Corner
        • Column: Faith on the Field
        • Column: Modern Frontiers, Ancient Faith
        • Comic: "Seminary"
        • Poem: "Temptation in the Wired Wilderness"
        • Levity: Beyond Science
        • Opinion: "The Breaking Bread"
        • Comic: "Humor"
        • Column: Clearing the Middle Path
        • Poem: "Ziggurat (and Helix)"
        • Levity: Great Gravity! "The Grade School Years"
        • Opinion: "Adam and the Origin of Man"
        • Poem: "Missa Solemnis"
        • Column: Time Capsule
      • Spring 12 >
        • Table of Contents
        • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2012
        • Director's corner
        • Column: Faith on the Field
        • Column: Time Capsule
        • Poem: "From Where do We Come?"
        • Featured Scientist
        • Levity: Beyond Science
        • Essay: "Faith and Science"
        • Fiction: "A Matter of Dust"
        • Levity: Great Gravity! "The Early Years"
        • Opinion: "Phony Environmental Theology"
        • Fiction: "Illumination"
        • Interview: "Process"
        • Column: Modern Frontiers, Ancient Faith
    • Spring 13 >
      • Letter from the Editor: Spring 2013
      • Column: Faith on the Field
      • Faith on the Field, cont.
      • Poem: Scientist's Psalm
      • Essay: A Downcast Spirit Dries Up the Bones: More perspectives on depression
      • Artwork: "Lipo Osteo" by Harold Sikkema
      • Feature: The Bible, Evolution, and Grace
      • Column: Beyond Science
      • Book Review: Prisoners of Hope
      • Column: Great Gravity! "The Grad School Years"
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God and Nature ​                                                                                 Winter 2020

Inheritance, meaning, and the genetic code

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By Lee T. Wimberly

Generational inheritance is a foundational property of life. We cannot help but notice, from even the most casual study of living things, that lilacs produce lilacs, lions produce lions, and so on. Similarly, we have all known a daughter who clearly has her father's eyes, or perhaps a son with his mother's smile. Even to the naked eye, it is apparent that biological information is transmitted from one generation to the next. Life begets life. But for much of history, the details of this process lay shrouded in mystery.
 
With the elucidation of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Frances Crick in 1953, the problem of inheritance was partially solved. The linear biopolymer proved to be the bearer of biological information by virtue of its long, aperiodic sequences of four nucleobases: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. But having established this, an equally important question still remained: How did DNA sequences specify the sequences of proteins? Crick aptly described this mystery as the coding problem: "This problem of how, in outline, the sequence of four bases ‘codes’ the sequence of the twenty amino acids is known as the coding problem. It is regarded as being independent of the biochemical steps involved, and deals only with the transfer of information (1)."

Over the course of the 1960s, the genetic code was cracked. The experimental determination of its details was heralded as a triumph of science, culminating in the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Holley, Khorana, and Nirenberg in 1968. Per the Nobel Foundation, the prize was awarded “for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis” (2). Crick would later offer a celebratory summation: "The inherited master plans controlling every living organism are written on the genetic material in each cell. These plans are coded instructions to the cell for making proteins. The recent breaking of the code opens a new era in biology" (3).

"Symbolic meaning is enshrined within the genetic code at the core of all life..."
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What is the Genetic Code?
We should be precise about what the genetic code is. It is not exactly right to say that a sequence of DNA—that is, a gene—is a code. It is more accurate to say that a gene is an encoded sequence. The genetic code allows for the interpretation—or decoding—of this sequence. Biophysicist Vahe Bedian has stated it plainly enough: "The genetic code, which establishes the relationship between polynucleotides and polypeptides, is the set of associations between components of the polynucleotide descriptors (nucleotide triplets or codons) and the building blocks (amino acids) of polypeptides, executed by protein derived from the same code" (4).

The genetic code, like all codes, is simply an organized collection of symbolic assignments. Each of the sixty-four possible three-nucleotide RNA codons is allotted either a sense assignment—meaning that the codon is assigned to a specific amino acid—or else a nonsense assignment—meaning that the codon serves as a signal to halt translation.

The Error of Physicalism
Strangely, there are some who object to this plain understanding of the genetic code. They will make a variety of comments akin to these:

  • It’s not really a code.
  • “Code” is just a metaphor.
  • That’s an analogy.
  • Scientists use terms like “code” to help laypeople understand.
 
Statements of this kind are based in a flawed, reductionist philosophy called physicalism. The physicalist wrongly imagines that biology can be reduced to principles of physics and chemistry—that is, to purely physical phenomena. But this is simply not the case. As theoretical biologist Marcello Barbieri has noted, the genetic code "is compatible with the laws of physics and chemistry but is not dictated by them" (5). Elsewhere, he explains:

The physicalist thesis would be correct if genes and proteins were spontaneous molecules, because there is no doubt that all spontaneous reactions are completely accounted for by physical quantities. This, however, is precisely the point that molecular biology has proved wrong. Genes and proteins are not produced by spontaneous processes in living systems. They are produced by molecular machines that physically stick their subunits together and are therefore manufactured molecules, i.e. molecular artefacts (6).

Physicist Juan G. Roederer draws a similar contrast. He identifies undirected, spontaneous processes—say, a rock rolling down a hill, or water assuming the shape of a puddle—as force-driven interactions. But life does not work that way. The interactions that produce life are instead driven by information. For Roederer, these information-driven interactions represent the defining property of life, and importantly, they "would not happen (or just occur by chance) in the absence of the particular pattern at the source" (7). Philip Ball notes that "biological information and meaning do not simply arise from the bottom up (8).  Rather, we find a "specific and stronger kind of top-down causation that plays a very relevant role in biology: top-down causation by information control" (9).
 
Metaphysical Implications of the Genetic Code
This top-down causation is effected by DNA. But in the absence of the genetic code, DNA could not serve in this capacity, for "a pattern all by itself has no meaning or function (10). Meaning must be derived from a context, and, as Barbieri notes, "we cannot have codes without meaning or meaning without codes (11). DNA sequences, then, are rendered meaningful via the genetic code.
 
These sequences serve, in a causal sense, as a surrogate for an external agent. As Walker et al. have noted, "causal intervention by an external agent does not 'occur in the wild.'" Rather, "information... performs an analogous function to an external causal intervention" (12). And here, we encounter heady metaphysical implications.
 
The many and varied molecular agents of gene expression (13) are all themselves products of gene expression: manufactured molecular artefacts in accordance with the very symbolic assignments and conventions they reify. Thus, the information in DNA is self-referencing. We might fairly compare this arrangement to a dictionary written in an unknown language. Such a dictionary can tell us what all the words mean, but we must know what they mean in order to read the dictionary.
 
To move past this seeming paradox, we need only recognize that in such a case, the meaning of the words originates from a transcendent perspective. A speaker of the language has written the dictionary. The dictionary may claim a certain authority, but this is all derived from its author. Similarly, the cellular translation apparatus does not primarily define the genetic code; it is merely a physical instantiation of it. The assignment of symbolic meaning requires an agency that transcends the medium of the symbol.
 
Symbolic meaning is enshrined within the genetic code at the core of all life, and it is by virtue of this meaning that life begets life. If genes did not mean anything, the information they contain could not be decoded, and life as we know it could not be. As humans, we are unique among all the creation, for we have the capacity to recognize symbolic meaning, to seek it out, and even to create it ourselves. The symbolic meaning we observe in the genetic code is plainly not of human origin. When we encounter such meaning, we should look upwards—in worshipful gratitude and awe—toward that One who has made us in his own image.
 
References

1. Crick, F. H. C. (1958). On protein synthesis.
2. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1968/summary/
3. Crick, F. (1962). Towards the genetic code. Scientific American, 207(3), 8-16.
4. Bedian, V. (2001). Self-description and the origin of the genetic code. Biosystems, 60(1-3), 39-47. 
5. Barbieri, M. (2017). What is code biology. BioSystems. 164:1-10
6. Barbieri, M. (2016). What is information. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0060
7. Roederer, J. G. (2016). Pragmatic information in biology and physics. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0152
8. Ball, P. (2016). The problems of biological information. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0072
9. Auletta, G., Ellis, G. F., & Jaeger, L. (2008). Top-down causation by information control: from a philosophical problem to a scientific research programme. J R Soc Interface, 5(27), 1159-1172. doi:10.1098/rsif.2008.0018
10. Roederer, J. G. (2016). Pragmatic information in biology and physics. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0152
11. Barbieri, M. (2016). What is information. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0060
12. Walker, S. I., Kim, H., & Davies, P. C. (2016). The informational architecture of the cell. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci, 374(2063). doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0057
13. To include tRNA, the aminoacyltransferases, the ribosome, release factors, elongation factors, etc.
 
Lee Wimberly is an Internal Medicine physician. He has practiced hospital medicine in Birmingham, AL, for 18 years, and also serves as medical director in several post-acute care settings. He is happily married to Missi Wimberly, and they are the grateful parents of five healthy children. Lee participates on Twitter as @LeeTWimberly and blogs at https://wimberlymd.com with an emphasis on Christian apologetics and the intersection of faith and reason. His other interests include database design, photography, boating, and dogs. Lee is an ASA member.

God & Nature magazine is a publication of the American Scientific Affiliation, an international network of Christians in science: www.asa3.org