It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson

Imagine if Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson had a conversation like this:

‘It’s elementary, my dear Watson. There is no God and life was not created. The god hypothesis is rather discredited.’

‘Yes, Holmes, such religious beliefs are just myths from the past … Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely … Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours … ,’ said Dr Watson.

The above statements were made recently by a real Dr Watson and his former research colleague, Dr Crick, in a London Daily Telegraph (UK) report.

These two ardent atheists are being honored this year on the 50th anniversary of their discovery of the double helix structure of the molecule of heredity, DNA.

The newspaper report states, ‘The two scientists who discovered the structure of DNA in Cambridge 50 years ago have used the anniversary to mount an attack on religion.’

Without doubt, their discovery was a milestone in biochemistry and genetics. But sadly, these two scientists’ disdain for the Bible and creation is reflected in the commemorative displays and paraphernalia associated with this anniversary.

The Science Centre in London (located right beside the famous Natural History Museum) has a display of Watson and Crick’s original DNA model, as well as an exhibit to teach the thousands of students who visit daily about DNA, genes, etc. I visited this display during my recent speaking tour.

It was so sad, in fact distressing, to watch thousands of young and impressionable students read such statements as:

‘Some of us think that we humans have a special place in the animal kingdom. However, the human genome is similar to a chimpanzee’s, and has a lot in common with the genome of a fruit fly.’

In other words, humans are really no different to a chimp or a fruit fly. After all, from an evolutionary perspective we are all just animals—humans are not special.

Watson and Crick (and most secular scientists today) basically believe that because we now know from DNA that life functions on the basis of the the laws of chemistry and physics, those laws, not a Creator, produced life. However, this is an illogical conclusion.

Noticeably missing from the discussions and exhibits was material concerning the information and code system of which DNA is a part—which creation scientists like Dr Werner Gitt have pointed out—could not arise as a result of mere physical and chemical laws, but had to be produced by an intelligence (the Creator God)—see Q&A: Information Theory.

The UK Post Office even issued five stamps to commemorate this anniversary [see Apes Are Our Brothers—Just Ask the Post Office]. One of the stamps (see right) pictured a chimp and a man staring at each other—representing the belief that DNA research supposedly shows chimps and humans are closely related.1

As I walked through the Science Centre Exhibits and the Natural History Museum, read the newspaper articles on Watson and Crick and obtained a set of the commemorative stamps, my soul ached to see the AiG Creation Museum up and running so we can be more effective in stemming the tide of atheistic evolutionary humanism sweeping the globe.

I wonder what effect Watson and Crick might have had on the world if they had concluded, ‘It’s elementary, my dear Watson; just as Romans 1:20 states, it’s obvious there is an all-powerful God.’ They sadly didn’t say this, but we can!