DNA Rules of the Road and Incredulity

Every biology student learns of two massive machines that operate on the DNA molecule. There is the transcription machine that makes a single-stranded copy of a gene, and there is the replication machine that makes a double-stranded copy of the DNA double helix. The former is the first step in the protein synthesis process while the latter is part of the cell division process. But what happens when these different machines meet as they operate on the same stretch of DNA? What are the rules of the DNA road?

New research suggests that the highly intricate replication process is not destabilized by head-on collisions wth the transcription machine, but merely pauses while it displaces the intruder. To do this it uses a protein that otherwise helps with transcription repair. As the paper explains:

These findings demonstrate the intrinsic stability of the replication apparatus and a previously unknown role for the transcription-coupled repair pathway in promoting replication past a RNAP [replisome and RNA polymerase] block.

It is research that is both important and interesting. And, as with any new finding, it may be relevant to the question of evolution. For instance, perhaps the theory of evolution had led us to predict this finding. Or, almost as good, perhaps the finding is reasonably inferred from the theory.

In this case a such a retrodiction would go something like this: If evolution is true then we would expect the replication machine to oust the transcription machine because random mutations could lead to such a design, but not to other conceivable designs.

But what if, on the other hand, evolution did not favor such a design? What if there was no such prediction, or retrodiction? Then it would be more difficult to enlist the design as support for evolution. In fact, what if evolution has no plausible explanation for the design?

In this case, perhaps the replication and transcription machines successfully negotiating their way in the crowded environment, resolving head-on collisions, and having an established “rules-of-the-road” is not likely given evolution’s random biological variation under the winnowing hand of natural selection. Here we would have a finding which does not fit evolutionary explanation, and the evidence shifts over from the plus column to the minus column.

What is interesting is how evolutionists routinely react to such findings. When presented with such designs, evolutionists almost invariably erect a series of fallacious roadblocks. You can see these same roadblocks used repeatedly, and they speak volumes about evolutionary thought.

One such fallacious roadblock is that placing such evidence in the minus column amounts to an argument from incredulity. “You can’t imagine how evolution could possibly have created such a design,” say evolutionists, “and so you think it is evidence against evolution.” It is a strange argument that places the burden on the one evaluating a theory also to defend the theory.

In fact anyone can “imagine” how evolution might have constructed the design, but what is needed is a plausible explanation. Evolutionists want us simply to accept an empty narrative. The problem is not incredulity on the part of the evaluator but credulity on the part of the evolutionist. “Don’t worry, it evolved” is not a plausible explanation.

This fallacious complaint of evolutionists also is another sign of the protectionism that runs through evolutionary thought. If findings that a theory does not explain are not allowed in the minus column, then what could possibly harm the theory? It is the ultimate form of unfalsifiability. Evidences that the theory explains make it a fact and DNA rules-of-the-road don’t count because that would be an argument from incredulity.