The Image of the Holy Trinity in the Cell
"To be sure God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation"
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Paragraph 237
FATHER - SON
DNA - RNA
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THE HOLY SPIRIT
& PROTEIN
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GENERATION & TRANSCRIPTION
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SPIRATION &
TRANSLATION
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Generation & Transcription Revisited: LOOP STRUCTURE
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The Holy Spirit "loops-back" to form the basis of the Son's generation. Same with proteins...
RESURRECTING
A Dead Doctrine
In the 4th Century, St Augustine of Hippo claimed there exist images or vestiges of the Holy Trinity in the natural world.
Like a signet ring pressed into hot wax, where the signet ring represents the Trinity and the hot wax, the natural world. That is how Augustine vividly described images of the Trinity. Just as a signet ring leaves its image in the wax but not the precious material it is made from, so the Trinity has left the imprint of its structure upon nature, but not its infinite, spiritual divine substance - the stuff that God is made from. Augustine never found any images of the Trinity in the natural world. However, Augustine wasn't wrong, he was just sixteen hundred years ahead of his time.
St Augustine of Hippo predicted the existence of images of the Holy Trinity in his treatise de Trinitate (On the Holy Trinity) c. AD 412.
Living cells are more than just
ATOMS & MOLECULES
The advent of science did happen for a thousand years after Augustine. And science only really began to understand the inner workings of living cells in the last few decades.
What science has found is that cells contain things not found anywhere else in the universe, namely, molecules which communicate with one another using information and code. What is behind this complexity and sophistication within cells is nothing less than the image of the Holy Trinity.
All living cells contain the image of the Holy Trinity.
The image of the Holy Trinity
MAKES PROTEINS
There is nothing vague about the image of the Holy Trinity, it has a crucial purpose to perform within the cell, which is to construct the molecules which cells are made from: proteins.
This seems more than excessive at first sight: why is the image of God needed to make mere molecules? It is because proteins are far too complicated to be made by the laws of physics and chemistry. The Holy Trinity has therefore added the divine image not to work instead of the laws of physics and chemistry, but rather to supplement physics and chemistry. Put simply, the image of the Holy Trinity is an addition to physics.
The image of the Holy Trinity makes proteins which are the molecular building-blocks of all cells.
The image of the Holy Trinity
COMMUNICATES
GENETIC INFORMATION
The Holy Trinity is communication. We would therefore also expect communication to be central to an image of the Holy Trinity. This is precisely what we find in the cell.
Proteins are composed of smaller molecules called amino acids which are connected together in specific sequences. But proteins do not store their own amino acid sequences. The crucial information needed to make proteins is also unknown to the laws of physics. Rather, it is stored in the most famous bio-molecule of all: DNA. To make proteins, the information in DNA must be communicated from DNA into proteins. And so, whereas the Holy Trinity communicates the infinite divine nature, the image of the Holy Trinity communicates genetic information.
The essence of the image of the Holy Trinity is communication, the difference is the Holy Trinity communicates the divine nature, whereas the image communicates genetic information.
THREE
Informational Macromolecules
There are three Persons in the Holy Trinity. An image of the Holy Trinity must also be a one-to-one correspondence with the three Persons. In addition to DNA and proteins, there is a third molecule which completes the image: RNA.
The way information is stored in DNA, is different from its expression in proteins. That is, DNA and proteins use two different languages. In order for information to flow from DNA into proteins, a third molecule is needed which "knows" the genetic code which translates between the two languages. This third molecule is RNA. RNA combines the informational storage aspect of DNA, and functionality of proteins, albeit in a limited way.
Genetic information is communicated by the three informational macromolecules: DNA, RNA & protein.
DNA, RNA & Protein
Are the image of the Holy Trinity
The DNA, RNA, protein communication system is in a category of its own - their is nothing even remotely like it anywhere else in the natural world.
Science has no idea where the DNA, RNA, protein communication system came from. This is because it did not originate from within the universe. To look at DNA, RNA and protein is to see the image of the Holy Trinity. Physics and chemistry alone cannot make the proteins which compose cells, so the Holy Trinity imprinted a system capable of doing so. Like a divine signet ring pressed into hot wax, the God of Christianity directly imprinted the DNA, RNA, protein system upon organic matter. This "divine imprinting" marked the start of biology, and it was instantaneous. It was the big bang of biology.
DNA, RNA & protein are the image of the Holy Trinity.
How can we be sure?
TRINITARIAN NAMES
DNA, RNA and protein have exactly the same pattern of names as the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
The Father and the Son have similar names - as does DNA and RNA. In contrast, protein has a noticeably different name from DNA RNA - just like the Holy Spirit has a different name in relation to the Father and the Son. This is not the most rigorous evidence for the image of the Holy Trinity.
However, it is certainly the most visible, and will therefore be the most compelling for many people. The image of the Holy Trinity can be perceived without any specialist knowledge of theology or biochemistry. One only has to see or utter three short words: "DNA", "RNA", "protein".
The names DNA, RNA and protein have a Trinitarian pattern.
The same
COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE
DNA, RNA and protein, and the Holy Trinity have exactly the same communication structure: they both communicate in one direction.
If DNA, RNA and protein arose by purely natural naturally, there are innumerable possibilities , and the Holy Trinity have exactly the same communication structure: they both communicate in one direction.
UNIDIRECTIONAL
Communication
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different from one another, precisely because they communicate
The image of the Holy Trinity can even be seen in the names of the three informational macromolecules.
Clearly, the three informational macromolecules do not have the same names as the three Persons in the Trinity. Nevertheless, what they do have is exactly the same pattern of names. What stands out about the names of the three Persons in the Trinity is the break in the pattern: the Father and Son have similar names, whereas the Holy Spirit is different. This is what we find in the cell: DNA and RNA are obviously similar, whereas protein is clearly different from DNA and RNA.
Which is more miraculous: all cells contain the image of the Holy Trinity? Or, that biology has actually been calling it the Holy Trinity for decades?
Like a signet ring pressed into hot wax, where the signet ring represents the Trinity and the hot wax, the natural world. That is how Augustine vividly described images of the Trinity. Just as a signet ring leaves its image in the wax but not the precious material it is made from, so the Trinity has left the imprint of its structure upon nature, but not its infinite, spiritual divine substance - the stuff that God is made from. Augustine never found any images of the Trinity in the natural world. But Augustine was not wrong: he was sixteen hundred years ahead of his time.
DNA, RNA & Protein
A mirror image is a one-to-one correspondence between a reflections and its source. So an image of the Holy Trinity is a one-to-one correspondence between the natural world and the Holy Trinity.
This occurs within all living cells with the three informational macromolecules: DNA, RNA and protein. The Holy Trinity is communication, so an image of the Holy Trinity must be a communication system. Not only are DNA, RNA and protein the only molecules which require information for their construction, they are also the only molecules which communicate information.
Unidirectional communication
specifically genetic information.
The Father and the Son have similar names based on family relations. In contrast, the Holy Spirit clearly has a different type of name from the other two Persons. Meanwhile, DNA and RNA are obviously similar names, whereas protein is noticeably different. Two similar, one different - just like the Trinity.
What's in a name?
At the basis of all living cells is a unique group of three molecules - the informational macromolecules - DNA, RNA and protein. If we look closely at the names of DNA, RNA and protein, we notice something intriguing: they have exactly the same pattern of names as the three persons in the Holy Trinity.
The Father and the Son have similar names based on family relations. In contrast, the Holy Spirit clearly has a different type of name from the other two Persons. Meanwhile, DNA and RNA are obviously similar names, whereas protein is noticeably different. Two similar, one different - just like the Trinity.
What is an Image of the Holy Trinity?
An Addition to the Laws of Physics
(Not instead of)
An image of the Holy Trinity does not violate the laws of physics because it adds to physics. The origin of an image of the Holy Trinity is of course the Holy Trinity. Images are therefore examples of divine intervention in the natural world.
However, images are not miracles in the traditional sense of the term because, unlike miracles which involve the suspension or direct violation of the laws of physics, images of the Holy Trinity do not suspend or violate the laws of physics. This is because images of the Holy Trinity add to the laws of physics. They are regions of the universe where the laws of nature are extended.
Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
In the natural world
An image of the Holy Trinity is essentially the doctrine of the Holy Trinity imprinted in the natural world (apart from the divine nature).
Practically speaking, a region of the universe which contains an image of the Holy Trinity will have the same unmistakable communication structure as the Holy Trinity.
There is therefore nothing vague or ambiguous about images of the Holy Trinity. An image of the Holy Trinity should consist of the following characteristics:
- Three entities;
- Communication system;
- Communication in one direction;
- The physical equivalent generation;
- The physical equivalent spiration;
Is this an Image of the Holy Trinity?
It's tempting to think so at first sight. After all, this is a communication system, there are three computers, and they are communicating in one direction.
However, closer inspection reveals there is another entity - in addition to the three computers - which plays a central role in this system: information.
IMAGE: ❌
The information communicated by the computers is not the same as the computers themselves, it is something in addition to them - a fourth quantity.
This is not the case in the Trinity. The divine nature is not something in addition to the three Persons, rather it is identical to them. The Holy Trinity really is three.
That's not all. Who made the computer network? Human beings presumably. And who made the human beings who made the computer network? Nothing constructed the Holy Trinity because the Holy Trinity produces itself.
Not only is this small network not an image of the Holy Trinity, but an unbridgeable chasm separates all Information Technology and images of the Holy Trinity.
Is this an
image of the
Holy Trinity?
Even if we don't know anything about the theology of the Holy Trinity, and even before we begin to understand what DNA, RNA and protein actually are, we notice something interesting going on here: DNA, RNA and protein have exactly the same pattern of names as the three persons in the Holy Trinity.
The Father and the Son have similar names based on family relations, whereas the Holy Spirit clearly has a different type of name from the other two Persons. Meanwhile, DNA and RNA clearly have similar names whereas protein is noticeably different - just like the Trinity.
GOD DELUSION?
In his book, The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins states the following: "Any God capable of intelligently designing something as complicated as the DNA/protein machinery must be at least as complicated as that machinery".
Dawkins had no idea how right he was. If we compare the DNA, RNA and protein replication system with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we discover an unmistakable one-to-one correspondence: DNA, RNA and protein are the image of the Holy Trinity.
Unidirectional Communication in
THE TRINITY
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Unidirectional Communication in
THE CELL
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Three informational
molecules
At the core of all living cells is a unique set of three molecules called the three informational macromolecules: DNA, RNA and protein.
"Talking"
molecules
DNA, RNA & protein are the only molecules which require information for their construction, and they are the only molecules which communicate information.
Trinitarian
origin
Science is completely in the dark about the origin of DNA, RNA & protein. This is because they did not arise through natural processes - they came from the Holy Trinity.
What's in a name?
(The image of the Holy Trinity)
The image of the Trinity can even be seen in their names: DNA & RNA are noticeably similar just like Father & Son, whereas protein is clearly different, just like the Holy Spirit.
What are DNA, RNA & protein?
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The Image of the Holy Trinity
✅ Three;
✅ Communication;
✅ Uni-directional communication;
✅ Generation;
✅ Spiration;
Or perhaps a case of
God Delusion?
"But of course any God capable of intelligently
designing something as complex as the
DNA/protein replicating machine must
have been at least as complex and
organized as that machine itself".
Richard Dawkins
The Blind Watchmaker (1986), p. 141.
Dawkins had no idea just how right he was. The image of the Holy Trinity in biology could have been discovered forty years ago by the Author of the God Delusion.
TRINITY
The defining aspect of the Holy Trinity is communication. It goes without saying that communication is absolutely essential for an image - an image of the Holy Trinity must be a communication system. The difference is, an image of the Holy Trinity does not communicate the divine nature. An image of the Holy Trinity communicates information instead.
Father -> DNA
Just as the Father is the source of the divine nature in the Trinity, so DNA is the source of all genetic information within the cell. Also, the Father does not receive the divine nature from anyone else. Similarly, DNA does not receive genetic information from any other molecules within the cell.
Son -> RNA
The Son is not the source of his own divine nature, rather the Son receives his divine nature from the Father - it is communicated from the Father to the Son. Similarly, RNA does not store its own genetic information. RNA receives genetic information from DNA.
Holy Spirit -> Protein
The Son communicates the divine nature to the Holy Spirit and RNA communicates genetic information to proteins. So, DNA and RNA are like the Father and the Son because they communicate. While proteins are unmistakably like the Holy Spirit, because proteins cannot communicate - just like the Holy Spirit.
Recall...
- Father - Gives only
- Son - Gives and Receives
- Holy Spirit - Receives only
(The divine nature)
Now we find...
- DNA - Gives only
- RNA - Gives and Receives
- Protein - Receives only
(Genetic information)
Summary
Unlike the Holy Trinity, there are no limitations on the structure of a physical communication system. A molecular communication system can - in theory - consist of any number of molecules, and have any number of architectures. But the only which actually exists in nature, namely, DNA, RNA and protein, has exactly the same structure as the Holy Trinity.
6. The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology (Top)
I do not know which is more miraculous: DNA, RNA and protein having the structure of the Holy Trinity. Or, being Christened the Central Dogma of molecular biology, by the scientific community.
Dogma is a theological concept meaning an unquestionable truth. Since nothing in science is beyond question, dogmas per se, certainly do not exist in science. The fact that a world-renowned scientist could even think of calling a scientific discovery a "dogma" is one thing, for it to be accepted by the rest of the scientific community, and be accepted for publication in the most prestigious scientific journals such as Nature, is quite another. And yet this is precisely what happened when Francis Crick proposed the Central Dogma of molecular biology in 1958 and 1970. The wonder doesn't stop here either.
The Holy Trinity is not just any dogma in Christianity. Every other dogma in Christianity flows from the Holy Trinity. In other words, the Holy Trinity is the central dogma of Christianity.
The Central Dogma of molecular biology will go down in history as the most appropriately named discovery in the history of science. Precisely because it is the image of the central dogma of Christianity, the Holy Trinity. What makes this all the more powerful is the fact that Francis Crick was not a Christian, or even a believer, he was a complete atheist. So, who's been whispering in Crick's ear? There have been various attempts over the years to try and prove the Central Dogma wrong. None of these attempts have succeeded, nor will they ever. Because DNA, RNA and protein really were imprinted by the Holy Trinity. Let me show you why.
The Central Dogma and the
Silence of the Holy Spirit (Top)
The Central Dogma of molecular biology states that when genetic information flows into proteins, it does not get out again. In other words, proteins only ever receive genetic information, they never on any occasion whatsoever, give or communicate it. Proteins are essentially silent.
Proteins are a molecular mirror-image of the Holy Trinity. As we have seen, the Holy Spirit only receives the divine nature, He never gives it. We can phrase this just like Crick's dogma by saying, "once the divine nature flows into the Holy Spirit, it never leaves". Because the Holy Spirit never communicates the divine nature, He is the silent divine person.
Resounding confirmation of this is found in the Bible: the Holy Spirit does not speak a single word anywhere in the Bible. The Father speaks throughout the Old Testament and a couple of times in the New Testament. The Son speaks (a lot) through the person of Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit never utters a single word.
The silence is deafening. So much so that the Apostles were even unaware of the Holy Spirit's existence: "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit" (Acts of the Apostles 19:2).
This is the reason why no protein in the history of the universe has ever communicated genetic information.
The Flow of Genetic Information (Top)
DNA, RNA and protein have exactly the same uni-directional pattern of communication as the Holy Trinity. Just as the divine nature flows in one direction from the Father through the Son and finally into the Holy Spirit, so genetic information flows from DNA through RNA and into proteins.
Other lines of communication do exist in biology. However, these other communications by no means disprove the image of the Holy Trinity. Since unidirectional communication from DNA to RNA to protein is the foundation of biology.
Uni-directional communication is the most fundamental because of the fact that proteins are the molecular building-blocks of cells. Without this uni-directional communication, there would be no proteins and therefore no cells or organisms.
DNA replication is an example of a communication which does not exist in the Trinity. When cells multiply, the DNA needs to be copied, there is a DNA to DNA transfer, or replication of DNA.
This is necessary because clearly more than one cell exists in biology. In contrast, there is only one God, so there is no need for communication from Father to Father or divine replication.
DNA replication, therefore, does not contradict the image of the Holy Trinity. Rather it is an extension of it. It wouldn't exist without the image of the Holy Trinity embedded in DNA, RNA and protein.
Another example is reverse transcription in viruses where genetic information is communicated in the reverse direction from RNA to DNA. Again, this is no contradiction, it is an example of how biology builds on the divine image: viruses don't exist in eternity!
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