From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxr!lew Newsgroups: net.religion Title: flesh of beasts Article-I.D.: ihuxr.335 Posted: Thu Feb 17 21:50:37 1983 Received: Fri Feb 18 01:49:02 1983 Reply-To: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) In his "reasonism is not a religion" posting Steve Hutchison stated: "Reason" has not only persecuted the devout, but it even persecutes its own. For example, the dogma is still taught in biochemistry that the DNA is the "living" part of the cell, just as the dogma it replaced was that the cell nucleus was the "living" part and the cell wall before that. (endquote) I think this is a misrepresentation of the "central dogma" of molecular biology. This "dogma" is that the DNA acts solely as a read-only memory without being itself affected by the cell metabolism. Perhaps Steve was mingling the dogma idea with the commonly made statement that the DNA code is the "secret of life". I don't think this phrase is in the least hyperbolic. Laugh if you will at the manufacture of a giant mouse by recombinant techniques, but laugh uneasily. Modern molecular biology is no routine succesor to the long line of speculations concerning cell metabolism and heredity. It is the rock bottom truth. In I Corinthians Paul says, "All flesh is not the same flesh: there is flesh of men, flesh of beasts, of birds, and of fishes - all different." This is simply wrong. The universality of the genetic code is a fact. Does a Christian dare to seriously ponder its implications? Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew