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In the Beginning Was Information

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In this fascinating book, the author Werner Gitt explains in detail the principle of information theory, namely defining the characteristics of information and all the observational evidence we have for the origin and formation of information. He carefully and clearly delineates what is considered information for the purposes of the theory, and the 5-level structure of information, which includes Statistics, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, and Apobetics. It is shown that the well-known theory of information given by Shannon is an important contribution, but can only describe the lowest (statistical) level of information, while ignoring the most crucial aspects of its higher level definition. All information, as defined by the book, has these higher level aspects, which include the structure and code (syntax); the meaning (semantics); the intended action (pragmatics); and purpose or goal (apobetics). Of course that is an oversimplification of the concept, but Gitt does a fine job of explaining it with numerous fascinating examples both from the biological and technical realm.

Gitt shows how all attempts to generate (or simulate the generation of) information apart from a mental process have failed. This is the most fundamental hurdle that the theory of evolution must overcome in order to claim validity as a complete explanation of the origin of life apart from the Creator or a mental source. DNA is undeniably information, and it is coded in such an efficient and marvelous way, that it is utterly unmatched by the greatest technological advancements of today. Even an experiment to show the formation of meaningful DNA from materialistic processes, in sufficient quantity to produce life, would still fall far short of proving this necessary step for evolution, since apart from a meaningful context of proteins and RNA to participate in the replication, transcription, and translation of the information in DNA, DNA is useless. And as it is well known in biology, the paradox goes deeper: the proteins that are required for replication, etc are coded for BY the DNA! The challenge of information theory to evolution can not be brushed aside, and this book does an excellent job of laying out the theory in a detailed yet understandable and compelling manner.

Gitt's book offers a fresh look at the creation and evolution debate by presenting a robust positive case for creation on the basis of the theorems and natural laws encompassed by information theory and the countless observations that have affirmed this theory. He discuss numerous examples that have been proposed contrary to the it, and how they have failed to falsify the theory. Gitt devotes limited time to discounting evolution, but makes reference to other writings of his that deal with it more specifically. The purpose of the book is not so much to deconstruct evolutionary theory, but to establish by scientific theorems that all known information has a mental source, and this has yet to be disproven. He is also unabashedly a Christian and a believer in special creation, which comes across clearly in his book, yet he rightly admits that the existence of God can not be proved. However, he points out the consistency of the inference of a Creator with all other observations about information.

"In the Beginning Was Information" will be a very informative book not only for creationists, but evolutionists as well, due to its thorough explanation of information. If you read this book, by all means read the appendix at the end, it contains some of the most intriguing examples in the whole book!

This book has the potential of absolutely destroying all materialistic theories of the origin of life. No book since Darwin's Origin of the Species, in my opinion, can compare with this one in its profound and far reaching implications - if it is read. No, I am not a salesman but perhaps I can influence a true freethinker and seeker of truth to see what I am talking about.

A man named Claude E. Shannon defined information on a statistical level and many atheists such as Richard Dawkins have misused the truths that he discovered as proof that the coded information contained in DNA can arise through "natural selection" or is explained by a random process that undergoes evolution and "self replication" until viable information is attained.

Professor Werner Gitt refutes that idea and similar hypotheses absolutely by the use of empirical evidence. The book is written both for the layman and the experts who require complicated formulas. The more elaborate scientific explanations are contained in the appendix. The author shows by the application of information theorems that the specified sequence of the nucleotide "letters" in DNA (ATCG) and their effectual division into triplets (codons) that is coordinated with the translation process MUST be the result of a mental process and not a material or chemical one. He shows that material explanations for the origin of the information contained in DNA and a living cell are inherently absurd and impossible. His conclusions are based not upon speculation but on scientific theorems.

The implication should be obvious. First, it becomes apparent immediately that whether the theory of evolution is true or not it cannot operate without intelligent input. Secondly, it throws a monkey wrench into all naturalistic and materialistic theories that pertain to the origin of life and its development whether through natural selection or direct creation. If a mental source must be assumed in order for information to exist then all bets are off because life is based upon the coded information contained in DNA. "RNA worlds", "self replicating molecules", and endless speculation on random self organization of amino acids and nucleotide bases becomes irrelevant because they violate established laws of science. These information laws, theorems or maxims fly in the face of all naturalistic explanations of the origin of life and the coded information contained in it.

The book is well written and is easy to read. The author simplifies the problems so that they can be understood by anyone who is capable of rational thought.

This book was my first real attempt at studying the science of Information theory. Professor Gitt made a complex topic understandable and interesting. Some sections I skipped because they were beyond me, but the book as a whole was understandable even by a none mathematician such as myself. I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in the topic.

This book has a few gems of genius, but you have to be willing to slog through a lot of extremely dense writing to uncover them.

Why do people believe evolution could not have worked? In a logical and scientific manner Dr. Gitt explains why he concludes evolution is not possible. If you are one who subscribes to the theory of evolution you might take the challenge of reading the book and looking for gaps in his logic. Either way you come down on the topic of evolution / creation you will be sure to learn a great deal from this book.

I have a degree in Statistics, so, this subject really interested me. It is an outstanding piece of work. And like most books that deal with the concept of a creator, it automatically will get a 1 star from evolutionists trying to discredit the work. It amazes me that peole don't realize the leap of faith it takes to believe in evolution. The bottom line is that there are people who do not want to believe God created us because that means we are accountible to Him.

The author tries mixing science with religion to prove that god exists, essentially using arguments from the middle ages. Let's see how he does on both scores:

The religion-

He says "There is no useless or false information in the Bible, since God's Word is absolutely true:" However this is a conclusion as are all of his 30 theorems which do not prove anything. More importantly any religion that has a creator would satisfy all of his theorems (we'll look at some below) and so choosing the Bible as the single truth is just a form of religious bigotry.

The science -

1. He tackles none of the Bible's inconsistencies with modern science such as carbon dating (age of the earth and fossils), geological (e.g. fossil sedementary placings, sequences, DNA etc) and the evidence that the first life were simple life-forms like bacteria. He would rather write an entire book using the interpretative tool of information as opposed to any concrete evidence.

2. He says life is so complex it had to be created by a brilliant mind. He says this is proven by man's lack of ability to re-create. He quotes that "all evolutionary theses that living systems developed from poly-nucleotides which originated spontaneously, are devoid of any empirical base." This is comparable to a medieval philosopher saying 'man cannot fly' or 'no machine can replace the horse and buggy.' One cannot prove a negative. 'There are no planes so man cannot fly?' Obviously not proven.

3. Modern science indicates that evolution arises from genetic mutations and selections subject to the environment. However he says "It should be clear from Theorem 27 that random processes cannot give rise to information." Why not?
Theorem 27 -"Any model for the origin of life (and of information) based solely on physical and/or chemical processes, is inherently false." However this is a conclusion as are most of his theorems.

4. Witt first dismisses Shannon's information theory as irrelevant to biology. This is due to his lack of understanding of its applications to molecular biology.
Theorem 1- "The fundamental quantity information is a non-material mental entity." However Gitt is well aware that no mental activity is involved at the genetic level where the DNA code is read by ribsomes etc. He wants you to believe Theorem 1 is a fundamental truth which it is not and later his analysis eventually leads to his concept of relevant information (to decide the question of life and god) being 'creative information'. He says "This is the highest level of transmitted information: something new is produced." The critical issue now is the 'newness' of the information, having finally admitted that 'information' itself is not mental (if it was his book could have ended after theorem 1 which is just a tautology.)

This leads to his final 2 theorems:
"Theorem 29 - Every piece of creative information represents some mental effort and can be traced to a personal idea-giver...
Theorem 30 - New information can only originate in a creative thought process."

And so these are circular, 'creative information is new and new information is (necessarily) creative'? Modern science indicates that life evolves from mutations but he says "mutations can only cause changes in existing information" and so do not provide new information. If so he should have dedicated most of the book to descrediting the modern science of self-organization but he gives it short shrift next. We'll see he can't prove self-organization does not exist and so it's better to pretend to prove information by definition means there is a god! This is non-scientific, biased and medieval.

5. He quotes with approval that "Not even the physical building blocks required for the storage of the information can construct themselves." However his analysis of self-organization is shallow and he ignores most of the scientific findings. (Theorem: It is better to ignore what you cannot prove?) Let's have a look at some of the scientific literature:

Self-organization can be generally described as the spontaneous formation of structures where elements interact to achieve global behaviour. The first issue is does it exist? If it exists does it offer an alternative to a god? Gitt seems to infer it does not exist but in fact it does. For instance in 'the appearance of a new species, of a new mode of behaviour, of a new technology, of a new product or idea.' (Ebeling et al., Germany) Now Gitt would say all of these examples require minds. Well here is one that does not but we have to get more technical, and there are many: "Turbulance in two-dimentional fluids self-organizes through the mechanism of the inverse energy cascade. In the absence of dissipation this leads to the condensation of the spectral energy at the largest scale allowed by the system. The condensate formation in 2D fluids has been observed in experiments and numerical simulations." (Shats et al., Australia) "Many approaches have been developed to yield nanoparticles by chemical means and let them self-organize in 2D or 3D arrays." (Fruchart; France) "By all we know nature evolves in a self-organised critical state." (See P. Bak, "How Nature Works')

Since self-organization can and does exist, Gitt's references to the impossible are now possible and so not disproven. Gitt has not in turn proven anything. Life and evolution show all of the signs of self-organization, with increasing complexity adapting to more complex environments, consistent with the fossil records and with the ongoing evolution of biological information through mutations and natural selection. In turn humans continue to learn, building airplanes and cars and computers of increasing sophistication, even though we may not have discovered the 'formula' for life yet.

I see by the review of Gitt's book 'Questions I Have Always Wanted To Ask' that Gitt is driven by circular religious arguments
in his zeal to descredit everyone who differs.

Dr. Gitt, author of "In the Beginning was Information", is retired from several prestigious scientific positions at the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology. He has written numerous scientific papers on information science, mathematics, and control engineering. As an evangelist, he once saved 51 people at a gathering. He has written at least four creationist books, including the present one.

In this book, Dr. Gitt starts out explaining how the laws of nature operate. He also tells us that God wasn't constrained by them during the six days of creation, but did set them up at that time. Since then we mortals have been constrained by them, but God, of course, can circumvent them, as he often did during Old and New Testament times.

The Author next discusses Information. He points out that Shannon's Information Theory ignores the quality of the meaning in a message. Dr. Gitt then proceeds to develop several dozen or so theorems to fill in this gap. He states that his theorems are as immutable as the laws of nature he discussed earlier. He concludes that the theorems show it takes intelligence to come up with information and since DNA is a repository of information, it couldn't have arisen by chance, so must have been designed by God.

Dr. Gitt quotes several Biblical passages to show that Jesus is the Source of all energy, matter, and biological information. He states that the Bible is absolutely true, it contains no useless or false information; no other information can even approach it: It contains the most important information conceivable and is always up-to-date. We may not delete or add anything to its message. He bewails the fact that despite all this, most scientists bypass the Bible and submit themselves to the mental corset of a belief in evolutionary theory -- which Gitt claims to have scientifically shown to be erroneous.

Dr. Gitt applies his Information theorems to the Bible, and supplements some earlier portions of his book with an often-technical appendix. He presents interesting comparisons between some of the world's languages. He precludes an evolutionary development of languages from scratch because some people are too dumb to have originated the language they use: Instead, God gifted man with this special ability when he created him. He later parceled out a lot of new languages at the Babel judgement to replace the one original language. Adam possibly received the gift of writing along with the gift of speech.

If you are a creationist, this book may well help to reinforce your beliefs. If, like me, you don't have a literal belief in all the details of Geneses, then you might find portions of Gitt's book to be rather bizarre.

The central thesis that information cannot arise naturally, but requires an intelligent mental source, is as mistaken as the idea that order cannot arise naturally owing to the second law of thermodynamics. This common creationist argument has long been discredited. On the contrary, according to the second law, there is nothing preventing order and information in a system from increasing naturally, provided that the system is not isolated from the environment and that there is a net increase in disorder of the universe as a whole.

Even if the central thesis of Gitt's book were correct (which it is not), it would imply that God's omniscient mind (which is therefore a highly complex information processor) was the product of another intelligent creator, and that that second intelligent creator's mind was the product of yet a third intelligent creator, ad infinitum. Of course, positing an infinite regress of intelligent creators is hardly a satisfactory solution to the origin of information.

In contrast, principles of Darwinian evolution by natural selection combined with the demonstrated capacity of natural systems for spontaneous self-organization are sufficient to account for the emergence of information and complexity in a manner that is fully consistent with the second law of thermodynamics.