Mathematics of Evolution, October 1, 1999, Fred Hoyle, chapter 15 (like long agnostic Astronomer and Mathematician)
The Probability of Evolution
The Probability of the "First Living Cell"
Every gene of the "first living cell" had to form totally by random mutations of amino acids or nucleotides. There were no prior living cells (by definition) from which to serve as a pattern for the ordering of its amino acids or nucleotides.
To understand what the totally random formation of nucleotides is like, let us talk about Shakespeare. Suppose we put Shakespeare's King Henry VIII play into a computer and then scrambled the letters up randomly (we will also scramble up the spaces between words). Then, suppose we isolated 900 of these randomly generated letters and spaces. This is what the scrambled King Henry VIII might look like (note: a period ('.') is really a space in this list):
.gibmmeg.signrryd.uet..mrhbhcro..efeul.feoe.ewe.li.befubl.ne
k.ekenlhinat.oaet.hwde.trmtrlev..t.eluttl.r.hfdsepilrsafcltt
tv.esewes.y.holgo.nlialywlggtrd.a..r.lhcm..juldagute.imtkckh
.ooat..hrviesl.maablhe....asohf.a.e.i.r.nwnnnooolasia.atordw
yhviondseabdme.ntonlmnfor.ya.livyyceae..m.ii.o..aoaactliahtr
satythhrcwnrro.re.rca.anlitdntdtmihleosseiveammouweesrrtafli
peeittehfrnre..teyl..eiso.bytrk.dhcaemoigeieip.ut.oeymnm.nyu
sipseoo...othcttyeh..hbuaecsysesrus.rs.yaa..ly.tttrte.yihwra
m.cet.dolwdeen..keiehi.bannu.irwa.le.teotli.snot...dmluc.adf
iiocehdgdt.r.wo.aamr.w.aioisehh.r.ek.gtiigreaies..c.pohpnots
.ncyl...reauidhtesa.itthenldts.ioak.euwbieat.ionerk.otiftyr.
o.h.gtfhtnom..sesai....dgawutedie.on.dnechtua..pdertntar.ete
.noriehamehooevsedaiafsooi.mw.otlhistdm.s.e..aeh.ll.dkesuaa.
h.eosrdgye.dtesbctsoernlnsoacs.tanoyurhh..nwnhe.tdpako.tkyaa
aceehfcgt.hnmireds.ensi.dyinrwn.ohh.whofe.e.wcra.srt.yoktean
The gene complexes of the "first living cell" did not have viable patterns of nucleotides to serve as a pattern, thus the above attempt to replicate Shakespeare, from scratch, is a visual example of what the DNA of the "first living cell" would have looked like if we could "read" DNA as easily as we could read Shakespeare.
In other words, the first attempt to create a DNA strand for the "first living cell" would have been total gibberish because there was no prior pattern or ordering from which to pull nucleotides.
What if we randomly modified pure gibberish? I hope you understand that if you take gibberish, and randomly mutate it with more gibberish, you will still have gibberish.
So what mechanism converted pure gibberish into a viable DNA strand for the "first living cell?" There was no such mechanism because there was no life on this earth prior to the "first living cell."
The important thing to note is that there is no intelligence in the above Shakespeare rearrangement of its letters.
Actually, the above chart was generated by random numbers, but the random numbers were "weighted" by the exact proportion of letters in Shakespeare's play. For example, a letter of the alphabet that appeared very rarely in the play would appear very rarely in a "weighted" or "biased" randomly generated listing.
You won't get a better grade in literature class by reading thousands of pages of randomly generated letters of the alphabet, even when they are "weighted" by the actual proportion of each letter in the actual play.
Likewise, when we randomly scramble nucleotides, we would not expect to have a sequence of nucleotides which would provide any "information" or "intelligence" which would be useful to the "first living cell."
A scrambled; or randomly put together sequence of nucleotides; would not be expected to make a viable gene complex any more than a scrambled King Henry VIII play would tell us much about who King Henry VIII was and what his part was in the play. The play was named after him so you can assume he was one of the main characters (I suppose most people would consider him a villain, but others might consider him to be a role model).
In addition to randomness, there was no "survival of the fittest" in creating the "first living cell," meaning there were no intermediate semi-live cells which would provide a clue as to what the nucleotide sequences should look like.
