Fit for a Purpose: Does the Anthropic Principle include Biochemistry?

The author does a tremendous job in creating a case for an Intelligent Designer. Many portions of the book contain detailed biochemical processes and theories but don't be put off by the technical info. The author has the remarkable ability to take the scientific bio chemical principles and explain them in an easily understood format.

As a scientist and software developer, I have had opportunity to see some amazingly designed code that is put together so cleverly that is stuns the imagination. When I read Fuzale Rana’s book, Fit for a Purpose, the genius of the designer and coder of life’s systems is shown to be of orders of magnitude greater intelligence than anything humans are capable. Not only is the code itself amazing. The language, the special features, the robustness is beyond compare. And it is also obvious that the very materials for which the code is implemented has properties that are clearly part of the design. Dr. Rana has done an outstanding job in gathering all this information together and presenting it in a way that, even without understanding all the details, one can still appreciate the degree to which biosystems have been clearly designed and are fit for life.

“Fit for a Purpose” should become a classic, but I suspect it will not. It should be required reading for every biochemistry student, but that seems unlikely.In “Fit for a Purpose,” Dr. Rana shows how fundamental biochemical processes require the precise components which they have. In some cases, the pathways seem balanced on a knife’s edge. Rather than being the result of blind processes stumbling on one possible solution out of many, the biochemical solutions seem to be the only solution or at least the very best solution.Dr. Rana presents the various positions so honestly that at some points I was not sure if he was presenting his position or an opposing position. I think this points to an honest effort to fairly present the various sides. This posture seems rare even in the realm of science.How did the pathways develop without a knowing mind to choose the components and arrange them? Dr. Rana references studies which show that various compounds critical to pathways might have been available on a primordial earth. But none of the studies show had the pathways could have arisen complete with enzymes and feedback mechanisms.Dr. Rana has attempted to present a complex subject at a level that an educated layman can grasp. To a large degree, I think he as succeeded. But some prior knowledge of biochemistry is still helpful. Even with some knowledge of biochemistry I had to read some paragraphs multiple times.Highly recommended for anyone who wants to appreciate some of the amazing “coincidences” that make life possible.

For decades, physicists and astronomers have recognized that the universe is fine-tuned for life to exist right here on Earth, at this very time. This "anthropic" nature of existence focuses on the big scheme of things, and is certainly enough to suggest a designer, but can the same evidence be seen at a biochemical level? Rana, in his follow-up to The Cell's Design, and Creating Life in a Lab, shows that this in fact the case.While much has been said about design in biology (Rana's other books, Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell, etc.), Fit for a Purpose is the first to synthesis the latest science together in some time. Rana notes Michael Denton's book Nature's Destiny did this, but that was in 1998 (Denton has recently followed up his book with four books in the Privileged Species series). After giving an introduction to the cosmographical background, Rana examines chemistry of our world, then the structures that build life (proteins, nucleic acids, cells, etc). Down to the smallest molecules, every aspect of biochemistry defies arising from chance.Be prepared for a heavy dose of science. This is the biology class you never had, and one with profound implications for human existence.(For more on the astronomy and physics aspects, see Hugh Ross' Improbable Planet, The Creator and the Cosmos, and Why the Universe is the Way it Is.)

Anthropic reasoning has come into prominence over the past few decades to explain why the universe is the way it is. More recent thinking has explored how extensive and deep the anthropic principle manifests itself in nature. Author Rana, in his hallmark style of clarity and thoroughness, tackles this question in this book that is a delight to read from beginning to end. He extends the principle into the biochemistry of life drawing on his own research in this area. It is stunning to see from Rana’s analyses how uniquely and perfectly fit the components and processes of biochemistry are for life. He then goes even deeper to discuss the question of the metaphysical, philosophical, and theological implications of the anthropic principle. Finally, perhaps as a peek into how music may be uniquely fit for human life, Rana weaves into his theme the fitness of certain musical soundtracks to his own life. I believe this book will turn out to be a classic on this topic.