Is this simply the result of randomness?

Question: What has 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion interconnections? 

Answer: Your brain. 

This is mind-boggling to say the least, but what has perplexed neuroscientists for decades is how each and every human brain is programmed to be so unique. The answer may seem simple given our genetic make-up that differentiates one individual from another. But what about genetically identical twins raised in the same environment by the same parents? Are they identical individuals with a common set of desires, feelings, interests, intellect, and even propensity for disease? 

As it turns out, the answer is clearly NO! Individuals with identical DNA are quite different and unique. They are indeed “individuals”, with a brain that is different from all other human beings - even their identical twin. But how could this be? 

Two neuroscientists, Fred Gage and Alysson Muotri, have offered a compelling explanation in a paper entitled: “What Makes Each Brain Unique” (Scientific American, March 2012). Gage and Muotri seem to have a good grasp on how one brain differentiates itself from all others and that this differentiation seems to be taking place early during the process of embryonic development.  

As you might guess, it all seems to be happening on the sub-cellular level within the genome. Now the genome simply represents the “gene” composition of all individuals. These genes code for the synthesis of proteins which direct all body functions, including mind and brain activities. The activation or inactivation of specific genes will therefore dictate which proteins are synthesized, and which are not. Modifications to DNA can alter gene activity, resulting in an increase or decrease in the synthesis of specific proteins. And in this extremely complex molecular minutia, we have uniqueness - the reason each individual human differs from all others. 

Gage and Muotri report a complex “copy and paste” process in which specific sections of DNA are mysteriously copied and transported to new locations in ones’ genome very early in embryonic development. These copied sections are called “retrotransposons” and they affect changes in protein synthesis yielding subtle or not so subtle differences in cognitive abilities and personality traits.

The bottom line is that these differences are now thought to be the reason why the brain of each and every one of us is truly unique, including the brains of identical twins.

What is interesting here is that most of the DNA sections previously thought to be “junk DNA”, are now being identified as key contributors in this process. But no one knows what directs this “cut and paste” process. What is the driving force here?

So is this entire complicated process, which assures uniqueness, random or directed? What or “Who” directs this imprint of uniqueness and why? Is it the result of randomness driven by evolutionary processes? If so, it could be argued that these retrotransposons would ultimately be deleterious to the human race rather than beneficial. Or is it possible that this is the process that a grand Designer employs to imprint each and every one of us as an individual, uniquely and intelligently designed for a special mission?

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart……….

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)