The Tetragrammaton in DNA?

Be cautious around sensational claims. One claim that surfaces from time to time is that the Hebrew spelling of Jehovah, the Tetragrammaton, is encoded in our DNA like a signature of the Creator. While this claim is endearing, is it also delusional? While many seem to accept this claim uncritically, I personally have always found it to be highly suspect, even wildly absurd. It turns out my skepticism was well-founded and immediately justified. This claim that the Tetragrammaton is encoded in our DNA is fake-news.

So here is the claim spelled out, and the problems with it:

It’s a code that’s written in acid. ATCG is the name of the acid, and these acids are held together by these sulfuric bridges like a chain, and these bridges appear in a sequence, and it’s every ten, every five, every six, and again, every five. In Hebrew gematria, that spells the Tetragrammaton YHWH 10, 5, 6, 5!

First, the scientific problems are that:

1. DNA is an acid (deoxyribonucleic acid) that contains four nucleotides, not acids, ATCG: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.
2. There are no “sulfuric bridges,” thus also no sequence.
3. Instead, DNA is held together by hydrogen bonds between base pairs. Sulfur creates strong bonds that would interfere with DNA replication. Disulfide bonds are sulfur bonds that are found in proteins, not DNA. They form after protein synthesis.

Second, the linguistic problem is that it assumes that Hebrew predates its appearance in the archeological record and even the dawn of humanity—that the Tetragrammaton was predestined to be the spelling of His name with that specific sequence of letters.

Thus, I hope you are completely convinced that this claim is delusional propaganda best to be ignored and forgotten.

(Frankly, this is almost as bad as the claims regarding the cruciform protein laminin! See: What is laminin?.)