The Search for the Origin of Life by Naturalistic Processes: Abiogenesis and Chemical Evolution
by Owen Borville
An explanation for the origin of life and the appearance of the first living things is difficult for the evolutionists to explain. Because the evolutionists require an entirely secular explanation of the origin of life, the Biblical explanation of the creation week is rejected by today's mainstream scientists. Evolutionists believe that today's more complex life forms evolved slowly and gradually over million of years from simpler forms of life. However, how do evolutionists believe that the first life forms appeared? Random, spontaneous chemical reactions are believed to have led to the origin of life from the simplest molecules. The most simple amino acids and sugars are believed to have combined together to form the basic building blocks of life and more complex structures such as proteins, genes, and cell membranes. Scientists point toward the artificial production of urea by Friedrich Wohler in 1828 to prove that organic material can be produced by natural processes.
Abiogenesis is the theory that life can form spontaneously from non-life under certain conditions (as opposed to biogenesis, which say that life can only come from life). A laboratory experiment led by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1952 set out to simulate the conditions of early earth and test the chemical origin of life. The experiment aimed to determine if organic compounds could be produced by chemical reactions with inorganic materials in the laboratory setting. Creationists explain that the multiple parts of living cells work together and are dependent on each other. Therefore, the living cell could not function without all of its component parts. Genes require enzymes to function, while genes are necessary to produce enzymes. Genes and cells cannot function without ribosomes and critical enzymes such as polymerase, helicase, and gyrase along with many critical proteins. In other words, all of the components of the cell were needed at once to function and this could only occur as the result of a special creation (1).
The Miller and Urey experiment attempted to create the conditions of the early earth "three and a half billion years ago" by using electric sparks to simulate lightning into a mixture of primitive gases, including ammonia, methane, hydrogen, and water vapor. These gases were condensed in a flask into liquid and heated to simulate ocean water, and as the liquid became vapor it was exposed to the electrode sparks in the cycle. The condensed liquid contained amino acids, which are organic materials. Miller and Urey were able to create organic molecules from inorganic materials, but the experiment could not explain how essential proteins are produced to create life. Evolutionary scientists must explain how different chemical molecules began to work together to create the genetic code. Also, scientists must answer how the first living things began to reproduce. Scientists must also answer why life has not been found outside of earth and on other planets, despite much effort to prove otherwise. (2) Creationists have explained that the probability of non-organic and organic chemical molecules combining to form living cells by naturalistic means is extremely unlikely and the probability of simple life becoming complex life spontaneously is even more unlikely without supernatural forces.
(1) Bergman, J., Why the Miller-Urey research argues against abiogenesis, J. Creation 18(2):28–36, August 2002.
(2) Can Science Explain the Origin of Life? Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Institute of Technology, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
by Owen Borville
An explanation for the origin of life and the appearance of the first living things is difficult for the evolutionists to explain. Because the evolutionists require an entirely secular explanation of the origin of life, the Biblical explanation of the creation week is rejected by today's mainstream scientists. Evolutionists believe that today's more complex life forms evolved slowly and gradually over million of years from simpler forms of life. However, how do evolutionists believe that the first life forms appeared? Random, spontaneous chemical reactions are believed to have led to the origin of life from the simplest molecules. The most simple amino acids and sugars are believed to have combined together to form the basic building blocks of life and more complex structures such as proteins, genes, and cell membranes. Scientists point toward the artificial production of urea by Friedrich Wohler in 1828 to prove that organic material can be produced by natural processes.
Abiogenesis is the theory that life can form spontaneously from non-life under certain conditions (as opposed to biogenesis, which say that life can only come from life). A laboratory experiment led by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1952 set out to simulate the conditions of early earth and test the chemical origin of life. The experiment aimed to determine if organic compounds could be produced by chemical reactions with inorganic materials in the laboratory setting. Creationists explain that the multiple parts of living cells work together and are dependent on each other. Therefore, the living cell could not function without all of its component parts. Genes require enzymes to function, while genes are necessary to produce enzymes. Genes and cells cannot function without ribosomes and critical enzymes such as polymerase, helicase, and gyrase along with many critical proteins. In other words, all of the components of the cell were needed at once to function and this could only occur as the result of a special creation (1).
The Miller and Urey experiment attempted to create the conditions of the early earth "three and a half billion years ago" by using electric sparks to simulate lightning into a mixture of primitive gases, including ammonia, methane, hydrogen, and water vapor. These gases were condensed in a flask into liquid and heated to simulate ocean water, and as the liquid became vapor it was exposed to the electrode sparks in the cycle. The condensed liquid contained amino acids, which are organic materials. Miller and Urey were able to create organic molecules from inorganic materials, but the experiment could not explain how essential proteins are produced to create life. Evolutionary scientists must explain how different chemical molecules began to work together to create the genetic code. Also, scientists must answer how the first living things began to reproduce. Scientists must also answer why life has not been found outside of earth and on other planets, despite much effort to prove otherwise. (2) Creationists have explained that the probability of non-organic and organic chemical molecules combining to form living cells by naturalistic means is extremely unlikely and the probability of simple life becoming complex life spontaneously is even more unlikely without supernatural forces.
(1) Bergman, J., Why the Miller-Urey research argues against abiogenesis, J. Creation 18(2):28–36, August 2002.
(2) Can Science Explain the Origin of Life? Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Institute of Technology, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
