More Origin of Life Speculation

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More Origin of Life Speculation by Geoff Chapman

September 29, 2015

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission has again been in the news. BBC News (30th July 2015) reported that the Philae lander, which touched down on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P last November, “has discovered a rich array of carbon compounds,” which “supports the theory that comets may have seeded the early Earth with the ingredients for life.”

‘FROZEN PRIMORDIAL SOUP’

Professor Ian Wright of the Open University said, “I see this cometary material that we’re analysing as frozen primordial soup. It’s the kind of stuff that if you had it, and warmed it up somehow, and put it in the right environment, with the right conditions, you may eventually get life forming out of it. What we may be looking at here is our abiological ancestral material - this is stuff that went into the mix to produce life."

 According to Scientific American (31st July 2015) these are molecules “that can form sugars and amino acids, which are the building blocks of life as we know it.” This is like saying that a pile of clay could form bricks, which are the building blocks of a house! The article continued: “While this is a long, long way from finding life itself, the data shows that the organic compounds that eventually translated into organisms here on Earth existed in the early solar system.”  Here we have an assumption that this  happened on earth, even though there is not a shred of evidence that it did.

THE MISSING INGREDIENT

The missing ingredient in this supposed recipe for life is information. A pile of clay could never turn into bricks, or form a house without the input of intelligence to make the bricks and fit them together.” Neither could organic compounds self-assemble to make sugars and amino acids — and even if they did, they would still not be alive. All living organisms from bacteria to humans have coded information in their DNA, and information always comes from intelligence. The complexity of DNA persuaded the late Professor Antony Flew to abandon 65 years of atheism. He became convinced that there must be an intelligent Creator. He wrote, “It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.”1

“A MIRACLE”

Ever since Charles Darwin suggested that the original spark of life may have begun in a "warm little pond”, secular scientists have tried, but consistently failed, to find a naturalistic explanation for the origin of life. The late Professor Francis Crick — an atheist — admitted: “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”2 Crick’s solution was “panspermia” — life from outer space — which is really no solution at all.

 People can discuss carbon compounds or mythical “primordial soup” as much as they like, but no-one has ever produced any evidence to contradict  the work of 19th century scientist Louis Pasteur, who proved experimentally that life can only come from life.

  The only logical explanation — however much some scientists may hate it — is that life began with an act of supernatural creation. “In the beginning was the Word.” (John 1: 1)  Or as German information scientist Professor Werner Gitt put it: “In the beginning was information.”

 We believe that Jesus Christ — “the Word” — not only created physical life, but gives spiritual life to all who believe in Him. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does  not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5: 12)

1. There is a God, Harper Collins, 2007, p. 127
2. Life Itself, Simon & Schuster, 1981, p. 88.