PowerPoint Lesson
The Origin of Life: Evidence
of Creation
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Charles Darwin "It is mere rubbish to talk about the origin of life; one might as well talk about the origin of matter."
Introduction
It is a common belief among today's scientists that life's origin was naturally based, and therefore abiogenesis (life from non-life) must have occurred. Today 95% of the biologists in the National Academy of Science are either atheist or agnostic (Nature, Vol. 394, No. 6691, p. 313). The creation / evolution controversy is largely a debate between theistic or atheistic philosophical presupposition.
The Darwinian evolutionist believes that all life on earth has evolved from a single ancestor because the the spontaneous origin of a living cell is extremely improbable. Likewise all organisms on earth were constructed with the same common design, which to some indicates a common ancestry. Abiogenesis is a theory that attempts to explain the origin of life through random natural processes, and is taught as a regular component of evolutionary biology. The evidence to support a spontaneous origin of life is nonexistent, but like evolution itself is taught as absolute fact in biology classes.
Theory of Necessity
Evolution is an attempt to offer a naturalistic explanation for the existence of our complex ecosystem. On creation vs. evolution debate forums, evolutionists frequently claim that abiogenesis is not a part of evolution. This debate tactic is simply used to avoid the issue because it has never been proven despite repeated attempts under every conceivable circumstance. Every college level course on evolution will address abiogenesis at length, as will any evolutionary biology textbook. Most dedicate an entire chapter to the origin of life. The following textbook has 2 chapters dedicated to the topic.
Evolutionary Biology by Eli Minkoff Addison-Wesley Publishing 1984.
- Chapter 25 The Origin and Early Evolution
of Life
- A. Past and Present Theories
- B. Chemical Evolution
- C. Exobiology: The Search for Extraterrestrial Origin
- D. The Evolution of Procaryotic Cells
- Chapter 26 The Evolution of Eucaryotes
- A. The Nature and Origin of Eucaryotic Cells
Spontaneous generation was the original theory that proposed life could originate from nonliving matter. It is now well known that spontaneously generate of life in our present ecosystem is impossible. Louis Pasteur abolished the theory of spontaneous generation in 1859 because he believed that life was far to complex to have originated instantly from nonliving matter. He simultaneously established the theory of biogenesis; the origin of life from preexisting life. Hardly more than ten years following Pasteur's experiments Thomas Huxley coined the term abiogenesis.
I shall call the . . . doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogenesis. --Huxley, 1870.
All recognized life forms are produced by preexisting organisms known as biogenesis, and the scientific community can not demonstrate abiogenesis under any conceivable conditions. Despite the absence of proof, abiogenesis has become accepted by nearly all practicing scientists. The theory remains virtually unchanged since its inception in the 1920s, and assumes that life originated at some point in earth's past under conditions no longer present. The tenet of evolution can be summed-up by the phrase "abiogenesis at first biogenesis ever since". It is taught today as a certainty although the exact mechanisms remain theoretical. Discussions in evolutionary biology textbooks go to great lengths to demonstrate how abiogenesis could have occurred under multiple primordial scenarios.
A Series of Unlikely Events
Molecular formation: Theories concerning molecular evolution generally assume molecules naturally coalescence into macromolecules during times when their concentration and atmospheric conditions favored such contact. In 1924, Alexander I. Oparin determined which chemicals must be in the earth's atmosphere for amino acids to form (e.g. methane, hydrogen, ammonia) and which chemicals would prohibit the formation of amino acids (e.g. Oxygen).
In the 1950s, Stanley L. Miller, pictured at right, performed the first experiment attempting to reproduce these conditions. Methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water were placed in a flask that was subject to an electrical discharge. After several days, the experiment yielded several organic compounds including amino acids. Other researchers repeated these experiments using different energy sources such as UV, and other presumed primitive atmospheres. When hydrogen cyanide was used, even nitrogenous bases were obtained, which are a components of the building blocks for DNA.
However, in all of these experiments that attempted to produce life's building blocks, molecular oxygen was absent. The earth possesses an oxygen rich atmosphere, and even the oldest rocks contain oxides which is evidence they were formed in the presence of oxygen. In fact, oxides have been found in rocks supposedly 300 million years older than the first living cells. Oxygen is produces by all photosynthetic organisms, and is required for metabolism by all life forms except a few microorganisms. A hydrogen-rich reducing atmosphere was only reproduced in these experiments because amino acids and nitrogenous bases simply will not spontaneously form in an oxidizing environment.
"This enzyme [in E. coli] poses a conundrum: the survival and continual evolution of an oxygen-sensitive enzyme when oxygen appeared. On the other hand, the class I reductase require oxygen for free radical generation. Surely they could not have evolved and operated in the anaerobic first cell in an oxygen-free environment." [Science, Vol. 260, p:1773-1777 1993]
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Polymers formation: the origin of polymers such as proteins and nucleic acids is extremely problematic. These most important biochemical compounds are chains of subunits which in living system are asymmetrical. or possess a chirality or handedness.
...the odds against DNA assembling by chance are1040:1 [according to Fred Hoyle, Evolution from Space,1981].
Prokaryote formation:
Eukaryote formation:
Eukaryotic cells are possessed by all multicellular and some single celled organisms (protozoans). There is a vast difference between prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells. In particular, the latter perform functions inside compartmentalized structures called organelles. Therefore, the former are called simple cells. Given this comparison, the theory of evolution would dictate that the simple cells (prokaryotes) have evolved into the complex cells (eukaryotes). Indeed evolutionists have proposed that the eukaryotic cell evolved from a symbiosis or fusion of several distinct prokaryotes. This hypothesis is known as endosymbiosis. It is thought that specialized eukaryotic organelles such as the mitochondria, and choroplasts originated by internalizing aerobic bacteria like spirochaetes, and bluegreen algae respectively.
Like all of the theory of evolution, endosymbiosis is taught as though it is a fact, but there remains an inexplicable distinction between these two vastly different cell types. Eukaryotes have an extensive series of membrane-bound organelles including the endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus, nuclear envelope. Eukaryotes also possess microtubular organelles such are cilia and centrioles, and their chromosomes are multiple instead of single and contain proteins as well as DNA.
"In tracking the emergence of the eukaryotic cell, one enters a kind of wonderland where scientific pursuit leads almost to fantasy. Cell and molecular biologists must construct cellular worlds in their own imaginations. ... Imagination, to some degree, is essential for grasping the key events in cellular history." -- B.D. Dyer and R.A. Obar, Tracing the History of Eukaryotic Cells, Columbia University Press 1994, pp. 2 & 3.
Extraterrestrial Source of Life?
Extraterrestrial sources of life are less likely given conditions in the harsh conditions in space, but are still considered a likely source for some critical molecules.
Did Life Come from Another World? New research indicates that microorganisms could have survived a journey from Mars to Earth. Scientific American Nov 2005.
More Quotes on the Origin of the Cell
"As sex seems to be present in the vast majority of eukaryotes, the origin of meiosis is presently unknown. Protists having optional or alternative sexual and asexual cycles seem to be the best targets for research on the evolution of meiosis. " Primitive forms of meiosis: the possible evolution of meiosis. Solari AJ.Biocell 2002 Apr;26(1):1-13
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