Scientific Theories on the Origin of Life
Introduction
Charles Darwin hypothesized that life arose from "some warm little pond" in which inorganic chemicals combined to form the first organism. However, what Darwin didn't know about the biochemistry of life could easily fill his entire house from floor to ceiling. The first major problem is getting the proper organic precursors for living systems. Two major systems (metabolism-and replication) must have spontaneously arisen nearly simultaneously, but both suffer from major problems with chemistry. Abiogenesis, the naturalistic theory for the origin of life has been dependent upon the presence of a reducing atmosphere in order for prebiotic chemistry to form the building blocks of life. However, a recent study proves that the earth's atmosphere was oxidizing at least 500 million years before the origin of life. Other problems include the origin of homochirality and the origin of biological membranes.
Articles
- Origin of Life Theories: Metabolism-first vs. Replicator-first Hypotheses - Origin of life researchers fight it out to prove each other wrong. Maybe they are both correct!
- Origin of Life: Earth's Early Atmosphere Wasn't Reducing - The holy grail of abiogenesis, a reducing atmosphere, has been proven not to have existed for at least 500 million years before life originated.
- Abiogenesis: Is the Chemical Origin
of Life a Realistic Scenario? - a list of the "science of the gaps"
beliefs of those who reject a Creator God.
- Think you have the answer? Enter to win $1.35 million!
- The Origin of Homochirality: A Major Problem for Origin of Life Theories - biologically active amino acids and nucleic acids are optically pure, but can you get there merely with prebiotic chemistry?
- Problems with the Origin of Biological Membranes Under Prebiotic Conditions - Not only is it impossible to get replication and metabolism, but formation of membranes under early earth conditions is extremely problematic.
- What's Wrong With NASA's Arsenic-Eating Bacteria Study? - Doesn't this prove that life can originate and survive under almost any environment? Think cold fusion!
- NASA Scientist Discovers Alien Life in Meteorites - Again! NOT! - As Pharyngula blog commented, "I'm looking forward to the publication next year of the discovery of an extraterrestrial rabbit in a meteor."
- Evolution Deception in California State High School Biology Textbook Biology: Principles & Explorations - This high school biology textbook gives the impression that the spontaneous origin of life is a done deal. Predictably, all the science contradicting spontaneous origin is conveniently omitted.
- Cell Membrane-Like Organic Vesicles Formed in Conditions Mimicking Interstellar Clouds? - Did interstellar gas clouds form organic membrane-like structures that led to the emergence of life on earth? An example of an unbelievably flawed study.
- Origin of life: latest theories/problems - a discussion of the problems inherent in the Ribonucleic acid: a chemical that directs the manufacture of proteins and sometimes codes for the genetic material within certain organisms.RNA World hypothesis.
- The Origin of Life on Planet Earth by Jim Schicatano
Book Reviews
- Book Review: Creating Life in the Lab: How New discoveries in Synthetic Biology Make a Case for the Creator
- Book Review: The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry
- Book Review: Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
More Evolution vs. Design
- Evidence for Design in the Universe
- Evidence for Design in Biology
- Theories on the Descent of Humans
- Evolutionary Biology Theories/Problems
- Evolutionary Theories and Biblical Morality
Related Resources 
Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
Probably the single most potent scientific argument against atheism
is the problem with a naturalistic origin of life. This very problem led me to
become a deist as a biology major at USC in the early 1970's. The problems for
atheists have gotten no better since that time. In fact, the last 30+ years of
research have turned up even more problems than those that existed when I first
studied the theories. Fuz Rana (a biochemist) and Hugh Ross (an astrophysicist)
have teamed up to write the
definitive up-to-date analysis of the origin of life. The book examines the origins of life from the
perspectives of chemistry, biochemistry, astronomy, and the Bible. A biblical
creation model is presented along side the naturalistic models to help the
reader decide which one fits the data better. This is an excellent book to give
to your unbelieving friends, since it presents a testable creation model that is
clearly superior to any naturalistic model.
The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry Fazale Rana (Ph.D.
in chemistry), vice president of research and apologetics at
Reasons To Believe, has written a
new book,
The Cell's Design, that
attempts to show that cellular biochemistry points to the existence of the Creator
who designed it. Whereas most intelligent design books attempt to show the
existence of design by demonstrating the existence of irreducible complexity,
Dr. Rana examines the cell's biochemistry with broad strokes of how everything
works together with such marvelous fidelity. So, even if a single piece or line
of evidence might be dismissed as a statistical outlier, the weight of evidence
makes a powerful case for design by a Creator. Each chapter begins with an
analogy from the art world that relates to the topic at hand. Apparently, Dr.
Rana is quite an art enthusiast. More...
http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/origin_of_life_theories.html
Last Modified December 5, 2011
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