JimJesus, Abiogenesis is a Farce

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This article is dedicated to a tweeter named, @JimJesus. JimJesus is a self-proclaimed atheist and said that he has more faith in Abiogenesis than he does Christ Jesus. JimJesus said that he was once a Christian yet he never had a real personal relationship with Christ Jesus. I did a little research on abiogenesis per JimJesus’ recommendation and here’s what I found to enlighten my tweeter friend.

JimJesus, did you know that Abiogenesis was once commonly called ‘chemical evolution’, but evolutionists like you today try to distance evolutionary theory from the origin of life. This is one reason that most evolutionary propagandists now call it ‘abiogenesis’. ( Dickerson, R.E., Chemical evolution and the origin of life, Scientific American 239(3):62–102, 1978.)

Did you know too that Chemical evolution is actually part of the ‘General Theory of Evolution’, defined by the evolutionist Kerkut as ‘the theory that all the living forms in the world have arisen from a single source which itself came from an inorganic form’. (Kerkut, G.A., Implications of Evolution, Pergamon, Oxford, UK, p. 157, 1960.)

I think that you of all people JimJesus would know that abiogenesis is simply a ‘revival of the antique notion of spontaneous generation’ because it

‘… suggests that given the primordial soup, with the right combination of amino acids and nucleic acids, and perchance a lightning bolt or two, life might in fact have begun “spontaneously”. The major difference is that according to what biologists customarily called spontaneous generation, life supposedly began this way all of the time. According to the “soup” suggestion, by contrast, it began this way only once in the immeasurably distant past.’ (Johnson, P., Weekly Wedge Update, April 30, p. 1, 2001.)

You have to realize (like Ridley, M.) that the early forms of life, and how natural selection could shape them, are ‘so obscure at the primordial stage that we can only guess why complexity might have increased’. Darwin thought about the question inconclusively. He once wrote to the geologist Charles Lyell about a question ‘which is very difficult to answer, viz. how at first start of life, when there were only simplest organisms, how did any complication of organisms profit them? I can only answer that we have not facts enough to guide any speculation on the subject.’ We have more facts now, but they are still inadequate, and Darwin’s answer still holds. (Ridley, M., The Cooperative Gene; How Mendel’s Demon Explains the Evolution of Complex)

When confronted with this evidence, supporters of abiogenesis argue that science must be naturalistic, and we have no choice but to tell the best story we have, even if it is not a complete or even accurate story. (Johnson, P., Reason in the Balance; The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1995.)

Although widely heralded by the popular press and atheists like you as ‘proof’ that life originated on the early earth entirely by natural conditions, the Miller–Urey experiments actually provide compelling evidence for exactly the opposite conclusion. For example according to many researchers today, a serious problem with the Miller-Urey experiments is the fact that the atmosphere of the early earth was very different from what Miller assumed. ‘Research has since drawn Miller’s hypothetical atmosphere into question, causing many scientists to doubt the relevance of his findings.’ (Simpson, S., Life’s first scalding steps, Science News 155(2):24–26, 1999; p. 26.) The problem was stated as follows:

‘… the accepted picture of the earth’s early atmosphere has changed: It was probably O2-rich with some nitrogen, a less reactive mixture than Miller’s, or it might have been composed largely of carbon dioxide, which would greatly deter the development of organic compounds.’ (Flowers, C., A Science Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery, William Morrow and Company, New York, p. 173, 1998)

This Miller–Urey of experiments—more than almost any other carried out by modern science—has done much more to show that abiogenesis is not possible on Earth than to indicate how it could be possible.

JimJesus, another reason I’m sure you know by heart exists to exaggerate abiogenesis claims—it is an area that is critical to proving evolutionary naturalism. (Johnson, P., Reason in the Balance; The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1995.) If abiogenesis is impossible, or extremely unlikely, then so is naturalism. (Dover, G., Looping the evolutionary loop; review of: The Origins Of Life: From The Birth Of Life To The Origin Of Language, Nature 399:217–218, 1999.

Dawkins, R., Climbing Mount Improbable, W.W. Norton, New York, 1996.

de Duve, C., Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative, Basic Books, New York, 1995.

Denton, M., Nature’s Destiny; How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe, The Free Press, New York, 1998.)

Basically, abiogenesis is a farce.

JimJesus, in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) on the sixth day,

(Genesis 1:24-28)

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

————–

JimJesus ,some reads for you to help you understand the lacking evidence of Abiogenesis:

Davies, P., The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life, Simon & Schuster, New York, pp. 17–18, 1999.

Dickerson, R.E., Chemical evolution and the origin of life, Scientific American 239(3):62–102, 1978.

Kerkut, G.A., Implications of Evolution, Pergamon, Oxford, UK, p. 157, 1960.

Johnson, P., Reason in the Balance; The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1995.

Dover, G., Looping the evolutionary loop; review of: The Origins Of Life: From The Birth Of Life To The Origin Of Language, Nature 399:217–218, 1999.

Dawkins, R., Climbing Mount Improbable, W.W. Norton, New York, 1996.

de Duve, C., Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative, Basic Books, New York, 1995.

Denton, M., Nature’s Destiny; How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe, The Free Press, New York, 1998.

Darwin, C., Origin of Species, reprint of 6th edition, P.F. Collier, New York, p. 316, 1900. This concession to theism was absent in earlier editions.

Oparin, A., The Origin of Life, New York, Dover, 1965.

Poundstone, W., Carl Sagan; A Life in the Cosmos, Henry Holt, New York, 1999.

Dyson, F., Origins of Life, Cambridge University Press, p. 31, 1990.

<users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/A/AbioticSynthesis.html>, 13 May 2004.

Bernal, J.D., The physical basis of life, Physical Society of London Proceedings, Section A 62:537, 1947.

Haldane, J.B.S., Rationalist Annual, 1928; reprinted in: Science and Human Life, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1933.

Calvin, M., Reduction of carbon dioxide in aqueous solutions by ionizing radiation, Science 114:416–418, 1951.

Urey, H., The Planets: Their Origin and Development, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 149–157, 1952.

Lewis, R., Life, 3rd edition, WCB McGraw-Hill, Boston, p. 153, 1999.

Colson, C. and Pearcey, N., How Now Shall We Live? Tyndale House, Wheaton, p. 69, 1999.

Shapiro, R., Origins; A Skeptics Guide to the Creation of Life on earth, Summit Books, New York, p. 99, 1986.

Lahav, N., Biogenesis: Theories of Life’s Origin, Oxford University, New York, 1999.

Wells, J., Icons of Evolution, Regnery, Washington, 2000.

Campbell, N.A., Mitchell, L.G. and Reece, J.B., Biology Concepts and Connections, 3rd edition, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., San Francisco, 2000.

Miller, S.L., A production of amino acids under possible primitive earth conditions, Science 117:528–529; p. 528, 1953.

Shapiro, ref. 20, p. 100.

Miller, S.L., Production of some organic compounds under possible primitive earth conditions, J. American Chemical Society 77:2351–2361, 1955.

Miller, ref. 24, p. 529.

Fox, S. and Dose, K., Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life, Marcel Dekker, New York, p. 44, 1977.

Sleep, N.H., Biogeochemistry; oxygenating the atmosphere, Nature 410:317–319; 2001, p. 319.

Horgan, J., The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age, Addison-Wesley, Reading, p. 130, 1996.

Jamali, F., Lovlin, R., Corrigan, B.W., Davies, N.M. and Aberg, G., Stereospecific pharmacokinetics and toxicodynamics of ketorolac after oral administration of the racemate and optically pure enantiomers to the rat, Chirality 11(3):201–205, 1999.

Coppedge, J.F., Probability of left-handed molecules, CRSQ 8:163–174, 1971.

Simpson, S., Life’s first scalding steps, Science News 155(2):24–26, 1999; p. 26.

Flowers, C., A Science Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery, William Morrow and Company, New York, p. 173, 1998.

Scherer, S., Could life have arisen in the primitive atmosphere? J. Molecular Evolution 22(1):91–94, 1985; p. 92.

Thaxton, C., Bradley, W. and Olsen, R., The Mystery of Life’s Origin; Reassessing Current Theories, ch. 5, Philosophical Library, New York, 1984.

Rosing, M.T. and Frei, R., U-rich Archaean sea-floor sediments from Greenland—indications of >3700 Ma oxygenic photosynthesis, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 217: 237–244, 2004.

Urey, ref. 17, p. 153.

Campbell, N.A., Biology, Benjamin/Cummings, Redwood City, 1993.

Campbell et al., ref. 23, p. 321.

Lahav, ref. 21, p. 50.

Timberlake, K., Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, Benjamin Cummins, San Francisco, 2001.

Witham, L., By Design: Science and the Search for God, Encounter Books, San Francisco, p. 106, 2003.

Witham, ref. 43, p. 98.

Vogel, G., RNA study suggests cool cradle of life, Science 283(5399):155–156, 1999.

Williams, E.L., The evolution of complex organic compounds from simpler chemical compounds: is it thermodynamically and kinetically possible? CRSQ 4:30–35, 1967.

Hulett, H.R., Limitations on Prebiological Synthesis, Journal of Theoretical Biology 24:56–72, 1969.

Horgan ref. 30, p. 138.

Yockey, H.P., Information Theory and Molecular Biology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 336, 1992.

Colson and Pearcey, ref. 19, p. 71.

Haeckel, E., The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man, Adam and Charles Black, London, p. 120, 1898.

Haeckel, ref. 51, p. 48.

Meyer, S., DNA and other designs, First Things, April, pp. 30–38, 2000; p. 31.

Conklin, E.G., Embryology and evolution; in: Mason, F. (Ed.), Creation by Evolution, Macmillan, New York, pp. 63–64, 1928.

Denton, M., Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler and Adler, Bethesda, p. 250, 1986.

Cairns-Smith, A.G., The first organisms, Scientific American 252(6):90–100, 1985.

Sarfati, J., Origin of life: the polymerization problem, TJ 12(3):281–284, 1998.

Kauffman, S., The Origins of Order, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993; At Home in the Universe, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.

Horgan, ref. 30, p. 139.

Pigliucci, M., Where do we come from? A humbling look at the biology of life’s origin, Skeptical Inquirer 23(5):21–27, 1999.

Dembski, W.A., The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1998.

Polanyi, M., Life’s irreducible structure, Science 160:1308, 1968.

Davies, P., Life force, New Scientist 163(2204):27–30, 1999; p. 28.

Popper, K.R., Scientific reduction and the essential incompleteness of all science; in: Ayala, F. and Dobzhansky, T. (Eds.), Studies in the Philosophy of Biology, University of California Press, Berkeley, p. 270, 1974.

Sarfati, J., Self-replicating Enzymes? A critique of some current evolutionary origin-of-life models, TJ 11(1):4–6, 1997.

Sarfati, J., Origin of life: the chirality problem, TJ 12(3)263–266, 1998.

Sarfati, J., Origin of life and the homochirality problem: is magnetochiral dichroism the solution? TJ 14(3)9–12, 2000.

Shapiro, ref. 20, p. 107.

Davies, ref. 1, p. 17.

Levy, M. and Miller, S.L, The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 95:7933–7938, 1998.

Behe, M., Darwin’s Black Box, Basic Books, New York, 1996.

Johnson, P., Weekly Wedge Update, April 30, p. 1, 2001.

Serafini, A., The Epic History of Biology, Plenum, New York, p. 292, 1993.

Ridley, M., The Cooperative Gene; How Mendel’s Demon Explains the Evolution of Complex Beings, The Free Press, New York, p. 84, 2001.

Primary References for this Article

http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v18/i2/abiogenesis.asp

http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v23/i1/life.asp

http://aufiles.creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j10_2/j10_2_202-210.pdf

http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j18_2/j18_2_28-36.pdf

http://creation.com/questions-for-faith

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