..........................................................................................................................................
(the supposed development of life
from non-life)
BY JEFFREY P. TOMKINS, PH.D.
In
addition to original research and data analysis on important themes in the
origins debate, ICR scientists also evaluate the progress of secular research
reported in many scientific publications.
One
of the fruits of this research was noted in last month’s Acts &
Facts Impact article on
the topic of abiogenesis — the supposed development of life from non-life.
It
reviewed the history of research on the origin of life and showed how utterly
futile the evolutionary explanations of the alleged naturalistic beginnings of
life really are.
The
article wasn’t able to include all the important recent scientific publications
on the topic, so we’ll cover some of those here.
The Water Paradox
When speculating about the naturalistic origins of life on
Earth, evolutionists run into a major paradox of basic biological chemistry:
While water is the critical medium for all life, it also forms a chemical
barrier to the formation of chains of nucleotides such as RNA and DNA that are
the foundation of life.
In a
living creature, this is not a problem because of the complex chemistry and
machinery of the cell.
But
for the evolutionary theorist, this creates yet one more insurmountable barrier
for how nucleic acids could have spontaneously formed in the first place.
Desperate
to solve the basic evolutionary impediment of this water paradox, some
researchers have proposed that life may have first developed in something other than
water.
In the quest to find a water alternative, the emerging
candidate is a clear liquid called formamide that is composed of
hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen.
Formamide
promotes polymer bond formation more than water and can even react with other
compounds under human-engineered laboratory conditions to form nucleobases and
amino acids.
However,
there are several major problems with this idea.
First, formamide is toxic — it’s not conducive to cell
life.
Humans
manufacture formamide and widely use it as a solvent to develop pharmaceuticals,
pesticides, resins, and plasticizers.
Another
big problem is that formamide does not occur naturally in any significant
amounts anywhere on Earth.
Therefore,
it has been proposed that somehow radioactive minerals irradiated hydrogen
cyanide and acetonitrile with gamma rays in select pockets on the early earth.
But
adding this speculation to the mystical laundry list of requirements needed for
the evolutionary development of life still effectively brings the possibility
of life arising from non-life to zilch.
Lasers and Asteroids to the Rescue?
Another major impediment to life’s naturalistic origin is
the atmospheric problem discussed in last month’s article.
Earth’s
current atmosphere is oxidizing (i.e., oxygen rich) and prohibits the
spontaneous formation of biomolecules outside the protection of a living cell.
Geological
data indicate Earth’s atmosphere has always been oxidizing. Nevertheless,
evolutionists maintain that for biomolecules to spontaneously form, Earth must
have had a reducing atmosphere with little or no oxygen.
Even
assuming it did, the problem of how nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA and
RNA, could have spontaneously formed is still impossible.
Recently reported research attempted to explain the
spontaneous generation of nucleobases in a reducing atmosphere by using huge
modern terawatt lasers.
The
idea was that the lasers would somehow simulate the plasma generated from an
asteroid impact.
When
they blasted mixtures of ammonia and carbon monoxide, researchers found that
trace amounts of nucleobases could be produced.
However,
as the authors’ report noted, “We observed hydrogen cyanide as a main product
of formamide thermal decomposition.”
The
lasers induced the formation of formamide (discussed above), which was then
broken down into hydrogen cyanide, an extremely poisonous liquid that boils at
slightly above room temperature at 26 °C (79 °F). Hardly the essence of life’s
beginnings!
The authors also admitted that “we should note that the
sub-parts per million level reached in laser experiments for pyrimidine bases
is a threshold detection limit of the used method.”
In
other words, the levels of nucleobases temporarily produced before they could
be boiled and destroyed in hydrogen cyanide were so small they could barely be
detected.
In
addition to these problems, this abiogenesis experiment, like all the others,
is still subject to the chirality, polymerization, replication, and informational
impediments previously discussed.
Not only do these new experiments add nothing to the
evolutionary solution of life’s origin outside a Creator, they also serve to
further illustrate the profound truth of God’s Word.
The
Bible states:
“For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,
but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
(Romans
1:20-22)
Dr.
Jeffrey Tomkins
is Director of Life Sciences at the Institute for Creation Research and earned
his Ph.D. in genetics from Clemson University.
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