June 2016:  The Spontaneous Origin of Life – Science or Pseudoscience?

                                                                                                

According to evolutionary theory, all life – bacteria, plants, and people – evolved from a hypothetical first cell, which allegedly arose spontaneously from chemical substrates. This is said to have happened over 3 billion years ago. That hypothetical first cell has been called LUCA (last universal common ancestor). This first cell is assumed to be at the very base of Darwin’s hypothetical “tree of life”. It is almost universally claimed that life came from non-life (abiogenesis). Is this good science? It is almost universally claimed that spontaneous generation of life is the inevitable outcome of time, chance, and the right chemical conditions. Is this claim even remotely credible?

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School curricula, textbooks, educational science programs, and countless museums consistently insist there is a strong scientific case for the spontaneous origin of life. From a naturalistic evolutionary perspective, it should not be surprising that spontaneous generation is assumed to be feasible, as it is essential to the evolutionary story. We can’t have Darwin’s “tree of life” without the trunk, which emerged from the primordial seed of that first cell. We are continuously told stories that sound like plausible scenarios for how simple inorganic molecules might have come together to give rise to the first living cell. However, upon careful examination, we find that the stories being told are not only extremely speculative – they are rationally indefensible. In the zeal to market various origin-of-life theories, countless insurmountable problems are conveniently swept under the rug. When it comes to the origin of life, real science has been replaced by just-so stories, wishful thinking, and hype.

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It is a simple, irrefutable fact that spontaneous generation of life has never ever been observed. This is true even though this world is filled with biochemical substrates of all sorts, and environmental conditions of every kind. This remains true, even though countless teams of scientists have done everything in their power to try and force the “spontaneous” generation of life. No scientist has been able to demonstrate (or contrive) any type of spontaneous origin of life – even though such a discovery would mean instant fame and fortune. In reality, there is absolutely no evidence of abiogenesis. To date, all experiments have helped confirm the opposite – life only comes from life – without exception. As geneticist Dr. Rob Carter aptly puts it, “Random chemical reactions can only produce random chemicals – not life”.  

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In this article we will be addressing a number of the origin-of-life theories that have been proposed by evolutionists, starting with Darwin himself. Interestingly, these proposed theories have consistently been formulated in response to the failure of the previous attempt to observe spontaneous generation. Today, the latest theories, including the “RNA World” hypothesis and the claims of “self-replicating” RNA enzymes, fail to bring us any closer to a credible mechanism for the spontaneous generation of life. LEARN MORE...