One university student decided to ask some questions. It is clear that
sand and water cannot change into living creatures, as the evolutionists claim.
This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought
to you by Creation Science Facts.
This material is excerpted from the book, PRIMITIVE
ENVIRONMENT.
(See BOOKSTORE.)
An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a
creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the books this Encyclopedia is
based on, only 164 statements are by creationists. You will have a better
understanding of the following statements by scientists if you will also read
the web page,
Primitive Environment.
Instructor: The first life form came into existence about 4.6 million
years ago.
Student: But prof, how can we know it happened 4.6 million years ago?
Instructor: Because geologists theorized the date. The first living
creature developed from inorganic materials.
Student: But prof, you mean dead things, like rocks and water, became
alive?
Instructor: Well, we don't like to say it that way, but I guess that
is what happened.
Student: But prof, how could something that was dead come to life?
Instructor: We think it was thick soup. A concentrated brew of
chemicals in a primitive ocean produced the first life forms.
Student: But prof, there is no evidence today—or from the past—that
any such concentration of diverse chemicals has ever existed outside of living
plants and animals. And, if they could get together in the ocean in one instant,
in the next they would separate out again because of the law of mass action.
This is common knowledge among chemists. In addition, only a well-stocked
laboratory would have the needed chemicals.
Instructor: It is thought that a lightning bolt energized the mixture
and produced those first delicate creatures.
Student: But prof, whether it be delicate or rugged, a lightning bolt
would kill any living creature.
Instructor: A continual source of energy was required for the task.
Student: But prof, a lightning bolt is neither a continual source of
energy nor a low-level source.
Instructor: As a result, a living creature immediately came into
existence.
Student: But prof, the next instant it would die, unless hundreds of
thousands of different functions and structures were not immediately formed
within it. Instant success in every way was required.
Instructor: So life originated from nonliving materials.
Student: But prof, this is the theory of spontaneous generation
warmed over! It is a superstitious belief frorm the Middle Ages, which Pasteur
and other scientists disproved over a hundred years ago.
Instructor: After coming into existence, the first living creature
gradually adapted itself to its environment as, over a period of millions of
years, its food came into existence.
Student: But prof, that first living creature would have had to
immediately have its food available—and that food would have to be organic;
plants already living, animals, or both.
Instructor: After a lengthy time, this first creature would, by
chance, evolve methods of division and reproduction.
Student: But prof, that first creature would have to be able to
immediately produce additional cells and reproduce.
Instructor: It is fortunate that the oceans of the world are so large,
for this increases the likelihood that the right chemicals might somehow, by
chance, get into the proper, strong concentration to produce a living creature.
Student: But prof, chemicals dissipate in the ocean; they do not
concentrate in it. In addition, chemists know that the chemicals needed to
produce life must, in laboratories, be handled in fluids other than water! The
presence of water inhibits the growth of complex chemicals.
Instructor: So we see that all these organic products were formed in
the ocean_and then became alive.
Student: But prof, the problem of chemical precipitation would
instantly nullify all that might be gained. The chemicals themselves would
quickly inhibit and destroy the chemical compounds and enzymes produced. Many of
the chemicals would also react with other chemicals, producing non-useful—and
even toxic—compounds.
Instructor: In a similar manner fats, sugars, and nucleic acids were
produced.
Student: But prof, they would all have to be produced simultaneously
at the same time and in the same place. The problem of fluid condensation would
doom them all to destruction. This is because only by the careful removal of
water can fats, sugars, and nucleic acids be produced from protein. Without
controlled yet fairly rapid water loss, proteins could never form in water.
Instructor: Scientists have decided that the only practical place
where life could have come into existence would be in the primitive ocean.
Student: But prof, every biochemist knows that the chemicals of life
quickly decomposed in the presence of oxygen. So there could be no oxygen in the
atmosphere—and no oxygen in the water. And that's part of what water is made of:
2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen!
Instructor: We think that the original atmosphere was reducing, that
is, without oxygen. It was composed of carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen,
ammonia, and nitrogen instead of our present carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen,
and oxygen.
Student: But prof, there is no evidence anywhere in the rock strata
that this planet has ever been without oxygen. The earliest rocks show evidence
of oxidized iron, and there could be no water without oxygen. Every living
creature has to have water, and it has to have oxygen!
Instructor: That is true, but we think that the oxygen came later.
Student: But prof, without oxygen, deadly peroxides would quickly
form, killing all life. Without oxygen, there would be no ozone layer in the
atmosphere. Without ozone, there would be no protection from lethal ultraviolet
rays from the sun.
Instructor: It is thought that, perhaps, on the very day the first
living creature came into existence,—the atmosphere suddenly changed.
Student: But prof, there is no possible way that that could happen!
Instructor: Fortunately, we know that life can come from nonliving
matter, because it has been done in the laboratory.
Student: But prof, no life resulted from the lab experiment, only
nonliving amino acids. And they were made without water, without oxygen, and in
a very concentrated mixture of certain laboratory chemicals, aided by continued
carefully controlled sparking.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To the next major topic in this series: DNA AND
CELLS A great barrier prohibiting life to form out of sand or to change itself
into new species.
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