Human knowledge is increasing at a rate far beyond what ancient man was able to accomplish. A recent survey of the scientific literature noted an exponential increase with the volumes of information, now doubling every fifteen years. [1] The human brain is capable of incredible discoveries in the natural world, and more mysteries are unraveling themselves every day. However some mysteries still remain somewhat impenetrable, including the human brain itself. Some biologists are even calling it "the last and grandest biological frontier." [2] The nature of consciousness is another related mystery where progress has been slow. However experiments with quantum mechanics has shown that the universe is inexplicably tied to, and seemingly designed for consciousness. The universe was demonstrated to respond to the presence of consciousness in experiments like the two-slit experiment. [3] Discoveries like these demonstrate that the universe behaves differently if there is a conscious mind observing it, and gives evidence for the idea that the universe was designed to hold conscious entities, instead of consciousness being more of an accident or a by product as naturalism might suggest.
But perhaps one of the most frustrating remaining mysteries of science is in the origin of life, at least for those who believe that the material universe is all that exists. Naturalist researchers seem to be stuck at a complete roadblock and cannot move past the basic Miller-Urey level experiments. [4] These type of experiments are able to produce basic amino acids using only natural processes, but are completely unable to create anything resembling complex protein machinery or information out of them. Even the simplest known forms of life require a complete cell with a complex factory of protein machinery already operating inside, and volumes of instructions and body plans already present inside a DNA or RNA molecule. It is not hard to imagine why Darwinists are having a difficult time getting something like that from natural processes.
Some of the newer proposed concepts for a natural origin of even the most basic forms of life sound like they are right out of a bad science fiction movie. The leading theories include a lightning strike in a body of water full of semi-organic molecules, or life forming on the backs of crystals [5], or having just the right molecules fall in order on a clay substrate to create a basic cell. [6] These theories completely ignore the basic facts about our universe, such as the universe always tending toward disorder [7], otherwise known as entropy. As far as humanity has observed the entire universe is breaking down, and this has been quantified by physicists using testable equations. Yet the naturalists insist that the arrow of entropy can be reversed and complicated things can come into existence on their own, just without any actual observations or evidence. And they propose that life can also become more complicated as time goes on, even though this has never once been observed in the laboratory. However the science is clear, the only known or observed force that can create information, machinery, or reverse entropy is intelligence. [7] This suggests that a greater intelligence would have to be responsible for something as complex as life.
- IT'S ALIVE ! -
The failed Miller - Urey experiment is the closest secular scientists have gotten
to a natural origin of life. Like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein the
naturalists also attempted unsuccessfully to use lightning to create life.
However researchers have been sitting on a known mechanism that can create information and complex protein machinery for nearly 30 years. In 1991 creation scientists Dr. William Dembski first proposed the theory of intelligent design in his landmark paper "Randomness by Design," which was published in the journal Noûs. [8] Since that time, countless new discoveries in intelligent design have confirmed Dembski's original hypothesis, which claimed that intelligence was required for the creation of living cells. Confusingly, the secular scientific world refuses to consider that an intelligence may be responsible for the creation of life from non-living chemicals, regardless of the fact that the theory still has unrivaled explanatory power. Still to this day, countless resources and funding seem to be wasted on the natural origin of life research, apparently attempting to force an answer from chemical evolution. One cannot help but wonder why naturalists ignore what promises to be the future of biology, and to open up countless new avenues of research and discovery. Is it possible these evolutionary scientists have some sort of an agenda besides discovering the truth?
The debate about the origin of life is an ancient one, but there have always only been two possibilities, an intelligent agent or a natural one. Although these two possibilities have taken different forms throughout time, fundamentally humanity has been having the same debate since the beginning of history. Early humans had two kinds of religion, the pantheistic or nature worshipping religions which taught that humans come from nature itself, or other religions taught that humanity was directly created by God or gods. Down through the ages humanity continued to be split, even during the time of the great philosophers of ancient Greece. Some schools argued for creative intelligence designing life and the universe such as Socrates and Plato, while others held that the gods who they believed created life were more of a manifestation of nature. In more modern times the sciences are simply repeating the same debate, with many arguing on both sides.
But if nature could create life, exactly how did this happen? Darwin thought that his theory explained how nature created new kinds of animals, but he was aware of the bigger problem that this line of thinking created, in the natural origin of life. He proposed a possible solution, which is still held by modern evolutionists, now called abiogenesis. Darwin wrote about the origin of life in 1871, "We could conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity are present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed." [9]
- The Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone Park -
Did Darwin have this spring in mind when he proposed abiogenesis in 1871?
Regardless no life forms have ever been observed forming spontaneously in it
or any other body of water. It seems that intelligence is the missing factor in the
creation of life.
Darwin was certainly the leading naturalist of his time, and his intelligent design counterpart was Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur was an incredible creation scientist who invented pasteurization, microbiology, bacteriology, the germ theory of disease, vaccination, and contributed to a large number of scientific discoveries about the nature of fermentation. Pasteur, who was aware of the growing number of naturalists in the scientific world, told The Literary Digest in their October 1902 edition, "Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory."
One of the most important discoveries Pasteur made was disproving the common belief of the time of spontaneous generation, or the idea that living cells could come from non-living substances. Spontaneous generation held for example that fleas could arise from dust, or maggots from rotting flesh. While Darwin was working on changing spontaneous generation theory with his new thoughts on abiogenesis, Louis Pasteur was ironically discovering the Law of Biogenesis which was disproving both simultaneously.
In the renowned experiment that demonstrated the Law of Biogenesis, Pasteur used a meat broth in glass flasks, and boiled them. Once the flask had been boiled, no spoilage was observed until the broth was exposed to micro-organisms from the air. This experiment changed the world as we know it, and he was awarded the prestigious Alhumbert Prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1862 for his discovery of the science of microbiology. Pasteur quickly became world famous, and in a lecture two years later he exclaimed, "Omne vivum ex vivo," which is Latin for "all life is from life". [10] Since that time his discovery had become officially known as the Law of Biogenesis, even being called as sure a law of science as gravity. [11]
If the universe is self-organizing as Darwin and modern naturalists believed, then we should be able to apply the scientific method and observe these processes in action. Secular scientists propose several self-organizing mechanisms, such as the Big Bang [12], abiogenesis [13], and a combination of mutation and natural selection [14]. The scientific method requires that theories be observable, testable, and repeatable. However none of the major tenants of evolutionary theory or naturalism are observable, testable, or repeatable. No one has created a Big Bang type phenomena in the laboratory, neither has anyone observed non-living chemicals form life. Mutation and natural selection are of course observable in the laboratory, but this has never been observed to actually lead to the creation of a new kind of animal, even once. [15] Creation scientists have shown that natural selection can only remove defective organisms lines from a population, not create new life forms.
Louis Pasteur made great progress in exposing naturalism and evolution as junk science. Every theory for a natural origin of life was laid to rest by his work, however the Law of Biogenesis does allow for intelligent design. Not only does intelligent design not violate the Law of Biogenesis, but this is exactly how the Bible describes the origin of life.
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
Since the Law of Biogenesis has been established science for 150 years, one must wonder why the evolutionary scientists persist in such futile research, especially considering the answers have already been plainly discovered. Finding a natural origin of life would be akin to disproving the second law of thermodynamics, which has long been held to be scientific theory that cannot be overturned. [16] Hopefully secular scientists will wake up, and return biology to its intelligent design roots. Many of the great founders of science fought for and believed in intelligent design besides Louis Pasteur, including Isaac Newton [17], Max Planck [18], Thomas Edison [19], and Benjamin Franklin. [20]
No doubt there are countless new discoveries that can be made once science has corrected itself from naturalism. History has shown us that science has a tendency to be self-correcting, but this process can take decades or even hundreds of years. If science is self-correcting, then it must also be wrong at many times throughout history. Two serious questions remain, how long will abiogenesis and evolution remain in the textbooks, and how long will we remain in the biological dark ages?
References
Bornmann, L., Haunschild, R. & Mutz, R. Growth rates of modern science: a latent piecewise growth curve approach to model publication numbers from established and new literature databases. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 224 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00903-w
Ackerman S. Discovering the Brain. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1992. Foreword. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234155/
Nature 560, 165 (2018) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05892-6 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05892-6
Hill HG, Nuth JA (2003). "The catalytic potential of cosmic dust: implications for prebiotic chemistry in the solar nebula and other protoplanetary systems". Astrobiology. 3 (2): 291–304. Bibcode:2003AsBio...3..291H. doi:10.1089/153110703769016389. PMID14577878.
Cornell University. "Clay may have been birthplace of life on Earth, new study suggests." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 November 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131105132027.htm>.
Dr Carl Wieland M.B., B.S., Evolution, creation, & thermodynamics - Part 2. https://creation.com/evolution-creation-thermodynamics-part-2
William A. Dembski. Noûs. Vol. 25, No. 1 (Mar., 1991), pp. 75-106 (32 pages) Published By: Wiley
Darwin, Charles. Letter To J.D. Hooker.1 February , 1871. https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-7471.xml
https://www.bionity.com/en/encyclopedia/Biogenesis.html#:~:text=Pasteur's%20(and%20others)%20empirical%20results,present%20forms%20from%20non%2Dlife.
LANKESTER, E. Sir William Thomson on the Law of Biogenesis and The Law of Gravitation . Nature 4, 368–369 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004368a0
Eriksson KE. (1986) Self-Organization and Information Theory. In: Kilmister C.W. (eds) Disequilibrium and Self-Organization. Mathematics and Its Applications, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4718-4_1
Pross, Addy, and Robert Pascal. “The origin of life: what we know, what we can know and what we will never know.” Open biology vol. 3,3 120190. 6 Mar. 2013, doi:10.1098/rsob.120190
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.160553
Meyer, Stephen. The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. January 2006.
Schwartz, Matthew Harvard Scholar: Statistical Mechanics, Lecture 6: Entropy. 2019. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/schwartz/files/6-entropy.pdf
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/t/Thomas_Edison.htm "I believe that the science of chemistry alone almost proves the existence of an intelligent creator."
Franklin, Benjamin. "On the Providence of God in the Government of the World." Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 1732. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0090