Recently, the headlines are filled with statements from NASA that soil on Mars may contain microbial life. There’s a good explanation for why life may exist on Mars. In the Earth’s past there was powerful volcanic activity which could have easily spewed dirt and rocks containing microbes into outer space which not only could have eventually reached Mars but also ended up traveling in orbit through space that we now know as meteors. A Newsweek article of September 21, 1998, p.12 mentions exactly this possibility. “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars”, says scientist and evolutionist Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth” .
All this means that comets, asteroids, and meteors (even containing organic compounds or life) may very well have originated from Earth!
All the scientific evidence only supports the possibility of life coming from previously existing life. It is not scientific to believe that life can arise from non-living matter, at least not spontaneously (by chance).
Stanley Miller, in his famous experiment in 1953, showed that individual amino acids (the building blocks of life) could come into existence by chance. But, it’s not enough just to have amino acids. The various amino acids that make-up life must link together in a precise sequence, just like the letters in a sentence, to form functioning protein molecules. If they’re not in the right sequence the protein molecules won’t work. It has never been shown that various amino acids can bind together into a sequence by chance to form protein molecules. Just having the building blocks of life won’t guarantee they’ll come together in the proper sequence! Even the simplest cell is made up of many millions of various protein molecules.
Once there is a complete and living cell then the genetic program and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells. The question is how did life come about naturally when there was no directing mechanism in nature.
Many think that natural selection in nature is proof that we had evolved, but natural selection itself does not produce biological variations. It can only “select” from biological variations that are possible, and it can only operate once there is life and reproduction, not before. In other words, natural selection could not have been involved in life’s origin.
If the cell had evolved it would have had to be all at once. A partially evolved cell (an oxymoron) cannot wait millions of years to become complete because it would be highly unstable and quickly disintegrate in the open environment, especially without the protection of a complete and fully functioning cell membrane. Even a once living cell quickly disintegrates once it’s dead.
The great British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle has said that the probability of the sequence of molecules in the simplest cell coming into existence by chance is equivalent to a tornado going through a junk yard of airplane parts and assembling a 747 Jumbo Jet!
Natural laws are adequate to explain how the order in life, the universe, and even a microwave oven operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot fully explain the origin of such order.
What about “Junk DNA”? The latest science shows that “Junk DNA” isn’t junk after all! It’s we who were ignorant of how useful these segments of DNA really are. Recent scientific research published in scientific journals such as Nature has revealed that the “non-coding” segments of DNA are vital in regulating gene expression (i.e. when, where, and how genes are expressed).
Considering the enormous complexity of life, it is much more logical to believe that the genetic and biological similarities between all species are due to a common Designer rather than common evolutionary ancestry. It is only logical that the Creator would design similar functions for similar purposes in all the various species and forms of life.
The author, Babu G. Ranganathan, has his bachelor’s degree with concentrations in theology and biology and has been recognized for his writings on religion and science in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East.”