1. How Did Life Get Started?

What some say. Life arose spontaneously from non-living matter. 

Why some people are not satisfied with that answer. 

Scientists know more about the chemistry and molecular structure of life than ever before, yet they still cannot define with certainty just what life is. A wide gulf separates nonliving matter from even the simplest living cell. 


* Scientists can only speculate about what conditions on earth were like billions of years ago.  They have differing views about where life began-for instance,whether within a volcano or under the ocean floor.  Another belief is that life's building blocks first formed  elsewhere in the universe and arrived here embedded in meteors.  But that doe snot answer the question  of how life began; It just pushes  the issue farther into space. 

*Scientist speculate about the existence of molecules that preceded genetic material as we know it today. These molecules are supposedly more likely to arise spontaneously  from inert material and are self-replicating. Yet, science has found no evidence that such molecules  ever existed, nor have scientists been able to create any such molecule in a laboratory. 

*Living things are unique in the way they store and process information. Cells convey, interpret, and carry out instructions contained within their genetic code to computer soft-ware and the chemical structure of the cell to computer hardware. But evolution cannot explain the source of the information.

* Protein molecules are necessary for the function of a cell. A typical protein molecule consists  of hundreds of amino acids strung together in a specific sequence. Additionally, the protein molecule must fold into  a specific three-dimensional shape for it  to be useful. Some scientists conclude that  the odds of even one protein molecule forming spontaneously are extremely improbable.  "Since a functioning cell requires thousands of different proteins," writes physicist Paul Davies, "it is not credible to suppose they formed by chance alone." 

Conclusion. After decades of research in virtually all branches of science, the fact remains that life comes only from preexisting life.  

Next time:  2. How Did Living Things Develop?

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2015