Conclusion of What Is the Origin of Life?

Many people recall Pasteur's  work in solving problems related to fermentation and to infectious disease. He also performed experiments to determine whether tiny life-forms could arise by themselves.  As you may have read, Pasteur demonstrated that even minute bacteria did not form in sterilized water protected from contamination.  In 1864 he announced:  "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment. "  That statement remains true.  No experiment has ever produced life from non-living matter.

How then could life come to be on earth? Modern efforts to answer that question might be dated to the 1920's, to the work of Russian biochemists Alexander I. Oparin. He and other scientists since then have offered something like the script of a three act drama that depicts what is  claimed to have occurred on the stage of planet Earth.  The first act portrays earth's elements, or raw materials, being transformed  into groups of molecules.  Then comes the jump to large molecules. And the last act of this drama presents the leap to the first living cell. But it really happen that way?

Fundamental to that drama is explaining that earth's early atmosphere was much different from what it is today. One theory assumes that free oxygen was virtually absent and that the elements  nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon formed ammonia and methane.  The concept is that when lightning and ultraviolet light struck in an atmosphere of these gases and water vapor, sugars, and amino acids developed. Bear in mind, though, that this is a theory.

According to this theoretical drama, such molecular forms washed into the oceans or other bodies of water. Over time, sugars, acids, and other compounds concentrated into a broth of  "prebiotic soup" where amino acids, for instance, joined to become proteins. Extending this theoretical progression, other compounds called nucleotides formed chains and became a nucleic acid, such as DNA. All of this supposedly set the stage for the final act of the molecular drama. 

One might depict this last act, which is undocumented, as a love story. Protein molecules and DNA molecules happen to meet, recognize each other and embrace.  Then, just before the curtain rings down, the first living cell is born. If you were following this drama, you might wonder,  'Is this real life or fiction?  Could life on earth really have originated in this way?

Next time: What Is the Origin of Life? -Genesis in the Laboratory?

From the book Is There a Creator That Cares About You?