According to scientists, planet Earth is estimated to be 4.566 +/- 0.0002 billion years old, and the oldest evidence of life dates back to ~3.8 billion years, indicating that life was established 700million years after Earth formed. Before we proceed, however, I must say to those among uswhoenjoysuch debates as young-Earth/old-Earth that is not my intent here. Instead, over the following two articles, my interest is in analyzing a particular theory of the origin of life that evolutionists have put forward in recent years.
Evidence of Earth’s early history was found in lunar rock samples collected during the Apollo missions and later through observations, revealing a picture of the early Earth and its violent conditions. Scientists identify this 700-millionyear violent period as the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), characterized by a massive number of asteroids colliding with the early solar planets, including Earth and its moon. The primary evidence of lunar impact and the ensuing destruction comes from observing moon cratering and analyzing collected rocks. These rocks revealed the destructive force of the impacts as rock-melting events that formed during collision with asteroids or comets some tens of kilometers across.Moonrockssupportthetheoretical dating of the LHB between about 3.8 and 4.1 billion years ago. Researchers have assumed that the impacts observed on the moon during the LHB also occurred on the early Earth, though erosive forces have erased most impact evidence. Through the LHB period, scientists calculate that some 17,000+ meteorites impacted Earth in what are considered to have been sterilizing events, destroying any established life through extreme temperatures. Inaddition,thesemeteoriteimpacts would have released enough energy to melt the entirety of Earth’s surface. The intense heat during these events would likewise have evaporated all liquid water and destroyed viable life forms, including the organic building blocks from which life could arise. According to scientists, the impact of these events on the origin of life could not be more profound. Extensive crater impact and lunar melt-rock studies yield a clear picture of these impact-induced sterilization events. Consequently, a significant time limitation exists for life to arise and evolve on Earth. In short, life could not have evolved any earlier than 3.8 billion years ago. However, complex photosynthetic life—cyanobacteria found in Stromatolites—appears 2 million years later at 3.5 billion years ago. To further detail, what Carl Sagan believed should have taken “billions of years” seems to have occurred quite rapidly. Nonetheless, it is a long way from goo to you via the zoo.
Just a cursory glance at the proposed sequence of textbook evolutionary events can be outlined in the following way: First, on Earth, the primordial building block chemicals created through stellar burning and supernova events were concentrated in aqueous environments to form a “prebiotic soup” where the assimilation of base atoms into more complex chemical species took place. Second, these complex chemical species then adapted a method to harvest energy necessary for function. Third, the adaptation of a mechanism by which they could transfer information in order to reproduce and sustain themselves was necessary. Fourth, these entities then adapted a mechanism to isolate themselves from the surrounding environment by evolving membrane vesicles. These irreducibly complex membranes, in turn, adapted and evolved selective permeability, allowing waste to be expelled from the cell and necessary environmental nutrients to be imported across the membrane. Finally,throughperhapsthousands of highly specific steps, evolution to the first viable human pair.
Evolutionists argue that all these steps are plausible and have even been simulated under laboratory conditions. The publication of these laboratory successes has created an environment of excitement and gives rise to a feeling that science is on the edge of explaining the naturalistic origin of life. But that’s not the whole story, far from it. Many problems arise in the evolutionist’s scenario at each step along the way. For example, multiple experiments prove that the production of prebiotic material in a reducing or neutral atmosphere cannot be sustained. Therefore, the consensus now is that there must not have been a prebiotic soup on the early Earth after all. Likewise, attempts to synthesize amino acids in the lab have been plagued with problems, and no viable natural pathway is evident outside of highly contrived laboratory settings. RNA synthesis has also been accomplished in laboratory settings, but only under constant and extreme researcher intervention. The same can be said for cell membrane formation, which is another critical necessity in the evolutionary model, yet it is also plagued with issues. The self-assembly of these membranes requires researcher intervention and is achieved only by adding the correct chemical building blocks in an ideal environment.
In short, evolutionary theory faces a multitude of enormous hurdles, but none greater than the limited time available for the superslow process of evolution to occur on Earth. Join us next time as we continue to look at the significant challenge that evolutionary theory faces. Until then, Is God Dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.