Page 30 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

Again I’m not going into details because of time constraint. But a few
years ago, a chemist by the name of Jackie Thomas and I published a
paper in a journal called Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres. This
is one of the World’s leading origin of life research journals. We detailed
the problems associated with membrane-first scenarios. This was a
remarkable achievement because both Jackie Thomas and I are creationists.
And yet the problems we identified with membrane-first scenarios are so
significant, even evolutionary biologists had to acknowledge that our
critique was legitimate. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal consented to
publish our critical assessment of membrane-first scenarios in this premier
origin-of-life research journal. In other words, every attempt to explain
the origin of life has resulted in failure from an evolutionary standpoint.
When it comes to the origin of life, you cannot say there is a blind watch-
maker.
When I present this evidence to origin of life researchers they are
very quick to agree that at this point in time, we have no explanation for
the origin of life. But they argue that we still think that we might be able to
explain chemical evolution someday. Because of successes that they claim
to have in the laboratory or they’ve been able to make for example
building block materials through what are called prebiotic chemical ex-
periments. Or they can make biopolymers or evolve RNA molecules in
the lab or make self-replicating systems and manufacture protocells. And
they point to this and say this demonstrates that chemical evolution could
be conceivable and this brings me to the third point of my argument.

FASHION: Attempts to create or fashion life in the lab make a very
powerful case for a Creator.
When chemists go into lab to perform prebiotic chemistry studies,
they are working under highly controlled conditions. They carefully
assemble the glassware. They fill the glassware with the appropriate solvents.
They add the just-right chemicals at the just-right time at the just-right
concentrations. They control the temperature of the reaction. They control
the pH of the reaction. They stop the reaction at that just-right time. In
other words, the chemists are contributing to the success of the prebiotic