Page 179 - Not by Chance

The Evolution Deceit 177

Interesting experiments were con-

ducted to prove this theory. Some
wheat was placed on a dirty piece
of cloth, and it was believed that

mice would originate from it after
a while.
Similarly, maggots develop-
ing in rotting meat was assumed

to be evidence of spontaneous
generation. However, it was later
understood that worms did not The French biologist Louis Pasteur

appear on meat spontaneously,
but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked
eye.
Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacte-

ria could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accept-
ed in the world of science.
However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book, Louis

Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, that
disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In
his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the
doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this

simple experiment." 30
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these
findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex

structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into be-
ing coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.