Page 52 - The Evolution Impasse 2

50 Miller Experiment, The

In ad di tion, at the end of the ex - might have al tered the course of the
per i ment, a high lev el of right-hand - re ac tions was in clud ed in the ex per -
47
ed ami no ac ids al so emerged. (See i men tal ap pa ra tus. Oxygen that
Right-Handed Amino Acids.) The would hin der the for ma tion of ami -
pres ence of these ami no ac ids to tal ly no ac ids is just one of these el e ments.
un der mined the prem ise of ev o lu - Therefore, in the ab sence of the cold
tion by means of its own log ic. trap mech a nism, even un der those
Right-hand ed ami no ac ids are not ide al lab o ra to ry con di tions, ami no
used in liv ing struc tures. Finally, the ac ids could not have sur vived with -
en vi ron ment in which ami no ac ids out be ing bro ken down.
emerged in the ex per i ment was not With the Miller ex per i ment, ev o -
suit ed to life; but on the con tra ry, lu tion ists ac tu al ly in val i dat ed ev o lu -
was a mix ture that would have bro - tion by their own ef forts. Because the
ken down and ox i dized use ful mol e - ex per i ment dem on strat ed that ami -
cu les. no ac ids could be ob tained on ly in
All this points to the con crete fact spe cial ly ar ranged lab o ra to ry con di -
that Miller's ex per i ment —a con - tions and with con scious in ter ven -
scious, con trolled lab o ra to ry study tion. In oth er words, the force giv ing
aimed at syn the siz ing ami no ac ids— rise to life is cre a tion, not ran dom co -
does not prove that life could have in ci den ces.
emerged by chance un der pri mor di - The rea son why ev o lu tion ists
al world con di tions. The types and refuse to ac cept this stems from their
lev els of the gas ses he used were de - pre con cep tions. Harold Urey, who
ter mined at the ide al lev els for ami - or ga nized the ex per i ment to geth er
no ac ids to be able to form. The lev el with his stu dent Stanley Miller,
of en er gy sup plied was care ful ly made this ad mis sion:
reg u lat ed, nei ther too much nor too All of us who study the or i gin of life
lit tle, to en sure that the de sired re ac - find that the more we look in to it, the
tions would take place. more we feel it is too com plex to have
The ex per i men tal ap pa ra tus iso - evolved any where. We all be lieve as an
lat ed so as not to har bor any el e ment ar ti cle of faith that life evolved from
that might be harm ful, or pre vent dead mat ter on this plan et. It is just
that its com plex i ty is so great, it is
the emer gence of ami no ac ids. No el -
hard for us to im ag ine that it did. 48
e ment, min er al or com pound pre-
sent in the pri me val world that This ex per i ment is the sole proof

The Evolution Impasse II