Page 58 - The Evolution Impasse 2

56 Molecular Evolution Impasse, The

MOLECULAR EVOLUTION Although there is no con sen sus
IMPASSE, THE among ev o lu tion ists at this point, ac -
cord ing to what most of them main -
According to the the o ry of ev o lu -
tain, nu cle ic ac ids that al so came in -
tion, gas mol e cu les such as wa ter va -
to be ing out side, by chance, set tled
por, hy dro gen, meth ane and am mo -
in side these bod ies, known as coa cer -
nia that rep re sent ed the at mos phere
vates. And when the coa cer vates' or -
on the pri mor di al world were com -
gan i za tion al lev el had ris en suf fi -
bined out by ul tra vi o let rays from
cient ly, they turned in to the first liv -
the Sun, elec tric i ty from light ning,
ing cells.
ra di a tion from ra di o ac tive rocks and
In the above sce nar io, ev o lu tion -
ther mal en er gy from vol ca noes.
ists ad mit of no con scious in ter ven -
According to this non sci en tif ic sce -
tion in the for ma tion of life from in -
nar io, the at oms that then emerged
an i mate sub stan ces, and claim that
in new se quen ces com bined to geth er
ev ery thing hap pened as the re sult of
and pro duced the build ing blocks
blind co in ci den ces. They point to the
that would form the first cell.
Miller ex per i ment as the first step in
These com pounds were lat er
the chance emer gence of life from in -
trans port ed to lakes and seas by
or gan ic ma te ri als. Today, how e ver,
rain. Organic com pounds thus com -
it is recog nized that the Miller ex per -
bined to geth er and the wa ters of the
i ment's as sump tions re gard ing the
Earth grad u al ly grew rich er in terms
chem i cal make-up of the ear ly at -
of these sub stan ces. The ami no ac ids
mos phere were in cor rect, and Miller
and oth er or gan ic sub stan ces in this
him self ad mit ted as much. Despite
mix ture then com bined to pro duce
all ev o lu tion ist ef forts, it is clear that
pro teins, car bo hy drate chains and
the the o ry of ev o lu tion has no sci en -
oth er in creas ing ly com plex or gan ic
tif ic sup port, nei ther on the mo lec u -
sub stan ces. Because of their tend en -
lar lev el nor in any oth er ar ea.
cy to grow, the first large bod ies that
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, from
de vel oped tried to ab sorb new mol e -
Cambridge University, says that no
cu les from around them. Thus bod -
cred i bil i ty can be at tached to any ex -
ies with more com plex struc tures
pla na tions of the or i gin of life that
and or gan i za tion, and ca pa ble of
are based on chance:
grow ing and mul ti ply ing, grad u al ly
emerged. While many out side or i gin-of-life bi ol -
o gy may still in voke "chance" as a
The Evolution Impasse II