Page 165 - Miracles Within the Molecule

ADNAN OKTAR

tains that the "first cell" originated as a product of blind coincidences
within the laws of nature, without any plan or arrangement.
According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living
cell as a result of coincidences. Such a claim, however, is inconsistent
with the most unassailable rules of biology.

"Life Comes From Life"

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive
understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that liv-
ing beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, sponta-
neous generation, which asserts that non-living materials came togeth-
er to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was common-
ly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice
from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this the-
ory. 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 developing in rotting meat was assumed to be
evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood
that worms did not 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." 73
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these
findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the com-
plex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come
into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.

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