Page 100 - True Wisdom Described in the Qur'an

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TRUE WISDOM DESCRIBED IN THE QUR'AN

Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was as-
sumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it
was later understood that worms did not appear on meat spon-
taneously, 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 bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter
was widely accepted 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 corner-
stone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sor-
bonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of
spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by
this simple experiment." 1
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resist-
ed 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 being coincidentally faced an even
greater impasse.

Inconclusive Efforts in the Twentieth Century

The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin
of life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biolo-
gist Alexander Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the
1930s, he tried to prove that a living cell could originate by coin-
cidence. These studies, however, were doomed to failure, and
Oparin had to make the following confession: