Page 80 - Before You Regret

78 Before You Regret

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 living beings had a very simple struc-
ture. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, which
asserts that non-living materials came together to form liv-
ing organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly
believed that insects came into being from food leftovers,
and mice from wheat. 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 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 bacteria could come into existence from non-living mat-
ter 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 stud-