Posted on 08/16/2016 6:51:56 AM PDT by Heartlander
Although the general public is disconcertingly unaware of it, it is a fact that scientists do not have even the slightest clue as to how life could have begun through an unguided naturalistic process absent the intervention of a conscious creative force.
Here are just a few well-chosen statements on the Origin of Life:
Out of consideration for the reader, I won’t go back further than 35 years to illustrate the seamless ignorance of science and scientists regarding a naturalistic origin of life. Suffice it to say that not only has science not progressed in this area since Darwin published his famous treatise in 1859, but — on the contrary — it has slid backwards by many orders of magnitude.
What I mean by backwards becomes clear if we plot the Origin of Life dilemma on a standard x-y graph; with the horizontal X axis representing the understanding of a naturalistic origin of life from 1859 until the present. It is a straight line starting at zero (our understanding in 1859) and ending at zero (our understanding in 2016). Let the Y axis represent the level of understanding since 1859 of the magnitude of the problem that needs to be solved. In 1859 it was thought to be a relatively trivial issue (i.e. close to zero); however due to the astounding breakthroughs in genetics, biochemistry, and microbiology since then, the line of the Y axis is now off the graph.
As Biochemist Klaus Dose wrote: “Experimentation on the origin of life…has led to a better perception of the immensity of the problem of the origin of life on Earth rather than to its solution.” Researchers Carl Woese and Gunter Wachtershauser concur: “While we do not have a solution, we now have an inkling of the magnitude of the problem.”
Why are researchers having such difficulties discovering a naturalistic Origin of Life? Let’s let the aforementioned and atheist microbiologist Eugene Koonin answer this question: “Certainly this is not due to a lack of experimental and theoretical effort, but to the extraordinary intrinsic difficulty and complexity of the problem. A succession of exceedingly unlikely steps is essential for the Origin of Life…these make the final outcome seem almost like a miracle.”
Translation for the lay-person: Discovering how unguided naturalistic forces could assemble a living cell — a molecular machine that is more sophisticated and functionally complex than anything human technology has ever produced — is a problem of nightmarish proportions.
Imagine a LEGO set designed to build a model of the Brooklyn Bridge, with hundreds of blocks specifically designed to construct it; imagine you are then assigned the task of finding a pathway to a successful assembly of the model using only unguided, naturalistic forces (i.e. heat, lightning, sunlight, wind, radiation, etc.) Would you agree with Koonin and describe that as a problem of “extraordinary intrinsic difficulty”? Actually, Koonin’s description is quite appropriate for the LEGO problem, but is a gross understatement when we are talking about something as frighteningly complex as a living cell and its DNA-based genetic code and digital information processing system:
The living cell is best thought of as a supercomputer – an information processing and replicating system of astonishing complexity. DNA is not a special life giving molecule but a genetic data bank that transmits its information using a mathematical code. Most of the workings of the cell are best described as…information, or software. Trying to make life by mixing chemicals in a test tube is like soldering switches and wires in an attempt to produce Windows 98. It won’t work because it addresses the problem at the wrong conceptual level. (Dr. Paul Davies, Origin of Life expert, Physicist, Arizona State University)
When one dispassionately contemplates the enormous difficulties involved in a naturalistic origin of life, it is not surprising at all that one often suggested solution is Intelligent Design or Divine Creation. In fact, any number of world class scientists themselves have brought up the issue:
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “atheism” as “a disbelief in the existence of the deity” or “the doctrine that there is no deity.” If one approaches the Origin of Life issue “objectively,” as Nobel Prize-winning biologist Christian DeDuve put it, there is no way that any rational person can rule out the very real possibility of a Creator of life. It is certainly reasonable to suggest or raise the possibility that the reason why scientists cannot find a naturalistic answer is because there is no naturalistic answer. Perhaps the reason why many people deny Intelligent Design as the answer to Origin of Life is a psychological reason not a scientific reason, as Sir Fred Hoyle has suggested. Perhaps the reason why a “common sense interpretation of the facts” suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the universe, is because a super-intellect has monkeyed with the universe.
If a rational, truth-seeking individual is asked: “How did life begin; naturalistic, unguided forces or Divine Creation?” There are only two possible answers: (a) Divine Creation or (b) I don’t know, the jury is still out; but atheism – a denial of the existence of a Creator of life — is not possible anymore….unless, of course, as I stated in the title of this article, you are prepared to ignore science and scientists. And if so, you might just as well go and play children’s games and with children’s toys, like…..LEGO blocks.
Rabbi Moshe Averick is the author of Nonsense of a High Order: The Confused World of Modern Atheism (Mosaica Press, 2016) available on Amazon and in fine bookstores. He was ordained as an Orthodox Rabbi in 1980 and has taught Judaic studies, spirituality, and Jewish theology for over three decades. He may be contacted at: RabbiMosheDavidAverick@gmail.com.
Looks really interesting...for later
It defies logic to think that everything in the world was spontaneously created when some primordial mush and organisms came together to form everything. Quite possibly the end of logic began when people bought this evolution crap.
I was told a story about a physics teacher who put together a replica of the solar system in great detail by himself, and displayed it in the public school’s science room.
When his fellow Physics and Science teachers saw it they were amazed and awed, asking “Where did you get this with such mastery of detail?”
He replied that he didn’t get it from anywhere - it just ‘appeared out of nothing’, an obvious dig at the Big Bang/Darwinian theorists.
Reportedly they walked away angry and offended.
Something to consider. For a transistor to work something that “can’t happen” has to happen regularly and repeatedly...
Love this story. Simple and to the point. Thanks.
Of course.
That sounds suspiciously like the Isaac Newton story.
http://www.all-creatures.org/stories/newton-atheist.html
Explain, please. What is it that "can't happen"?
Electron tunneling.
Atheists are the children of Marx, and the enemies of America.
I don’t know - maybe that’s where the story, or the idea for the Physics teacher to do it, originated from.
But I never forgot it as it demonstrates what a stretch it is to say something comes from nothing...and really irks the liberal/atheists!
Sadly, to be an atheist is to publicly declare that you haven’t got the ability to understand probability and chance or basic project management.
There are no atheists in fox holes...
I find most actually believe in a higher being, but refuse to acknowledge because they either fear the unknown or do not want to change their behavior...
sin has closed their mind to the glorious possibility of a loving creator
ping
Atheists are the children of Marx, and the enemies of America.
Electron tunneling always baffled me ... And I am an EE :-) ... I mainly design digital systems and haven’t worked at the transistor level in years (I did some memory design early on in my career). I’m hoping to revisit that topic when I retire and start researching a few things that fascinated me over the years :-).
I am not a physicist or in electronics. I just remember a bunch of random stuff. The reason I mentioned this is that “things that can’t happen” happen all the time we just don’t understand it. Hence, the real issue...”where were you when I laid the foundation of the world...”
“Out of all the ridiculous religion stories — which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous — the silliest one I’ve ever heard is, ‘Yeah, there’s this big, giant universe and it’s expanding and it’s all going to collapse on itself and we’re all just here, just because… That to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever.” - Trey Parker
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