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To: AndrewC; vaderetro; longshadow; junior; Nebullis
I believe Pasteur showed that was not likely.

This really isn't difficult to find, and it's a great example of how creationists love to take stuff out of context and then spin it to fit their weird views. In the case of Pasteur, the creationists take the expression "spontaneous generation" and give it a totally different meaning. Some of them must know how they're twisting the truth, and the rest just read the perverted versions of "science" on the creationist websites:
The Slow Death of Spontaneous Generation (1668-1859) .

From the time of the ancient Romans, through the Middle Ages, and until the late nineteenth century, it was generally accepted that some life forms arose spontaneously from non-living matter. Such "spontaneous generation" appeared to occur primarily in decaying matter. For example, a seventeenth century recipe for the spontaneous production of mice required placing sweaty underwear and husks of wheat in an open-mouthed jar, then waiting for about 21 days, during which time it was alleged that the sweat from the underwear would penetrate the husks of wheat, changing them into mice. Although such a concept may seem laughable today, it is consistent with the other widely held cultural and religious beliefs of the time.

[snip]

The theory of spontaneous generation was finally laid to rest in 1859 by the young French chemist, Louis Pasteur. The French Academy of Sciences sponsored a contest for the best experiment either proving or disproving spontaneous generation. Pasteur's winning experiment was a variation of the methods of Needham and Spallanzani. He boiled meat broth in a flask, heated the neck of the flask in a flame until it became pliable, and bent it into the shape of an S. Air could enter the flask, but airborne microorganisms could not - they would settle by gravity in the neck. As Pasteur had expected, no microorganisms grew. When Pasteur tilted the flask so that the broth reached the lowest point in the neck, where any airborne particles would have settled, the broth rapidly became cloudy with life. Pasteur had both refuted the theory of spontaneous generation and convincingly demonstrated that microorganisms are everywhere - even in the air.


523 posted on 02/23/2002 9:36:32 AM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: PatrickHenry
life forms arose spontaneously from non-living matter. Such "spontaneous generation"

Pre-biotic soup is living matter. Pre-biotic soup is non-living matter. Which is it?

534 posted on 02/23/2002 11:00:37 AM PST by AndrewC
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