Created For a Purpose: My View of the Origin of Life
Note: This is a paper I wrote years ago regarding Creationism vs evolution theories. Although I believe the Creation account to be true, some of you may not agree. However, I do not wish for public debate in the comments section, and if you want to discuss it, you may PM me. Also, I know it is a long paper, but I would appreciate if you took the time to read this. Thank You!
We live in a world full of beauty and design; therefore, it is only natural that people would be curious about how life began – the origin of life. Theories pertaining to natural causes as the source for the beginning of life have been preferred by many contemporary scientists. Although evolutionists deem life originated out of random chance as the foundation of their beliefs, creation and science authenticate that life was supernaturally brought into existence by a Creator. That Creator is God, and there is evidence to support biblical creation.
The literal creation account is recorded in Genesis 1, which verifies God’s action to create life ex nihilo – out of nothing (MacArthur 213). The first verse of Genesis already reveals the origin of the four dimensions: “In the beginning (time) God created (energy) the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)” (White and Comninellis 175). The Bible’s description for creation conveys that in six days God created the heavens and the earth and all life therein. On the seventh day, God rested to enjoy His creation. Because everything was fashioned in the holiness of God, creation was therefore “very good” (Genesis 1:31). This was, until the fall of man, when sin corrupted His perfect creation, segregating Him from His artwork (until Jesus Christ’s death, which reconciled man’s relationship with God).
An equally important aspect of creation is man. In Psalm 139:14, we are told that man is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are set apart from all other living things because rather than being spoken into existence, God had formed and shaped us and has given us His breath (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew word Yatsar is used to describe God’s personal involvement in forming Adam, who was made in the image and likeness of God (Morris 41). Our ability to store information, to be able to grasp nearly any object, to be able to think and choose, and to articulate by intelligent speech, are some examples of the uniqueness of man beyond those of any other living creature.
Biblical creation teaches that life was made supernaturally and not by natural processes. Unlike the randomness of many secular theories, God created the universe orderly and purposefully. He created all things and thus, can do whatever He pleases with His creation (Psalm 135:6). Colossians 1:16-17 says “For by [God] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…; all things were created by him and for him. [God] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” God had masterfully created all life with the intelligence and diligence of a skillful designer.
Not only does science show evidence of intelligent design, but science also confirms the existence of an intelligent Creator. Every bird, animal, plant, person, – every living thing – display the design, intricacy, beauty, intelligence, and ingenuity that evolution can never produce, not even in a billion years. Any scientist must know when closely examining the complexity of a living cell, evolution is not the answer. Yet ever since the acceptance of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, scientists have attempted to uncover the origin of the universe and, ultimately, life, while denying God’s involvement in creation. The following are some of the theories evolutionists have proposed over many decades to disprove the biblical creation account: the theory of Spontaneous Generation, the Chemical Evolution theory, Uniformitarianism, Darwinism, and (the most recent) the Big Bang Theory.
Before there were refrigerators, many individuals had left their meat in the open. Consequently, the meat spoiled, and from the meat came maggots. This spectacle raised the idea of Spontaneous Generation (life emerging from nothing). Then, in 1668, a man known as Francisco Redi demonstrated that the meat did not produce maggots, but rather flies laid eggs on the meat. The demonstration implied that everything has an origin, which had therefore invalidated that life originated spontaneously. In response to the contradiction, the biochemist Oparin suggested that there was a primordial soup filled with the chemicals required to produce life (Chemical Evolution). With this model Miller and Ulrey “successfully” produced a few amino acids by “duplicating” the primordial soup’s reaction, causing a break-through in science.
On the other hand, no one had ever known the conditions in which the primordial soup was capable to forming life. Never was there any record of what chemicals were in the primordial soup. Miller and Ulrey had to tweak the experiment so that the chemical reaction would have favorable results, which disproves the legitimacy of Chemical Evolution since no outside force to guide the reactions of the chemicals in the soup was present. In addition, Miller and Ulrey only assembled a few amino acids, not even enough to form a single protein. Moreover, Chemical Evolution claims life originated from a chemical soup, but where did the primordial soup come from? The evidence against Chemical Evolution is greater than the evidence supporting the theory.
One theory that has gained momentum in science is Uniformitarianism. An idea that has controversy with Scripture, uniformitarianism, as Rev. John MacArthur elucidates, is the theory that natural and geological phenomena are for the most part the results of forces that have operated continuously, with uniformity, and without interruption, over billions and billions of years. He explains that uniformitarians assume that the forces at work in nature are essentially fixed and constant (MacArthur 214). A scientist who holds this view would see the Grand Canyon as the product of the natural flow of the Colorado River over many ages.
The opposing view of uniformitarianism is catastrophism (the notion that dramatic geological changes have occurred in sudden, violent, or unusual events). In contrast to an uniformitarian’s view, a catastrophist would see a massive flood as the cause of large canyons or rock formations. Catastrophism poses a threat to the evolutionist’s timetable, eliminating the multiple billions of years that make the evolutionary hypothesis work (MacArthur 214-215). For this reason evolutionists reject this view. The Bible also condemns unformitarianism. In 2 Peter 3:4, Peter says that this view would be embraced in the last days by scoffers, who presume that “everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
To add to that, one of the weaknesses of uniformitarianism is the fossil record (MacArthur 215). The Cambrian Explosion era (proposed by evolutionists) proves uniformitarianism as an invalid theory. The Cambrian Explosion era was to explain why fossils of “first life” were inexplicably found outside of their natural habitat, for example, marine animal fossils discovered on top of mountains. The fossils of the so-called first organisms all appeared to be fully formed, without a hint of any possible evolutionary transition. Dr. Henry Morris III clarifies that this layer of “first life” seemed to “explode” into the fossil record, with no incontrovertible observable history prior to their existence (Morris 20). Evolutionists find difficulty in comprehending this presumption, but creationists can fit this to the creation story, because God created mature life that can produce offspring. How can uniformitarianism explain such an event? The only answer uniformitarians can provide is by increasing the universe’s age.
Another secular theory that has risen in popularity is Darwinism. Charles Darwin, a naturalist, observed that some traits that organisms acquired were favorable for their environments than others. He claimed that the variations of different organisms must have come from a common ancestor. This discovery was the impetus for his theory of evolution by Natural Selection. Presently, scientists still accept man’s evolution from his prime ancestor and, because of the idea that man shares nearly 100 percent of DNA with apes, his relations to primates. Scientists have heavily labored for any kind of evidence to support their theory. Over the decades, scientists have dug up various pieces of fossils that could represent the “missing links”. The skeletal fragments – Ramapithicus, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus – have been illustrated picturing man evolving from ape-men (Burgess135).
Although Darwinism claims that all organisms relate to a common ancestor, there is no fossil or recorded evidence of one. The most likely reason for shared DNA among organisms is not the result of common ancestry, but most likely from a common designer. Besides, any physical differences within diverse kinds of creatures are always within their own species. God never said, “Let the land produce living creatures from a single creature,” but in Genesis 1:24 He said “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds…” God created with the intention of having every living thing to produce offspring of the same kind. All creatures are designed to adapt quickly to environmental changes while within each individual species (Morris 40).
To further point out, for natural selection to significantly modify a species there must be a positive mutation. Positive mutations are rare, and most mutations to DNA are so remarkably small that there is no effect at all. An equally important case, if man really evolved from primitive ancestors, then fossil evidence should agree with the claims of gradual change in a human’s skeletal system, but none of the transitional links have been found to authenticate man’s evolution (Burgess 135). As a result, monkey-to-man charts are proved bogus and misleading doctored fakes (Burgess 135-136)! The skeletal fragments of Ramapithicus and Australopithecus were proven to have been extinct apes soon after their discovery, while Homo habilis and Homo erectus were found to be deceased human beings (Burgess 136).
The most contemporary and widely spread secular theory so far in scientific history is the Big Bang Theory (no, not the television show). The Big Bang Theory’s assertion is that all matter and, eventually, life came forth out of a singularity and formed within a few fifteen billion years. In the similar manner of all other evolutionary theories, the Big Bang clearly eliminates God from the definition. This theory is so popular today because of the scientific evidence – black holes, red shift, cosmic background radiation, and the movement of the universe – that is present. Nevertheless, like all other secular ideas, the Big Bang has some shortcomings.
The problem with modern science is that many previous theories of the origin of the universe have been proved wrong. The Big Bang Theory is the latest of these theories, already having uncertainty surrounding the structure (MacArthur 221). Firstly, any explanation of the origin of singularity is void. No answer is identified because science is based on the fact that something cannot come from nothing by natural processes (Burgess 40), but regarding the biblical standpoint, God is outside all scientific boundaries, so He has the authority and power to do anything ( Job 42:2). Likewise, the Big Bang Theory cannot explain why the universe started at a particular time, or why the tiny blob of space matter exploded instead of continuing to remain a blob.
The Big Bang Theory actually describes the biblical creation account. In Genesis 1:3 (NASB), God said, “Let there be light;” and – BANG! – there was light. The Bible also describes the “stretching of the heavens” multiple times in the Old Testament (Job 9:8, Psalm 104:2, Isaiah 40:22, etc.), which would give the impression of a big bang.
If evolutionary theories were true, then life has no meaning. For instance, human life would be without significance. Evolution denies man’s superiority over all other living creatures (Genesis 1:28). Man would be a mere animal brought into existence by chance, not a special and unique creation made for a purpose. Abortion is a prime example of what happens when the world embraces this philosophy. Equally important is the fact that moral and morality would be non-essential. Moral law originated from God. He set the first laws (Ten Commandments) to benefit and protect the people of Israel (Exodus 20:20). If evolution was correct in claiming that moral emanated from man, then moral law is not necessary and can adjust according to each current generation (Burgess 150). Evolution is a religion that has been cleverly disguised as science. Faith would be a critical part in evolution because arguing that life has no meaning would absolutely require faith.
Although evolutionists deem life originating out of chance as truth, creation and science authenticate that life was supernaturally brought into existence by a Creator. For Christians, discerning the truth of the origin of life is essential this world of error. Today’s secular world is filled with people that believe there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Many evolutionary theories appear truthful and simple, yet these theories are fabrications of the truth that threaten to deceive individuals who lack an understanding of the origin of life. If we are not able to grasp the knowledge of life’s origin and God’s role in creation, the falsehood of evolution would pursue to extinguish the truth of the origin of life. First Thessalonians 5:21 warns us to “test everything” (NIV) and “hold fast to that which is good” (NASB). With the biblical creation account we can shine light onto the true origin and meaning of life.
Bibliography
Burgess, Stuart. He Made the Stars Also. Leominster: Day One Publications, 2008.
Burgess, Stuart. The Origin of Man. Leominster: Day One Publications, 2004.
Comninellis, Nicholas and White, Joe. Darwin’s Demise. Green Forest: Master
Books, 2001.
Han, Ken and Sarfati, Jonathan and Wieland, Carl. The Revised and Expanded Answers Book. Green Forest: Master Books, 2004.
MacArthur, John. Truth Matters. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004.
Morris, Henry. 5 Reasons To Believe In Recent Creation. Dallas: Institution for
Creation Research, 2008.
Morris, Henry. Six Days of Creation. Dallas: Institution for Creation Research,
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Strobel, Lee. The Case for Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
