Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Science of Creation [2]

That's Life!
It was a popular TV programme once; but we're looking at how science grapples with the origin of life itself.

OK so far. So where did life come from?
.
A Russian - Born 1894; Died 1980
This man came up with the idea of a primeval soup, a sort of sea of sludge. With all the heat, and great meteors crashing into the fiery hot earth, he guessed that the chemicals of life might mix and change and some sort of living slime might "appear"

Doesn't sound very much like life as we know it!

To continue ...
In 1953 a research student (in America) set up an experiment to see what would happen if he used high voltage electric sparks and high pressure to try to "stir up" certain basic chemicals. Would this home-made "primeval soup" eventually become alive? 

A bit like Frankenstein's monster creature?
Maybe, but it didn't really work. And so far no-one has been able to "create" life! Some scientists suggest that life came from "outer space" and infected the earth, like a disease! Maybe life didn't come from space but from outside our universe. That would fit in well with the idea of God.

The Bible implies that the sea comes before the start of life, although, again, it tells the tale very simply; and not al all scientifically. But it does suggest simple plant life had to come first, a bit like algae from the sea..
Yuk : Slimy

Then God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear”; and it was done. He named the land “Earth,” and the water which had come together he named “Sea.” And God was pleased with what he saw. Then he commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit; and it was done.

A bit like the idea of a primeval soup? Maybe possible. I'm not convinced. So what came next?

Then God made the sun to rule over the day; and the moon to rule over the night. He also made the stars. Then God commanded, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin; they will shine in the sky to give light to the earth"; and it was done. So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars.
Hang on a minute! God's got it in the wrong order!! Surely the earth evolved after the first stars?

Maybe. Maybe not. Time to take a ride in your imaginary spaceship again.
A question. With all the heat, and smoke, and earthquakes and volcanoes as the earth settles down and starts to become stable; what would the atmosphere be like?
I guess pretty stinky and hot with lots of fire and smoke.

So, to see the sun moon and star from your little spaceship you would need a clear atmosphere and a blue sky.
And that means oxygen! And where do we get oxygen from?"

A bit of biology? Green plants take in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.
Well done, have a merit point! There would certainly be no clear sky until plant life started covering the earth. Yet photosynthesis needs sun, first. Once the sky cleared (in your imagination, looking out from your spaceship) you could see the sun, moon and stars for the first time. From the limited point of view of a theoretical observer on a changing earth, that's when the visible heavens would be "created".

A bit simple again - but remember, the people who wrote these ideas down were not scientists!

But .. I'm confused

The first living stuff, plants and the like, make oxygen.

Correct.

But isn't living stuff partly made of oxygen?

Correct

But ... How can they make oxygen if they haven't got any in the first place? The plants won't be there to make it.

Correct again! At the moment this is one of the many problems that science cannot explain. The calculations do not work out. There isn't enough free oxygen to make the world go round. Of course, it works for God, creating stuff from outside our universe! It's another "which came first?" conundrum; the oxygen to make the plants or the oxygen made by the plants.

What about humans? Descended from the apes?

 Next Bible Blog : Thursday 20th September 

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