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Basic Worldview:
103 Science, the Bible,
and Creation



Origins - Section Three:
Evolution, Environment for Life 1


Origins - Section One: Introduction and the Basics
Origins - Section Two: Premature Dismissals
Origins - Section Two: Application of the Basics
Origins - Section Three: Creation
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Origin of Life
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Environment for Life 1
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Environment for Life 2
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Another Planet
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Origin of Species
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Speciation Factors
Origins - Section Three: Evolution, Speciation Rates
Origins - Section Four: Time and Age, Redshift
Origins - Section Four: Philosophical Preference
Origins - Section Four: Cosmological Model 1
Origins - Section Four: Cosmological Model 2
Origins - Section Four: Dating Methods, Perceptions, Basics
Origins - Section Four: Global Flood Evidence
Origins - Section Four: Relative Dating
Origins - Section Four: Dating and Circular Reasoning
Origins - Section Four: The Geologic Column
Origins - Section Four: Radiometric Dating Basics
Origins - Section Four: General Radiometric Problems
Origins - Section Four: Carbon-14 Problems
Origins - Section Four: Remaining Methods and Decay Rates
Origins - Section Four: Radiometric Conclusions, Other Methods
Origins - Section Five: Overall Conclusions, Closing Editorial
Origins - Section Five: List of Evidences Table
Origins Debate Figures and Illustrations


Evolution on the Origin of Life: Energy and Safety, a Suitable Environment

The other barrier to the origin of life, which we asserted was recognized and included in the evolutionary theory itself, is the geologic history of the earth. Specifically, the obstacles present in earth’s geologic history concern 2 aspects: energy and safety. Not only does the chicken-and-egg dilemma of cell components remain unresolved and incomplete in evolutionary theory, but even if that dilemma was resolved, evolutionary theory would still have to identify a suitable environment in which there was not only sufficient energy to fuel the origin of life but also sufficient protection from environmental factors that would destroy any progress toward life. Earth’s geologic history is where such an environment must be identified. Because identifying when such an environment existed on earth is critical to this barrier and because events surrounding the formation of the solar system are relevant to earth’s geologic history and the origin of life, we will also take time in this segment to cover the evolutionary model for the origin of the universe. Furthermore, although the mechanisms for the formation of the universe and the question of age will be considered critically in our next section, in this segment our purpose will simply be to present the position of evolutionary theory on these points.

Concerning the age of the universe, evolutionists believe that the universe resulted from a “big bang” explosion anywhere from 10 to 20 billion years ago.

"Big-bang modelwidely held theory of the evolution of the universe. Its essential feature is the emergence of the universe from a state of extremely high temperature and density—the so-called big bang that occurred at least 10,000,000,000 years ago. Although this type of universe was proposed by Alexander Friedmann and Abbé Georges Lemaîtrein the 1920s, the modern version was developed by George Gamow and colleagues in the 1940s." – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Cosmology, III MODERN COSMOLOGY, A The Big Bang TheoryCurrent calculations place the age of the universe at 10 billion to 15 billion years.” – "Cosmology," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Big Bang Theory, I INTRODUCTIONBig Bang Theory, currently accepted explanation of the beginning of the universe. The big bang theory proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic explosion called the big bang, occurred about 10 billion to 20 billion years ago, and the universe has since been expanding and cooling.” – "Big Bang Theory," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

UniverseAccording to the theory, the universe began with an explosion-called the big bang-13 billion to 14 billion years ago.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Kenneth Brecher, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Boston University.

Big Bang – Big bang refers to the most widely held scientific theory of the origin of the universe. According to this theory, the universe began with a hot, explosive event-a "big bang"-about 10 billion to 20 billion years ago.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Kenneth Brecher, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Boston University.

This age of the universe is calculated based upon the distance of stars and the speed at their light travels to the earth. First, there is a simple, physical phenomenon that the wavelengths of sound or light become longer if the source of the wave and the observer of that wave are moving away from each other. This phenomenon is known as the Doppler Effect and it is occurring with regard to the light from stars. As observed from earth, the light from stars is longer in wavelength, shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. This shift toward the longer, red wavelengths indicates that the star, the source of the light, is moving away from the earth.

Doppler effect – the apparent difference between the frequency at which sound or light waves leave a source and that at which they reach an observer, caused by relative motion of the observer and the wave source…The following is an example of the Doppler effect: as one approaches a blowing horn, the perceived pitch is higher until the horn is reached and then becomes lower as the horn is passed. Similarly, the light from a star, observed from the Earth, shifts toward the red end of the spectrum (lower frequency or longer wavelength) if the Earth and star are receding from each other and toward the violet (higher frequency or shorter wavelength) if they are approaching each other. The Doppler effect is used in studying the motion of stars and to search for double stars and is an integral part of modern theories of the universe. See also red shift.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

As indicated by the quote above and the quote below, this manifestation of the Doppler Effect with regard to the light from stars is known as “red shift.”

“Red shift – displacement of the spectrum of an astronomical object toward longer (red) wavelengths. It is generally attributed to the Doppler effect, a change in wavelength that results when a given source of waves (e.g., light or radio waves) and an observer are in rapid motion with respect to each other.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Taking note of the red shift in starlight, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble established that the Doppler Effect was occurring in starlight because the stars, the source of the light waves, were moving away from the earth, the place where the waves were observed. Consequently, the fact that the stars are moving away from the earth establishes that the universe is expanding. Moreover, red shift is central to the Big Bang theory, which is based upon the concept that the universe is expanding.

Redshift – In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the farther a galaxy is from Earth, the larger its redshift and thus the faster it is moving away. Hubble's discovery indicated that the universe is expanding. The expansion of the universe is a key part of the big bang theory, the modern theory of the beginning of the universe. According to this theory, all space expanded from a hot, dense, pointlike concentration called a singularity.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Wendy Freedman, Ph.D., Astronomer, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Furthermore, based upon the measurement of the redshift in the light from distant galaxies, scientists have been able to establish a consistent relationship between the distance of galaxies and their speed of movement. This relationship is known as Hubble’s constant and it is designated by the letter “H.”

Hubble's constant – in cosmology, constant of proportionality in the relation between the velocities of remote galaxies and their distances. It expresses the rate at which the universe is expanding. It is denoted by the symbol H and named in honour of Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer who attempted in 1929 to measure its value.” Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

This constant rate of expansion, which is based upon the phenomenon of red shift, is then used to determine the age of the universe.

Hubble constant – Hubble constant is a measure of the rate of expansion of the universe. Astronomers use this number in estimating the age of the universe.” – World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

The quote below from Britannica Encyclopedia mentions the “reciprocal of Hubble’s constant.” (“Reciprocal” simply means “inverse” or “opposite.” It is derived from the verb “reciprocate,” which in this sense means, “to move forward and backward alternately.”)

Reciprocal – 1a: inversely related: opposite.” – Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Reciprocate – intransitive senses 1: to make a return for something 2: to move forward and backward alternately.” – Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

In short, here’s how the concept works. Since Hubble’s constant indicates how much the universe moves apart as time moves forward, the reciprocal of Hubble’s constant indicates how much closer together the parts of the universe were in the past. And if we go far enough back into the past, effectively, all the parts of the universe come together around 10 to 20 billion years ago, depending upon the exact figure that is used for Hubble’s constant.

“Hubble's constant – The reciprocal of Hubble's constant lies between 10 billion and 20 billion years, and this cosmic time scale serves as an approximate measure of the age of the universe.Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Consequently, the entire evolutionary age of the universe is calculated based upon the phenomenon of red shift, which itself depends upon the distance of stars and the speed at which their light travels to the earth.

With a universe that is somewhere between 10-20 billion years old, evolutionary theory describes the age of the earth as about 4.6 billion years old.

Earth, geologic history of, The pregeologic period – The history of the Earth spans approximately 4.6 billion years…It is widely accepted by both geologists and astronomers that the Earth is roughly 4.6 billion years old.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Earth [planet]Age of Earth. Scientists think that Earth probably formed at about the same time as the rest of the solar system. They have determined that some chondrite meteorites, the unaltered remains from the formation of the solar system, are up to 4.6 billion years old. Scientists believe that Earth and other planets are probably that old.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven I. Dutch, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

GeologyEarth probably formed about 4 1/2 billion years ago, and it has been changing ever since.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Maria Luisa Crawford, Ph.D., Professor of Geology, Bryn Mawr College.

Notice also from the quote below that the oldest rocks on earth are 3.8 billion years old, which limits the farthest point of the fossil record simply because, fossils cannot go back farther than the existing rock record.

Geologic sciences, Study of surface features and processes, Earth history, Historical geology and stratigraphy – Radiometric dating also helped geochronologists discover the vast span of geologic time. The radiometric dating of meteorites revealed that the Earth, like other bodies of the solar system, is about 4,600,000,000 years old and that the oldest rocks so far discovered formed roughly 3,800,000,000 years ago. It has been established that the Precambrian time occupies seven-eighths of geologic time, but the era is still poorly understood in comparison with the Phanerozoic Eon—the span of time extending from about the beginning of the Cambrian Period to the Holocene Epoch during which complex life forms are known to have existed.”  – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

This timeframe of approximately 3.8 billion years ago as the front end of the fossil record is important. It is at this point that we begin to encounter significant obstacles to the evolutionary origin of life in terms of the geologic history of the earth, mentioned in our definition of evolutionary theory. The barrier results from the acknowledged fact that the earth was “heavily bombarded” by tens of thousands of meteorites up until about 3.9 billion years ago.

Exobiology, II THE PROBABILITY OF LIFE IN THE GALAXY – The young Earth had more volcanic activity than today's Earth, warming the atmosphere and filling it with chemicals that trapped the sun's heat. Debris from the young solar system impacting Earth, lightning, and radiation from the sun provided energy necessary to break apart molecules, allowing new compounds to form.” – "Exobiology," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

If you go to the moon, says Chyba, or look at the craters on Mars or Mercury, what you see is that the whole inner solar system was being subjected to a very intense bombardment from space at that time. You can infer that the same was true for Earth.” – “How Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine

“Figure 1. The young Earth appears to have been bombarded by comets for several hundred million years shortly after it was formed.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

“A World Without Water, Figure 4. Impact craters on the Moon, most obviously visible on the lunar highlands (left), offer evidence of an era when the inner solar system was subject to a heavy bombardment of small bodies. The impact rate (deduced from the density of the craters) and their age (based on radioactive dating of lunar rocks) conform to a theoretical model of cometary bombardment (right, black curve), which is based on changing rates of cometary flux to the inner solar system from the regions of the giant planets in the outer solar system (colored lines). The observational data (crosses) suggest that the first 600 million years of bombardment can be explained by a large flux of comets from Jupiter’s zone. After one billion years the excess impacts (crosses above the black curve) indicate another source, possibly asteroids. (Image courtesy of NASA.)” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

Earth, geologic history of, The pregeologic period – The history of the Earth spans approximately 4.6 billion years. The oldest known rocks, however, have an isotopic age of only about 3.9 billion years. There is, in effect, a stretch of 700 million years for which no geologic record exists, and the evolution of this pregeologic period of time is not surprisingly the subject of much speculation. To understand this little-known period, the following factors have to be considered: the age of formation at 4.6 billion years ago, the processes in operation until 3.9 billion years ago, the bombardment of the Earth by meteorites, and the earliest zircon crystals…It is known from direct observation that the surface of the Moon is covered with a multitude of meteorite craters. There are about 40 large basins attributable to meteorite impact. Known as maria, these depressions were filled in with basaltic lavas caused by the impact-induced melting of the lunar mantle. Many of these basalts have been analyzed isotopically and found to have crystallization ages of 3.9 to 4 billion years. It can be safely concluded that the Earth, with a greater attractive mass than the Moon, must have undergone more extensive meteorite bombardment. According to the English-born geologist Joseph V. Smith, a minimum of 500 to 1,000 impact basins were formed on the Earth within a period of about 100 to 200 million years prior to 3.95 billion years ago. Moreover, plausible calculations suggest that this estimate represents merely the tail end of an interval of declining meteorite bombardment and that about 20 times as many basins were formed in the preceding 300 million years. Such intense bombardment would have covered most of the Earth's surface, with the impacts causing considerable destruction of the terrestrial crust up to 3.9 billion years ago. There is, however, no direct evidence of this important phase of Earth history because rocks older than 3.9 billion years have not been preserved.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

The quote above indicates that there was “extensive meteorite bombardment” in the 100-200 million years prior to 3.95 billion years ago AND possible worse bombardment in the 300 million years before that. This 500 million years of meteorite bombardment is also described in the quote below, which denotes this period using scientific notation (10 raised to the eighth power is 100,000,000 multiplied by 5 is 500,000,000 years). The next series of quotes will further establish this period of meteor bombardment by focusing on Mars and the earth’s moon. Since at this point in the history of the solar system there was still much debris, the bombardment of other nearby celestial bodies, such as Mars and earth’s moon, are understood to provide comparative insight into the earth’s own bombardment by meteorites.

Mars [planet], Physical features of Mars, Craters and impact basins. – Many meteoroids have struck Mars over its history, producing impact craters. Impact craters are rare on Earth for two reasons: (1) Those that formed early in the planet's history have eroded away, and (2) Earth developed a dense atmosphere, preventing meteorites that could have formed craters from reaching the planet's surface…Evolution of Mars - Periods of evolution. Scientists know generally how Mars evolved after it formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Their knowledge comes from studies of craters and other surface features...Researchers have ranked the relative ages of surface regions according to the number of impact craters observed. The greater the number of craters in a region, the older the surface there...During the Noachian Period, a tremendous number of rocky objects of all sizes, ranging from small meteoroids to large asteroids, struck Mars. The impact of those objects created craters of all sizes.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven W. Squyres, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University.

Earth [planet], History of EarthAfter the main period of planet formation, most of the remaining debris in the solar system was swept up by the newly formed planets. The collisions of the newly formed planets and debris material were explosive. The impacts created the cratered surfaces of the moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Earth was also struck, but the craters produced by the impacts have all been destroyed by erosion and plate tectonics. Geologists believe that large masses of continental crust had formed by 3.5 billion years ago. There is evidence that plate tectonics has been active for at least 2 billion years.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven I. Dutch, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

The quote below states that intense bombardment lasted for 600 million years after the moon’s formation, which is identified as being 50 million years after earth’s formation.

“A Heavy, Heavy Rain, Anyone who has looked at the Moon through a telescope cannot help but be impressed by its pockmarked appearance. Its surface is covered with craters caused by the hammer-like blows of impacting objects. Photographs from the orbiting Apollo missions reveal that the far side of the Moon is even more heavily cratered. The Moon is not unique: Spacecraft missions to Mars and Mercury have shown that these planets are also heavily cratered. Moreover, the craters on all three bodies are remarkably similar with respect to their sizes and densities, suggesting that all experienced the same heavy bombardment at some point in their histories. Despite the relative absence of impact craters on the Earth, its proximity to these other planets leaves little doubt that it too must have faced such a period of bombardment…By counting the density of the craters in these regions, we can assess the intensity of the bombardment and its age. These types of data suggest that the lunar impact rate was most intense during the first 600 million years of the Moon’s history (Figure 4). Since the Moon was formed merely 50 million years after the Earth’s formation (4.56 billion years ago), this 600-million-year period also corresponds to the missing era in the primordial Earth’s history.  The intensity of the bombardment during this period is simply too large to be explained by planetesimals from the inner solar system—most of these would have been already incorporated into the planets themselves.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

This places the end of the bombardment period at right around 3.85 billion years ago. (4.5 for the formation of the earth minus 50 million for the formation of the moon minus 600 million for the end of “intense” bombardment equals 3.85 billion.) The quote below states that large cometary impacts were not becoming rare until as late as 3.5 billion years ago. However, it states that such impacts did occur and that they had such consequences as to boil off oceans.

“The Primeval Biosphere – About 3.5 billion years ago large cometary impacts would have become increasingly rare, but when they did occur, they produced enormous cataclysms. The oceans would have boiled near the impact site, causing hurricanes and gigantic waterspouts with fantastic ejections of gas and water into space. Under these chaotic and seemingly inhospitable conditions, a phenomenon occurs that is going to have astonishing consequences: Bacteria begin to multiply in the hot waters of the first oceans.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

The ending of the “intense” bombardment is right around the exact time that the earliest life is said must have been present on earth. Yet, the “ocean-boiling” impacts continue until right up until the oldest fossils, which likewise date to approximately 3.5 billion years ago.

“Conclusion – There is now considerable evidence to support the idea that we owe the existence of our biosphere to a heavy bombardment of comets in the very early history of our planet. Indeed the delivery of water and prebiotic molecules explains why life emerged so soon after the conditions ceased to be utterly hostile. The oldest fossil imprints of bacteria date to about 3.456 billion years ago (in Australian rocks), and there is indirect evidence that life was present 3.8 billion years ago in the ancient sediments of Greenland (Figure 10).” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

Having established the intensity, duration, and timeframe of cometary impacts, which leads right up to and partially overlaps the evolutionary timeframe for the origin of life, we can now discuss the impact that such impacts would have had. The quotes below describe the significant affect such impacts would have on the possibility of life originating on earth at that time.

“Although about 100 times as many asteroids as comets approach Earth, comets pack a bigger punch—they plunge toward the sun several times faster than asteroids. That means a comet could hit Earth with about 10 times as much energy as an asteroid with the same massIn 1994 Jupiter's gravity shredded comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into 21 visible chunks, which then plunged into the gas giant piece after piece. A typical piece detonated with the force of about 25,000 megatons of TNT. A chain of blasts around Earth might wreak more havoc than a single impact.” – “To Catch a Comet,” by Robert Irion, DISCOVER, Vol. 24 No. 10, October 2003

Chemical Evidence – The separation of these layers dates to the earliest period of the Earth’s formation, when it was still accumulating mass by the accretion of planetesimals. The energy of the accretionary impacts was transformed into a heat so intense that Earth’s surface was covered with a thick layer of molten lava, perhaps to very great depths.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

Meteorite – Meteorites generally have a pitted surface and fused charred crust. The larger ones strike the earth with tremendous impact, creating huge craters…The meteorites that formed craters as large as the ones in Vredefort, Sudbury, and the Yucatán must have had a devastating effect on the nearby environment, and they also probably affected global weather patterns. The force of collision would have spewed molten rock far around the impact site. Dust and poisonous gases that were produced by the crash when it vaporized minerals in the ground would have darkened the sky over a huge area for months or even years. Many scientists believe that the event that caused the crater in the Yucatán Peninsula may have created global climate changes that led to the extinction of the last of the dinosaursDust and gas circulating in the atmosphere could cut off sunlight for months, killing crops and reducing the food supply for the entire world. Fortunately, astronomers calculate the average frequency of major collisions at only about one collision every 300,000 years. ” – "Meteorite," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

“Advanced forms of life existed on earth at least 3.55 billion years ago. In rocks of that age, fossilized imprints have been found of bacteria that look uncannily like cyanobacteria, the most highly evolved photosynthetic organisms present in the world today…On the other hand, it is believed that our young planet, still in the throes of volcanic eruptions and battered by falling comets and asteroids, remained inhospitable to life for about half a billion years after its birth, together with the rest of the solar system, some 4.55 billion years ago. This leaves a window of perhaps 200-300 million years for the appearance of life on earth.” – “The Beginnings of Life on Earth,” Christian de Duve, American Scientist, September-October 1995

Astronomers and geologists were discovering that Earth had a violent infancy--hundreds of millions of years after the planet had formed, giant asteroids and comets still crashed into it, burning off its young atmosphere and boiling away its oceans. In the process, they also destroyed all the chemicals that researchers assumed were in liberal supply on the early Earth, including the building blocks of lipids.” – “First Cell,” by Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER, Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine

“The Primeval Biosphere – A picture of the young Earth near the end of the bombardment period would show a cloudy atmosphere, dozens of times thicker than our own (Figure 11). Such an atmosphere would protect the ground and prevent it from cooling rapidly in an era when the young Sun was about 30 percent less bright than it is now. Even so, most of the cometary water would have turned into steam. As the ground temperature fell below the boiling point (403 kelvins at a pressure of 30 atmospheres), the steam would have condensed to form a hot ocean.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

(It should be noted that in the quotes below the term “volatiles” refers to water and organic matter.)

“A World Without Water, Figure 3. A curve (left) showing the decrease in temperature with increasing distance from the protosun can then be derived from a knowledge of where the chondrites were formed in the accretionary disk. Such a curve shows that the dust in the zone of the accretionary disk where the Earth was formed reached temperatures between 900 and 1,400 kelvins—and so was completely devoid of volatile materials, such as water and organic molecules.” – An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere, Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientists, Volume 89, 2004

The next 3 quotes below also denote that there may have been one impact involving a “Mars-sized body crashing obliquely into the primitive earth” and so large that it is responsible for the creation of the moon. In addition, the last 2 quotes assert that the formation of the moon destroyed any oceans and any organic material that may have been present on the earth at that time.

Cosmos, Components of the universe, Planetary systems, Origin of the solar systemA long duration for the formation of the terrestrial planets (supported by crater counts that indicate a prolonged period of bombardment extending over some 5 × 108 years) suggests that Jupiter may have finished forming before the terrestrial planets did...The giant planets may also have sent fairly large bodies careening through the early solar system. In one version of the event, by the American astrophysicist Alastair G.W. Cameron and coworkers, a Mars-sized body crashed obliquely into the primitive Earth. The molten core of the intruder sank to the centre of the molten proto-Earth, but mantle material from both bodies went into orbit and eventually reaccreted into the Moon. The formation of the Moon from rocky substances would then explain why the lunar landings found the Moon to be much poorer in iron than the Earth...Giant impacts would also add a chaotic element to the acquisition of planetary spins.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

A World Without Water, Figure 2. Evolutionary highlights of the Earth’s biosphere can be described by a few crucial events in its 4.6 billion-year history. The process begins with the settling of dust in the accretionary disk of the protosolar system (a). The dust accretes into ever larger pieces, eventually forming a hot, but dry, rock—the protoearth—after 40 million years (b). When the system is merely 50 million years old, a grazing collision between the protoearth and a Mars-sized body results in the Moon’s formation and the loss of all volatiles and water brought by an early cometary bombardment (c). The heavy bombardment continues for at least the next 600 million years, with comets bringing water, atmospheric gases and prebiotic organic molecules to our planet (d).” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

A World Without Water, Could such objects have brought the Earth its water? The composition of the upper mantle can help us answer this question. In 1983, Heinrich Wänke, of the Max Planck Institut für Chemie in Mainz, and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the mantle based on the material spewed up in a volcanic eruption. They found that volcanic ejecta are typically enriched in heat-resistant elements by a factor of 1.3, but depleted of moderately volatile elements by factors of 0.1 to 0.2, and depleted of very volatile elements by factors of 0.01 to 0.0001! This is effectively the opposite of what one would expect if a large, carbonaceous chondritic asteroid had hit the protoearth gently enough not to produce any ejecta. Such a depletion of volatiles can only be explained by the intense heating produced by the collision that formed the MoonAll of these studies suggest that the oceans and the atmosphere must have come after the primordial Earth had acquired most of its mass.” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

The quote above states that the impact, which caused the formation of the moon, would have resulted in the loss of all organic molecules present on earth at that time.

Concerning this fact, the first quote below indicates that this impact must have caused enough heat that “the earth melted throughout,” which is necessary in order to explain the lack of any crater from the impact. The second quote below states that the celestial body that struck the earth was about the size of Mars. However, the first quote below more accurately states that a “Mars-sized” body was an early estimate and that computer models now show the object must have been 2.5 to 3 times the size of Mars. For the record, Earth at its equator is 7,926 miles (12,756 km) in diameter. At its equator, Mars is 4,222 miles (6,794 km) in diameter. This would mean the moon was formed by a collision of the earth with an object almost the size of earth itself (10,555 to 12,666 miles in diameter).

"Moon, IV ORIGIN OF THE MOON – Before the modern age of space exploration, scientists had three major theories for the origin of the moon: fission from the earth; formation in earth orbit; and formation far from earth. Then, in 1975, having studied moon rocks and close-up pictures of the moon, scientists proposed what has come to be regarded as the most probable of the theories of formation, planetesimal impact...D Planetesimal Impact – First published in 1975, this theory proposes that early in the earth's history, well over 4 billion years ago, the earth was struck by a large body called a planetesimal. Early estimates for the size of the planetesimal were comparable to the size of Mars, but a computer simulation by American scientists in 1997 showed that the body would have had to have been at least two-and-a-half to three times the size of Mars. The catastrophic impact blasted portions of the earth and the planetesimal into earth orbit, where debris from the impact eventually coalesced to form the moon. This theory, after years of research on moon rocks in the 1970s and 1980s, has become the most widely accepted one for the moon's origin. The major problem with the theory is that it would seem to require that the earth melted throughout after the impact. This seems to be the only way that the huge crater caused by the crash could have been erased, but the earth's geochemistry does not indicate such a radical melting." – "Moon," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The quote above and the quote below assign the time of this impact to over 4 billion years ago. (“50 million years after the Earth’s formation” according to “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” by Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientists, Volume 89, 2004.) This would put the moon’s formation at somewhere around 4.4-4.5 billion years ago. With the size of that impact along with its repercussions at that time combined with the 600 million years of intense bombardment that followed and with the need for the earliest life forms to arise at 3.8 billion years ago contribute strongly to the statements (which we will see later on) about the early history of the earth being too violent and the window for life being too small on earth. This, in turn, leads to the idea that life originated elsewhere where it had more time and a more favorable environment and then traveled to earth.

Moon, Origin and evolution – With the rise of scientific inquiry in the Renaissance, investigators began to try to fit theories on the origin of the Moon to available data, and the question of the Moon's origin became a part of the attempt to explain the observed properties of the solar system...Throughout the 17th, 18th, and19th centuries, different theories on lunar origin were examined in an attempt to find one that would agree with the observations. They can be divided into three main categories: coaccretion, fission, and capture...Although the question remained unresolved even after the Apollo missions, the amount of information about the Moon was vastly increased by the Apollo samples and other observations. Finally, in the early 1980s, a model emerged that now has the support of most lunar scientists—namely, the giant-impact hypothesis. In this scenario, set more than four billion years ago, the early Earth is struck a glancing blow by a body the size of Mars. Prior to the impact, both bodies have undergone thermal evolution so that they are differentiated. As a result of the titanic collision, a cloud of fragments is ejected and aggregates into a full or partial ring around the Earth and then coalesces into a proto-Moon.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Having established the evolutionary description of the early history of the solar system and the obstacles that history poses to the formation of life on earth, the stage is set to discuss the evolutionary view for the origin of life on earth, starting with the timeframe for this event.

According to evolutionary theory, the earliest fossilized life forms date to around 3.4 or 3.5 billion years ago.

Evolution, I INTRODUCTION The earliest known fossil organisms are single-celled forms resembling modern bacteria; they date from about 3.4 billion years ago.” – "Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

However, the earliest life forms in the fossil record are themselves still “highly evolved” and “complicated.”

Life, The origin of life, The antiquity of life – Among the oldest known fossils are those found in the Fig Tree chert from the Transvaal, dated at 3,100,000,000 years old…Even procaryotes, however, are exceedingly complicated organisms and very highly evolved.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

“The fossil record and modern genetic analysis suggest that humans and all other living species are descended from bacteria-like microbes that first appeared about 4 billion years ago. But bacteria, appearances notwithstanding, are very complex. They can be packed with thousands of genes, along with proteins and other molecules, working together in an intricate struggle to stay alive.” – “What Came Before DNA?,” by Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 06, June 2004, Biology & Medicine

As a side note, the term “prokaryotes” in the first quote above refers to bacteria and blue green algae.

Blue-green algae – also called Cyanobacteria, any of a large, heterogeneous group of prokaryotic, principally photosynthetic organisms…the prokaryotic nature of the blue-green algae has caused them to be classified with bacteria in the prokaryotic kingdom Monera. Like all other prokaryotes, cyanobacteria lack a membrane-bound nucleus, mitochondria, Golgi apparatus, chloroplasts, and endoplasmic reticulum. All of the functions carried out in eukaryotes by these membrane-bound organelles are carried out in prokaryotes by various parts of the cell, such as the cell membrane.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Bacteriasingular bacterium any of a group of microscopic organisms that are prokaryotic, i.e., that lack a membrane-bound nucleus and organelles. They are unicellular (one-celled) and may have spherical (coccus), rodlike (bacillus), or curved (vibrio, spirillum, or spirochete) bodies.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Because the first fossilized life forms are themselves “highly evolved,” evolutionists believe that there must have been even more primitive life forms from which these earliest fossils evolved.

Evolutionary biologists have traced our family tree to bacteria, one-celled organisms that have been found in rock formations 3.5 billion years old. But even these primitive creatures were already quite sophisticated. They had genes of DNA and RNA and were made of protein, lipids, and other ingredients. Something simpler must have preceded them.” – “How Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine

Consequently, since the oldest fossilized life forms are stated to be 3.4-3.5 billion years old and those life forms themselves are too complex to have been the first form of life, evolutionists state that the very earliest, most primitive cells came into existence even earlier beforehand, about 3.8 billion years ago.

Evolution – all plants and animals are derived from bacteria-like microorganisms that originated more than 3,000,000,000 years ago.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Evolution, Main ideas of evolutionary theory – Current evolutionary theory holds that all species evolved from a single form of life which lived more than 3 1/2 billion years ago.” – Worldbook Encyclopedia, Contributor: Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D., Rebstock Professor of Biology, Washington University.

Britannica cites the existence of oxygen-producing life forms at 3.8 billion years ago, further citing the existence of iron formations whose chemical composition contains oxygen.

Exobiology, V PROSPECTS FOR DISCOVERYScientists now believe that life on Earth dates back to at least 3.85 billion years before present, so living organisms have populated Earth for more than 80 percent of its history.” – "Exobiology," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Earth, geologic history of, Development of the atmosphere and oceans, Formation of the secondary atmosphereThe earliest primitive organisms produced free oxygen as a by-product, and in the absence of oxygen-mediating enzymes it was harmful to their living cells and had to be removed. Fortunately for the development of life on the early Earth there was extensive volcanic activity, which resulted in the deposition of much lava, the erosion of which released enormous quantities of iron into the oceans. This ferrous iron is water-soluble and therefore could be easily transported, but it had to be converted to ferric iron, which is highly insoluble, before it could be precipitated as iron formations. In short, the organisms produced the oxygen and the iron formations accepted it. Iron formations can be found in the earliest sediments (those deposited 3.8 billion years ago) at Isua in West Greenland, and thus this process must have been operative by this time.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Worldbook similarly refers to the presence of “chemicals created by living things in rocks” dating from 3.8 billion years ago, necessitating the existence of life forms by that point in time.

“Earth [planet], History of Earth, Life on Earth – Fossils help scientists learn which kinds of plants and animals lived at different times in Earth's history. Scientists who study prehistoric life are called paleontologists. Many scientists believe that life appeared on Earth almost as soon as conditions allowed. There is evidence for chemicals created by living things in rocks from the Archean age, 3.8 billion years old. Fossil remains of microscopic living things about 3.5 billion years old have also been found at sites in Australia and Canada.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven I. Dutch, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

And these conclusions, that the oldest life forms must predate the fossil record by about 300 million years, placing the origin of life around 3.8 billion years ago is also asserted in the following 2 quotes from American Scientist and Discover magazines.

“Conclusion – There is now considerable evidence to support the idea that we owe the existence of our biosphere to a heavy bombardment of comets in the very early history of our planet. Indeed the delivery of water and prebiotic molecules explains why life emerged so soon after the conditions ceased to be utterly hostile. The oldest fossil imprints of bacteria date to about 3.456 billion years ago (in Australian rocks), and there is indirect evidence that life was present 3.8 billion years ago in the ancient sediments of Greenland (Figure 10).” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

“‘Bugs are very clever,’ Kasthuri Venkateswaran says with affection. ‘They started out on Earth 3.8 billion years ago, when nothing else was here!’…Venkateswaran quietly examines the machinery itself, searching for any clever microbes—‘bugs,’ he calls them—that might try to tag along.” – “Seeding the Universe,” by Alan Burdick, DISCOVER, Vol. 25 No. 10, October 2004, Astronomy & Physics

This places the timeframe for the origin of life just as occurring within the first 100 million years after the end of meteorite bombardment of the earth at 3.9 billion years ago. This is why the previous quote from Worldbook expresses that “life appeared on Earth almost as soon as conditions allowed.”

“Earth [planet], History of Earth, Life on Earth – Many scientists believe that life appeared on Earth almost as soon as conditions allowed.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven I. Dutch, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

And the Britannica quote from earlier reached a similar conclusion, placing the origin of life even earlier and stating that life must have arisen within just “a few hundred million years” after the Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago.

Life, The origin of life, The antiquity of life – Among the oldest known fossils are those found in the Fig Tree chert from the Transvaal, dated at 3,100,000,000 years old…Even procaryotes, however, are exceedingly complicated organisms and very highly evolved. Since the Earth is about 4,500,000,000 years old, this suggests that the origin of life must have occurred within a few hundred million years of that time.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Thus, evolutionary science places the origin of life on earth, if it did occur on earth, somewhere either at the beginning, middle, or tail end of intense, cataclysmic meteorite bombardment of the earth that would have destroyed earth’s supply of pre-organic materials.

Furthermore, this 100 million year timeframe, while seemingly long in terms of human life spans, is regarded as a relatively short time in geological terms. This is why evolutionists refer to the origin of life as occurring “quickly” or “easily” or “as soon as conditions permitted.” This perception of the “quickness” or “ease” with which life originated on earth leads to the estimation of “high probability,” “normalcy,” and even “chemical necessity” for life to occur universally (throughout the universe), wherever and whenever “conditions allow.”

Life, Likelihood of lifeBecause of the apparent rapidity of the origin of life on Earth, as implied by the fossil record, and because of the ease with which relevant organic molecules are produced in primitive-Earth simulation experiments, the likelihood of the origin of life over a period of billions of years seems high…” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

“Earth [planet], History of Earth, Life on Earth – Many scientists believe that life appeared on Earth almost as soon as conditions allowed.” – Worldbook, Contributor: Steven I. Dutch, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

“Conclusion – There is now considerable evidence to support the idea that we owe the existence of our biosphere to a heavy bombardment of comets in the very early history of our planet. Indeed the delivery of water and prebiotic molecules explains why life emerged so soon after the conditions ceased to be utterly hostile. The oldest fossil imprints of bacteria date to about 3.456 billion years ago (in Australian rocks), and there is indirect evidence that life was present 3.8 billion years ago in the ancient sediments of Greenland (Figure 10).” – “An Argument for the Cometary Origin of the Biosphere,” Armand H. Delsemme, American Scientist, Volume 89, 2004

Consequently, as we can see from the quotes above, supporting the theory that automatic, routine processes produced the origin of life requires identifying exactly what processes those were. Identifying those processes involves identifying the environment in which they were occurring. And identifying such an environment on the early earth brings the additional improbabilities of avoiding the life-destroying meteor and cometary impacts and yet arriving early enough to have enough time to evolve into the highly complex organisms that populate the earliest parts of the fossil record. As we can see from these quotes above, this narrow window of opportunity brings additional difficulty and improbability. And while the question of exactly when such an environment existed on earth remains incomplete in evolutionary theory, additional problems arise at each attempt to even model a hypothetical environment that is favorable to life, whenever it might have occurred. This will be the subject of our next portion.

As indicated earlier, formulating a working theory for the origin of life by automatic, routine processes includes the need to identify an energy source capable of fueling the origin of life. In the following quote describing one series of attempts to replicate even a portion of the steps leading to the formation of life, Discover magazine affirms that identifying the energy supply is essential to the formulation of a complete evolutionary theory.

“Even if they succeed, many questions will remain before anyone will be able to build a functioning cell. How does it manage growth and division--a process that demands mind-boggling choreography even in a microbe? How exactly is this dance powered with energy?” – By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine

In fact, Microsoft Encarta and Britannica Encyclopedia are even more explicit, stating that energy is necessary not only to fuel any chemical reactions involved in the origin of life by hypothetical automatic, routine processes but also to prevent pre-biotic elements from breaking down through existing, normal thermodynamic processes.

Life – One of the central questions about life is how it originated. The generally accepted theory is that early in the history of the earth some system of replication powered by external sources of energy must have been formed. – "Life," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Life, Life on earth, MetabolismThe chemical bonds that make up living organisms have a certain probability of spontaneous breakage. Accordingly, mechanisms must exist to repair this damage, or to replace the broken molecules. In addition, the meticulous control that cells exercise over their internal activities requires the continued synthesis of new molecules. These processes of synthesis and breakdown of the organic molecules of the cell are collectively termed metabolism, and for synthesis to keep ahead of the thermodynamic tendencies toward breakdown, energy must be supplied to the living system.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Consequently, given the need to identify the energy sources required for the origin of life, it is no surprise that the various suggestions for the evolutionary origin of life center around potential energy sources. Several options have been suggested and utilized in experiments as the potential source of energy for the origination of life, including lightning, ultraviolet light, or heat.

“Some 4 billion years ago, lightning (or another energy source, like ultraviolet light or heat) stimulated a hydrogen-rich atmosphere to produce organic compounds, which then rained down into the primitive ocean or other suitable bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, or even a warm little pond, as Charles Darwin once suggested.” – How Did Life Start?, by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine

As we consider the possibility any of these candidates, 5 questions must be kept in mind. First, did that source of energy occur in sufficient amounts to facilitate the origin of life? Second, were the pre-biotic chemical compounds located in a place where they would have had access to that energy? Third, have experiments utilizing a particular source actually produced life or merely, non-living compounds? Fourth, concerning the “safety” issue, does the environment in which this energy source is available also contain damaging elements that prevent the origin of life? And fifth, is that source of energy regarded as adequate by evolutionary scientists themselves?

With regard to lightning, although early experiments, most notably the Miller and Urey experiment replicated this potential energy source, more recent scientists and experiments including those of Carl Sagan have discarded lightning in favor of other sources of energy on the grounds that lightning would not have been sufficiently available.

Britannica, Life, The origin of life, Production of simple organic molecules – The first deliberate experimental simulation of these primitive conditions was carried out in 1953 by a U.S. graduate student, S.L. Miller, under the guidance of the eminent chemist H.C. Urey. A mixture of methane, ammonia, water vapour, and hydrogen was circulated through a liquid water solution and continuously sparked by a corona discharge elsewhere in the apparatus. The discharge may be thought to represent lightning flashes on the early Earth. After several days of exposure to sparking, the solution changed colour. Subsequent analysis indicated that several amino and hydroxy acids, intimately involved in contemporary life, had been produced by this simple procedure…Subsequent experiments have substituted ultraviolet light or heat as the energy source or have altered the initial abundances of gases. In all such experiments amino acids have been formed in large yield. On the early Earth there was much more energy available in ultraviolet light than in lightning discharges...Following such reasoning, a U.S. astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, and his colleagues made amino acids by long wavelength ultraviolet irradiation of a mixture of methane, ammonia, water, and H2S.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Furthermore, as stated earlier, Miller and Urey’s experiment is also now believed to have involved inaccurate simulations of the early earth’s atmosphere.

“The first hints that this might be so came from the laboratory, before evidence for it was found in space, through the historic experiments of Stanley Miller, now recalled in science textbooks…Although the primitive atmosphere is no longer believed to be as rich in hydrogen as once thought by Urey…” – “The Beginnings of Life on Earth,” Christian de Duve, American Scientist, September-October 1995

“For example, what if the primordial atmosphere wasn’t anything like the one Miller and Urey imagined? Would it be so easy to produce organics then? The Miller-Urey experiment was a strong foundation because it was consistent with theories at the time, says geochemist Everett Shock of Washington University in St. Louis. The problem is that subsequent research has swept away a lot of those ideas. The Miller-Urey atmosphere contained a lot of hydrogen. But now the atmosphere of the early Earth is thought to have been more oxidized. That makes Miller’s scenario less probable, because it’s a lot harder to make organic molecules in the presence of oxygen. A hydrogen-rich atmosphere is relatively unstable. When zapped by lightning or other sources of energy, molecules in that environment readily tumble together into organic compounds. Not so in a heavily oxidized atmosphere. While an infusion of energy may cause a few simple organics to form, for the most part the results are inorganic gases like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. These are the constituents of smog, says Shock. So basically what you’re getting is a lot of air pollution.” – “How Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine

And, concerning the results of his own lightning simulating experiments, Stanley Miller regards the resulting chemicals that were produced as a far cry from even the basic molecules needed for the production of life.

“Perhaps the most influential first surfaced four decades ago, when in a dramatic experiment a University of Chicago graduate student named Stanley Miller simulated the creation of life in a laboratoryAnd the simple experiment (It’s so easy to do--high school students now use it to win their science fairs, Miller says) stimulated a rush of studies, with the result that a number of other organic compounds, including adenine and guanine, two of the ingredients of RNA and DNA, were produced by similar proceduresThus emerged the picture that has dominated origin-of-life scenarios. Some 4 billion years ago, lightning (or another energy source, like ultraviolet light or heat) stimulated a hydrogen-rich atmosphere to produce organic compounds, which then rained down into the primitive ocean or other suitable bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, or even a warm little pond, as Charles Darwin once suggested. Once there, these simple compounds, or monomers, combined with one another to produce more complicated organics, or polymers, which gradually grew even more complex until they coalesced into the beginnings of self-replicating RNA. With that came the RNA world and ultimately the evolution into cells and the early bacterial ancestors of life. The picture is powerful and appealing, but not all origin-of-life researchers are convinced. Even Miller throws up his hands at certain aspects of it. The first step, making the monomers, that’s easy. We understand it pretty well. But then you have to make the first self-replicating polymers. That’s very easy, he says, the sarcasm fairly dripping. Just like it’s easy to make money in the stock market--all you have to do is buy low and sell high. He laughs. Nobody knows how it’s done. Some would say the statement applies as well to the first easy step, the creation of simple organic compounds.” – “How Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine

So, concerning our 4 questions, lightning fails to qualify as a working energy source for the origin of life. Evolutionary scientists do not consider lightning to have occurred in sufficient supply, the chemical byproducts resulting from lightning simulations are too far removed from the basic chemical elements necessary for life, and as such, lightning is no longer regarded by evolutionary scientists.  Consequently, other energy sources have been the subject of much more speculation in evolutionary theorization, particularly heat and ultraviolet light.

We now turn our attention to the models centering on ultraviolet light as a potential energy source for the origin of life. Evolutionists suggest that the early earth (even prior to 600 million years ago as the next quote states) did not have much oxygen in its atmosphere. Due to the absence of oxygen, ultraviolet light would have reached the surface of the earth in large amounts, providing a great deal of energy.

Life, The origin of life, The antiquity of life – The fossil record, in any complete sense, goes back only about 600,000,000 years. In the layers of sedimentary rock known by geological methods and by radioactive dating to be that old, most of the major groups of invertebrates appear for the first time. All these organisms appear adapted to life in the water, and there is no sign yet of organisms adapted to the land. For this reason, and because of a rough similarity between the salt contents of blood and of seawater, it is believed that early forms of life developed in oceans or pools. With no evidence for widespread oxygen-producing photosynthesis before this time, and for cosmic abundance reasons described above, the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere in Precambrian times was very likely less than today. Accordingly, in Precambrian times, solar ultraviolet radiation, especially near the wavelength of 2,600 Å, which is particularly destructive to nucleic acids, may have penetrated to the surface of the Earth, rather than being totally absorbed in the upper atmosphere by ozone as it is today. In the absence of ozone, the ultraviolet solar flux is so high that a lethal dose for most organisms would be delivered in less than an hour. Unless extraordinary defense mechanisms existed in Precambrian times, life near the Earth's surface would have been impossible. Sagan suggested that life at this time was generally restricted to some tens of metres and deeper in the oceans, at which depths all the ultraviolet light would have been absorbed, although visible light would still filter throughIt has been suggested that the colonization of the land, about 425,000,000 years ago, was possible only because enough ozone was then produced to shield the surface from ultraviolet light for the first time.– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

The first obstacle facing the ultraviolet light source suggestion pertains to the question of sufficiency of its quantity. As indicated by the quote above, it is the hypothetical lower oxygen content of the atmosphere and the resulting hypothetical absence of ozone that allow the sufficient quantity of ultraviolet light necessary to fuel the origin of life. On this point, the quote above states simply that there is “no evidence for widespread oxygen-producing photosynthesis before this time.” The designation “this time” refers to “6,000,000 years ago” as stated at the start of the quote. The problem is that there is evidence not only of abundant oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere before that time, but also of photosynthesizing organisms that “produced free oxygen as a by-product,” which is the point specifically denied in the quote. In fact, this evidence is cited by Britannica itself in its article on the geologic history of the earth.

Earth, geologic history of, Development of the atmosphere and oceans, Formation of the secondary atmosphereThe earliest primitive organisms produced free oxygen as a by-product, and in the absence of oxygen-mediating enzymes it was harmful to their living cells and had to be removed. Fortunately for the development of life on the early Earth there was extensive volcanic activity, which resulted in the deposition of much lava, the erosion of which released enormous quantities of iron into the oceans. This ferrous iron is water-soluble and therefore could be easily transported, but it had to be converted to ferric iron, which is highly insoluble, before it could be precipitated as iron formations. In short, the organisms produced the oxygen and the iron formations accepted it. Iron formations can be found in the earliest sediments (those deposited 3.8 billion years ago) at Isua in West Greenland, and thus this process must have been operative by this time.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

As we can see from the quote, not only are 3.8 billion-year-old rocks rich in oxygen, which would indicate the presence of an oxygen-rich atmosphere, but Britannica attributes the presence of such quantities of oxygen to none other than primitive organisms that “produced free oxygen as a by-product” of metabolism. Consequently, there is evidence “for widespread oxygen-producing photosynthesis before this time,” which would in turn cause “the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere in Precambrian times” to be relatively high and, therefore, comprised partially of ozone, which would prevent a sufficient amount of ultraviolet light from reach earth’s surface or oceans to fuel an evolutionary origin of life.

The second obstacle facing the ultraviolet light source suggestion pertains to the question of whether or not the pre-biotic chemical compounds located in a place where they would have had access to that energy. It also pertains to the issue of safety. As stated in the quote above, ultraviolet light also would be “lethal” to “most organisms” within “less than an hour” and would even destroy cyanobacteria present in the water. Consequently, the last portion of the quote above demonstrates why the origination of life on the land or surface of the ocean simply was not possible due to the destructively prohibitive presence of ultraviolet light. This is attested to by the quotes below as well.

Bacteria, VII BACTERIA IN OUR DAILY LIVES – During photosynthesis, cyanobacteria also release oxygen, which dissolves in the water. A great variety of aquatic organisms rely entirely on this oxygen for their survival. Many scientists are concerned that breakdown of the ozone layer may damage cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton, threatening the survival of the organisms that depend on them for food and oxygen.” – "Bacteria," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Life, Extraterrestrial life, The chemistry of extraterrestrial life – Life on Earth is structurally based on carbon and utilizes water as an interaction medium…The planet, therefore, should have an atmosphere and some near-surface liquid, although not necessarily an ocean. If the intensity of ultraviolet light or charged particles from the sun is intense at the planetary surface, there must be some place, perhaps below the surface, that is shielded from this radiation but that nevertheless permits useful chemical reactions to occur…Organisms that live slightly subsurface, however, may avoid ultraviolet and charged particle radiation and at the same time acquire sufficient amounts of visible light for photosynthesis.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Life, Extraterrestrial life, Molecular factorsBut life does require an interaction medium, an atmosphere, and some protection from ultraviolet light and from charged particles of solar origin.– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

“On July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft had touched down on Mars, and the Friedmanns, along with millions of other Americans, had listened to Cronkite describe the historic landing…But mission biologists eventually concluded that the soil on Mars was sterile: no life, they said, could survive the combination of ultraviolet solar radiation, extreme dryness, and lethally oxidizing compounds found on the planet’s surface.” – Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places, by Will Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy & Physics

“Even if frozen, Friedmann says, microorganisms cannot survive forever. Radiation--either from radioactivity in rock or from cosmic rays falling from the sky--will damage bacterial DNA and over millions of years will almost certainly kill a microbe.” – Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places, by Will Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy & Physics

As the last quote states, millions of years without protection by ozone from ultraviolet radiation would destroy primitive life forms. This “millions of years” timeframe will become significant later as we discover that the amount of time scientists believe was available for life to originate on earth was only millions of years and at a time without oxygen in the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the quote below indicates that even with the protective ozone present in the earth today, strong sunlight kills microorganisms in the desert.

Porous rock, Friedmann soon realized, is a better habitat for a microbe than parched desert soil. A rock can store water in its pores, and because it is often translucent, it can admit sunlight, allowing photosynthesis, yet filtering the extremes of strong light that kill microorganisms in the desert.” – Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places, by Will Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy & Physics

Consequently, the quote above also notes that water acts as a buffer zone allowing sunlight in for photosynthesis but keeping out the lethal extremes of sunlight that are even present with ozone protection.

This prohibitive destruction of life and pre-biotic compounds by ultraviolet light is why even the tail end of Britannica’s section on “Life” relocates the origin of life to depths of at least tens of meters below the ocean surface in order to identify a safe environment where the origin of life is theoretically feasible. As Britannica notes, this suggestion was made by Carl Sagan, the very scientist who performed the experiments utilizing ultraviolet light as an energy source for the origin of life.

Life, The origin of life, The antiquity of lifeIn the absence of ozone, the ultraviolet solar flux is so high that a lethal dose for most organisms would be delivered in less than an hour. Unless extraordinary defense mechanisms existed in Precambrian times, life near the Earth's surface would have been impossible. Sagan suggested that life at this time was generally restricted to some tens of metres and deeper in the oceans, at which depths all the ultraviolet light would have been absorbed, although visible light would still filter throughIt has been suggested that the colonization of the land, about 425,000,000 years ago, was possible only because enough ozone was then produced to shield the surface from ultraviolet light for the first time.– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

However, relocating the origin of life fueled by ultraviolet light to a watery setting raised additional obstacles, particularly concerning the “safe” or feasible environment needed for the origination of life to occur. Water is even more counteractive to the assembly of pre-biotic compounds than ultraviolet light because water has the tendency to break down any pre-biotic compounds of significance.

Life, The origin of life, Production of simple organic moleculesDespite the breakdown by water of molecular intermediates, condensing agents are often quite effective in inducing polymerization, and polymers of amino acids, sugars, and nucleotides have all been made this way. A famous British scientist, J.D. Bernal, suggested that adsorption of molecular intermediates on clays or other minerals may have concentrated these intermediates. Such concentration could offset the tendency for water to break down polymers of biological significance.”– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

In fact, the obstacle posed by water is so well recognized that a suggested solution has been proposed for this dilemma. As stated in a longer version of the quote above, in order to avoid the breakdown of essential pre-biotic compounds by water it would be necessary for those molecules to be collected together by adhering in thin layers to the surfaces of clays or other minerals whose chemical composition would prevent such a breakdown

Life, The origin of life, Production of simple organic moleculesDespite the breakdown by water of molecular intermediates, condensing agents are often quite effective in inducing polymerization, and polymers of amino acids, sugars, and nucleotides have all been made this way. A famous British scientist, J.D. Bernal, suggested that adsorption of molecular intermediates on clays or other minerals may have concentrated these intermediates. Such concentration could offset the tendency for water to break down polymers of biological significance. Of special interest is the possibility that such concentration matrices included phosphates, for this would help explain how phosphorus could have been incorporated preferentially into prebiological organic molecules at a time when biological concentration mechanisms did not yet exist. Mineral catalysis implies that organic synthesis could also occur in deep water where ultraviolet light had been filtered out.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

In the quote above, the term “adsorption” means that the “molecular intermediates” such as polymers of amino acids, sugars, and nucleotides may have been concentrated by adhering in extremely thin layers to the surface of solid clays or minerals. This definition of “absorption” is also articulated by the quotes below.

“Adsorption – Function: noun: the adhesion in an extremely thin layer of molecules (as of gases, solutes,or liquids) to the surfaces of solid bodies or liquids with which they are in contact — compare absorption” – Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

Life, The origin of life, Modern theoriesScientists have developed three major theories to explain the transition from early organic molecules to living cells. All three theories are based on the idea that the simple organic compounds formed more complex ones, which then gave rise to the structures that make up cells. The oldest of these theories states that chemical reactions in the ocean or in lakes led to the formation of large molecules. These molecules then acted as catalysts (substances that speed up chemical reactions) to cause the formation of complex organic compounds. A second view holds that chemical reactions producing the first complex organic compound took place on the surfaces of clays or of minerals called pyrites. In this view, the clays or pyrites acted as catalysts…Scientists are experimenting to determine which, if any, of these theories corresponds most closely to the known facts.” Worldbook, Contributor: Harold J. Morowitz, Ph.D., Robinson Professor of Biology and Director of Krasnow Institute, George Mason University.

Consequently, there is a limit to how deep in the water life could have originated utilizing ultraviolet light. It has to be deep enough to avoid damage from ultraviolet light, yet shallow enough that there are clays surfaces available for pre-biotic compounds to adhere to. Similarly, if the process is occurring too far beneath the surface, then sunlight is no longer available as an energy source.

Extraterrestrial life, The chemistry of extraterrestrial lifeIf the intensity of ultraviolet light or charged particles from the sun is intense at the planetary surface, there must be some place, perhaps below the surface, that is shielded from this radiation but that nevertheless permits useful chemical reactions to occur…Organisms that live very far subsurface will be in the dark, making photoautotrophy impossible.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

The last line of the quote above states that too great of a depth below the surface makes “photoautotrophy impossible.” The term “photoautotrophy” refers to organisms that produce energy from sunlight using photosynthesis.

Community Ecology, Biotic elements of communities, Trophic pyramids and the flow of energy, Autotrophs and heterotrophs – All biological communities have a basic structure of interaction that forms a trophic pyramid…The base of the pyramid is composed of species called autotrophs, the primary producers of the ecosystem. They do not obtain energy and nutrients by eating other organisms. Instead, they harness solar energy by photosynthesis (photoautotrophs) or, more rarely, chemical energy by oxidation (chemoautotrophs) to make organic substances from inorganic ones.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Consequently, the probability for the origination of life using ultraviolet light as an energy source exists in a very narrow band and walks a very thin line of improbability. It requires just the right amount of ultraviolet light. Too much or too little and the origination won’t occur. Thus, it cannot be less than a “some tens of meters” deep but not so deep as to prevent sunlight from reaching the essential chemical compounds. And, even if these conditions are met, there has to be clays of the right chemical composition to prevent the water itself from breaking down the pre-biotic chemical compounds and prevent the origination of life. As we will see, the barriers and improbabilities for the ultraviolet light scenario don’t end here. Below we will address how even under ideal conditions the presence of oxygen produced by photoautotrophy, (photosynthesis) itself, would destroy and prohibit any origination for life in water.

And as indicated earlier, it should be noted that no experiment, including those of Carl Sagan, has ever produced more than the most basic components, nowhere near the types of complex molecules necessary for life to occur.

Britannica, Life, The origin of life, Production of simple organic moleculesSubsequent experiments have substituted ultraviolet light or heat as the energy source or have altered the initial abundances of gases. In all such experiments amino acids have been formed in large yield…Following such reasoning, a U.S. astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, and his colleagues made amino acids by long wavelength ultraviolet irradiation of a mixture of methane, ammonia, water, and H2S.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition

Sagan, Carl EdwardLater in the 1960s Sagan built on the work of American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey…Sagan followed a similar method, but refined the primordial soup mixture to include methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide. He also exposed the mixture to ultraviolet light to simulate the effect of sunlight on the chemicals. His mixture produced amino acids as well as several kinds of sugars and nucleic acids.” – "Sagan, Carl Edward," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

However, it is also important to note that the insufficiency of ultraviolet scenario and the barriers to it described above are so well recognized by evolutionists themselves that an alternate scenarios have been proposed substituting either a different location or another energy source in the place of problematic ultraviolet light. In the Discover article below, evolutionary scientist David Deamer indicates that he prefers to “tide pools” over the hydrothermal vent theory.

There are many exotic new ideas these days about where life originated. Some researchers say the grand event took place around the furnaces of underwater hydrothermal vents; others look in the spray of ocean bubbles; and still others prefer clay. But Deamer’s choice is tide pools, an idea that harks back at least as far as Darwin’s warm, still ponds.” – “First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine

Consequently, not only does the ultraviolet light suggestion suffer from quantity, safety, and availability obstacles, but it does not produce sufficient chemical products and ultimately even evolutionary scientists question and fail to accept its adequacy. Later on when we arrive at the subject of membranes, we will describe the tide pool suggestion and the obstacles facing it. For now we will move on to another solution that has been suggestion by evolutionists. 

(Continued...)

 


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