Rubbish Thinking on the Origin of Life

Stormie Waters up and left her prospecting gear by the river so she could ride over and tell me quick-like about goings-on at the Darwin Ranch. Rusty Swingset, the foreman, is annoyed at how his employees have been increasing their use of peyote and writing origin of life (OoL) stories under the influence. 

Credit: Unsplash / Timothy Eberly

We have a couple of articles to investigate, and perhaps have a snicker. The first involves lightning making phosphorus, which ultimately led to the building blocks of life. The concept that the origin of life was caused by lightning was spread all over news sites and teh interwebs, but since people are unskilled at thinking critically and asking questions, people believed this stuff and considered it science: "Take that, creationists! Scientists say!" Well, the story that life was triggered on Earth by an exploding Jagaroth spaceship is equally scientific. This needs to stop, Sebastian.

One reason that this fake news is so insulting is that the headlines and the projected events disagreed. Lightning maybe, perhaps, it is suspected, scientists think, could have, made an element turn to phosphorus. (If you think I'm using hyperbole, read the reports and count the vague words your ownself.) Then they assume evolution, again using similar logic and vagaries. Even if that were true, they need 25 more elements for life. 

Why are we here? Stuff happens, origin-of-life researchers agree. It might have been lightning.

They may work with test tubes and bunsen burners, but it’s hard to call origin-of-life researchers “scientists.” The goal of science should be more than playing with lab tinker toys and writing down one’s speculations in scientific papers. It should be about approaching a realistic understanding of the world with rigorous, testable procedures based on observation. This requires logic. It requires debate between alternative hypotheses. It requires humility and integrity. Origin-of-life work has none of these qualities, especially recently. It is off the rails.

To read the rest, strike your way over to "OOLers Have Abandoned Reason". We have one more to consider, and it makes some strong points.

Professing atheists and other materialists claim to believe in science and reason, but when it comes to the law of biogenesis (abiogenesis was disproven; life only comes from life), that goes out the window.  Other facts are omitted and research is incomplete in OoL matters.

In addition to the thrill of phosphorus maybe-ness that was discussed earlier, water doesn't play well with chemicals that are trying to come together in peace and harmony, and it dissolves DNA and other important things. 

Ultraviolet radiation is also unhelpful to life trying to form.

Then there is the chirality ("handedness") problem, because amino acids are always left-handed and sugars are right-handed. If something else gets in there and wants to be friendly and shake hands the wrong way, the chain is kaput. Materialists still cannot account for the OoL, and the inutile "research" is further from replacing God from creation than ever.

You can learn about these and other problems in greater detail at "Origin-of-Life Theories Still 'Rubbish Thinking' Like Darwin Said".