How Did Life Begin?

When we look at the world around us, we see amazing living things. We see trees that can live for thousands of years, hagfish that can produce slime, and humans that have brains that are the most complex computing systems in the world. Where did all of this fascinating life come from? Those who do not believe in God must say that life arose from natural processes. If there is no God, non-living chemicals somehow had to come together to form living organisms. This is where experimental science comes in. We can study the natural processes and life. When we do, we find that it is impossible for life to form in nature from nonlife. Let’s look at the evidence.

Origin of Life Experiments

In an attempt to “prove” that life can come from nonliving chemicals, scientists have done experiments called “origin-of-life” experiments. One of the most famous origin-of-life experiments was performed by a man named Stanley Miller. Miller believed that lightning struck chemicals millions of years ago. This electric charge supposedly was responsible for producing life out of the chemicals. Stanley Miller built a miniature “world” with many chemicals in it, but nothing that was living. He also made a place in his experiment where a spark would strike the chemicals. After the spark struck the chemicals, he made a place to catch whatever formed. After sending water and chemicals through his apparatus, Miller “caught” several interesting things. Mostly, he caught a sticky dark tar. But he also found that certain amino acids had formed. Amino acids form proteins, and proteins are part of living organisms. After repeating the experiment, Miller found that almost all the amino acids needed for life could form. Many people who believed in evolution said that Stanley Miller had proven that life could have come from nonliving chemicals.

But there were several problems with Miller’s experiment. He did not form life. He produced only tiny building blocks that make up life. That would be like trying to build a new house out of a bunch of chemicals. After shocking those chemicals, you produce clay that sometimes can be formed into bricks—and bricks can be used to build a house. Have you proven that you can build a house from a bunch of chemicals? No. All you have proven is that those chemicals can form clay. It takes a very intelligent person to form clay into bricks, and it takes an even more intelligent person to form bricks into a house.

Miller also had another problem with his experiment. Oxygen is a chemical that makes up about 21% of our atmosphere. We need oxygen to live. Animals and humans must breathe oxygen to survive. But Stanley Miller did not put any loose oxygen in his experiment. Why not? Oxygen is a chemical that breaks down other chemicals. If Miller had put oxygen in his experiment, it would immediately have destroyed every amino acid that was formed. But Miller did use water. Water is a molecule with the chemical formula H2O, which means it has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. If water exists, oxygen has to exist in the atmosphere. Stanley Miller’s experiment did not prove that life comes from nonliving chemicals. In fact, it proved just the opposite. Life could not have evolved in an environment that contained oxygen.

Here is something else to think about. Stanley Miller and other scientists doing similar experi-ments are very intelligent men. They have spent thousands of hours trying to form life from nonliving chemicals. They have not even come close to accomplishing their goal. Yet, they believe that in nature, life came from nonliving chemicals by accident. It has taken them thousands of hours to try to produce life, and they have failed. Does it make sense to believe that it happened by accident in nature? If these intelligent men who are trying to produce life cannot do it, why should we believe that “nature” somehow accidentally produced life? The truth is, God created living things during the six days of Creation. Life did not form slowly over millions of years. And life did not accidentally pop up out of nonliving chemicals.

The Law of Biogenesis

As scientists study nature, they observe that certain things happen with astounding regularity. One of the things that happens regularly is that living things always come from other living things. Scientists have known this for many years. In 1858, a German scientist by the name of Rudolph Virchow stated it like this: “Every cell arises from a preexisting cell.” In 1860, Louis Pasteur, a famous French scientist, said: “Every living thing arises from a preexisting living thing.”

Two very famous experiments were done in the past that helped to disprove the false idea of spontaneous generation (the term used for life coming naturally from non-living chemicals). These experiments also helped scientists to identify the Law of Biogenesis (by-oh-GEN-uh-sis). The first experiment was done by an Italian scientist named Francisco Redi, who lived from 1626-1698. In his day, many people believed that life spontaneously generated from nonliving things. One of the most common ideas was that maggots spontaneously generated from meat. His experiments proved that maggots came from flies, not from non-living chemicals.

Although Redi’s experiments were helpful, many people continued to believe that tiny, microscopic germs could form from nonlife. Around the year 1860, a brilliant scientist named Louis Pasteur dealt the deathblow to the theory of spontaneous generation. He did a series of experiments in which a liquid was boiled in a special flask. The flask had a long S-shaped curve designed to let air in but to trap any organisms in the bottom of the curve. After boiling the liquid, no organism grew because of the specially designed flasks. Pasteur proved once and for all that germs and bacteria are carried through air, and do not spontaneously generate. Today, liquids like milk are “pasteurized” (heated to kill microorganisms) using the same idea that Pasteur used to disprove spontaneous generation. The next time you see a carton of milk, look on the side to see if it is pasteurized. (It probably is!)

These scientists of the past were discovering what scientists of today call the Law of Biogenesis. This law says two things: (1) in nature, living things always come from other living things; and (2) living things produce only more living things of their own kind. In nature, we have never seen a single exception to this law of science.

The Bible makes it clear that life did not originate from non-life. Rather, living things on the Earth were created by a living, supernatural God, which means He is outside of nature. Genesis 1:20-25 states:

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind…. Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind;’ and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind.”

The scientific Law of Biogenesis is observed every day in nature. Life cannot and does not arise from non-living chemicals in nature. God spoke life into existence and designed it to reproduce after its own kind.

Doc’s Corner: How Can We Know Which God Exists?

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CHRISTIAN

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Wednesday, September 24, 2025