Humpty Dumpty and The Origin of Life

The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted in 1952 at the University of Chicago, demonstrated that organic compounds can be created in, what was thought to be at the time, an accurate simulation of the early Earth’s atmosphere (composed of water vapor, methane, ammonia, hydrogen). The theological implication of this was obvious: if life originated naturally, then the existence of a Supreme Creator, God would be unnecessary.

However, it was established later on that the early Earth’s atmosphere was more likely made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor. Under such conditions, the result of the Miller-Urey experiment would be invalid.

Moreover, in Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator, biologist Jonathan Wells states:

“Even if Miller’s experiment were valid, you’re still light years away from making life. It comes down to this: no matter how many molecules you can produce with early Earth conditions, plausible conditions, you’re still nowhere near producing a living cell. And here’s how I know: if I take a sterile test tube and I put in a little bit of fluid, with just the right salts, just the right balance of acidity and alkalinity, just the right temperature, the perfect solution for a living cell, and I put in it one living cell. This cell is alive. It has everything it needs for life. Now I take a sterile needle and I poke that cell, and all its stuff leaks out into this test tube. You have in this nice little test tube all the molecules you need for a living cell. Not just the pieces of the molecules but the molecules themselves, and (still) you cannot make a living cell out of them. You can’t put Humpty Dumpy back together again. So what makes you think that a few amino acids in the ocean are going to give you a living cell? It’s totally unrealistic.”

It seems that from a scientific point of view, the origin of life is still a mystery.

For Christians and Jews however, the answer is found in the book of Genesis.