origin of life (The atheist delusion)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, March 03, 2008, 12:34 (6111 days ago) @ George Jelliss

I just thought I'd post this article by Steve Jones, which in passing comments on the failure of the latest tests of the clay crystal theory of abiogenesis. - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/26/sciview126.xml - But he mentions several other hypotheses that are still in the running, and of course a way of revivifying the clay method may yet be found. - "Lipid bilayers - sheets of grease - might have trapped simple substances and forced them into new combinations, or chemicals now used in living cells may have emerged in an oxygen-free world of iron and sulphur. / Some say that it all started in boiling oceans, others on icecaps, and everyone disagrees - loudly." - This is a good sign that research is vigorous. - I would also like to object here to dhw's argument, as expressed in the "Absence of Evidence" thread: - "if it needs supreme intelligence to understand, let alone recreate something, one can hardly take that as proof that the original creation needed no intelligence at all." - This does not follow at all, it is a nonsense. The research being undertaken in abiogenesis is trying to analyse the natural processes that could have led to the evolution of self-replicating systems. If this can be shown it will remove one of the last refuges of the "god of the gaps". Intelligence will have shown that no pre-existing intelligence is needed.