Theoretical origin of life; God of the Gaps doesn't apply (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 11, 2018, 14:46 (2204 days ago) @ David Turell

Moshe Averick again:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/god-of-the-gaps-is-there-no-end-to-the-foolishness/

"Dr. Addy Pross, a renowned chemist provides us with the answer to this question in his book What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology. He hypothetically proposes the discovery of a functioning refrigerator, with a solar panel for power, in the middle of a large empty field:

“'But the mystery of how it got there in the middle of the field remains…Now if I told you that no one put the refrigerator there, that it came about spontaneously through natural forces, you would react with total disbelief. How absurd! Impossible!

"Natural forces do not spontaneously assemble refrigerators.

"Nature just doesn’t operate like that. Nature doesn’t spontaneously make highly organized…purposeful entities…Nature pushes systems…toward disorder and chaos, not toward order and function. The simple truth is that the most basic living system, a bacterial cell, is a highly organized…functional system which mimics the operation of the refrigerator, but is orders of magnitude more complex!

"[It] involves the interactions of thousands of different molecules and molecular aggregates…every living cell is effectively a highly organized factory…and here precisely lies the [origin of] life problem. It is not just common sense that tells us that highly organized entities don’t just spontaneously come about. Certain basic laws of physics preach the same sermon – systems tend toward chaos and disorder, not toward order and function…Biology and physics seem contradictory, quite incompatible.”

"In other words, the extraordinary difficulty to which Koonin refers is that an atheist-friendly origin of life would violate the laws of physics and mathematical probability. That is why Koonin added the following comment: “A succession of exceedingly unlikely steps is essential for the Origin of Life…these make the final outcome seem almost like a miracle.”

"So I say to my atheist/materialist friends in general and to Professor Jerry Coyne in particular: Our argument is not based on foolish truisms like God of the Gaps. It is based on common sense, universally observed laws of nature, and fundamental laws of physics and mathematical probability. It is supported by the writings and analysis of world class scientists. If you find that despite everything I have written here you are unable to rationally confront and respond to the points being raised; if you find yourself unable to resist the compulsion to mindlessly chant “God of the Gaps”, I have a great opportunity that I would like to share with you. I know of a mechanical engineer who is determined to build a perpetual motion machine and he’s looking for investors………"

Comment: Just pure logic which dhw loves.