Abiogenesis (Origins)

by dhw, Monday, August 01, 2011, 13:42 (4861 days ago)

Abiogenesis is the hypothesis that life emerged spontaneously from non-living material by natural processes. It's a key element in atheism, but as David says, "There are 60+ years of research into abio so far, and all we know is how it doesn't work." Whateverist is "content to assume there is a natural explanation for the natural world even before the details are completely understood."-In my post concerning the somewhat obscure article that David referred to, I quoted a Wikipedia reference, which on reflection I realize is guilty of precisely the presumptuousness that Tony (balance-maintained) often complains about. They call it: "the study of how biological life arose from inorganic matter through natural processes." We don't know that it did. The obscure article seems to make the same presumption, and in my view it is absurd to conclude even that "abiogenesis is rare in the universe", because we don't know that abiogenesis has ever taken place anywhere.-Whateverist: "I would like to know how we got here. It would be fascinating to find that out. But for me personally, not much rides on it."-I feel the same way as far as my personal life is concerned, but the curiosity that motivates me takes me a step or two further than it takes you. The details have not been even remotely understood, let alone "completely", but we have become so familiar with terms like DNA, primordial soup, and even the word "life" that they lull us into thinking that they explain themselves. They don't. (As you say under "Asking of the Designer...", language is a mixed blessing.) The abiogenesis hypothesis asks us to believe that various chemicals swirled around in the water/the wind/volcanic vents, and somehow linked themselves together in a manner that enabled them to replicate themselves. We humans with all our intelligence haven't even managed to create such an organism. But the lucky break doesn't end there. Those original blobs of matter just happened upon a mechanism of replication that would not only enable them to form new combinations (though they hadn't yet got any autonomous form of locomotion), but also to adapt to changing conditions, and to produce organs and faculties that had never existed before, until eventually they managed even to become conscious of themselves. Every step along the road from bacteria to us constitutes amazing inventions to be traced back to that original mechanism. All you need is lots of time, say the believers. Well, in a sense I agree ... because I think evolution did happen. We ARE made of matter ... even theists will not deny that we have bodies and without bodies we cannot reproduce ... but for me anyone who assumes that the original mechanism that created such vast complexities could assemble itself by chance simply hasn't grasped what is involved. (Message to Matt: this is indeed an often argued point specially for you!)-Of course the same applies to a designer. There is no escaping the fact that any designer must have an intelligence far exceeding ours, so if we can believe in its own spontaneous emergence or its everlasting existence, we can believe anything. -I hope that is a fair summary of the abiogenesis problem.