• The Various Theories of Abiogenesis (the generation of life from non-living systems)
• Any Theory of Abiogenesis is not a valid theory because it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics
• The low nitrogen content of early organic matter inhibits the formation of life by natural processes.
• Proteins break down in water, effectively eliminating any Theory of Abiogenesis that includes a body of water.
• The odds of abiogenesis occurring by pure chance are next to impossible.
• Natural Selection cannot drive abiogenesis as a process.
• Self-Ordering Systems do not produce life.
• Chirality is a barrier to Abiogenesis.

Life as we know it had to have come from somewhere. Many believe that life arose from the spontaneous combination of atoms and molecules in some warm pond billions of years ago or in the depths of the primordial oceans. Evolution is to be differentiated from the Theory of Abiogenesis, but it must necessarily include such a Theory. Why? Without some explanation as to the origins of life, Evolution as a theory might as well invoke a super-intelligence to explain those origins. If aliens seeded our planet with the precursors to life billions of years ago, where did those aliens come from? If other aliens created them, where did their creators come from? Such logic is flawed and could go on all the way back to the origin of our universe. If there is no supernatural explanation, then life had to have arisen from the physical and inanimate systems of our Universe. There is just nowhere else it could have arisen from. Either it came from nature, or it came from beyond nature. You must decide for yourself.

The Various Theories of Abiogenesis

There are many, many theories out there that suppose various ways that life could have arisen from inanimate matter. The following is a list of many of these theories.¹

• The Primordial / Prebiotic Soup Theory supposes that the necessary ingredients for the formation of life came together in a body of water and that those ingredients then combined to form the beginnings of life (a self-replicating system).
• The Hydrothermal Vent Theory supposes that life arose from the deep-sea vents that occur on the ocean floor.
• Fox's Experiments demonstrated that amino acids could form small peptides, which could, in turn, form microspheres (closed spherical membranes).
• Eigen's Hypothesis proposes a hypercycle for the formation of life.
• Iron-Sulfur World Theory uses redox reactions of iron sulfides to fuel the beginnings of life.
• Radioactive Beach Hypothesis supposes that the stronger tidal pull of a closer ancient moon could have concentrated radioactive elements on the primordial beaches of Earth to aid in forming life.
• Autocatalysis is the process of elements that catalyze the production of themselves, supposed as the property of a simple molecular replicator.
• Clay Theory proposes that organic molecules formed on a clay platform.
• Gold's "Deep-Hot Biosphere" Model postulates that life first arose deep within the Earth's crust.
• Exogenesis supposes that life first formed out in space or on another planet and was then seeded onto Earth.
• Lipid World Theory states that the first self-replicating systems were lipid-like.

There are more theories out there, but this is just a sample of them. They have one thing in common though: the formation of life from inanimate matter.

Abiogenesis Violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics

In the previous article on the Second Law, I demonstrated that the Second Law does indeed apply to the Earth, even though it is not a closed system. Since the Second Law is in effect here on Earth, it therefore applies to Evolution as a theory. The Second Law clearly states that physical systems tend toward entropy. Going from inanimate matter to a fully functional living organism in an (extremely) tremendous step. So tremendous, that it has yet to be effectively demonstrated by science.¹

Imagine the Second Law as this. There is a ball lying on a flat plain with a hill just in front of it. The ball represents a physical system, and the plain represents the current state that the system is in. The hill represents the transition from physical matter to biological life. At the top of the hill, the system will have reached the state of being a fully functional living organism. Here is an image to demonstrate:

The Second Law is represented by gravity in this image. As the ball rolls up the hill, gravity (or the Second Law) pulls it back down (into equilibrium). Small, temporary decreases in the entropy of a system on Earth can and do occur, but they quickly return to equilibrium. The more ordered a system becomes (the more the ball rolls up the hill), the harder it becomes to overcome gravity (Second Law) and become a fully functional organism.

Any physical system proposed by Evolution Scientists that attempts to organize itself into a fully functional living organism violates this second law of thermodynamics. It would the same as proposing that a small ball can move itself up a hill, without the aid of any external forces.

Low Nitrogen Content of Early Organic Matter

There is more evidence against the Theory of Abiogenesis than a violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In his book, The Case for a Creator, Journalist Lee Strobel interviewed philosopher and scientist Dr. Steven Meyer. Dr. Meyer states that if the prebiotic soup had existed, it should have contained large amounts of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Amino acids are nitrogenous. However, the nitrogen content of early organic matter is relatively low - about 0.015%.² With such a low content of early nitrogen, it would have been extremely difficult for life to arise from any form of abiogenesis.

Proteins Break Down in Water

A big problem with the Primordial Soup Theory is that proteins break down in water, in a process known as hydrolysis.³ Without proteins, living organisms could not exist. Proteins would have had to form at some point in time in any Theory of Abiogenesis, but they did not do so is some small pond of water.

What are the Odds?

Pure chance has been ruled out as the determining factor of abiogenesis by most Evolution Scientists.⁴ The odds are just not in favor of life spontaneously combining out of inanimate matter. Consider the probability of just one functional protein forming by chance. You would need three things to happen:

1. The right bonds to form between amino acids
2. Only left-handed versions of amino acids could be used
3. The amino acids must combine in a proper sequence

The odds of all three occurring at the same time are 1 in 10¹²⁵ (a ten with 125 zeros after it). Given that a minimally complex cell would need at least 300 to 500 proteins in it and that all this would have to occur within a 100 million years (the time frame between the cooling of the Earth's crust and the formation of the first microfossils), the odds are so minute as to seem impossible.⁴

Natural Selection and Abiogenesis

Zoologist Richard Dawkins proposed that natural selection, when applied to the Theory of Abiogenesis, could overcome the drastic odds against life forming from inanimate matter in his book, Climbing Mount Improbable. The problem with this idea is that natural selection does not work at the chemical level. In order for natural selection to work, there has to be inheritable variations passed down from generation to generation. However, before those variations can be passed down, they must first be stored within the DNA of the organism. The organism then has to replicate. For the process of natural selection to occur, DNA, proteins, etc. must already be in existence, but it is these very things the theory is trying to explain.⁵ Evolution Scientists who follow this theory are putting the cart ahead of the horse. There is simply no way possible that natural selection could have driven abiogenesis.

Self-Ordered Abiogenesis

Another Theory of Abiogenesis states that chemical affinities could have promoted DNA's alphabet or proteins to assemble themselves The complication in this theory is that there are no real affinities within the structures. Even if affinities were an actuality in these molecules, they would end up ordering themselves in a repetitive sequence, like a salt crystal.⁶ The DNA alphabet would repeat itself in a set pattern: A-G-A-G-A-G-A-G or C-T-C-T-C-T-C-T-C-T. Such a pattern does not aid in the formation of life.

Chirality

Yet another barrier to any Theory of Abiogenesis is the chirality (right or left-handedness) of certain biological molecules. Amino acids, sugars, and enzymes all have chiral properties within a living cell.⁷ The barrier to abiogenesis is that in origin-of-life experiments carried out by Evolution Scientists, the results are a mix of right-handed and left-handed biomolecules (which is toxic to life).⁸

Conclusion

With all of this evidence against the Theory of Abiogensis, it is hard to believe that life could have formed from inanimate matter alone. Without a valid Theory of Abiogenesis, Evolution as a Theory is not valid as a whole. Why? Imagine you are trying to explain UFO's to someone who has never heard of them. You explain that they are of unknown origin, but they should accept them as a fact because people see them all the time. Any rational person would hear this story with incredulity. Well, that is exactly the kind of story Evolution proposes.