Did the universe come into existence in a single moment or did it always exist? Cosmologists and Bible believers alike agree that it came into existence in a single moment of time (either The Big Bang or “Let there be light!”) I will set aside for now the question of what caused the universe to suddenly form. Nor will I address the recent issues arising from the pictures from the Webb telescope. The latest data has caused scientists to have to reexamine previous assumptions about how long it takes stars and galaxies to form, apparently shorter than previously thought, and will most likely result in fundamental changes to our understanding of physical processes and time frames since the big bang event. And if the universe has always existed, then there is no need to ask any questions about what caused it to come into existence. However, that would conflict with the main body of cosmological findings since the time of Copernicus. So, assuming there was a beginning, the next most interesting question for us might be how life on Earth began. Was the formation of life on Earth the product of random probabilistic events, or was it created by design? Most people who trust the conventional wisdom of our time will probably choose the former. But if you believe that everything you see around you occurred accidentally, you must grapple with some difficult questions.
After more than a century and a half of blind loyalty to Darwin’s hypothesis of speciation by genetic mutation and natural selection (i.e. The Origin of the Species), the proven occurrences of one specie splitting into two are few, if they exist at all. And yet, this model is the primary driver of the vast time scales that scientists almost universally adhere to. Geologists, anthropologists, zoologists, and biologists have all agreed on a very long timeframe for the history of the earth in order to accommodate Darwin’s theories, and perhaps more to the point, to keep from having to confront the possibility that life was created by intelligent design. After all, if life was not a purposeful creation, then it must necessarily be the product of a series of random, accidental occurrences. However, there appear to be no notable published descriptions of how life could have arisen spontaneously. The Smithsonian website on the origin of life describes evidence of bacterial microbes that they claim existed 3.7 billion years ago, but there is no description of how these microbes came into existence. The tacit assumption appears to be that they spontaneously appeared. And the only justification I have been able to find for believing that life arose spontaneously is the sentiment captured in the following quote:
The time with which we have to deal is of the order of two billion years. What we regard as impossible on the basis of human experience is meaningless here. Given so much time, the “impossible” becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs the miracles. (Gerald Wald, Nobel Laureate, MEDICINE, 1967)
The key issue with this assertion is its failure to deal in detail with the requirement that life must be self-sustaining, which means that for any specie to exist, it must be reliably self-replicating. The very simplest structures known to be reliably self-replicating are single-cell life forms such as the bacterium mycoplasma mycoides, which has only 525 genes, the smallest number of any known organism. Cellular reproduction is a process that involves replication of typically thousands of genes (arranged in DNA strands), followed by cell division into two identical living cells. Each of the new cells is then capable of reproducing itself. The primary process of cellular replication and division is mitosis. It is briefly described on Encyclopedia Britannica’s website as follows:
Prior to the onset of mitosis, the chromosomes have replicated and the proteins that will form the mitotic spindle have been synthesized. Mitosis begins at prophase with the thickening and coiling of the chromosomes. The nucleolus, a rounded structure, shrinks and disappears. The end of prophase is marked by the beginning of the organization of a group of fibres to form a spindle and the disintegration of the nuclear membrane.
The chromosomes, each of which is a double structure consisting of duplicate chromatids, line up along the midline of the cell at metaphase. In anaphase each chromatid pair separates into two identical chromosomes that are pulled to opposite ends of the cell by the spindle fibres. During telophase, the chromosomes begin to decondense, the spindle breaks down, and the nuclear membranes and nucleoli re-form. The cytoplasm of the mother cell divides to form two daughter cells, each containing the same number and kind of chromosomes as the mother cell. The stage, or phase, after the completion of mitosis is called interphase.
The brief overview of mitosis that includes this quote goes on to provide diagrams of each of the six phases of mitosis, which are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis.
In other words, the simplest lifeforms capable of reproduction are extremely complex biological organisms. So how did a self-reproducing life form simply occur accidentally? If a random, accidental arrangement of molecules is not in a form to reproduce itself, there is nothing to form a species, no matter how close it came to successfully performing genetic replication and cell division. It has to be a perfect, complete cell assembled over a short time span in order to start life. It must be a short time span because the constituent compounds will oxidize or recombine into other compounds in hours to perhaps days if they haven’t achieved the viability of a functioning cell. You can put all the inorganic elements and compounds you want in a pool of water and wait around for lightning to rearrange them into something that will reproduce itself, but it’s not going to happen, even if you wait 2 billion years, 20 billion years or 200 billion years! Parenthetically, I have begun to hear of scientists who are speculating that perhaps life came to us on an asteroid or other source from outside the solar system. If I were trying to solve such a daunting puzzle, I too would probably kick the cosmic can down the road! But this is nothing more than sleight-of-hand. It moves the problem of how life accidentally formed to a place that is far, far away. This appears to be no more than a way of avoiding embarrassing questions. No matter where it happened, self-replicating life had to occur by accident if one is to avoid the possibility of creation by an intelligent being or beings. And if it was by some type of intelligent being, how did the intelligent being come to exist to begin with?
In my opinion, this conundrum is the product of the nature of our universe, specifically that all of the processes we can observe are constrained to linear time. I believe the only way out of the problem is to postulate a realm of existence where intelligent beings exist outside the constraints of linear time, and that life must have been orchestrated from another spatially collocated, parallel universe that is not constrained by linear time. That is a big leap of faith! But in my opinion, it’s not as big a leap as believing the first single-cell organism sprang into existence by accident. I conclude therefore that some variation of intelligent design is more likely than Darwin’s theory of the origin of the various species. However, this does not preclude subsequent environmental adaptation once the species are formed. I have long believed that genetic material has built-in capabilities of environmental adaptation without reliance on genetic damage or “mutation,” which would permit consideration of revisiting the time frames associated with the origin and development of life.
So, if the first life on Earth did not begin with the spontaneous, accidental formation of a complete single-cell organism, how could it have otherwise happened by accident? In order for the Darwinian model of the origin of life to be true, there must have been simpler, intermediate cell building blocks that were themselves self-replicating such as perhaps a protein chain that could independently self-replicate without the aid of a cellular structure. However, we see no such structure in nature. Perhaps the closest thing we see is a virus, which is simpler but still highly complex, and still requires the infrastructure of a host cell to replicate.
If these intermediate products were around to build the first functioning, self-replicating cell, then we would still find them today. It is not reasonable to believe they were around to get life going and then disappeared from the earth. But that’s what Darwinists must believe to think that life spontaneously arose through a series of random events. On the other hand, an agent operating outside the constraint of linear time could orchestrate the exact time phasing needed to bring all of the needed elements together and combine them with precision to form reproducing cells.
Therefore, this concept of time-synchronized intelligent intervention is a strong candidate for explaining what seems unexplainable. To me, it is far more feasible that life was the purposeful creation of an eternal spiritual force rather than the product of a series of accidents. In other words, contrary to Karl Marx’s assertion that only matter is real, it makes far more sense to me that it is the spiritual dimension that is more real and enduring, and that the physical world is the thing that is transitory. Of course, all of us live in a physical world constrained by linear time. So, it is problematic for us to imagine that this physical world is actually tenuous and that there will be future events where, for example, the sky is “rolled back like a scroll” (Revelation 6:14 and Isaiah 34:4) to reveal a startling new reality. But that is the scenario predicted by Bible prophesy, and those prophesies come from the great intelligent designer Himself, a.k.a. the Creator of the heavens and the Earth!
So here is my challenge to you, the reader: keep an open mind to the possibility that God exists. This shouldn’t be too tough for people who believe in New Age spirit guides or ancient gods from Egypt, Greece and Rome. After all, many types of alternative spiritual belief systems such as New Age, witchcraft and paganism are growing rapidly. And, many people have experienced spiritual phenomena that can’t be explained by existing scientific principles. So, there are a lot of people who should be able to take a step back and at least acknowledge that there may be a supreme, most-high God who created the world. Or, if you simply don’t believe in the reality of an eternal human spirit and believe the world is only physical and we are just accidents, I appeal to you to suspend your disbelief for a little while, like you would for a good movie. Then, in light of the arguments I have presented, at least consider the possibility that there is a vast unseen spiritual kingdom of light, as well as a vast unseen spiritual kingdom of darkness that continues to have influence on what you see around you. And for all the believers out there, I appeal to you to bring a little more skepticism to the various messages of the world, especially when they are in conflict with the truth of God’s Word, and instead embrace the reality of the spiritual realm. Worry less about what your sophisticated friends think and more about God’s approval!
I look forward to your comments, both positive and negative. I love new ideas that challenge my beliefs and make me think. But I don’t like anger and insults. If you have objections, please state them with courtesy. Thank you for making it all the way through this!
J D Harper
Cogitation Stew 