Modern Views on the Origins of Life: Science or Science Fiction

Reason is the ability to draw conclusions based on premises. Science is the accumulation and classification of "observable facts" in order to formulate general laws about the natural world. Scientists use reason to explain the origin of life, but could it be that in the 150 years following the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, scientists have abandoned the principles of science to embrace one man’s theory?

Within the scientific community, it is more reasonable to believe that aliens seeded life. (Francis Crick, 1962 Nobel Prize winner - nucleic acids; Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and author “The God Delusion”) Another proposed theory, perhaps even more reasonable than aliens, is minerals catalyzing early life. (Michael Ruse, Philosopher of Science, Evolutionist) Either can explain what caused the origin of life on planet earth, but what about their cause? What caused the origin of alien life? What caused the energy needed to trigger catalysis within the minerals? Neither of which are "observable facts."

If something has a beginning, it must have a cause. The scientific community agrees that the universe has a beginning. If aliens, seeded the planet, they must be somewhere within the boundaries of the universe so they must have a cause. So what caused the aliens? Do they even exist? Radio telescopes used by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have yet to make alien contact.

It is easier to explain what caused the catalytic reaction in minerals. Energy. There is lots of it floating around in the universe. However, can minerals really produce life if given enough time? This is not an observable fact. The Miller-Urey experiment is as close as modern science has come to replicating the primordial ooze from which life sprung forth. After a week of experimentation, Miller and Urey found that as much as 15% of the carbon had developed into organic compounds including 13 of the 22 amino acids needed to make proteins in living cells. Perhaps if they had kept the original experiment active and provided enough space within a vacuum to enable it to create its own atmosphere then in another 13 billion years or so life will emerge from Miller-Urey’s primordial soup.

So, modern scientists have yet to observe alien life, or life emerging from the primoridal soup created in Miller-Urey experiement. And, since science is the accumulation and classification of "observable facts," then one must conclude that these proposed origins of life are science fiction.