Posted by
Yubaduck on Monday, February 25, 2008 8:45:20 PM
To many, a post on the origin of life has no logical place in a political blog. But I believe that our inherent beliefs strongly affect our world view and consequently our political view, and so I go.
I grew up believing "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". I felt that God was intentionally vague in the passages that follow, and this could be rectified with any origins theory that was thrown at me in school. In high school, I simply left it at that. But in college, I could not. As a science major, first Animal Science, then Biochemistry, I had evolutionary theory shoved down my throat. I had professors tell me repeatedly that anyone who questioned this theory was either brainwashed, ignorant, or both. And in my own religious background, theistic evolution was considered acceptable, I really had no faith reason to question any of it. But the studies we did in genetics, microbiology, and biochemistry forced me to question it, at least to myself.
Evolution, as most of us view the issue, is really a three part question, though the theory of evolution by natural selection really only deals with the third of these) 1) How did the universe begin, 2) How did life begin, and 3) How did life diversify? The first one of these questions which I began to wonder about was the second one. The theory I had been taught in school was the idea of Chemical Evolution. This said that on primordial earth, was a sea of chemicals, Ammonia, Hydrocarbons, Cyanide, Acids, and such that under the right conditions could come together and form amino acids. Oparin, a Russian scientist of the 1920's, said that these amino acids could somehow become self replicating, and under the right influence, organize themselves into simple proteins. Ulrey and others showed that primordial soup could in fact produce a few amino acids in the 1950's (though it also tended to form toxic tars and acids as well), and by the time of my schooling in the 80's and 90's, this idea of Chemical Evolution was the accepted dogma of the scientific community. But there was a problem. Amino Acids do not self replicate, they are coded for by DNA. DNA cannot come into being by itself, it only is reproduced in the presence of certain proteins, and it only produces proteins in the presence of other complex proteins. This is an issue of which came first, the DNA or the Protein. Well unless I am mistaken, both would need to come into existence simultaneously for life to begin. I never asked this question of a professor (who wants to be labeled an ignorant zealot?), but I researched every source I could find on the subject. I never found an answer that satisfied me, step one in my changing philosophy.
Step two occured when I began to look at Evolution itself. Evolutionary theory as it is currently constructed (NeoDarwinism) states that genetic mutation could account for the diversity of life. As an example, we see things like moths with black and white coloration, at some point in time developing a mutation for a spotted appearance. This spotted moth is able to survive when others do not and becomes the dominant manifestation of the species. If spotted moths were dominant in one area and white in another, in theory, over time, the two could diverge into separate moth species. Ok fine, I get this and it is readily observable in nature. But we are still talking about moths here. The evolution from a moth into a butterfly is much more difficult. In many cases, traits would have to mutate at the same time as other traits. The evolution of moth and grasshopper from the same genetic ancestor is much harder to fathom. Think of another example. Most scientists concur that some form of land animals (probably a hooved animal) evolved into some form of semiaquatic animal, then into a seal like animal, then into modern whales. Think of the conversion from a polar bear into a seal. Polar bears already have the feet that help them swim, the oily hair that repels water, the sleek body that is quick in water, and the ability to hold their breathe under water. But to evolve into a truly aquatic animal, the hair would have to go, the blubber layer would need to thicken greatly, the legs would need to change to flippers, for best under water control, a tail would need to develop, and basically, all of this would need to happen at once. Some of these changes without others would make the polar bearseal less likely to survive. Massive mutations on that kind of scale just do not seem feasible. And here to me was the biggest problem, Symbiosis. In ecology, we learned of plants who have a symbiotic fungi on their roots to convert nitrogen to a useful form. Without the plants, the fungi starve. Without the fungi, the plants cannot grow. Both would have to evolve simultaneously for either to survive. Two separate species, both evolving together, like deep flowers and hummingbirds, roundworms and their special hosts, lichens, coordinated evolution does not seem very random or undirected to me. This too became an untenable position.
The last question I began to question, the origin of the universe, gave me a startling answer. The big bang idea is that the entire universe stretches out from a singularity, a point of almost unimaginable gravity and pressure. What force set that in motion? How then do you go from a spreading and expanding to the coalescence of galaxies and stars, the origins of black holes and quasars, the beginnings of plantes and moons? This is something that Big Bang cosmology has yet to explain. And yet God describes the forming of the heavens in much the same way:
Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
Isaiah 42:5
Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When I call to them,
They stand up together.
Isaiah 48:13
He has made the earth by His power,
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.
Jeremiah 10:12
When I look out at the universe, I see amazing beauty and order. I do not see the chaos and disorder of a random universe. I see that as the Psalmist says, the heavens declare the glory of God. I see order and design from the smallest inner workings of the cell to the grandeuer of the skies. I cannot prove the conclusions that I came to in college that everything was God designed and designed for a purpose, because that is a decision that each and every one of us have the free will to make. I will discuss soon how views on origins reflect in political philosophy, because I believe that they do greatly. But I will leave you with one thought. In the end it comes down to faith. You can see evidence arrayed before you to point towards any conclusion, but the conclusion you come to in either direction will depend on what you want to see, not what is.
Professing to become wise, they became fools...
Romans 1:22
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
What you put your faith in is up to you. Thats the way God intended it.