FREE ESSAY ON ORIGIN OF LIFE

ORIGIN OF LIFE

To help us with our study of origins, we will use two main sources: the Bible - as God's
direct revelation of life, and science - a way to interpret the Bible using scientific
knowledge. In his book Biology Through the Eyes of Faith, R.T. Wright (1989) states: "It
is an important conclusion of faith that both science and Scripture are sources of
knowledge of God's works and that, when properly understood, should not lead to
conflicts." I agree with this statement, believing that God created the original species.
I also uphold a belief that a series of natural processes lead to the formation of other
species thereby increasing the diversity of life on earth. By carefully studying both
science and Scripture, I believe that we will be able to find truth about God's
creation.
Genesis 1 clearly states that God created heavens, earth, and their organisms. It doesn't
indulge, however, in explanations of how or when God created them. As the result of that
a variety of view appeared on how to interpret Genesis 1. Old-earth creationists believe
that the Bible shouldn't be taken literally, referring to various problems associated
with the order of creation and the "obvious" old age of the universe. They base their
beliefs on various studies such as paleontology, astronomy, biology, genetics; and the
list goes on. Young-earth creationists, on the other hand, believe that the Bible should
be taken literally, telling a story of 24-hour day creation. Theistic evolutionists
presume that God used evolution to create living species. However, biblical creationists
argue that this could not be the case because the Bible says: "For in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them..." (Exodus 20:11), and
He created species "according to their kind" (Genesis 1:11,12,21,24,25).
This paper will analyze the worldviews of young-earth creationists and old-earth
creationists, pointing out that both the Bible and science can agree on the issue of
origins of species, and reveal which worldview I agree with more.
Exodus 20:11 says that God created the universe in six "days." Many people, however,
still wonder whether or not the modern scientific belief that the earth and universe have
existed for billions of years can be harmonized with a literal interpretation of the
Bible. Some Christians believe that the word "day" in Genesis doesn't mean a literal
24-hour day, but rather that a "day" is a long period of time. In Hebrew, where every
word has three basic letters and vowel sounds are not included in a written language, the
historical and literary time become a dominant factor in determining the meaning. Some
commentaries have estimated that there may be as many as a hundred different meanings in
the Bible for the word "day." These include the non-literal interpretations implying
periods or epochs (Zabilka, 1992). However, when the phrase evening and morning is
coupled with a numbered modifier and the word day (yom), there is no stronger way of
specifying a normal day (Bebber, 1995). Others maintain that "morning" and "evening"
should also be taken figuratively. The Bible doesn't specifically state that "day" in
Genesis 1 is a 24-hour day. No one, except God, can know for sure that Genesis is
describing six earth rotations and not an unspecified period of billions of years.
Another argument for old earth comes from the study of fossils. Many scientists believe
that it took millions of years for the rock layers to form. They reason that many fossils
seem to be more than 10,000 years old. Geologists today hold that the earth is
approximately 4 to 5 billion years old. Others have found different explanations for the
old age of the earth. According to a scientist Dalrymple (1991),
The best value for the age of the earth is based on the time required for the isotopic
composition of lead in the oldest (2.6-3.5 billion years) terrestrial ores, of which
there are currently only four [235U to 207Pb to 238U to 206Pb], to evolve from the
primordial composition, recorded in meteoritic troilite, to the composition at the time
(measured independently) the ores separated from their parent rocks in earth's mantle.
These calculations result in ages for the earth of 4.42 to 4.56 billion years with a best
value of 4.54 billion years.
Another group of Christians believes that the earth is not as old as is sometimes
claimed. People in this group relate most of the geological strata and fossil beds to the
Great Flood of Genesis (Zabilka, 1992). Sarfati, Ph.D. (1999) points,
"A cataclysmic globe-covering (and fossil forming) flood would have eroded huge
quantities of sediment, and deposited them elsewhere. Many organisms would have been
buried very quickly and fossilized. Also recent catastrophes show that violent events
like the flood described in Genesis could form many rock layers very quickly. The Mount
St. Helens eruption in Washington state produced 25 feet of finely layered sediment in a
single afternoon!" 
Those who believe that the earth is young also find theological difficulties in believing
that the earth is billions years old. For example, they argue that the idea of old earth
interferes with the concept of the origin of death, described in Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-6
(cf. Romans 5:12, Corinthians 15:21-22). "Death was the promised result of sin. It was
also the means by which man would be restored to God. In contrast, old-earth creationism
(Progressive Creationism and theistic evolutionism) teaches that death and bloodshed
existed long before man's existence, contrary to the very message of the Gospel" (Taylor,
1998). The Bible teaches that the death and suffering on the earth resulted from Adam's
sin. "But theistic evolution teaches that God used struggle for survival and death, the
'last enemy' (1st Cor. 15:25) as His means achieving a 'very good' (Gen. 1:31) creation"
(Sarfati, 1999). Biblical creationists argue against this.
In my opinion, it is not so much important when God created living species but that He
created them. When God created the earth with all of its organisms (whether or not He
created them in six days), there were various scientific processes, which lead to a
change in the original species thereby the formation of different species.
I believe that God used a process of natural selection to produce a vast variety of
species after He created the original ones. According to the concept of natural
selection, a population of organisms can change over a period time as a result of
individuals with certain heritable traits leaving more offspring than other individuals.
The resulting increase in the proportion of reproductively successful individuals usually
enhances the adaptation of the population to its environment. Natural selection thus
tends to promote adaptation by maintaining favorable adaptations in a constant
environment or improving adaptation in a direction appropriate to environmental changes
(Campbell, 1999). Genesis 1 tells us that God created various kinds of organisms
"according to their kinds" (Genesis 1:11, 12, 21,24, 25). All of these kinds were created
"with a vast amount of information," enough for their descendants to adopt to various
changes in the environment (Sarfati, 1999). This explains the great variety of species
that are alive today.
Recently, I have been wondering if the earth really is old, and if God did in fact used
evolution to create living species. A desire to find out the truth led me to extensively
research evolution. 
Evolution refers to the processes that have transformed life on earth from its earliest
forms to the vast diversity that characterizes it today. In his book The Origins of
Species Darwin points to the evidence that species were not created in their present
forms but had evolved from their ancestors. Darwin also proposes a mechanism for
evolution - natural selection - a process described earlier (Campbell, 1999). According
to the theory of evolution, non-living chemicals organized themselves into a
self-reproducing organisms over billions of years. Evolution also tells us that mutations
are the source of new genetic information in population's gene pool (Sarfati, 1999).
There is a lot of evidence for evolution. Paleontologists have discovered many
transitional forms that are said to link older fossils to modern species. A series of
fossils have been said to show, for example, that whales evolved from terrestrial
ancestors (Campbell,1999). The studies of comparative biology, comparative embryology,
genetics, and other sciences also seem to point to evolution. For example, many species
today share homologous structures: the forelimbs of all mammals have the same skeletal
composition. Also, closely related organisms have similar stages in their development.
Another important evidence for evolution is the common genetic code for all organisms
(Campbell,1999). Despite all this evidence some scientists are still uncertain whether or
not evolution took place. 
Some people today find major problems in the concept of evolution. There are many reasons
why the theory of evolution is being questioned today. The criticism against evolution
has come mainly from a lack of fossil evidence - the absence of transitional forms.
According to Wright (1989), "one of the most extraordinary examples of discontinuity is
the so-called Cambrian explosion, the appearance of representatives of all major marine
invertebrate phyla in the earliest sedimentary fossil-bearing rock as well as a variety
of other that have not left descendants." Wright also says that "explanations offered for
the lack of fossils prior to the Cambrian are to date not very satisfactory" (Wright,
1989). Even theistic evolutionist Ivan Zabilka (1992) points that "as much as 50 percent
of all fossil finds are improperly located and can contribute little to evolutionary
chronology." In recent years, however, there have been many discoveries, one of which was
a discovery of Ediocarian geological period (Precambrian). According to Stephen Jay
Gould, evolutionist, (1998), 
"the first phase of the Cambrian, called Manakayan and lasting from 543 to 530 million
years ago, features primarily a confusing set of spines, plates, and other bits and
pieces called (even in our technical literature) the SSF, or small shelly fossils. The
next two phases of the Cambrian (called Tommotian and Atdabanian and ranging from 530 to
about 520 million years ago) mark the strangest, most important, and most intriguing of
all episodes in the fossil record of animals--the short interval known as the Cambrian
explosion and featuring the first appearance of all animal phyla with skeletons subject
to easy preservation in the fossil record." 
From the information above we learn that the lack of fossil discoveries for the
Precambrian period is explained by the jellylike structure of the species at that time,
and for this reason few became fossilized. In 1998, scientists Shuhai Xiao, Yun Zhang,
and Andrew H. Knoll discovered the oldest triploblastic animals, preserved as
phosphatized embryos in rocks of southern China, which were estimated to be 570 million
years of age (Gould, 1998). This discovery fills a major "gap," which was earlier a great
problem for paleontologists.
Despite this, numbers of people still find problems with evolution. Davis (1991), for
example, points that when a scientist Behe examined the Journal of Molecular Evolution,
he couldn't find even one article, which contained a detailed model by which a complex
biochemical system might have been produced in a gradual "Darwinian fashion." According
to Behe, this lack of an explanation is "a very strong indication that Darwinism is an
inadequate framework for understanding the origin of complex biochemical systems" (Davis,
1991). This observation again led me to question evolution. 
After extensive research on theistic evolutionism and biblical creationism, I have
concluded that it seems to be evidence in favor of evolution, yet there is still some
reasonable evidence against it. At this point, I believe that God could have used natural
processes to create a diversity of species we have today. Based on the evidence, I
believe there is a possibility that He used evolution to create some species.
Throughout the Bible we can see that God created by His Word and wisdom. Second Peter
2:5, for example, states that "long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth
was formed." Wright puts it in this way, "creation by God's Word is one image used
throughout the Bible, and it indicates God's absolute authority over creation. Creation
by wisdom, another biblical image, speaks of purpose - the fulfillment of God's
intentions toward thee development of the created order" (Wright, 1989).
It's easy to notice the emphasis of the author to the goodness of God's creation. After
creation the Bible says that when God looked at His creation he said, "behold it [is]
very good" (Genesis 1:31). This tells us that God takes pleasure in His creation. The
Bible also points out that God sustains His creation. 
In conclusion, I can say that the Lord is the source for every life on earth. He created
the earth and everything on it by His Word, and may have used evolution to do so. I'm not
yet decided on the issue of how God created species, but have eliminated the
possibilities to natural process or evolution.
Bibliography
Bebber, M.V. "Is the Bible clear about the age of the earth and universe?"
1995: n.pag. On-line. Internet. 13 Oct. 1999.
Available WWW: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn- c002.html
2) Campbell, R.M. Biology. 5th ed. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings, an imprint of
Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.
3) Dalrymple, G.B. So How Old Is the Earth, Anyway?, NCSE Reports, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter
1991), pp. 17.
4) Davis, E.B. "Debating Darwin: The Intelligent Design Movement." Christian Century,
07/15/98, Vol. 115 Issue 20, p678, 4p.
5) Gould, S. J. "On Embryos and Ancestors." Natural History, Jul/Aug98, Vol. 107 Issue 6,
p20, 9p, 2 graphs, 4bw.
6) Sarfati, J.D. Refuting Evolution. Brisbane, Australia: Answers in Genesis, 1999.
7) Taylor, Paul. "Is the age of the Earth a trivial doctrinal point?"
1998: n.pag. On-line. Internet. 13 Oct. 1999.
Available WWW: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c026.html
8) The Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible. Indianapolis, IN: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co.,
Inc., 1997.
9) Wright, R.T. Biology Through the Eyes of Faith. New York, NY: Christian College
Coalition, 1989.
10) Zabilka, I.L. Scientific Malpractice: The Creation/Evolution Debate. Lexington, KY:
Bristol Books, 1992.