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My Abiogenesis Challenge

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LoricaLady

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Speedwell This will be my last response to you and I will read no more of your posts lest I be tempted to respond and, I believe, waste both our times. You are free to speculate about what you think I think about what the Father could or could not do, and what you think he could or could not do, and use all sorts of word play. I don't have time for any of that. I find it of zero value. Again, if you don't see what I already had to say earlier, nothing else I have to say will mean anything. Speculate away about this and that. Whatever.
 
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Speedwell

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I'm just trying to find out what your point is. You seem to be going on as if you believed that a naturalistic abiogenesis somehow ruled out God's creation of life, but you appear to be smarter than that, so I must have missed or misunderstood something you said.
 
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bhsmte

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Here is the deal. Evolution and the evidence that supports it, is scary enough for some theists. Add in abiogensis and the potential for new evidence to come out and that scares them even further.
 
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Bugeyedcreepy

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....Crikey! You can Write!

I don't use Miller & Urey to back me up at all - I say that I simply don't know how life came about. One thing can be guaranteed though, Life came about! This one point of Data is enough to get us looking into how it might've happened. That's all the evidence needed.

So, as for the rest of it, Great to see you can cherry pick anecdotal stories and quote-mines from the deep recesses of the internet, but where's the science backing you up? Science is done in the lab, and field, it isn't played out in popular culture via sound bites... Anyhoo, discussion on the 'E' word is not appropriate here, as per OP.

My Dad and I are fine btw, as is my Mum. I'll be seeing them next week!

Also, what difference is there between what you determine is an Ape, and Us? Where does Australopithecus (the fossils that include 'Lucy') fit into your view of what an Ape and Human is? How about Homo Habilis? Homo Erectus? Neanderthal? - Ape - Wikipedia
 
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bhsmte

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"Let those see who have eyes to see." I can't give anyone those eyes. But...they can't change the truth either. I stand with the Savior and The Word. You get to do, for now, whatever you wish. Byeeee!

What truth? Truth, can be demonstrated.
 
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Sine Nomine

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I made no claims about randomness. Are you familiar with Chaos or Complexity Theory? Both find order inherent in seemingly "random" events--I tend to disbelieve in randomness from the perspectives of science and faith.

I understand very well what science is and how it works. Science pays my bills.
I also don't claim to be an expert in the field of abiogenesis.

Here are some publications with links to plenty of data that you can peruse.

The origin of life: what we know, what we can know and what we will never know | Open Biology

PNAS | Mobile

You are correct that M&U didn't have it all right, but first experiments rarely do--which you should also know. There's a lot of work that's been done since then....

You should also know that science doesn't start with "all the facts" and then produce knowledge. It starts with observation and uses experimentation to address hypotheses that when validated lead to Theory. If it can be described mathematically and applies in every instance, then it can be called a Law--as in the Law of Gravitation. That life begets life doesn't really fit that definition.
 
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LoricaLady

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I am exiting from this string. I presented facts. As is usual with evolution defense, however, they were dismissed and the theoretical and hypothetical reigned supreme. Again, I can't help people to see the truth. Someone said that if you tell a lie often enough people will start to believe it. It seems to me that some people feel that if they say something is the truth enough, even though the data says the opposite, well, then it will finally become truth! Only prayer and the Holy Spirit can get through to such people. I have prayed, I have shared facts, not theories, and that is the best I can do.
 
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Sine Nomine

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Inorganic matter (sodium, chloride, lithium, beryllium e.g.) cannot ever be living.

Life is built from organic matter (C, H, O, N, S, P with molecules composed primarily of C, H, and O).

Abiogenesis is life from non-living matter OR spontaneous generation
Definition of ABIOGENESIS

Science rejected spontaneous generation long ago. God is not living matter, that would be Animism--

Matter did not exist at time 0, carbon did not exist for some time, Life did not exist, it does now. Thus, abiogenesis happened. How it happened is a matter of scientific inquiry. Whether there is a spiritual being that created matter from nothing and life from organic matter ("dirt" or "earth" in Genesis) is a matter of Faith.

You say "belief in the unobservable, untestable and unrepeatable can never replace actual data that IS observable, repeatable and testable". I'm not sure why you believe that I think otherwise?

We can know that something happened without having mechanistic knowledge about it. We can also know that something happened without repeating an experiment. People exist, therefore they came from somewhere. Perfectly good science. Where they came from, how they came to be, etc are all good questions.
 
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Bugeyedcreepy

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You didn't present facts, you presented anecdotal stories. Have you heard the anecdotal stories about other Gods of other Religions? Do you accept them as Facts too?
 
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xianghua

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There are a variety of experiments that demonstrate the production of basic building blocks required for life (amino acids, nucleic acids e.g) from conditions that simulate the primeval conditions on Earth.

are you familiar with an experiment that can produce all 4 RNA bases?


There is also some evidence to support RNA-based "life" (self-replication being the chief requirement) as a precursor to life as we understand it.

the shortest rna replicase that may even start any kind of abiogenesis called r18 and can replicate about 14 bases. its about 200 bp long so the chance to evolve such a molecule is about one in 4^200 molecules. and this is only for one generation. and this is only if we have a huge amount of rna bases (something that we never found on earth).
 
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Sine Nomine

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All 4 bases are now used, they may not have all been required in earlier steps.

See Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions : Abstract : Nature

In terms of self-replicating systems see
http://m.pnas.org/content/113/35/9786.full

I also gather that you're asking how initial essential functions might have first emerged. The review I linked to earlier might be helpful.

The origin of life: what we know, what we can know and what we will never know | Open Biology
 
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xianghua

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All 4 bases are now used, they may not have all been required in earlier steps.

so its just a belief then. a belief without any scientific evidence.

thanks for the links. the first one talking about nucleotied without a ribose. unlike a true nucleotide. the second paper is also interesting. english isnt my native (and the paper is very technical)so i need to ask you:

1)what is the replicase lengh?
2)how many bases it can replicate? (i can see that according to the paper about 24 bases)
3)does it replicate any sequence or just its own one?
 
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Sine Nomine

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Let me start with your first statement, I'll come back to your specific questions later.

In response to my saying it was possible that all 4 bases may not have been required in earlier steps, you replied

"so its just a belief then. a belief without any scientific evidence."

Im not sure what you mean be "its"--abiogenesis? Or the idea that less than 3 bases could be used? But, your use of the word 'belief' is where I'm perplexed.

If by "belief" you mean acceptance of something without evidence then my answer is "no". I've already pointed out that abiogenesis has happened. There was no life and then there was. Non-living matter became living matter. Science and Religion don't disagree on this point. The question then becomes how did this happen. Scientist are working to learn how this could happen. The first paper shows that contrary to the assumption that the 4 RNA bases used today, a simpler ribose, can work. This is scientific evidence that says some of our assumptions about what is required for RNA to function are incorrect and that a simpler system--closer to the forms of matter that we call non-living--can work. This is not proof of how abiogenesis occurred, it is simply a piece of evidence. Scientists cannot tell you how it happened yet, we don't have enough evidence. But, we do have substantial quantities of evidence, so it's not a belief without scientific evidence.

If by 'belief' you mean that scientists have evaluated the available evidence and have thoughts and ideas that fit logically into a framework supported by that evidence, then my answer is 'yes'. Scientists have hypotheses all the time, these are beliefs that may be right or may be wrong. Experimentation and observation are the tools used to determine whether a belief about physical reality is correct or not.

This belief in a hypothesis is different from 'faith'. Faith is commonly viewed as trusting that something is true without evidence. Scientists don't trust hypotheses that lack evidence, this lack of trust is called skepticism or criticism and is essential to stay on track to identify the correct hypothesis and get to new knowledge.

However, Faith in the Biblical sense has the connotation of trust or confidence as well, as in when a promise is made you can either trust that the person will keep their promise or not. Jesus had no problem with Thomas being skeptical about Jesus having been dead and now alive, his being physically present and not a ghost--'here Thomas, put your hands in my wounds--see for yourself'. Thomas knew then based on first-hand evidence and could no longer disbelieve. This tells us that God thinks evidence is good and appropriate and that skepticism and experiment are acceptable paths to knowledge.
 
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Sine Nomine

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1). The ribozyme (an RNA with enzymatic properties including e.g. Polymerase, the activity needed to replicate/copy itself or other RNAs) is about 200 bases long.

2) the ribozyme can not only replicate itself but also synthesizes RNA (>100 bases).

3) It replicates other RNAs too and this replication can produce over a 10,000 fold increase in the number of the replicated RNA

This means that two important steps for abiogenesis can be demonstrated in the laboratory. 1) the replication of genetic information and 2) conversion of genetic material into functional molecules. Both in the complete absence of proteins.

Basically the scientists started with ribose sugars (bases) and built a system that replicates itself and produces other functional molecules of the same kind.
 
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xianghua

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This belief in a hypothesis is different from 'faith'. Faith is commonly viewed as trusting that something is true without evidence. Scientists don't trust hypotheses that lack evidence

agree. do you think we have a good evidence that nature can evolve naturally? secondly: do you think that the best explanation is evolution rather then creation?



1). The ribozyme (an RNA with enzymatic properties including e.g. Polymerase, the activity needed to replicate/copy itself or other RNAs) is about 200 bases long.

this is a huge problem. the chance to get such a molecule is about one in a 4^200. or about 10^100.

2) the ribozyme can not only replicate itself but also synthesizes RNA (>100 bases).

ok. i have found this article and according to this it cant replicate itself:

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/46793/title/Using-RNA-to-Amplify-RNA/

"The 24-3 polymerase ribozyme cannot copy itself, however"

so if it cant replicate itself we cant call it a self replicating molecule.
 
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Larniavc

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Discuss abiogenesis in this thread without mentioning evolution.
We don't know how abiogenesis happened.

I guess that's where we are.
 
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Larniavc

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I didn't read all of your post but the last part is dead right.

We have no evidence of life coming from non-life: either by special creation or natural methods.

As you say, real science would say 'it's a bit of a mystery' at this point in our knowledge.
 
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