Summary

of Don Wallars (M.Sc.) talk: Challenges in Origin of Life Research Before about 1860 most scientists integrated their belief in a Creator with their work of trying to understand the natural world. Later that changed so that science was viewed as trying to explain how things worked through natural processes alone. This was based on a worldview that there is nothing outside of our universe (that it is a closed system). The textbook model of how life originated, was that in the early Earth, the conditions were favourable to the development of life. You had the right atmosphere and energy sources which helped to fill the oceans with organic material (it was called the "Pre-biotic Soup".) These materials had about 1 billion years to be mixed in various combinations so that a simple living cell eventually arose. This cell was able to evolve into other types of cells, then multicellular organisms and eventually to all forms of life. This explanation makes several predictions that can be tested: -life emerged slowly -life appeared later in Earth's history -life arose under ideal conditions -the first life was simple -after the first life, there was a gradual increase in complexity Don showed what we now know about the conditions and timing of the first life. The first evidence of life is from rock layers near Sudbury, Ontario where evidence for cyano-bacteria has been found. The date of these rocks is 3.86 billion years ago. Soon after the early Earth was formed, both the Earth and the Moon were hit by meteorites on a regular basis. (This is when most Moon craters were formed.) The effect on the Earth was that the magma from under the crust was exposed. The heat was too much for liquid water to exist except in a very few areas. Finally this stopped and the Earth cooled enough that you could have liquid water. When did that happen? 3.86 billion years ago. This came as a shock to origin of life researchers. As soon as there was liquid water, life just appeared. There was no pre-biotic soup for one billion years. As we look further in Earth's history, we see only a few new species appearing. Then about 543 million years ago about 70 different phyla appeared in a period of about 2-3 million years. (A phyla is a group of creatures with a certain type of body form.) This was very quick and was not the gradual development that was expected so it has been called the Cambrian Explosion. Looking at this evidence we can now check whether the predictions of the textbook model have been fulfilled. This is what the evidence shows: -life did not emerge slowly but quickly in a short period of time -life did not appear later in Earth's history, but early -life did not arise under ideal conditions, but they were hostile to life -the first life was not simple but very complex

 -after the first life, there was no gradual increase in complexity, but there was a sudden explosion during the Cambrian Explosion So the textbook model does not fit the evidence. Could a Creator have made all of the different forms of life at just the right time when they were needed?