Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 256 pages
• Published by: NavPress Publishing Group
• Edition: 1st Edition April 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1576833445
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1576833445
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 1.1 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Convinced that "creation is a testable idea that can fall within the domain of science," biochemist Rana and astrophysicist Ross do not shrink from scientific findings about the long and tumultuous history of the earth. Conceding that "the beginning of life (relative to cosmic history) under hellacious conditions poses initial problems for creationists and evolutionists alike," the authors argue that the origin and survival of life on earth over the past 3.8 billion yearsâ€"now seen by most researchers as an awesomely improbable set of eventsâ€"parallels biblical models of God "hover[ing] over early earth like a mother eagle brooding over her young." Although Rana and Ross are Christian apologists with the "Reasons to Believe" organization, their forays into theology are generally modest and brief. Their primary focus is compiling results from biology, chemistry and geology that illustrate how deeply puzzling the origin of life has become. Discussions of the "primordial soup" of prebiotic chemistry, the enigmatic origin of cell membranes and homochirality (the unexplained preponderance of left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars essential to life) all take readers further than is typical in the creation/evolution literature. Whether or not Rana and Ross quite prove a creation modelâ€"proof being in the eye of the beholderâ€"they certainly tell a compelling story of the early history of life that inspires curiosity and a sense of wonder at what is still, for all we know, a unique habitable and inhabited world.
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Product Description
Two researchers reveal a testable creation model for life's earliest beginning that makes sense of the scientific evidence.

Reader Reviews
Fana and Ross carefully address the points being made about the origin of life by natural causes, and provide clear and strong replies to each one of them. For example, we are shown how cell walls only form spontaneously in a small range of ph in the surrounding medium, and subsequent variation in the ph makes them lapse into un-wall-like structures. Also, molecules for building RNA/DNA have to all be left-handed (or all right-handed) in the spine of the molecule, and a miss in that requirement spoils the molecule. Yet molecules start out (and turn) 50% left-handed, and 50% right-handed, in almost all circumstances, and even in circumstances that select one type or another, there no way to have *all* the right (so to speak!) sort of molecules, to make a molecular spine. And there is a similar, and opposite requirement for sugars, if the spine is all lefty, then the sugars all have to be all-righty. The probability just goes to zero in a hurry. My only complaint is that their model is not so detailed, a more well-developed model to argue for in response would have been good to see.