The Mystery of Life's Origin

Reassessing Current Theories

Charles Thaxton | 4.59 | 36 ratings and reviews

Ranked #28 in Inorganic Chemistry, Ranked #45 in Organic Chemistry

A seminal work for the theory of intelligent design, this book provides a scientific critique of the prevailing paradigmatic theories of chemical evolution. The authors include Discovery Institute fellows Charles Thaxton and Walter Bradley, and they conclude that the prebiotic soup from which the first cell supposedly arose is a myth. The Miller-Urey experiments employed an unrealistic gas mixture, and there is no geological evidence for its existence in Earth's distant past. The "soup" faces a myriad of other problems, such as inevitable rapid destruction at the hands of radiation.

The authors also take aim at the dominant paradigm for chemical evolution using technical arguments from thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics has been misused by creationists who failed to treat the fact that Earth is an open system. But Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen takes this point into account as they argue that thermodynamics is eminently applicable to assessing whether unguided chemical reactions can organize matter into life. Their conclusion is that natural laws cannot account for the encoded "specified complexity" inherent in biomolecules.

The epilogue looks forward to other possible explanations for the origin of life. The book was published in 1984 when the United States was immersed in debate over Genesis-based creationism. Yet these authors take a different approach that is ahead of its time. They recognize that science requires an observation-based understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Thus they set aside biblical arguments and focus instead on observations about the natural world and intelligence. After demonstrating that various undirected causes lack the power to produce complex information, they note, "We have observational evidence in the present that intelligent investigators can (and do) build contrivances to channel energy down nonrandom chemical pathways to bring about some complex chemical synthesis, even gene building." The authors then pose a simple question: "May not the principle of uniformity suggest that DNA had an intelligent cause at the beginning?"

"A valuable summary of the evidence against the chemical evolution of life out of non-living matter. It presents a very well thought-out and clearly written analysis of the alternatives to the accepted scientific theory of the origin of life."
- Robert Jastrow, Founder and Former Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies of NASA, author of several acclaimed books including God and The Astronomers.

"The authors have made an important contribution to the origin of life field. Many workers in this area believe that an adequate scientific explanation for the beginning of life on Earth has already been made. Their point of view has been widely disseminated in texts and the media, and to a large extent, has been accepted by the public. This new work brings together the major scientific arguments that demonstrate the inadequacy of current theories. Although I do not share the final philosophical conclusion that the authors reach, I welcome their contribution. It will help to clarify our thinking... I would recommend this book to everyone with a scientific background and interest in the origin of life."
- Robert Shapiro, Professor of Chemistry at New York University, and co-author of Life Beyond Earth.

"Arguments are cogent, original and compelling... The authors believe, and I now concur, that there is a fundamental flaw in all current theories of the chemical origins of life."
- Dean H. Kenyon, Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University, and co-author of Biochemical Predestination. less

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