EVOLUTION IN CONTEXT
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CHEMISTRY - On the Origin of the First Species
Dr. Edward Peltzer recently gave a lecture, "On the Origin of the First Species - Abiogenesis: The Faith and the Facts," at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Click on his photo to view the lecture.
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On the Origin of the First Species
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Based upon the information content of the simplest irreducibly complex form of life, and the astronomical improbability of life arising on Earth through time, chance, and natural processes, Dr. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, has advanced the hypothesis of directed panspermia, the idea that life was sent to Earth from somewhere in outer space. Despite the difficulties in life arising somewhere else in the Cosmos and then being transported to Earth, he was convinced that this hypothesis was much more probable given the time-constraints and chemical conditions on the early Earth.
Is such an inference to an unobserved intelligence rational? Is it possible? Is it a valid scientific explanation? If you believe that it is rational and possible, but not a valid scientific explanation, explain. If you said "yes" to all three, explain.
If the previously unobserved intelligence took on human form, visited our planet, and had the ability to raise the dead back to life, would the explanation of life arising through intelligent intervention be considered scientific? Would you have reason to doubt the belief that life arose on Earth through time, chance, and natural processes alone? If time, chance, and natural chemical reactions alone inhibited life from occurring naturally, would the Law of Biogenesis (the Law that life arises only from pre-existing life) be considered good science?
Would students be more or less motivated to do future scientific research if they were exposed to the weakneses and/or problems with current theories and beliefs?
