THE THEORIZED BATTLE FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

Evolution VS Intelligent Design VS Creationism

Written by Herma H. van Niekerk

Science is the field of curiosity, the obtaining of knowledge through observation concerning the systematics and functions of the physical world based on facts and events. Knowledge starts by asking questions about an aspect to which an answers is attempted to be obtained. Through the history of the human race, answers have been gained and theorized that had a fundamental consequence to the development of our beliefs, culture and science.

One of these questions that always lured in the back of scientist’s minds is the origin of life.

Before the development of the evolutionary theory started in the 1800s, the general western belief was Creationism and other deity based beliefs. Creationism is the belief that all matter and life in this world was created out of nothing by the Christian God. Due to this belief not having any substantial scientific evidence, the next best theory on the origin of life was that of the Evolutionary theory, which was finally published in 1859 by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in a book called The Origin of Species.

This theory incorporates a possible scientific explanation, which explains the evolving of species according to its environment through Natural selection to gain better survival fitness. Darwin based his theory upon observations he made on the Galapagos Island on Finches species. He explained that the slight variation from these birds compared to the ones in England was due to the Island’s different environment and isolation from the rest of the world. This phenomenon he termed Speciation. The Speciation concept was globally accepted by Natural Scientists based on the same observations found on other species and systems by other scientists. This concept was then used to theorize that al life could have originated from one species and then over billions of years have evolved and diverse as observed in the Finches.

Since the publication and development of the Evolutionary theory, more and more people accepted this belief over Creationism.

Originally science was a way to explain the world that God created. Most of the scientists that made ground breaking discoveries where Christians trying to explain how God structured the system and function of the Earth. Such scientists include James Hutton (1726-1797), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and a lot more. Without the Creation belief, science would not be where it is today.

The reason why the Evolutionary theory is a more popular excepted theory than Creationism is firstly due to Evolution having a possible scientific explanation and secondly to the exclusion of God or deity that acts from outside of the physical world. Modern scientific principals exclude any forces that acts from outside of the physical realm of the world and thus discards God as a Creator and accepts the idea that life originated by chance through natural processes.

The struggle between the Creation belief and the Evolutionary theory have been going on for the last 150 years, but since 1989 a third theory joined the battle to discover the origin of life. This concept is known as Intelligent Design and was first encountered in a book called Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins written by Percival Davis and Dean Kenyon. This theory is purely scientific based, using observations from the physical world as basis. The difference to Evolution is the acceptance that an intellectual being played a role in the origin and formation of life. The Intelligent Design concept is not pro-religions as many people think, but still obey all the scientific principals and laws, except of course for the exclusion of a force outside the physical world.

These three theories can be counter argued within most aspects of science, theories, facts and evidence. All three concepts can take the same evidence, but interpret it differently and say, “See I have evidence” or “This evidence you just found proves my Origin of Life theory”.

For example, the question of how the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) formed is just one of many questions that has been in a tug-a-war between the three theories. Creationist belief that God created this complex system and will further support the Intelligent Design theories. But Evolution and Intelligent Design have different explanations to the origin of DNA which is the essence of life.

Within the nucleus in all living cells are DNA, a double helix structure, which contain the information code to build proteins which is essential to all living organisms. To make the code available, different types of proteins extract the information during the transcription process so that amino-acids can be created outside of the nucleus. Amino-acids are the building block of proteins which are assembled during Translation. A certain sequences and structure of amino-acids bring forth different types of proteins which in turn have different functions, such as muscle movement, healing of a cut and encoding the DNA for protein synthesis. To produce a perfect working protein, the DNA code needs to be in the correct order and sequence.

Thus is it clear that all life needs DNA, but now begs the question of how DNA originated.

The evolutionists theorize that inorganic chemicals formed amino-acids through different theorized processes, which through chance and random events formed an early DNA structure. Hence forth Natural selection adapted and perfected it over the years into the complex informative structure of the present time. One of the most famous theories on the origin of the first amino-acids was proposed by Darwin explaining that in a puddle of water and electricity from lightning caused inorganic chemical to break up and form new compounds called amino-acids.

In contrast to this, Intelligent Design scientists believe that the DNA, with its detailed information, was designed by an intellectual being due to the absence of convincing evidence of the creation of DNA information otherwise. Stephan Meyer, a philosopher of science, said the following in a documentary called Unlocking the Mystery of Life: “Of course a serious Origin-of-life-biologist did not believe that life had arisen by chance alone, instead they envisioned Natural selection acting on random variations among chemicals to produce the first life. But there was a problem with this proposal. Natural selection by definition cannot acted before the first living cell. Natural selection can only be applied to organisms that self-replicated. But without DNA there is no self-replication, but without self-replication there is no Natural selection. So you cannot use Natural selection to explain the origin of DNA without assuming the existence of the very thing you’re trying to explain.”

Even though neither the Evolution or Intelligent Design explanations, as above mentioned, are proved, but both are reasonable scientific arguments. Many more examples exists other than this example.

Now a new argument arises: which of these origin-of-life-theories are considered scientific enough to be taught in science classes? Based on whether these theories can be justified by scientific philosophies or not will answer this question. As such can both Evolution and Intelligent Design be taught in science classrooms and Creationism not. By teaching students both theories, students can be given an unbiased scientific education and more open minded scientists can be created. An open minded scientist are more likely to discover knowledge and theories closer to the truth of how this world functions.

Sources:
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science
creation.com/creation-wheres-the-proof
pablosorigins.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-was-there-before-darwin.html
youtube.com/watch?v=tzj8iXiVDT8&t=1441s
g.foolcdn.com/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fg.foolcdn.com%2Feditorial%2Fimages%2F436321%2Fdna-double-helix.jpg&w=700&op=resize