https://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/evolution/origin.php
extracts:
"So what are the facts here? To what extent does modern science understand the origin of life, and what difference does it make?
It is true that as of the present time, scientists do not yet
fully understand abiogenesis (as the origin of life is often termed). In particular, the origin of the first self-reproducing biomolecules, on which evolutionary processes could operate to produce more complicated systems, remains unknown, and there are numerous unanswered questions on the development of life leading up to multicellular organisms (see below). What's more, unlike bony structures that leave fossil records, the early stages of biological evolution on the planet very likely have been completely erased, so that we may never know for sure the full details of what transpired. If anything, the very rapid appearance of life on Earth after it first formed suggests that the origin of life was quite likely. But we have no way to know for sure.
It should be kept in mind that research in abiogenesis is fundamentally no different, philosophically or methodologically, than research in any other field of science -- the fact that this event occurred approximately four billion years ago makes no difference whatsoever. Scientists routinely study phenomena at the atomic and subatomic level that are far smaller than what can be viewed by eye, or even via optical microscopes, and they also study phenomena in distant galaxies that are far beyond current technology to visit in person and, more to the point, occurred millions or even billions of years ago (since these objects are often millions or billions of light-years away). Numerous papers are published in the abiogenesis arena every year, presenting empirical evidence and assessing theories in light of this evidence, just the same as in many other fields. Yes, there are unanswered questions in abiogenesis, but there are also unanswered questions even in areas of science that one would think are extremely well established, such as gravitational physics [
Grossman2012a], cosmology [
Barnes2013;
Susskind2005] and reproductive biology [
Ridley1995] (see also
Controversies). Thus claims by creationists and intelligent design writers that unknowns in the origin of life arena "prove" that scientists do not have all the answers are only met with puzzled stares by real research scientists. Of course scientists do not have all the answers -- exploring unknown, unanswered questions is what science is all about and what researchers explore in approximately two million peer-reviewed papers published each year [
Ware2012]. For additional discussion, see
What is science?."
"It must be kept in mind that the process of evolution after abiogenesis is very well attested in fossils, radiometric measurements, DNA, and numerous other lines of evidence, completely independent of how the first biological structures formed. In other words, those unknowns that remain in abiogenesis theory have no bearing on the central hypothesis of evolution, namely that all species are related in a family tree, having proliferated and adapted over many millions of years. Thus there is no substance to the creationist-intelligent design claim that unknowns in the origins area are a fatal flaw of evolutionary theory.
This line of reasoning by creationists and intelligent design writers, namely that the absence of a full explanation of abiogenesis invalidates the whole of evolutionary theory, is a classic instance of the "forest fallacy" -- picking a flaw or two in the bark of a single tree, and then trying to claim that the forest doesn't exist. Indeed, to the extent that creationist and intelligent design writers continue to emphasize the abiogenesis issue as the premier flaw of evolution, they risk being discredited, even in the public eye, as new and ever-more-remarkable developments are publicly announced."
"On the other hand, it may turn out that the origin of the very first self-replicating strands of RNA, to mention one unsolved aspect of this theory, is fantastically improbable, and present-day humans are descendants of this remarkably unlikely event, as suggested by Totani's research mentioned above. But even here, nothing suggests that this origin event was the result of anything beyond the operation of known laws of physics and biology".
"Suppose a major international society announced that it had received a communication from a super-intelligent Entity, and the authenticity of this communication could not be denied because it included, say, solutions to mathematical problems that are utterly beyond the present level of human knowledge and computer technology. Suppose also that this communication disclosed that this Entity had initiated or created life on Earth. The next day inquisitive humans would then ask questions such as "What time frame was required for this creation?," "What physical laws and processes were utilized by this Entity?," "Can we replicate these processes in a laboratory?," "Why was Earth appropriate for life?," "Was life similarly initiated or created elsewhere?," "Who created this Entity?," "Who created the universe?," "Why?"
In other words, even if we found indisputable evidence that some supreme Entity had created life, virtually all of the fundamental questions of existence and evolution that have intrigued scientists and theologians alike for centuries would remain unanswered. In this light, the creationist-intelligent design approach of merely asserting "God did it," and resisting deeper investigation, is tantamount to a "thinking stopper," reveling in ignorance instead of thirsting for knowledge. Surely there is a more productive approach to harmonize science and religion".
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/dna-versus-rna-608191_sketch_Final-54acdd8f8af04c73817e8811c32905fa.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/what-are-the-parts-of-nucleotide-606385-FINAL-5b76fa94c9e77c0025543061.png)