Both 'Chance' and 'Design' Require Faith

 Recently, the headlines are filled with statements from NASA that soil on Mars may contain microbial life. What if this is true after all? Would such a discovery confirm that life had evolved on Mars? No.

Even if we do find evidence of life on Mars, it would most likely have come from our very own planet — Earth! In the Earth’s past there was powerful volcanic activity which could have easily spewed rock and dirt containing microbes into outer space much of which eventually could have reached Mars. A Newsweek article of Sept. 21, 1998, p.12 mentions exactly this possibility. “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars,” says Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth” [Weingarten, T., Newsweek, Sept. 21, 1998, p.12].

There is no scientific basis for believing life could have arisen by chance processes on Mars or Earth even if given the right environmental conditions to sustain life.

In the midst of arguments over evolution and intelligent design, it is amazing how many in society, including the very educated, believe that scientists had already created life in the laboratory. No such thing has ever happened.

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All that scientists have done is genetically engineer already existing forms of life in the laboratory, and by doing this scientists have been able to produce new forms of life, but they did not produce these new life forms from non-living matter. Even if scientists ever do produce life from non-living matter it will only be through intelligent design or planning so it still wouldn’t help support any theory of life originating by chance or evolution.

Even artificial, or synthetic life, is a creation by scientists, through intelligent design, of a DNA code built from “scratch” which is then inserted into an already existing living cell. If the cell had evolved, it would have had to be all at once. A partially evolved cell cannot wait millions of years to become complete because it would be highly unstable and quickly disintegrate in the open environment, especially without the protection of a complete and fully functioning cell membrane.

Of course, once there is a complete and living cell then the biological mechanisms exist to direct the formation of more cells. The question is how could life have arisen naturally when there was no directing mechanism at all in Nature.

The great British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle has said that the probability of the sequence of molecules in the simplest cell coming into existence by chance is equivalent to a tornado going through a junk yard of airplane parts and assembling a 747 Jumbo Jet!

Although, it has been shown that individual amino acids can arise by chance, it has never been shown that the various amino acids can bind together into a sequence by chance to form protein molecules. Even the simplest cell is composed of many millions of various protein molecules.

Natural laws are adequate to explain how the order in life, the universe, and even a microwave oven operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot fully explain the origin of such order.

All this simply means that real science supports faith in an intelligent Designer behind the origin of life and the universe. It is only fair that evidence supporting intelligent design be presented to students alongside of evolutionary theory.

Science cannot prove that we’re here by either chance or design. Both require faith. Where will you place your faith?

The writer, Babu G. Ranganathan, has his B.A. degree with concentrations in theology and biology and has been recognized for his writings on religion and science in the 24th edition of Marquis Who’s Who In The East. The author’s Web site may be accessed at www.religionscience.com.