Bioenergetics and Life's Origins (original) (raw)

The creationism–evolution debate almost always comes around to discussions about the or-igin of life. The enormousness of the problem of how organic chemicals (those compounds that contain the element carbon) reacted to synthesize biological molecules like proteins, nucleic acids, membrane lipids, and others, and how these self-replicated and assembled to form the first protocells, represents an attractive target for critics. In addition, the respect-able degree of uncertainty that surrounds present answers to origin-of-life questions, and the large diversity of the proposed solutions, represent ample fodder for those who would question the validity of the entire origin-of-life research program. Consequently, creation-ists have said a great deal about origin-of-life research, and none of it is positive. According to the doyen of recent (or "young-earth") creationist debaters, Duane Gish, the facts "establish beyond doubt that an evolutionary origin of life on this pla...