LIFE COMES ONLY FROM LIFE

BERT THOMPSON

When we look at the amazing world around us, we see a multitude of living things. There are cows, tulips, pine trees, lizards, canaries, Gila monsters, and humans—to mention just a few. Where did all of these things come from?

Those who believe in the concept known as evolution suggest that long, long ago on the Earth there was nothing living at all. But, eventually (so the story goes), something nonliving produced something living. Then, that first living thing changed into another living thing that was completely different. It, then, changed into something else, which changed into something else, and so on. According to evolution, originally life came from nonlife.

But is this what we see happening in the real world around us? No, it is not! As scientists study nature, they observe that certain things happen with astounding regularity. One of the things that happens regularly is that living things always come from other living things. Scientists have known this for many years. In 1858, a German scientist by the name of Rudolph Virchow stated it like this: "Every cell arises from a preexisting cell." In 1860, Louis Pasteur, a famous French scientist, said: "Every [biological] living thing arises from a preexisting living thing."

These scientists of the past were stating what scientists of today call the "Law of Biogenesis." This important scientific law says that one living thing comes from another living thing. In nature, we never have seen a single exception to this basic law of science. Evolution is in disagreement with this law, because it suggests that something nonliving gave rise to something living.

The Bible makes it clear that life did not originate in this fashion. Rather, living things on the Earth were created by a living God. Genesis 1:20-25 states: "Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.' So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind…. Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind;' and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind." The next time someone suggests that evolution is true, remind them very kindly that evolution does not agree with one of the most important laws in science—the Law of Biogenesis.

July 1998
9[7]:56