Athiest Position on Abiogenesis
Offline I like to think of myself as a freethinker. That being said, I am not a professed Christian, nor for that matter, an athiest. This brings me to my discussion point, namely, that of abiogenesis. According to Christians, all living things, in addition to that which is non-living, were created by God. Those who subscribe to Darwin's theory of evolution believe that living things came to be as a result of a very lengthy and very subtle series of evolutionary changes. For those not familiar with the term, abiogenesis refers to "the supposed spontaneous origination of living organisms directly from lifeless matter" (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary). Evolution, in theory, can trace life back to that first single celled organism that would essentially be the "father" or "mother," if you would, of us all. However, that begs the question of the origin of that particular "father" cell. It would have had to sprung forth from lifeless matter, hence the notion of abiogenesis. I am curious as to the explanation that athiest offer regarding this notion. It is quite a logical leap, dare I say a leap of faith, that is required to be a thorough going adherent to the evolutionist perspective. One must believe that life spontaneously arose from lifeless matter. Any and all comments will be appreciated. Like I mentioned earlier in my disclaimer, I consider myself to be neither an athiest or a Christian, but merely a seeker of knowledge that has yet enough information or experience to unequivocally commit myself to any position.
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There is no atheist position on abiogenesis. The only thing that all atheists have in common is that we don't believe there is a god.
My atheism doesn't rest on science, it rests on philosophical ideas that science has backed up so far without fail. Abiogenesis hasn't been totally solved yet. At one time lightning wasn't solved yet and people attributed that to gods too. If you'll notice, over the years as science has progressed theists have pushed their gods into any gap in knowledge they could find. There are few gaps left for them to put their gods.
Just because we don't know something doesn't mean a god exists. Science is continuing to work on solving abiogenesis. It's hard because it is hard to know what the atmosphere was like back then. Answering GodDidIt doesn't answer any question. Science wants to know how GodDidIt.
If you think it would be difficult for the first self replicating cells to come into existence on this planet then why would you jump to a conclusion that something as complex as a god could just come into existence?
The only univeral view held by atheists on the topic of abigenesis is that: God didn't do it.
Past that, there are several theories out there of how life could have possibly gotten it's start.
Your "leap of faith" would be if someone claimed that it was formed in the "primordial soup". No one really knows how it started and anyone claiming that they did would be making such a leap.
Most of us are smart enough to say "I don't know" when we are asked such a question.
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Well, you are either an atheist or a theist - you either believe in a supernatural Creator or you do not, but that is best left for another discussion.
Not quite right. Evolutionists DO believe that all life on earth can be traced back to a common ancestor, however it isn't quite that simple. We also believe there was a logical and evolutionary progression toward the first thing we could call a living organism or a cell or an ancestor.
In my mind, the precursors of life as per our definition began long before the first cell. I think all that was really required was a self-replicating molecule that had the capacity to change.
Evolutionary fitness is primarily a function of fidelity and fecundity.
No. We've made replicating molecules in the laboratory.
http://w3.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1990/may09/23124.html
By logical progression, such as the fact that lipids have hydrophopic and hydrophillic ends and form speroiods in water we can theorize as to how ruimentary cells first formed. From what we know of chemical signaling between choanoflagellates, we can theorize how multicellular life formed.
What is important here is the notion that "life" did not actually begin with a fully fomed cell.
Hope my comments were helpful, and welcome to the boards.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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