"Almost all biology books have a picture of Miller’s famous spark chamber. In it, Miller used simple raw materials and electric sparks to produce amino acids and other simple molecules—the so-called “building blocks of life.” Some newspapers reported that Miller had practically made “life in a test tube.”
.... there were just three little problems: he had the wrong starting materials, used the wrong conditions, and got the wrong results.
What do I mean by “wrong starting materials”?
--Miller left out oxygen. Why? Because of the scientific evidence? No. He left it out because he knew oxygen would destroy the very molecules he was trying to produce. It’s
hard for us to realize how “corrosive” oxygen is, since most modern living things depend on it. But oxygen is so valuable to life precisely because it’s so chemically reactive, and aerobic living things today have systems to protect themselves against the harmful effects of oxygen, while using its chemical power to their advantage. (Anaerobic organisms and some viruses are quickly destroyed by contact with oxygen.)...We find oxidized rocks, suggesting an oxygen atmosphere, as deep as we can dig.
Furthermore, methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3), two prime gases in the Miller spark chamber, could not have been present in large amounts. The ammonia would be dissolved in the oceans, and the methane should be found stuck to ancient (deep) sedimentary clays. It’s not there! Those who still believe in chemical evolution are aware of these problems (as is Miller himself), so they are simply trying (as yet unsuccessfully) to simulate the origin of life using different starting materials.
--Wrong conditions? Miller used an electric spark to get the gas molecules to combine, and that works. Problem: The same electric spark that puts amino acids together also tears them apart, and it’s much better at destroying them than making them, meaning that few, if any, amino acids would actually accumulate in the spark chamber. Miller, a good biochemist, knew that, of course, so he used a common chemist’s trick. He drew the products out of the spark chamber and into a “trap” that would save the amino acids from destruction by the same electric spark that made them. Using product removal (the principle of LeChatelier or law of mass action) to increase yield is ordinary chemical practice, but it depends on intervention by informed intelligence. Miller was supposed to be demonstrating that the gases could make the “building blocks of life” all by themselves without any outside help, yet his outside, intelligent help was necessary to save the molecules from their destructive chemical fate.
--Wrong results? How could that be? Miller wanted to make amino acids, and he got amino acids (along with sugars and a few other things). How could those results be wrong?
The proteins in living cells are made of just certain kinds of amino acids: those that are “alpha” (short) and “left-handed.” Miller’s “primordial soup” contained many long (beta, gamma, delta) amino acids and equal numbers of both right- and left-handed forms. Problem: Just one long or right-handed amino acid inserted into a chain of short, left-handed amino acids would prevent the coiling and folding necessary for proper protein function. What Miller actually produced was a seething brew of potent poisons that would absolutely destroy any hope for the chemical evolution of life.
The “left-handed amino acid problem” is particularly well-known to evolutionists, and several have been trying to solve it. One brilliant researcher, after working unsuccessfully for years on the problem, just smiled and chuckled when asked about it: “Perhaps God is left-handed.” He may have been closer to the truth than he realized.
When cells lose their biological order and their molecules start reacting in chemical ways, we die. A dead body contains all the molecules necessary for life and approximately the right amount of each, but we never see a “road kill” get up and walk off because sunlight energy shining on the carcass made all the molecules of life start working together again. What’s lost at death are balance and biological order that otherwise use food to put us together faster than chemistry tears us apart!"
AIG/GaryParker
.... there were just three little problems: he had the wrong starting materials, used the wrong conditions, and got the wrong results.
What do I mean by “wrong starting materials”?
--Miller left out oxygen. Why? Because of the scientific evidence? No. He left it out because he knew oxygen would destroy the very molecules he was trying to produce. It’s
Furthermore, methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3), two prime gases in the Miller spark chamber, could not have been present in large amounts. The ammonia would be dissolved in the oceans, and the methane should be found stuck to ancient (deep) sedimentary clays. It’s not there! Those who still believe in chemical evolution are aware of these problems (as is Miller himself), so they are simply trying (as yet unsuccessfully) to simulate the origin of life using different starting materials.
--Wrong conditions? Miller used an electric spark to get the gas molecules to combine, and that works. Problem: The same electric spark that puts amino acids together also tears them apart, and it’s much better at destroying them than making them, meaning that few, if any, amino acids would actually accumulate in the spark chamber. Miller, a good biochemist, knew that, of course, so he used a common chemist’s trick. He drew the products out of the spark chamber and into a “trap” that would save the amino acids from destruction by the same electric spark that made them. Using product removal (the principle of LeChatelier or law of mass action) to increase yield is ordinary chemical practice, but it depends on intervention by informed intelligence. Miller was supposed to be demonstrating that the gases could make the “building blocks of life” all by themselves without any outside help, yet his outside, intelligent help was necessary to save the molecules from their destructive chemical fate.
--Wrong results? How could that be? Miller wanted to make amino acids, and he got amino acids (along with sugars and a few other things). How could those results be wrong?
The proteins in living cells are made of just certain kinds of amino acids: those that are “alpha” (short) and “left-handed.” Miller’s “primordial soup” contained many long (beta, gamma, delta) amino acids and equal numbers of both right- and left-handed forms. Problem: Just one long or right-handed amino acid inserted into a chain of short, left-handed amino acids would prevent the coiling and folding necessary for proper protein function. What Miller actually produced was a seething brew of potent poisons that would absolutely destroy any hope for the chemical evolution of life.
The “left-handed amino acid problem” is particularly well-known to evolutionists, and several have been trying to solve it. One brilliant researcher, after working unsuccessfully for years on the problem, just smiled and chuckled when asked about it: “Perhaps God is left-handed.” He may have been closer to the truth than he realized.
When cells lose their biological order and their molecules start reacting in chemical ways, we die. A dead body contains all the molecules necessary for life and approximately the right amount of each, but we never see a “road kill” get up and walk off because sunlight energy shining on the carcass made all the molecules of life start working together again. What’s lost at death are balance and biological order that otherwise use food to put us together faster than chemistry tears us apart!"
AIG/GaryParker
