Getting Closer To Understanding How Life Began

"Scientists believe that all life on Earth originated from one single organism, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, LUCA. Now, researchers have uncovered evidence that LUCA was much more complex than previously thought, which is puzzling because it didn’t have a lot of time to evolve. This seems to suggest that life can come into being much faster than we thought. Let’s take a look."

Click on the link below for a YouTube video explaining the new information:

Life Began Much Faster Than We Thought

Another Biogenesis Hypothesis

"Scientists have long speculated that life didn’t begin on Earth but in space. According to a new preprint, life could have come from intergalactic gas clouds, so-called molecular clouds."

Click on the link below for a 6-minute video presenting the idea:

Life Could Have Begun in an Interstellar Dust Cloud

Just Another Gap In Our Knowledge Closing

"Not only could this discovery shed more light on how life began here on Earth, but it could also give astronomers another clue in the search for life on other planets where these essential chemical ingredients are just beginning to form."

Click on the link below for the details:

Scientists Identify Chemical Reaction That May Have Triggered Life On Earth

The Gaps Continue To Get Smaller and Fewer

Anyone who is aware of the interactions between religious apologists and their counter-apologists knows that virtually ALL arguments for a God involve the God of the Gaps fallacy: a theological perspective in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence.^[1][2]   It's clearly a logical fallacy, an appeal to ignorance. 

Click on the link below for a podcast discussing a recent finding that gets us much closer to solving one of the mysteries that is used by religious apologists; abiogenesis:

New Discovery in the Chemistry of Life

Creationism Vs Abiogenesis

Abiogenesis: the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but an evolutionary process of increasing complexity that involved the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. Many proposals have been made for different stages of the process. (link)

This blog has posted several times on the subject (link). There is little doubt that, eventually, science will confirm it as a fact, as confirmatory evidence continues to mount. However, conservative Christians continue to hold unsupported dogma in defense of their anti-evolution beliefs. Click on the link below for a video exposing the bad arguments against abiogenesis:

Creationist Misrepresents Abiogenesis

Abiogenesis: Closer To Understand It

"Diverse microbial life existed on Earth at least 3.75 billion years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL researchers that challenges the conventional view of when life began. 

"For the study, published in Science Advances, the research team analyzed a fist-sized rock from Quebec, Canada, estimated to be between 3.75 and 4.28 billion years old. In an earlier Nature paper*, the team found tiny filaments, knobs, and tubes in the rock which appeared to have been made by bacteria. 

"However, not all scientists agreed that these structures – dating about 300 million years earlier than what is more commonly accepted as the first sign of ancient life – were of biological origin. 

"Now, after extensive further analysis of the rock, the team has discovered a much larger and more complex structure – a stem with parallel branches on one side that is nearly a centimeter long – as well as hundreds of deformed spheres, or ellipsoids, alongside the tubes and filaments." (link)

The Gap In Knowledge On Abiogenesis Is Narrowing

"Abiogenesis is the process by which life arises from non-living matter. Though life’s origin is an open question, abiogenesis research is a thriving interdisciplinary enterprise. In spite of this, many apologists have argued that it’s unlikely we will ever have a scientific explanation of abiogenesis. Abiogenesis is so improbable on naturalism, they say, that we should be open to supernatural explanations. I argue that abiogenesis is not improbable on naturalism, and also attempt to unravel the numerous errors creationists make when discussing the origins of life."

Click on the link below for an excellent counter-apologetic to this religious apologists' "God of the Gaps" argument:

Since Matter First Writhed: The Mystery of Abiogenesis 

How Did Life Begin?

One of the biggest mysteries in our reality is how did life begin from chemistry? This 15-min video presents current knowledge of chemical evolution and how life plausibly could have begun from such. Just like the gap of knowledge regarding the plausibility of a natural eternal universe is closing, so is the gap of knowledge regarding the plausibility of a natural evolution from chemicals to life.

Origin of life. Where did life come from? Abiogenesis

Abiogenesis Closer To Being Explained

The gap in our knowledge of this great unknown is becoming smaller and smaller.

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/