Life could not have developed through naturalistic causes alone, because for life to exist there must be a complete cell. Only a few of the 20 required amino acids can be formed in the laboratory and those that are formed do not constitute life. A few proteins are not life either. Though much has been speculated about RNA (a single-stranded molecule) as the beginning point for life, it, too, is not in itself life. RNA, similar to DNA (a double-stranded molecule), cannot do anything without energy, enzymes and other materials. It was explained in Chapter 2 that information requires an author. RNA is essentially information. How can the most complex and dense information known come to exist from chemicals? Even if this did happen, the plasma membrane, proteins, DNA and more are needed to make life.

This issue goes back to the concept of irreducible complexity discussed in Chapter 1. Take away the DNA, the plasma membrane, or usable energy and there will be no life. Evolutionists try to explain how the first protein or RNA may have spontaneously developed, but these are useless without the rest of the cell and would be rapidly broken down. Therefore, the cell’s essential components would all have to spontaneously generate, a position which even the most devoted evolutionist could not maintain. The origin, complexity and interdependence of life is a gaping hole in the theory of evolution. Many evolutionists admit they do not have an answer to this problem.

Second Factor: Reproduction

In order for the first cell to produce more life, it must reproduce repeatedly. It is essential to realize that mutations and natural selection could not have entered the origin-of-life picture until reproduction of a species had taken place. Mutations and natural selection can only exist after there are copies, and there would have been no copies until reproduction occurred. Many secular scientists insist the origins issue is not a part of evolution, but origins (without God) are the foundation to evolution (which requires no God). It is like children who are embarrassed by an insane parent and say they have never seen him or her before but in reality know the parent all too well. Evolutionist scientists are faced with insurmountable scientific data about the origin of life by natural means. The origin of reproduction by natural means is one such example.

E. coli Bacteria "Escherichia coli (usually abbreviated to E. coli) is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower intestines [large intestine] of warm-blooded animals (including birds and mammals) . . . and its presence in groundwater is a common indicator of fecal contamination."8

Could DNA replication evolve from inorganic materials without the help of mutations and natural selection? Marshall Brain describes how DNA reproduction occurs in E. coli:

"A bacterium reproduction is simply another enzymatic behavior. An enzyme called DNA polymerase, along with several other enzymes that work alongside it, walks down the DNA strand and replicates it. In other words, DNA polymerase splits the double helix and creates a new double helix along each of the two strands. Once it reaches the end of the DNA loop, there are two separate copies of the loop floating in the E. coli cell. The cell then pinches its cell wall in the middle, divides the two DNA loops between the two sides and splits itself in half. Under the proper conditions, an E. coli cell can split like this every 20 or 30 minutes!"

Bacterial reproduction requires many enzymes that, for example, open the DNA double helix and split it. Next the cell has to pinch its outer cell wall until two daughter cells are formed. These processes require the orchestration of dozens of enzymes, and is done in under 50 minutes. How do the enzymes determine what to do and why do they work in concert so perfectly? They are programmed by the DNA and RNA. But who or what is the origin of the programming?

Cell reproduction is a complicated process consisting of at least 50 components!  One wonders how the first cell could have stumbled on to learning this process. Since the passing on of information could only have taken place after reproduction, the process would have to have happened without the benefit of previous attempts from other cells. Time and chance could not be the origin of reproduction; that would be too difficult. The only viable option is creation.

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