Early molecules would have decayed

From EvoWiki

Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 References 6 External links 7 Related claims 8 See Also 9 Acknowledgments

Claim

Complex organic molecules such as the bases in RNA are very fragile and unstable except at low temperatures. They would not hold together long enough to serve as the first self-replicating proto-life.

Source

• Bergman, Jerry, 2000. Why Abiogenesis Is Impossible. Creation Research Society Quarterly 36(4) [1]
• Yahya, Harun, 2003. The Secrets of DNA [2]

Responses

1. While this claim is accurate, strictly speaking, it is far from clear why Creationists think it represents a problem for abiogenesis. The reason is that virtually every type of molecule decays, given sufficient time. Which begs the question, how much time is "sufficient"? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question; some molecules resist the forces of decay much more strongly than do others. Since we do not yet know what molecules were generated in the first biogenesis event, it follows that we do not know how long those molecules could have survived in their environment.
2. Few scientists claim that RNA was spontaneously generated in abiogenesis. It is far more reasonable to believe that simple, self-propagating reactions formed the first type of "life."
3. The argument, as written, suggests that life should preferentially favor low core temperatures in order to better preserve the genetic material within a body. Even for cold-blooded animals this is not so. The sense in which the question was written, although literally true, becomes a reductio ad absurdum.
4. Creationists who use this claim fail to realize that complex organic molecules tend to form through chain reactions initiated through the decomposition of preexisting organic molecules.
5. add more responses

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Quote-mining (quoted out of context)
• Fallacious Reductio ad absurdum (they don't understand that such decay ultimately gave rise to more complex molecules)

References

1. Eigen, M. & Schuster, P., 1977. The hypercycle. A principle of natural self-organization. Part A: Emergence of the hypercycle. Naturwissenschaften 64(11): 541-565.
2. Ertem, G. and Ferris, J.P., 1996. Synthesis of RNA oligomers on heterogeneous templates. Nature 379(6562): 238-240.
3. Levy, Matthew and Stanley L. Miller, 1998. The stability of the RNA bases: Implications for the origin of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 95: 7933.
4. Reader, J.S. and Joyce, G.F., 2002. A ribozyme composed of only two different nucleotides. Nature 420: 841-844.
5. Saladino R, Crestini C, Costanzo G, Negri R, Di Mauro E, 2001. A possible prebiotic synthesis of purine, adenine, cytosine, and 4(3H)-pyrimidinone from formamide: Implications for the origin of life. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 9(5): 1249-1253.
6. Saladino R, Ciambecchini U, Crestini C, Costanzo G, Negri R, Di Mauro E, 2003. One-pot TiO2-catalyzed synthesis of nucleic bases and acyclonucleosides from formamide: Implications for the origin of life. Chembiochem 4(6): 514-521.

External links

• Gish, Duane, Origin of Life: Critique of Early Stage Chemical Evolution Theories. Institute for Creation Research.

Related claims

• Pasteur proved life only comes from life (law of biogenesis)
• The odds of life forming are incredibly small
• DNA needs proteins to form; Proteins need DNA
• Why isn't new life still being generated today?
• Not all amino acids needed for life have been formed experimentally
• Early molecules would have been destroyed by UV light
• Miller's experiments had invalid assumption of type of atmosphere
• Life uses only left-handed amino acids
• Abiogenesis is speculative, without evidence
• Evolution is baseless without a theory of abiogenesis
• Naturalistic mechanisms do not provide a means for making life from simple molecules

See Also

Why is Creationism not a Scientific Theory?

Acknowledgments

• Cubist