Miller's experiments had invalid assumption of type of atmosphere

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

Claim

In Miller's experiment demonstrating the formation of complex organic molecules from simple compounds, the atmospheric composition used was a reducing atmosphere, with no free oxygen. The early earth probably had a more oxidizing atmosphere.

Source

• Anon, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., pp. 40-41.

Responses

1. Oxygen is the second-most chemically active element. No matter how much free oxygen was in the Earth's primordial atmosphere to begin with, that oxygen would have quickly (on a geological timescale) reacted with other existing matter to form various molecules (i.e., carbon dioxide, water, ferrous or ferric oxide, etc), thus eliminating free oxygen from the primordial atmosphere. Therefore, either oxygen's properties were very different in the primordial atmosphere, or there wasn't a significant amount of oxygen in Earth's primordial atmosphere.
2. Outgassing experiments performed in late 2005 by Bruce Fegley of Washington University now suggest that the earth's early atmosphere was in fact a reducing one. (See "Origins of life," September 07,2005[1]" at PhysOrg.com.)

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Red Herring (evolution is independent of abiogenesis)
• Misrepresenting the Facts (of lack of oxygen in early atmosphere)
• add fallacies

External Links

• Tamzek, Nic, 2002. Icon of Obfuscation. [2]
• Austin, Steven A. Did the Early Earth Have a Reducing Atmosphere?. Institute for Creation Research.

References

1. Chang, S., DesMarais, D., Mack, R., Miller, S. L., and Strathearn, G. E., 1983, Prebiotic Organic Synthesis and the Origin of Life, in Schopf, J. W., ed., Earth's Earliest Biosphere: Its Origin and Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 53-92.
2. Farquhar, J., Bao, H. & Thiemens, M., 2000. Atmospheric influence of earth's earliest sulfur cycle. Science 289: 756-758.
3. Miller SL., 1987. Which organic compounds could have occurred on the prebiotic earth? Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 52: 17-27.
4. Schlesinger G, and Miller SL, 1983. Prebiotic synthesis in atmospheres containing CH4, CO, and CO2. I. Amino acids. J Mol Evol 19: 376-382.
5. Stribling R, and Miller SL, 1987. Energy yields for hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde syntheses: the HCN and amino acid concentrations in the primitive ocean. Orig Life Evol Biosph 17: 261-273.

Related claims

• Not all amino acids needed for life have been formed experimentally
• Early molecules would have decayed
• Early molecules would have been destroyed by UV light
• Earth's early atmosphere had abundant oxygen

See Also

Why is Creationism not a Scientific Theory?

Acknowledgments