Law of biogenesis
The law of biogenesis says that life only comes from life.
As long ago as ancient Greece, people believed that small creatures spontaneously appeared, such as mice appearing from grain, or maggots from rotting meat. However, in 1668 Francesco Redi performed some experiments which showed that maggots came from eggs laid on the meat by flies.
Nevertheless, many people continued to believe that microorganisms, such as microbes, spontaneously generated. This idea was put to rest with experiments done by Louis Pasteur in 1864, and the law of biogenesis was born.
This law is put to the test every day, in the food preservation industry. Food that is to be kept in good condition for an extended period of time is sealed in cans, bottles, or other containers, and sterilised to kill any organisms that might be in it. Because all life in the container has been killed, and because the container is sealed to prevent any microorganisms getting in, the food is kept in good condition. The law is accepted so thoroughly that if a container is found to contain living organisms, investigators will look for a hole in the container, a failure to properly sterilise the food, or tampering. They never conclude that the life in the container spontaneously arose.
Despite this law, many scientists believe that the first life arose from non-living matter. In proposing this, they speculate that although life has never been observed to spontaneously arise, it must have at some time in the past. Being a unique past event, the speculation is not able to be tested or refuted, so remains an article of blind faith for atheists and others who reject that God created life.
Creationists believe that the first biological life did not come from non-life, but from the living God.
See Also
Sources
- Law of Biogenesis (Biology-Online.org).
- Menton, David M., The origin of life
- De Witt, David A., The Origin of Life: A Problem for Evolution
