The Atheist Must Answer: The Origin of Life

Atheists claim life came into existence without the aid of a Creator. It’s one thing to make a claim; it’s another to support it with reasonable evidence. As a Christian it seems quite reasonable to believe that infinite Life (i.e. God) created life. Even more, everything we see as observable facts supports that notion that life produces life; I’ve never seen a rock give birth to a living creature. Obviously I can’t prove God created life, but it sure seems like a reasonable conclusion.

So, how did life come from non-life? I can think of no better atheist to ask on this subject than Richard Dawkins. How does he answer?

“The origin of life was the chemical event, or series of events, whereby the vital conditions for natural selection first came about… Once the vital ingredient – some kind of genetic molecule – is in place, true Darwinian natural selection can follow.”

How does this happen?

“Scientists invoke the magic of large numbers… The beauty of the anthropic principle is that it tells us, against all intuition, that a chemical model need only predict that life will arise on one planet in a billion billion to give us a good and entirely satisfying explanation for the presence of life here.” (The God Delusions, 137-138)

It’s really that simple. Of course, with logic like this, it’s also simple to conclude that leprechauns exist at the end of some rainbow on some planet.

I think Varghese says it well, “Given this type of reasoning, which is better described as an audacious exercise in superstition, anything we desire should exist somewhere if we just ‘invoke the magic of large numbers.’ Unicorns or the elixir of youth, even if ‘staggeringly impossible,’ are bound to occur ‘against all intuition.’ The only requirement is a ‘chemical model’ that ‘need only predict’ these occurring ‘on one planet in a billion billion.’”

So, I’m wondering, is the best explanation possible? Well, there’s always panspermia, but that only backs the boat up and doesn’t answer the question.

Can someone answer this question: how did life come from non-life (and why isn’t it happening today)?